“Wash away my guilt (I)”
In a climatic and famous moment of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, after the murder of Duncan has brought Macbeth and his wife to power in Scotland, Lady Macbeth begins to behave erratically at night. In the first scene of Act 5, we see her sleepwalking where she frantically rubs her hands as if trying to wash off blood. A doctor and one of her maids observe the scene. The memories of the murders she participated in, particularly the killing of Duncan, come back to her spirit and submerge her in an ocean of secret guilt. Powerful is the cry, as she tries to remove an imaginary stain of blood from her hands: “Out, damned spot! out, I say!”. Hopeless, she concludes: “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”. Aware of the intensity of her pain, the doctor remarks: “More needs she the divine than the physician”.
The desire for forgiveness, purification, and reconciliation after wrongdoing is part of human nature. We all realize that our actions are often influenced by selfishness and break the natural moral law that we carry in our conscience or that has been given to us by authority. We also realize that these selfish actions have consequences and that something is ‘broken’ when we commit them: the honor or possessions of others, relationships, my integrity, my peace… How do we heal the wound? How do we repair the consequences of our disordered actions? These are questions that not only belong to religion, but that certainly every creed tries to solve. A very important part of the world’s major religions is precisely this: what must we do so that the Divinity, the ultimate Judge, can forgive us and restore us to our original state?
In the biblical faith, the theme of sin, guilt and forgiveness appears from the first pages of history, with Adam and Eve, and occupies a good part of the journey of the people of Israel. Today’s readings also bear witness to this desire of purification. Malachi prophesied in the first reading: “he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD” (Mal 3:3). But possibly no one has expressed it better in the Old Testament than King David in Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love; in your abundant compassion blot out my transgressions. Thoroughly wash away my guilt; and from my sin cleanse me.” (vv. 3-4). This sincere plea for purification, which gives voice to the conscious or unconscious desires of so many, finds a definitive and perfect answer in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, who shed his blood “for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28) and died praying to his Father: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).
This ministry of forgiveness has been entrusted now to the Church, through the Apostles who received the power from the Lord: “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:22-23). Authority transmitted to their successors, the Bishops, who share it with their collaborators, the priests. And the most excellent and tangible materialization of this reconciliation which Christ obtained for us (and which comes to us through the Church) is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In this Sacrament, it is Christ who actualizes the forgiveness obtained on the Cross, because in the end it is He and not the priest who gives content and force to the words “I absolve you…”.
But if this is true, as someone recently asked me, what is the point of indulgences? This year, a Jubilee in the Church, we will hear several times the expression “obtaining an indulgence” after performing certain acts. What is an indulgence? How is it obtained? Is it really necessary? Is not Christ’s forgiveness, which we receive through faith in his mercy and through the Sacrament of Confession, sufficient? What does it add?
Next week we will try to answer these questions.
Fr. Javier Nieva, DCJM
*****
Previous Letters:
January 26, 2025: Catholic Education
January 19, 2025: Shall Marry You
January 12, 2025: Called by Name
January 5, 2025: Pilgrims of Hope
December 29, 2024: Priests for the Family
December 22, 2024: Messengers of Joy
December 15, 2024: Blessed Are the Poor
December 8, 2024: Love, Hope and Joy
December 1, 2024: Hope Does Not Disappoint
November 24, 2024: Are You King?
November 17, 2024: Seven Words
November 10, 2024: Tu es Petrus
November 3, 2024: Pray For Those Authority
October 27, 2024: These Are the Feasts
October 20, 2024: Someone Else
October 13, 2024: Be Prudent
October 6, 2024: Project and Dreams II
September 29, 2024: Projects and Dreams I
September 22, 2024: Pastor
September 15, 2024: Take Up Your Cross
September 8, 2024: Guardians of Shared Memory
September 1, 2024: From Their Hearts
August 25, 2024: The Cost of Discipleship
August 18, 2024: For Real?
August 11, 2024: Too Long For You
August 4, 2024: A New Manna
July 28, 2024: Bread of Life
July 21, 2024: Shepherds After My Own Heart
July 14, 2024: Woe to Me…
July 7, 2024: Come and Rest (II)
June 30, 2024: Come and Rest (I)
June 23, 2024: Storms
June 16, 2024: I Will be a Father to You
June 9, 2024: Burning Furnace of Love
June 2, 2024: In the Midst of Him
May 26, 2024: Forever I Will Sing the Goodness of the Lord
May 19, 2024: Through the Holy Spirit
May 12, 2024: The Ark of the Covenant
May 5, 2024: Source and Summit
April 28, 2024: Rejoice Always
April 21, 2024: I Believe in the resurrection of the body Part II
April 14, 2024: I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body Part 1
April 7, 2024: Rich in Mercy
March 31, 2024: Sine Dominico Non Possumus About Sunday
February 11, 2024: I Was Ill and You Cared For Me
February 4, 2024: Why Evil?
January 28, 2024: Catholic Schools Week
January 21, 2024: Attachments
January 14, 2024: The LORD Shines
January 7, 2024: Epiphany 2024
December 31, 2023: A Family of Families
December 25, 2023: New Beginnings
December 17, 2023: Christmas
December 3, 2023: Watch
November 26, 2023: Be Healed
November 19, 2023: Sealed
November 12, 2023: Religious?
