What is the relation between love and forgiveness? Jesus says that love and forgiveness are directly proportional. As we are forgiven more, we will love God more. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (Lk 7:47).
There is no question of loving God any little, because God forgives all our trespasses unconditionally. The sinful woman in the gospel had every reason to love Jesus the most because all her sins were forgiven by the Lord, that too in an assembly of invited guests.
True repentance originates from our love towards God. But do our confessions reflect this love? If our contrition is true, it must have come with a few drops of tears. We know that it needs two components for a sacrament to be in order. They are its form and matter. In baptism the form is the specific words that the priest utters, and the matter is the water used in baptism. Similarly in the Eucharist, the form is the words of consecration (institution narrative) and the matter is wheat bread and grape wine. Together they make the sacrament valid. Neither form, nor matter alone could constitute a valid sacrament. This is the teaching of the Church.
Then what is the form and matter needed for a good confession? They are the priest’s words of absolution (form) and the acts of contrition, confession, and penance (matter). Many Church Fathers opine that the tears of repentance is the real matter that is counted in a confession.
At Simon’s house, Jesus generously supplied the form of confession while the sinful woman contributed the matter, as expressed by the tears rolling down her cheeks to wet the feet of the Lord. She did not say any Act of Contrition but instead acted in a way that testified how deep her contrition was. God wants our love to be at the root of our contrition. We too know it when we recite the Act of Contrition…. I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, BUT MOST OF ALL BECAUSE THEY OFFEND THEE,MY GOD, WHO ART ALL-GOOD AND DESERVING OF ALL MY LOVE….
Let us pray for the grace to love Jesus. It will bring us true contrition, the most essential component for a good confession. May the loving Lord bless us not to approach the confessional as a mere ritual.
( www.v-catholic.com)
