St. Paul Miki

February 6,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

On Feb. 5, 1597, 407 years ago, St. Paul Miki was one of 24 priests, lay persons, old and young, who were martyred at Nagasaki for their refusal to have sexual relations with the Japanese emperor who obviously suffered from perverted obsessions.

Paul Miki is recorded as saying: I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as fruitful rain. Perhaps he was familiar with similar words from St. Augustine over 1,000 years earlier: The blood of martyrs is the seed of faith.

Today we read from the Book of Sirach written many centuries after the death of King David. In retrospect it sees him as we would see many of our own national heroes of the past, such as Washington or Lincoln. Their virtues we tend to remember while their faults, we tend to forget, or so it used to be.

Sirach today, recalls the faults of David as we have done over the past two weeks; but he recalls them in a way which still might seem uncomfortable to our age. Sirach says: Our God does not brood over our sins; when He forgives, He forgives completely.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation (stilled sometimes called confession or penance), speaking through the words of the priest, similar to an Old testament prophet, God says: I absolve you from your sins.

Some theologians/liturgists suggest that the word absolve should be changed to forgive. But they are not the same. Remember that forgiveness comes immediately upon acknowledgment or confession, even in the heart, but reconciliation, as a process, goes much deeper.

"To absolve" is the process of purification and reconciliation. "To absolve" means, literally, to release, to unfasten, to set free, like grease from a pan, or an obligation that has been completed.

The word absolve is rooted in the word absolute, which means perfect, complete, and certain. I know that I have reminded you before of being in the third grade and erasing the boards after school. Erasing the board was not enough. They had to be washed down, they had to be absolved, to be loosed from the chalk particles.

In my youth the absolution of sin was often compared to erasing the chalk board, but it was an imperfect example. Better today is the example of the videotape placed in the VCR, unless the protective tab has not been removed, like the protective tab of self-denial, it is impossible to preserve what is on the tape without accidental erasure.

If the video is placed in the VCR, and the record button pressed, it erases and records a totally new experience. That is exactly what happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

In confessing your sins they are erased as if they never occurred. And nothing can bring them back. God does not forgive as we forgive -- partially, conditionally, grudgingly. God never says what we might sometimes say: I can forgive, but I just can’t forget.

God absolves us absolutely. Having done so, He inspires us, like Sirach who wrote of David, recalling our virtues and our goodness.

We have done a fairly exhaustive examination of King David during these last two weeks. In the week that remains we will look at the life of his son Solomon. Did the apple fall far from the tree? Did he indeed follow in the footsteps of his father both for good and for evil?

Come back tomorrow!