The heavens rejoice over your repentance

So, Microsoft did a Windows update.  Now I can't use the camera, Word files won't load (in fact, Microsoft Word won't even load), and my sister says she is having trouble with Powerpoint.

I was going to write on a different topic (I tend to write down my articles down before I type them, and I tend to edit them using Word). 

And before you say, "Charlie, who don't you use Macs"?  Because I hate Macs.  I think they're a pain to use (no to mention, expensive).  That said, I'd gladly take a Mac from the 90s, but, like, how would I even use it? 

(Before we get started, check me out on Catholicism, News, and Whatever community, and if you haven't read this article, please read it, The news wants you to be in fear

For games, duh!  

(But, I also like using MS DOS, which is why I even own older computers.  Bought from the garbage, check your local laws). 

So, while I am beyond frustrated, maybe going to the good book will help.

Okay, indeed it does, "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them".  

So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost'.  Just so, I tell you, that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance". (Luke 15:1-7).

I have to tell you, I've done more sins (what we Catholics would call "mortal sins"), than you even remember.  And I know the Non-Catholics (well, Orthodox also have confession, but, y'all know what I mean) reading this aren't going understand just how powerful confession is.  

You're not just talking to man in a box (or, historically, in the Byzantine rite, kneeling before an icon in church).  No, you're crying out to God that you want to be forgiven for your past sins.  And to hear the words, "I absolve you of your sins".

I think what a lot of our Protestant friends miss, is the fact that it's not the priest forgiving us per se.  It's God forgiving us through the priest.  I'm not going to go into the theology of this (because I already have; Confession is biblical)

The thing is though, is that I am that lost sheep.  As are many of you reading this.  The Good Shepherd went and brought us into the fold.  And heaven rejoices.  God rejoices, the angels and Saints rejoice.  Over the fact that repented.  Over the fact you are contrite for your sins.  Jesus loves you.  He loves you enough to die for you.  

And that, is something worth rejoicing over.  He rejoices at our salvation, we rejoice at him giving us our salvation.  

Adam Charles Hovey is the founder of the Catholicism, news, and whatever community on Locals

 * All scripture quotes are from the Revised Standard Version Bible, Ignatius Edition, Copyright 2006, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.