Advent Penance (Confessions)  
Advent calls us to Reconciliation. Part of preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus into our lives is to "clear the path and prepare the way." To have Jesus be the center of our lives, we need to first find out what is presently the center of our lives. Then it must be removed and moved, if Jesus can come into our lives. Sometimes, we try to have Jesus in our lives as just one of the "many values" we have in life, but that is not possible. It is like getting only a little wet when swimming, or a little married. Jesus must be the center of our life—or he is not really part of our life at all. Our values in life need to be based on our relationship with Jesus. We know what happens when husbands or wives don’t make their relationship central to all the other commitments, their marriage falls apart. Jesus is our source of life, our light shining to the Father and the model of what we must be and if we only allow Jesus to be these things to us when it is convenient or when we choose—then we find that we really don’t have a relationship at all. It is just a face we put on.
If someone entered your life only when it was their convenience, you would soon know that this is not a friend and just someone using you.
Jesus must feel that all the time when we make him our second choice to "whatever." Where we would give up and write off this "friend," Jesus as the perfect model of God’s love wants to put back our broken relationship and make it even stronger. In spite of his desire, even he can’t make relationships happen, if only one side wants to have the relationship. The Sacrament of Reconciliation allows us to realize the fault of putting God second in our lives, and gives us a renewed relationship with Jesus. When we sin we injure not only our relationship with God, but also the Community, since we all support each other in faith and our good works. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest acts not only in the name of God, but in the name of the Community and thus we receive complete forgiveness. What we seek in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not just washing away of our sins and faults, but a real conversion to a deeper relationship to Jesus. Hope to see you at Reconciliation.
Advent is a time of joy mingled with penance. A joy, because we can imagine nothing more sweet than the Christ Child and His Mother Mary’s bliss at his coming. Penance because we must strive to be properly disposed to receive so great a gift of his presence. In the tradition of the Church, we faithful have done penance before great feasts. Christmas is the penitential season in anticipation of Advent.
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