I often refer to Pope John Paul I as the Pope people forget to remember.
Today the intrepid Andrea Tornielli has a post about John Paul I, Papa Luciani. He talks about an initiative to recall the Pope’s life and short pontificate this year, which is the one hundredeth since his birth (17 Oct 1912). In the entry Tornielli offers a quote:
“What a mistake those who do not hope make!” Judas made a huge blunder the day in which he sold Christ for 30 denarii, but he made an even bigger one when he thought that his sin was too great to be forgiven. No sin is too big: any wretchedness, however great, can always be enclosed in infinite mercy.”
There is no sin that we little mortals can commit that is so great that God, who is infinite and merciful, cannot forgive.
Moreover, when we receive absolution for our sincerely and completely confessed mortal sins, the sin is gone, removed, taken away from our souls. We will have the memory, but no long the guilt. Those sins will not be held against us in our judgment. We have to do penance, and we will carry the sorrow of the memory, but we can know with sure Catholic Faith that in the priest’s actions Christ forgave us and washed our souls clean. The sins are not merely covered over or set aside as if in some trick of accounting. They are gone. They are no more.
No matter how great the sin was, God will forgive it and remove it.
GO TO CONFESSION.
