Of impromptu Sacrament of Reconciliations and whole-sale absolutions

A confessional, like the ones at the Holy Family Basilica

By Charles Muchiri

I wonder how life could ever be without the Sacrament of Penance, the Reconciliation Sacrament! 

Here is how I can equate it: It could be like living in a planet where there is neither water nor soap!

For someone who is going through normal perspiration; life would simply choke, out of horrible stench!

Now, living in the Kenyan Capital City always guarantees me an unprecedented opportunity to access this Sacrament almost on any other day of the week.

The Holy Family Minor Basilica for example has priests who are always available to offer this Sacrament from Monday through Saturday; starting at 4PM to 5PM and with its four Confessionals, it has been extremely invaluable to me in ways that even as a writer, I can’t describe!

And looking back, I do recall the days when as a young elementary school-going boy, I used to stay at the country-side: Nyeri, Mukurwe-ini.

Getting a priest to offer Holy Mass at our local church – St John Mihuti Catholic Church of Gikondi Parish on a normal Sunday was big news.

Impromptu Confessions

Let, the Sacrament of Penance. Then, the only chances that we could get were when a priest would offer the ‘impromptu’ Sacrament of Penance.

It used to happen like this: It is on an ordinary Sunday morning and you are headed to the Church.

No big deal. After all, the chances that a Priest would be available to offer Holy Mass are as remote as the word can stretch.

Then as you get near the church, you realize that there is a priest’s car parked inside the church's compound! And Bingo! The church’s Catechist – and his liturgy of the word - can take a back sit today.

But then, as you approach the main church’s entrance; you realize that there is some queue that has formed right next to the Sacristy.

And a 100 Watts bulb quickly lights up somewhere at the top of your head! There is Confession in progress.

As spontaneous as it may be; no real, right-minded Post-Second-Vatican-Council Roman Catholic Faithful could ignored this opportunity. After all, there would be no telling when such another chance would present itself.

I bet not as many Christians at my rural station would take as much time to prepare for the Sacrament. Taking (the ideal) 15 minutes to go through an examination of conscience would have been such a daring and costly move.

After all, the priest might be in a hurry to commence the Holy Mass – so that he may be in time to head to the next outstation where some souls would be dying to have a Eucharistic Celebration.

Communal absolution

With this in mind, you could expect to see some old forks, streaming into the church, with sweat dripping down their brows, heading straight to the Confession queue.

Even more prevalent, if a priest realized that there is no way on earth – given the constrained time at hand – that he could offer the Sacrament to every other individual queuing up; the next most obvious thing that you expected was a communal absolution.

The priest would congregate all the prospective penitents around him, and offer a prayer that would translate into a whole-sale absolution.

Too bad if you had lots of issues that you were preparing to pour out, to God, though the priest.

There is something ‘accomplishing’ when a priest listens to a penitent, offering back personalized spiritual counsel, a perceived (according to the penitent’s petite minds) inversely proportional penance and a big-sigh-igniting absolution, isn’t there?

As such, a communal absolution seeks the penitent to have lots of faith, that after all despite the mammoth crowd, seeking to feel only an edge of Jesus’ cloak - like the New Gospel woman who was bleeding for 12 years - brings as much healing as it would have been if Jesus met you along some road and gave you a warm embrace!

(E-mail this writer: muchirimuchoki@yahoo.com)