No one wants that her or his computer be infected with spyware. This is so since the latter is said to incorporate an extensive category of malicious software planned to intercept or take partial control of a computer’s operation without the informed consent of that machine’s owner or legitimate user. Hence, sypware is illegal because it is intrusive. It strips the dignity of other people by infringing upon their data protection rights.
The present technological innovations have much to inform us about our spiritual being. Like the computer, our souls need to undergo a cleansing from the spyware of sin, in order that they could function properly.
The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is certainly an effective means of letting God taking control in our lives, rather than the destructive power of sin and death. In this Sacrament, Christ not only heals us from our sins but also strengthen us in our resolution not to sin anymore. His reassuring word,” “I am the Lord, your healer” (Exod 15,26) fills our hearts with great joy and hope. St Augustine resonates this hope when he wrote “our wound is serious, but the Physician is all-powerful. Does it seem to you so small a mercy that, while you were living in evil and sinning, he did not take away your life, but brought you to belief and forgave your sins? What I suffer is serious, but I trust the Almighty. I would despair of my mortal wound if I had not found so great a Physician” (Sermon 352,3).
The fruitful reception of the sacrament of Penance brings back in our souls that interior life that was taken away by sin. We are spiritually resurrected with Christ, who by his passion, death and resurrection, defeated sin and death. Communion with God reconciles us with our brothers and sisters, from whom we have let ourselves be estranged by our sins. Thus, the priest, who is representing God and the community of believers, is welcoming us into the sheepfold of Christ, whenever we confess our sins and seriously repent from them. Most of all, the Sacrament of Penance leads us back to the Father’s home in order to live with him. Imbued with his sanctifying grace, our being becomes a continual confession of our eternal belonging to him.
This sacrament of God’s mercy for us, makes us living witnesses of the truth that “mercy triumphs over judgment” (Jas 2,13); precisely because “we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us” (Lk 11,4) as God forgives our sins.
By resorting frequently to the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, we open ourselves up to the power of God’s infinite love and healing. We choose the way of life not that of death. The journey is clear: “Harden not your hearts” (Ps 95,8).
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap