A Hospital for Sinners


- "If I touch the holy water font, it'll melt."
- "I better not go to confession because, if I enter the church, it may burn down!"  
- "I'm just too 'dirty' to go before God right now...I need to clean up first."  

Whether they are an excuse to not go to church, or a genuine notion that someone actually has to 'get right with God' BEFORE they receive the Sacraments, these comments (paraphrased, but you are likely familiar with many variations of them) are wrong minded, backwards, and completely miss the purpose of the Sacraments.  

You may have read in any number places, in any number of ways, that "the church is not a museum for saints; rather it is a hospital for sinners".  And this is the truth of the matter.  

We need not be "clean" in order to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation (i.e., going to confession).  Reconciliation is given to us by Christ for exactly that purpose...to reconcile us to Him, because we are not strong enough to do that on our own.  This is the Sacrament for when we know we are weak, and have committed sin, and we need the Good Doctor to heal us and to cleanse us.  We don't need to heal or cleanse ourselves; we can't!  No one who is injured in an accident would say, "I'm too injured to see a doctor right now; I need to get well first, and then I'll go to the ER".  No, they go to the ER to be triaged, diagnosed, treated, and provided the medicine that can heal them.  In the same way, Reconciliation (and the preparation for it, such as an examination of conscience and a firm purpose to amend one's life) gives us a reconciled relationship with Christ and provides us the graces necessary to not only heal that relationship, but to help us stay well.

We don't need to be saintly in order to go to Mass.  We, sinners, become saintly over the course of our lives by going to Mass and exposing ourselves to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  And when we are properly disposed (e.g., in a state of grace (i.e., not in a state of mortal sin)), we actually receive Him in communion and are fed the Bread of Heaven.  We don't say, "I am really hungry, so I better make myself full before I eat".  On the contrary, our souls, hungry for Christ, go to Him to be fed, because only He can satisfy our hunger.  

The holy water font won't melt when you touch it.  It's there to remind you of your Baptism into Christ and help you remember to renew your commitment to Him, especially in times when you are failing. The church building won't burn down when you enter it, no matter how soiled or sinful you are.  It's there so you can unite with your fellow Christians, who are ALSO struggling with sin, and ALSO need Christ to give them the graces needed to get back on the right track.  You don't need to get clean before you go to confession to confess your uncleanliness.  That's what Confession is for...to reconcile you to Christ and give you the graces you need, and without which you are likely to never "get clean". 

The church was given to us by Christ as a means to bring sinners to Him, and as a means by which He gives us Himself, especially in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  He didn't give it to us so that already-holy people could have a place to hang out and talk about how holy we are.  He gave it to us, a needy and wounded and ailing people, in order to give us a place to worship together, to heal together, and to provide us with the Sacraments that initiate us into His Family, heal us when we are wounded, and help us along our journey as we "run the race" (cf., 2Tim 4:7) and "work out our salvation" (cf., Phil 2:12).  

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:31-32; Mk 2:17).  Don't let your need for repentance be the barrier that keeps you from coming to church or going to confession and reconciling with Christ.  His church is a hospital for us sinners.  And the saints that adorn its halls became saints by recognizing their need for the hospital. 

Image:  Lawrence Lew, O.P., Detail from a window in Bath Abbey, originally posted in "Christ the Healer:  Jesus as the Physician of Souls", 7/23/2016 by Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York, a ministry of the Province of St. Joseph centered at St. Catherine of Siena Priory in New York, NY.

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