I am sorry…

Such a short sentence. These are strictly speaking three words, but said fast and sound like only three syllables. Yet they carry so much weight.

Imagine a scene in a public utility bus or a subway train: A woman who is accidentally hit on the head by a passenger’s bag turns around, with eyebrows crossed, to see who did it. Just when she is about to yell all kinds of invectives at the culprit, her eyes meet another lady’s fawn eyes as she pleadingly and humbly says, “I am sorry!” The aggrieved woman merely opens her mouth wide, takes a deep breath and sighs heavily, without saying a word. She shakes her head a bit and says nothing and her anger slowly dissipates into mere annoyance and irritation.

Another scene: A mother cries silently in her room because her teenage son just screamed at her and blamed her for a day devoid of fun. She waits patiently for the moment when her son will quietly enter her room or slip her a note or simply ease his way beside her and whisper, “Mom, I’m sorry.” In a situation like this, of course, a mother understands her son. Of course, a mother forgives her son long before he acknowledges his fault but what music it is to a mother’s ears when an erring son says, “I’m sorry.” Yes, when the son behaves better the following day, mother knows he’s sorry. Bu it is just not the same. Sometimes, not saying, “I’m sorry” explicitly at this point could really aggravate the situation. Even if the mother understands, there is still no replacement for the overt statement of sorrow.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the Sacraments that many Catholics find difficult to accept. They ask why they should confess their sins to a priest who himself is a sinner. They can confess directly to God. There are many good Catholics who say: “Why go to Confession when anyway they have not committed any mortal sins? Why waste the priest’s time?” There are more people though who do not go to Confession because they are too embarrassed to make the priest hear their confession because the priest knows them. In short, they really would rather go to any priest who does not know them to avoid embarrassment.

Have we ever stopped to think how much we like to hear “I’m sorry” said to us when we are wronged or offended by people in our community, by our officemates or our classmates, by our friends or our loved ones? If these three words mean so much to us and we are happier when we hear them said by an erring son or by our daughter, or by our father or mother, or by our brother or sister, can you imagine then the joy and satisfaction our loving God gets when we formally go to Confession and in some manner say in a formal way through His priest: “God I’m sorry!”

God loves us too much to ever let sin separate us from Him. Again, it is we who leave His loving embrace. He does not leave us and will never leave us. But each time we err and hide our faces from Him, we distance ourselves. Each time we rationalize that we will just confess our sins directly to God and not course it through the priest, it is as if we are not saying the words “I’m sorry.” Of course, God can see our hearts. He can see how truly sorry we are for our sins if we truly are. Yet the gesture of going to Confession has the value of saying the all-important words, “I’m sorry.”

The first greeting of Christ after rising from the dead was “peace!” Peace is possible for those who have been forgiven. How then, can we be forgiven unless we beg for it? How can there be peace without saying, “I’m sorry”?
There are so many opportunities for us to attain peace and the only key to it is a sincere and loving “I’m sorry!”

Blessings to us all…