Homily - "Your sins are forgiven"

Happy Father’s Day to all of our fathers, grandfathers, and godfathers.  “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin”.  “Your sins are forgiven”.  We hear this incredible words in today’s readings.  David hears them in the first reading, and the woman in the Gospel hears them…”your sins are forgiven”.  Oh, to hear these words!  They change everything.  Pope Francis, in one of his first addresses as Holy Father, said, “mercy changes everything”.  We see this play out in the life of the woman in the Gospel.  Her life changed in receiving the mercy of God.  And, Jesus pointed to her love.  Forgiveness helped her to show “great love”.

I want to plug Confession briefly for two reasons.  The first reason is to hear the healing words, “your sins are forgiven”.  It is so healing for us to hear these words from our Lord through the priest in Confession.  People ask, ‘why do we need to go to Confession?’ One reason is to hear that we are forgiven.  We can have our venial sins forgiven at Mass in the Eucharist, but even then we don’t hear that we are forgiven. 

The second reason is for love, and to grow in love.  Yes, we don’t want to do what the second reading is talking about that “Christ died for nothing”, and if we don’t go to Confession, we risk Christ dying for nothing and that we can “nullify the grace of God”.  We want to honor the Lord’s sacrifice.  We want to honor His mission.  But, the main point we go to Confession is because we love him and through His forgiveness, love him more.