«THE CONFESSIONAL MUST NOT BE A TORTURE ROOM», BUT CAN BE AN OPERATING ROOM IN WHICH ACTS TO REMOVE THE metastasis A malignant tumor

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"The confessional should not be a torture room", however, it can be an emergency room where you go because a minor wound may need to be closed with two or three stitches. But it can be though, the confessional, also an operating room for major operations, in which the metastases of a malignant tumor are removed. Yet I will tell you: exist and, Unfortunately, people will continue to exist who, despite the possibility of being healed and saved with effective high surgery, they prefer metastases from a malignant tumor, so as not to enter an operating room …

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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Roman Antonazzo. Annunciation, Rome, Church of Santa Maria sopra Miverva

For a few more days I will be a deacon, therefore I cannot administer sacramental confessions yet, for which the power of the sacred priestly order is required. I prepared the sacred priestly ministry with much study and prayer, aware of the magnitude of the task that the Lord has entrusted to his ministers.

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St. Caterina da Siena, In the Dialogue of Divine Providence to the number 24 he had with the Eternal Father, listens to these beautiful words from the first person of the Trinity:

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"It is true that, as long as you have the time, you can remove the stench of sin with true regret and resort to my ministers, that workers are holding wine keys, ie the Blood, out of this screw: this Blood is such and of so much perfection, that for no fault of the minister can the fruit of the Blood be taken from you".

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During these formative years now come to a conclusion, I've had a few interviews, even in public, with people on the topics of confession and sin. I remember like it was yesterday a long conversation in a diner. In the face of understandable and honest questions, placed by a self-styled “Catholic”, on the sensitive issue of abortion. I remember that after the answers I gave — correlated with embryological tests, anthropological and magisterial - the self-styled "Catholic" with ill-concealed disgust rejected the notion of mortal sin. And so, between answers full of logical-argumentative contradictions devoid of biblical and theological foundation, in a fit of “Catholic” pride, the self-styled "Catholic" answered me: «Nnot kill, I don't steal, therefore I am a good person! Stop!»

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Thinking back all the times that I later heard this phrase from self-styled “Catholics” , I have the desire to make an important reflection on the theme of sin …

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… al beyond the lack of training of self-styled “Catholics”, or of the pastors who were supposed to train their faithful, even profane literature has offered important starting points for reflection on this theme. Of course, literature has not trivialized it as the current Catholic sub-culture of progressives and the experiences of "believers" that I have recounted. Per example: Clive Staple Lewis, writer converted to Anglicanism, known for his children's books, then also became films de The Chronicles of Narnia, with his simple language he has always been able to explore important issues also from the point of view of faith.

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In his other masterpiece, Screwtape Letters, refers precisely to the reality of sin. In that text it is imagined that a demon now close to "retirement", instruct his nephew Wormwood how to tempt the man through epistolary instructions. The book is very funny, at the same time it is a kind of treatise on the dynamics of temptation and sin. Thus writing to his nephew, Screwtape so he teaches:

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"Dear Wormwood [..] the gentle flowing slope of small and almost insignificant habitual sins is far better than any great and obvious sin.

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To understand this complex reality, let's try, as a first step, to return to the moment of the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary. The Gospel story, also read in the advent period, it might seem like a repetition of the same passage:

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“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man of the house of David, called Joseph. The virgin's name was Maria. entering from the law, he said: “I salute you, or full of grace, the Lord is; with you”. At these words she was disturbed and wondered what sense such a greeting had. The angel told her: “Do not fear, Maria, because you have found favor with God. Here you will conceive a son, you will give birth to him and you will call him Jesus. He will be great and called Son of the Most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father and he will reign forever over the house of Jacob and his kingdom will have no end”. Then Mary said to the angel: "How is it possible? I don't know man". The angel answered her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy and will be called the Son of God. You see: also Elizabeth, your relative, in his old age, she has conceived a son and this is the sixth month for her, that everyone said barren: nothing is impossible for God”. Mary said: “Here I am, I am the handmaid of the Lord, what you said be done to me”. And the angel departed from her" [LC 1, 26-38].

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If we take a look at the calendar, this text is read on 25 March, day of the Annunciation of the Lord: from the 25 march to 25 December is exactly nine months. The liturgy therefore seeks to express the sense of maternity time by placing the official feast of the Annunciation exactly nine months before the birth of the Lord. At this, however, I must add another consideration: It is placed in the period of Lent, this festival helps us to focus on a fundamental reality of our Christian life.

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Let us dwell on the words of the Archangel: "Greetings, or full of grace, the Lord is with you ". In the greek "full of grace" (cute Kekritomène) It should be literally translated as: "Rejoice, you are that you were poured out of grace ". Using this grammatical style, Furthermore, Luke wants to show that God has worked a miracle in Mary. Mary was the only creature to have been exempted from original sin and thus from all other sins. She is indeed Immaculate Conception.

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Now you can say more on the subject of sin. This dogmatic truth really seems to be forgotten, as I have already said. Let's start going in order from the original sin: (c)hat is the original sin? According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it "is a deprivation of original holiness and justice" [CCC 405]. Has anyone tried to deny the reality of original sin [between various examples see WHO].

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San Tommaso D’Aquino, Common Doctor of the entire Catholic theology defines original sin in these terms, returning to the concept of St. Anselm: «The lack of original justice " [QUESTION, I - II, a. 1., arg 1.]. In summary, in the theology of St. Thomas, for lack means: ldeficiency as a cause [original sin originating], this deficiency off or deprives man of original justice. therefore per shortage means the action of Adam and Eve who actively commit the original sin. Then it follows the explanation of shortage effect, ie as original sin originated. This kind of deficiency indicates a receipt deprivation, that is, an effect that no longer exists because it was taken away from the cause. Hence per shortage refers to what happens after the sinner action of Adam and Eve and.

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Justice which instead is denied it is the relationship of total transparency between God and man. Not only. It is also the loss of the transparent relationship between man and other men. Finally, it is a loss of the transparent relationship between man and creation. Per “original” that's what it means:

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1. The state of justice originally willed by God with man in the Garden of Eden.
2. A sin at the origins: that is, it happened at the origins of creation and can no longer be repeated.
3. The original nature stained by man: from that fault all human nature in its origin is definitively modified [on the distinction of terms see, A. stream, Reflections on original sin according to the doctrine of St. Thomas, pp. 86 – 120 contained in Olmi, Original sin between theology and science, ESD, Bologna, 2008].

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This step must be understood clearly: the original sin, as soon as we are conceived and until we are washed in baptism, it is a living reality in our intimacy and nature as men. Even after we have swept it away with the grace of Christ, the main effect remains in us: lust or tendency to evil, the death, the diseases, no direct vision of God.

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Along with the original sin we are born with — and which is then canceled sacramentally - there is another truth of faith: the certainty that we commit sins, in this sense, not original, therefore current, that is, an action that happens now and now, not in the origins.

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Sin not in the original sense, according to Aquinas - for now let's define it as a sin in itself - it should be understood as: «A word, an action, a desire against the Eternal Law» [I, (II), 71, a.6.].

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To simplify we will say that the Eternal Law consists in remaining in God in himself. According to St. Thomas, the causes of sin are obviously the human will and reason. In fact, our human will can freely choose to submit all the faculties to perform an act, or even to omit an act that should have been due. Even the devil cannot be the cause of the sin we freely commit. He is simply a great lying tempter who tries with suggestions and ideas to distance us from God, inspiring us to sin.

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church remember the fundamental distinction between sins:

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“Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man because of one grave violation of God's law; it takes man away from God, which is its end last and his bliss, preferring to him an inferior good Venial sin allows charity to subsist, although it offends and hurts her" [n. 1855].

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How long, with God's help, we can freely flee from mortal sins, instead by nature we are led to commit venial sins, and without the very special help of grace, it is absolutely impossible not to do them [Decree on penance, Council of Trent Denz. 1680].

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Knowing the disease well from which we are healed with the same Resurrection, let us place ourselves in filial expectation of the one who has come to give us back the possibility of living a full life. A life precisely in which one can not sin, don't be in awe of the devil. Jesus can truly say, "Physician heal thyself" [LC 4, 23], because he was the first doctor of human disease par excellence. Let us never forget: the confessional is always a soul hospital.

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"The confessional should not be a torture room but the place of mercy ", [cf. the gospel of joy, WHO] however, it can be an emergency room where you go because a minor wound may need to be closed with two or three stitches. But it can be though, the confessional, also an operating room for major operations, in which the metastases of a malignant tumor are removed. Yet I will tell you: exist and, Unfortunately, people will continue to exist who, despite the possibility of being healed and saved with effective high surgery, they prefer metastases from a malignant tumor, so as not to enter an operating room …

sweet Jesus, Jesus love [St. Caterina da Siena]

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Rome 20 June 2019

Feast of Corpus Christi

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