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R e v i e w s
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This Rock
Volume 13, Number 10
 December 2002 
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Persuasive Argument
The sacrament of confession may be the best-kept secret of the Catholic Church. At least folks seldom seem to spread the good news about the wonderful way that this often-neglected sacrament can flood a soul with happiness and peace.
British priest Fr. Francis Randolph hopes to change all that. Writing "at an elementary level, for the ordinary sinner in the street," he sets forth in Pardon and Peace so persuasive an argument for confession that, should the book be widely read, priests accustomed to hearing three or four confessions each week might soon need to increase their hours.
Fr. Randolph calls it confession rather than reconciliation or penance. "Obviously all three names refer to important and valid aspects of the sacrament," he says. "However, I feel that to use the name ‘reconciliation’ exclusively, as became fashionable about ten years ago, obscures the important fact that most of us have never completely broken off our relationship with God at all. We are reconciled, once and for all, by Christ’s death on the cross: If we have ever fallen completely away from God and the Church, we certainly are grateful for the reconciliation that has brought us back; but ‘reconciliation’ is not something ongoing in our life. We remain in God’s love; it is just that we know there is always room for growth. . . .We need continually to confess that we fall short of what God wants us to be, though we do so in the confidence that God loves us already."
Fr. Randolph explains—with affection, good humor, and clarity—not only the history and meaning of each step of the rite itself but also how the sacrament of confession meets a Christian’s deepest needs on the spiritual, emotional, and psychological levels. It’s all here—from original sin to Christ’s saving work, from little white lies to everlasting sloth, from scruples to deep-seated vices, from the prodigal son to the boy next door, from indulgences to indifference. The subtitle, "A Sinner’s Guide to Confession," personalizes the book. Even the most devout Catholic who goes regularly to confession will find inspiration, and the book would be an ideal gift for each person in the RCIA program.
One of the most interesting sections of Pardon and Peace is the discussion of why Jesus chose to mediate his forgiveness through his Church. Expanding Paul’s metaphor of Christians being different parts of one body, Fr. Randolph shows that disease results when one microscopic cell "gets above its station and tries to take over, multiplying uncontrollably and pushing others out of the way."
Just as one cell out of balance causes sickness in a human body, one Catholic out of balance by unconfessed sin affects the entire Body of Christ. Fr. Randolph makes it clear that while the sacrament of confession is immeasurably beneficial to the life (present and future) and happiness of each individual Catholic, it is not "just about me." Pointing out how people who want to discredit the Catholic Church "seize on the actions of one or two members who have fallen into public sin," Fr. Randolph writes, "If there are no local cases, they can always fall back on the Renaissance popes. If the bad life of half a dozen out of the hundreds of popes in history can be used to such devastating effect in anti-Catholic propaganda, imagine the evil that the much more abundant secret sins of all members of the Church can do. . . .I do not mean that the damage is done simply if you are found out and give people cause to gossip: The damage is there in the failure of love, which diminishes the love and grace available to the Church as a whole."
As the rite of confession ends, Fr. Randolph ends with chapters on absolution and the concluding blessing. He writes, "The key words that actually constitute the sacrament are the words ‘I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ All the other texts and phrases that give shape to the sacrament are secondary: useful indeed, but not absolutely essential." He reminds us that "we are absolved from our sins on condition that we are equally generous with other people," adding the reassurance that to do this we can depend upon the support and prayers of the whole Church on earth and the love and prayers of the saints in heaven. "Absolution," he says, "brings us pardon and peace, the confidence of being forgiven, the assurance that we are loved by God, and the grace necessary to carry out the work of God in the world. It is the gateway to freedom.
-- Ann Applegarth
Pardon and Peace: A Sinner’s Guide to Confession
By Fr. Francis Randolph
Ignatius Press (2001)
130 pages pages
$12.95
ISBN: 0-898-708-32X
Useless Without Christ
When David Pearson set out to write about eucharistic adoration, he decided to supplement the material he envisioned with "a few quotes from Catholics who had a decent handle on eucharistic doctrine." Thinking that finding "juicy quotes" would take more time than research on the history, theology, and apologetics of adoration, and eager to get that task behind him, he began searching for "any Catholics who had been active in adoration for at least a year and might be willing to talk about their faith with a reporter."
The resulting names were contacted and the people interviewed. Suddenly, the thrust of Pearson’s book changed. He writes, "While playing back the tape of my third interview, I realized the history, theology, and apologetics could wait for another book. . . . God was prompting me not to probe my sources’ knowledge of eucharistic doctrine, but to record their experiences in, and flowing into their lives from, eucharistic adoration itself. The more tapes I transcribed, the more moved I was by the quiet power of these randomly chosen individuals’ humble Christian witness. . . . I found myself saying, out loud: ‘What can I possibly add to this?’"
To Pearson’s credit, he didn’t add one extraneous word. Other than a short description of how he came to write the book and a pithy two-page conclusion, all he did was begin each chapter with a brief introduction to the person being interviewed. Pearson, the features editor for the National Catholic Register, is a consummate interviewer, and time after time we see his insightful questions lead to deep, full responses. The process is fascinating, and by book’s end we feel better acquainted with Pearson and nine other Catholics.
The interviews represent a broad cross-section of the Church. There are those, like Pearson himself, who grew up Catholic, detoured into Protestantism, and returned to Catholicism with fresh appreciation. There are converts and Catholics from devout families who themselves have remained faithful since childhood. There is one couple, and this pair of interviews is interesting because of the way each approaches and benefits from time before the Blessed Sacrament.
As those interviewed are diverse, so are the ways that grace penetrates the lives of people who spend precious hours in adoration. Most exciting are the stories that demonstrate the power of eucharistic adoration to effect conversion. In one instance, the host wasn’t even exposed. "Dylan," who grew up in an unchurched family, went as a child into a Catholic church near his house to pray. He says, "I used to go and kneel before the tabernacle without knowing what was in there. And I would wonder what everything around me in the church was all about." Curious, he began reading Catholic books secretly. "It was the Eucharist, really, that ultimately drew me to the Catholic Church—the truth that the Church teaches about the Eucharist. I had started attending Mass, and I heard about eucharistic adoration over the Internet. So I started going to a local parish. It was just an informal way to get involved with the Church." Now Catholic, Dylan is discerning a call to the priesthood.
Another of Pearson’s subjects was not Catholic but committed to spend an hour a week in what he perceived to be a "prayer chapel" in his Catholic wife’s church. "As a Lutheran," he writes, "I thought I knew Christ, because I knew his Word. . . .But it was really through eucharistic adoration that my conversion became inevitable. Because once I knew the truth about the Eucharist, I couldn’t wait to receive him."
Another man’s life was changed when a wise priest gave him a weekly hour of eucharistic adoration as penance. "Mal," who had converted to the Catholic faith "after a lifetime of practical atheism and considerable debauchery," writes, "As the weeks went by . . . my confessions . . . [and] my life got a lot more sincere. When you go before the Lord of the universe—failed, humbled, on your knees—there’s no way to explain what happens. . . . I just go in there and tell him how much I love him. Tell him how useless I am without him. Tell him that I have no virtue, that there is nothing good in me, that I have nothing to offer or give. But I am open to receiving whatever goodness he wants to give me. And he always gives it to me. . . . Peace. Love. Himself."
These moving histories may make other Catholics want to participate in adoration, and the interviews are full of practical ideas for how that might best be done. The words of saints and Church Fathers, which Pearson includes at the beginning of each interview, reinforce this desire to participate. What a privilege to be a part of so ancient and powerful a tradition!
-- Ann Applegarth
No Wonder They Call It the Real Presence: Lives Changed by Christ in Eucharistic Adoration
By David Pearson
Charis Books (2002)
177 pages pages
$10.99
ISBN: 1-0569-553-246
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