Around 175 years ago, a small village in France with a population of only 200 people was receiving 100,000 visitors each year. People would sleep in the fields and wait in lines for days in order to achieve the end of their visit. What was so important that they would make so much of an effort and go through so much hardship? What were they all there to accomplish? They were there to make their confession to a saint. They wanted to tell their sins to a saint, hear what he would say in return to them, and receive his absolution. St. John-Marie Vianney would read the souls of his penitents. He would weep over the sins confessed to him. He would fix the innumerable problems that sins cause and restore peace to troubled souls. Many people would leave the village of Ars changed for life. We do not have any priest here at St. Isidore’s who have the ability to read souls or who weep when sins are confessed to them. You do not have saints for priests. But your priests have the exact same power that the Cure d’Ars had, the power to cleanse your souls from sin. In that confessional box, the main thing that was happening in Ars is also happening here: the washing of souls with the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Despite the fact that you do not have saints for your priests, it is yet extremely important for you have a love for the sacrament of confession, that you have a devotion to confession. Our Lord came on this earth and gave His life for our sins. But His Blood only reaches us through certain channels. The main way for you to access the Blood that He shed for you is through the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion. How many are there among us who like to go to Holy Communion but do not like to go to Confession? How many like the Blood of Our Lord when it comes through the Holy Eucharist but not when it comes through the absolution of the priest?
