The Sixth Sunday of Easter - Secrets and Confidences.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, “I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” I have told you everything. That is such a complete and beautiful statement. We are not a cult where slowly we reveal the secret handshake or the trick that will give you eternal life. When I work with OCIA catechumens, we go as deep and as involved as they want. No secrets, this is our faith without hiding.  This is the Gospel. What does it all mean?  Meaning is an unveiling woven through time. But the nuts and bolts of our faith are all on the table for us to pick up, examine, and use.

Secrets and confidences are similar in their actions. Some piece of information is withheld from other people. Secrets and confidences are separated by the motive. A secret carries with it the ability and intent to harm someone by withholding information. Confidences are held to avoid harm. God desires only good for us and nothing of God is withheld from us. For God is all good. There are no secrets in God.

Within the sacrament of reconciliation, the confessor holds in confidence the sins that are confessed. The intent is not to harm but to provide forgiveness. Within a rule bound society, we must have a safety valve to unburden our sins. We turn our secrets into confidences to our confessor that we might change our lives. Our sins are forgiven.  And in the grace of the sacrament, we are able to make amends for our wrongs and to own our actions. A good confession is not a secret kept.  It is a truth that changes us so that we might know all that the Father has revealed.

Be well and God bless,

Deacon Ed