I went to Confession of Saturday( St. Valentine's Day) before the 4PM Mass at Sacred Heart Church. It was a doozy - Father had to excuse himself twice during my recitation of sins of commission and omission. When Father Bill's stomach had settled we continued.
That said, I am forgiven. Now, comes the hard part.
Stay clean.
It seemed that my sacrament was tailor made by the readings from Genesis, St. Paul and Mark's Gospel - banishment, lepers, and cleansing. I have recently had surgery to remove a huge tumor on my snot-locker and remain bandaged - is this an out ward sign of my spiritual malaise? During the Gospel of Mark more than a few of my neighbors turned with accusing fingers and cried 'Leper, UnClean!'
Hey, it;s 'cuz of my See-Through Irish pelt!
However the earlier passage of Yaweh grilling Adam and Eve about what they'd been up to and their subsequent banishment was what it is all about.
The Genesis passage is the orginal Fifty Shades of Grey
But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked.* N.B. - Guy blames the woman and woman blames the snake. Man, ain't that the way?
I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?'The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'*
Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'
Then Yahweh God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this, Accursed be you of all animals wild and tame! On your belly you will go and on dust you will feed as long as you live.
For this sin, God 86'd the Snake and booted Adam and Eve** from the Garden.
The snake is of course Old Nick, formerly known as Lucifer - The Prince of Darkness.-Satan.
Like God, we believe that Satan is myth. A fairy tale that breeders tell their bratty kids to keep them quiet.;
Nope. He there. I housed him for far too long. That is until Father Bill passed on the good word to me.
You see, a priest does not 'forgive' my sins - Christ ( Joshua Bar Jospeh) did that with His death on the cross and His Resurrection. The priest is merely standing-in (skype-ing) for Christ. All of the forgiveness is already cashed in.
Satan does not want us to collect and to continue acting with him and ignoring God's love of us.
Father Bill gave a great homily on Lent and forgiveness. Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, Catholics receive a cross of ashes on our forheads from a priest who tells us , "Memento, homo ... quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris" (cf. Gn 3:19).trans. -"Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return."
I am dust held together by water, but I will be dust again.
In the early Church, Father Bill reminded us, there were three huge sins that required public confession before the whole community
- Murder
- Adultery
- Apostasy
All three would have been pretty obvious to the neighbors and for such sin a person would be shunned, until he has publicly asked forgiveness of his brothers and sisters and performed penance - wearing sack cloth and ashes.
Today, only murder gets some notice and if one has a great criminal defence lawyer - no sweat at all.
Apostasy is denying the faith. Playing God.
Adultery is very confusing and difficult to describe these days without drawing boos from our studio audiences. Fifty Shades of Grey types tell us that Adultery is liberating.
The first liberator was the snake in the Garden.
Me? I know how weak I happen to be - I have forty days to work on it.
I kind of like being forgiven.
** Never fail appeal to a high court - Mother of God
Hail Holy Queen
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve:
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.
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