April 25, 2025
Easter Friday
My sisters and brothers in the Lord,
Welcome to week seventeen of BMW, Be My Witnesses. To be effective witnesses to the Lord, we continue to lay a solid foundation of prayer. This week, it means confession.
Prayer: Go to Confession
After breathing on the apostles, the resurrected Jesus said, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (John20:23). This practice of humans being empowered to extend God’s own forgiveness to other humans has been contested not only by Protestants but by many Catholics today as well. Yet, this text and that from Matthew, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (18:18), clearly point to this human role.
In fact, the Gospel of Matthew even points out that Jesus’ forgiving sins in his humanity caused amazement. When he healed the paralytic, he told the crowd: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”-he then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings (Matthew 9:6-8).
In fact, in the earliest days of the Church, it appears that people were called to confess their sins publicly, in the assembly. In the Letter of James (5:14-17), the elders are to be summoned to pray for and anoint the sick, “and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” Obviously, the elders had an important role here.
It is clear that God forgives sins but has chosen to use the Church to convey that forgiveness. In fact, Paul was able to call his ministry the ministry of reconciliation, something given to him by God (II Cor 5:18).
A disciple is always in need of forgiveness, is always in need of being able to say, “I am sorry.” This humility before God and the Church makes us better witnesses of the incredible mercy and love of the Father for us. It also helps us to be able to approach fellow sinners as one with them.
Now, for those of us who regularly use the Sacrament of Reconciliation, this will not be much of a challenge this week. However, for those who have not taken advantage of this grace, it may call for some soul-searching. This week’s challenge is to try to get to Confession some time this week. If it has been a while, let the priest know and he will gently guide you through the ritual. All of us priests always are very joy-filled to welcome back to this sacrament someone who has been away from it for whatever reasons.
Until next week, may God Bless you.
I am sincerely yours in Christ,
+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing
P.S. Below is a video version of this week's Be My Witnesses. Please do share with family and friends. Thank you. God bless you.