Daily Gospel Reflection for July 7, 2023

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

“Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Matthew 9:13

When I first returned to the Catholic faith, I tried to both volunteer my way into heaven as well as impose punishments upon myself in hopes of appeasing the Lord. Neither brought me the peace that Jesus preaches in the Gospels, the peace that He longs to give. What did Jesus want of me? Simply, to trust in His mercy and to come to Him to be forgiven.

Mercy offered in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is transformative. The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides this magnificent explanation of the grace of Confession: “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time, it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace” (CCC 1431).

A “radical reorientation of our whole life” seems powerful language for simply entering a confessional and sharing my faults and failures with the priest. However, that’s the whole glorious thing: We are coming to lay what we have done and what we have failed to do at the feet of Jesus. He is the One we encounter in this sacrament, and it is He Who extends His mercy in absolution.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the love and mercy of Jesus, offered through the priest, in persona Christi, Latin for “in the person of Christ.”

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11:28

Ponder:

What keeps you from approaching the mercy of Jesus awaiting you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

Pray:

Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am a sinner in need of the mercy of a Savior, and I believe, with my whole heart, that He is You.

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A “radical reorientation of our whole life” seems powerful language for simply entering a confessional and sharing my faults and failures with the priest. #DailyGospel

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