My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This past April 2 marked the sixth anniversary of the death of our beloved Holy Father, the great Pope John Paul II. People at his funeral Mass at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican shouted in Italian, “Santo subito,” which means, may he become a saint quickly. Soon there were reports of miracles attributed to Pope John Paul II, and his beatification will take place on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday. We pray that this will be just an interim step on the way to his canonization as a saint.

Our faith tells us that saints are holy people who have received the gift of sharing eternal life with God in his Kingdom. Of course, this includes many more people besides those who have been canonized, but official canonization gives us confidence that the promise has been realized in a specific case. Pope John Paul II made the holiness of every person a primary focus for the apostolic activities of the whole church in this new millennium, as he wrote in his apostolic letter on Entering the New Millennium, (Novo Millennio Ineunte) (par. 30), “First of all, I have no hesitation in saying that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness.”

In that same letter, he also described the program that trains us for holiness, namely, daily prayer, weekly Sunday Eucharist, frequent reception of the sacrament of penance or reconciliation, listening to the Word of God in the Bible, proclaiming the Word of God to others, and living our specific vocation as witnesses of God’s love in the world.

The season of Lent is an especially good time for us to renew our appreciation for and commitment to going to confession. Early in his pontificate, Pope John Paul II called for a Synod of Bishops to address the topic of the sacrament of penance. After the Synod, in 1984 he issued an apostolic exhortation called, Reconciliation and Penance, in which he wrote, “To speak of reconciliation and penance is for the men and women of our time an invitation to rediscover, translated into their own way of speaking, the very words with which our savior and teacher Jesus Christ began his preaching: ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel,’ (Mark 1:15) that is to say, accept the good news of love, of adoption as children of God and hence of brotherhood” (par .1).

In his recent pastoral letter on the sacrament of penance, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York wrote, “We have a ‘confessional culture.’ It seems at every moment someone, somewhere is shouting for our attention, eager to confess from the rooftops what Catholics have the opportunity to whisper in the confessional. The ‘confessional culture’ around us shouts itself hoarse for it can confess, but there is no absolution. Sin confessed but unredeemed either leads to despair or is trivialized. We see the despair in the vast anguish that fuels an enormous therapeutic industry. We see the trivialization in the celebrity scandals that become not occasions for averted eyes, but fodder for jokes. Our culture does not need to be taught how to confess; it needs to discover where forgiveness can be found. Our culture does not need to further expose the stain of its sinfulness; it needs to discover the only One who can wash it away. We Catholics have the blessing of teaching our ‘confessional culture’ about true mercy.”

This past March 25, Pope Benedict XVI gave a talk in Vatican City about confession in which he pointed out, “In our time, marked by noise, distraction and loneliness, the penitent’s conversation with the confessor can be one of the few — if not the only — opportunities to be truly heard in depth.” He noted that the “confession of sins teaches the penitent humility, recognition of his or her own frailty and, at the same time, an awareness of the need for God’s forgiveness and the trust that divine Grace can transform his life. Likewise, listening to the confessor’s recommendations and advice is important for judging actions, for the spiritual journey and for the inner healing of the penitent. Let us not forget how many conversions and how many truly holy lives began in a confessional! The acceptance of the penance and listening to the words ‘I absolve you from your sins,’ are, lastly, a true school of love and hope that guides the person to full trust in the God of Love, revealed in Jesus Christ, to responsibility and to the commitment to continuous conversion.”

I pray that this time of Lent will be an occasion for more people to come to appreciate the blessing that we have and utilize this sacrament of God’s mercy and love as an instrument of holiness.

May God give us this grace. Amen.