All in Contrition
Does the sin in your life eat at you? Do you toss and turn at night until you finally wake in a sweat because your sins have followed you into slumber? Do you count this, and other grieving as pure misery when it is actually the Holy Spirit beckoning you to come... to repent? It is not our conscience, but our spirit that is pained.
Are we ready for the Lord’s table when we take Communion? Have we prepared ourselves body, soul, and mind to receive Him? Do we take this meal lightly or is it a moment of intense spiritual fulfillment? Of all the sacraments that we as Christians are involved in, consuming this meal should be our most spiritually anticipated... Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Anointing the Sick, Ordination, and Matrimony, are all for not without the body and blood of Jesus offered in sacrifice for us. Are we ready to receive Him? Are we ready to take Him into our bodies?
We hear the story of Peter denying Jesus three times before the cock crowed, and we think to ourselves that this man was weak of character, but do we ever look at our own lives and count our own denials? Denying can be blatant like in the case of Peter, or it can be subtle. Do you speak up when the subject of faith comes up in a group, or do you deny Him in your silence? When you are at a social event and someone belittles Jesus do you defend Him or walk away... denying Him? How about the witness you didn’t give someone when the opportunity arose, and you were afraid? Denial comes in many forms, can we overcome it?
Do you feel grief today before God? Is your heart breaking within you for some sin that convicts you unrelentingly? I am not speaking about a superficial knowledge of having done something wrong, but rather the understanding of a sin that emanates from your very soul. Are you seeking repentance for wrongdoing that has brought you to godly grief?