Superior Essay Writers | Moral Studies

Restoring intimacy is the second aspect of forgiveness, and it is perhaps best understood in the parent-child relationship. When a child chooses to do something wrong, a healthy, loving parent needs only to know that the child is genuinely sorry for her actions for reconciliation and intimacy to be restored. In the same way, God only needs for us to verbalize our responsibility and sorrow for our action in order to restore intimacy with Him. Finally, the third aspect of forgiveness has to do with understanding the difference between punishment and consequences, which are all too easily confused. For the post-abortive woman. a consequence might be infertility. It is tempting for her to interpret this as a sign of God’s continued judgment and rejection. Instead, she needs to understand God’s care for her, and His limitless capacity to redeem the fallout from unwise choices in a fallen world. God, as a loving parent, is as grieved as we are about the losses brought on by our choices. But living with the consequences of our choices is a key part of the uncoerced relationship God desires to have with us. The sacrament of confession unveils us and humbles us before God. Confession removes barriers of sin so that the love from the Father can be completely received by us and then we in turn are strengthened to return that beautiful unconditional love back to the Father and share it with others around us, particularly our spouse. Christ conquered the death of sin at the cross- He became sin itself, died and defeated it through the resurrection. Ironically, it is through Christ, that our sin brings us to new life. The more we reveal of ourselves, the more we are forgiven- where there is much forgiveness there is much love and gratitude. Our anger dies, our bitterness dies, our resentment dies, our critical spirit dies, and our desire for revenge dies. We are now set free so that we ourselves may forgive and live a joyful, fulfilling marriage in and through the grace of Christ. It may be that at one time or another we have found the sacrament of Reconciliation a burden. Perhaps we even can remember an occasion when we said, “I wish I didn’t have to go to confession.” But certainly in our saner moments we find Reconciliation a sacrament that we love, a sacrament we would not want to be without. Just think of all that the sacrament of Reconciliation does for us! First of all, if a person has cut himself off from God by a grave and deliberate act of disobedience against God (that is, by mortal sin), the sacrament of Reconciliation reunites the soul to God; sanctifying grace is restored to the soul. At the same time, the sin itself (or sins) is forgiven. Just as darkness disappears from a room when the light is turned on, so too must sin disappear from the soul with the coming of sanctifying grace. When received without any mortal sin on the soul, the sacrament of Reconciliation imparts to the soul an increase in sanctifying grace. This means that there is a deepening and strengthening of that divine-life-shared by which the soul is united to God. And always, any venial sins which the penitent may have committed and for which he is truly sorry are forgiven. These are the lesser and more common sins which do not cut us off from God but still hinder, like clouds across the sun, the full flow of his grace to the soul. It is a spiritual medicine which strengthens as well as heals. That is why a person intent upon leading a good life will make it a practice to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation often. Frequent confession is one of the best guarantees against falling into grave sin. It would be the height of stupidity to say, “I don’t need to go to confession because I haven’t committed any mortal sins.” All these results of the sacrament of Reconciliation-restoration or increase of sanctifying grace, forgiveness of sins, remission of punishment, restoration of merit, grace to conquer temptation-all these are possibleonly because of the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, which the sacrament of Reconciliation applies to our souls. Jesus on the cross already has “done our work for us”. In the sacrament of Reconciliation we simply give God a chance to share with us the infinite merits of his Son. “Your sins are forgiven.”>

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