“Sometimes, the Angels Come for Us Before the Sun Rises“
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
January 25 – 26, 2020
Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23
During my formative years, I was blessed with good parents, priests, and sisters who passed on the gift of Faith. The patrimony of the Church…the heritage…the gift they had been given, they passed on to me. Part of that heritage is the great treasury of prayers of the Church…centuries and centuries worth. While we were getting those lessons in school, they knew what they were doing; we were getting Godly prayers. We had to memorize them like most things, but that’s how I learned the classic prayers of the Church, and they all have beautiful points.
We must repent of our sins in order to be followers of Christ, because He is the Savior. If we have no sins, we don’t need a Savior, and we don’t need Christ. So, we repent of our sins, and we acknowledge them. There is a beautiful prayer that I was taught by my parents and by the priests that is a classic – the Act of Contrition prayer. I was taught to say it every night before I went to bed, just in case the angels came before the sun rose:
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You,
and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven,
and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend You, my God,
Who are all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace,
to confess my sins, to do penance,
and to amend my life. Amen.
We say the Act of Contrition prayer every Sunday during Faith Formation so that our students will learn it along with other common prayers. But, learning prayers is not just rote memorization. There are so many beautiful things about the Act of Contrition prayer…it contains so much. In that prayer, is a small summary of what I studied in theology for a semester…it’s sort of like the Reader’s Digest version of theology. It is a primer for the Sacrament of Penance and teaches us how to receive God’s grace and become one with Him, and, how we show repentance and sorrow for our sins. It’s in the first part of the prayer: “I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins….because they offend You, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love.” I am sorry, because I have offended God who is the source of all love. That is perfect contrition.
The next line in the Act of Contrition prayer refers to imperfect contrition: “because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell.” We are sorry because we may be cut off from God forever – we are afraid of going to hell. Hell is the separation from God forever.
There are two conditions that must be present for absolution from sin:
- First, we must have contrition (sorrow) for our sins. “I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins….” We have to admit what we’ve done. We must say where we need God’s help and admit that we are sinners. For example, you cannot go before a judge, any judge, and just throw yourself on the mercy of the court. You have to say what you have done. You cannot just say, “I’m sorry, Mom.” What the heck did you do now! You have to say what you are sorry for. When you go to the doctor and say, “Doctor, I’m not feeling well, so give me some narcotics.” Uh, no, that’s not happening. You have to tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it…so I can apply a remedy to your problem. I’m not giving you anti-cancer meds if you have a headache; I’m not giving you morphine if you have a hangnail. I have to know what’s wrong. Likewise, we have to admit that which we need forgiveness. Another example is when you get caught by the cops speeding… women get away with this all the time by turning on the tear machine…except for highway patrolmen, they don’t care..they write a lot of tickets. But, you are sorry, because you got caught. That is imperfect contrition. However, it is sufficient for the Sacrament…it’s good enough.
We have to avoid what we call in theology the “near occasion of sin.” Unfortunately, we cannot avoid them all. The biggest cage for sin is in the brain. It’s tough to avoid sin, because the devil is working all around us. We can try to avoid people, places and things that can lead us to sin, but if you stay in the barbershop long enough, you’re going to get a haircut.
People come to confession, “Bless me Father for I have sinned; it has been however long since my last confession.” I’ve been hearing confessions for 36 years, so, sometimes, you just know what to ask. Are you living with your girlfriend/boyfriend? “Yeah.” Well, I can’t give you absolution. “Why not?” Unless you are living like brother and sister, which I doubt…call me jaded, you are living in a state of mortal sin. It would be a sacrilege on your part and a sacrilege on mine if I gave you absolution. “Father, I have a problem watching bad movies on T.V.” Well, football or the Golf channel are options. I like watching it, but sometimes I have to turn down the volume because it just goes too fast for me.
- The other condition needed for absolution is making amends. We have to make amends, an amendment of life, for our sins. Christ makes that amendment for us to God. We cannot fix it ourselves…Christ fixes that for us. However, we have to fix what we’ve done here in what we call the temporal order. For instance, if you steal my portion of Mexican food…”Father, I stole your pizza.” I forgive you, but you have to give the pizza back. You cannot just run off with my pizza. By the way, I would have given it to you if you had only asked. If you break a window while playing football, you have to replace the window unless the homeowner says it’s okay and they will fix it. You have to repair what you damage. You cannot just say, “Father I stole a $100.” Okay, but you have to give it back. “Really?” Yeah, you do. You cannot profit from your sin. If you stole my Stromboli, and you say, “I’m sorry,” well, you still have to give back my Stromboli. If I scrape your car, I have to make it right…as much as I can. We need to repay, give back, and try to right the wrong.
One thing about prayer…if we rush through our prayers, get distracted, or our mind wanders, just bring it back. My French ancestors in Canada, who we called “Kanooks”, said the rosary like greased lightning. I mean, when they said the rosary, there was smoke coming from the beads. For us, prayers may be coming from our mouth, but our mind is somewhere around the block. That’s alright, just bring it all back. We are men not angels.
We have such treasures as a part of our Catholic Faith, especially in its prayers. In the Act of Contrition prayer, we are saying that we have committed sin and we are sorry. We love God, and will try to avoid the irritations of sin, and try to right all the things we’ve done wrong. That is a great expression of your love for God and a great expression of your need for God. So, I would ask you to say the Act of Contrition prayer tonight before you go to bed. What a wonderful way to end the day; because, sometimes, the angels will come for us before the sun rises.
How will you apply this message to your life? Will you say the Act of Contrition prayer before bed? Will you repay, give back, and try to right any wrongs you’ve committed?