A bold birthday wish started a surprised young golfer on a path to the priesthood. As her birthday approached one year, his mother said, “Richard, my son. For my birthday this year, I don’t want you to get me anything. Instead, I want you to go do something. Please go to confession for my birthday.” He decided to honor his mother's birthday wish.
Now, he says, “in that confessional, I met Jesus Christ for the first time. My sin and brokenness were overwhelmed by his love and mercy.” He says it set him off in a new direction, a straight path to the priesthood… (Columbia, Dec 2022, Vol.102, Number 10). Today the parishioners of Corpus Christi Parish, Archdiocese of Vancouver, call him Father Richard Conlin.
Father Richard says, at the confessional that day, the consciousness of his sin was overwhelmed by God’s love for him. In that encounter with Jesus, he was more attracted to the internal love he felt in his heart than to the external pleasure he had received in his party lifestyle. He took a new direction leading to the priesthood and bringing many others to the loving embrace of God the Father. His life became a gift to many.
In today’s gospel, Jesus names some of the sins that come from our hearts: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness (Mk 7:20-23, Living Bible).
But their results are experienced externally.
We sin because we don’t take our faith in Jesus seriously. We don’t really believe that He is here with us now. We don’t see the harm our sin is causing us. Our sins prevent us from seeing the truth, goodness, and beauty in ourselves and in those around us.
Like Father Richard, most of us have been baptized into Christ and nurtured in Christian families and parishes. Like him, some have strayed from the vows made by or for us. Maybe we do all the right things, but don’t really love enough to see the truth, goodness, and beauty in ourselves and in those around us.
Create in me a clean heart, O Lord. Amen.
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