Have you given any thought to the economics of mercy?
The approach of Divine Mercy Sunday troubles me. What good is mercy if it is hardly ever available. The quality of mercy is certainly strained by the stinginess by which it is often granted.
As Catholics, we naturally wish for as much mercy as possible to be doled out to all who would seek it. In theory. In practice, we wish to dole as much mercy as can be doled out between the hours of 4:00 and 4:45 pm on Saturdays or by appointment.
Defenders of this woeful practice argue that even during the 45 minutes a week confession is available, not that many people take advantage of it, so why increase the hours?
People who think like this completely miss the boat.
Let’s think of the mercy of confession as economic activity. If I had a store that was only open for 45 minutes on Saturday afternoon, I don’t care how great the product I am selling might be, I am going out of business–fast.
What we need is nice big dose of supply side economics for the mercy business.
Supply side theory postulates that …
April 27, 2011 at 7:00 am
Totally agree with you, Pat. Here in Manila, where there is an abundance of priests, confession is supposedly weekly, and in many cases, by appointment. Worse, the confessors are sometimes late or leave early rather than wait the full shift. I had a similar experience as yours. One day I walked into a chapel in the middle of the shopping district and found out that confession is available, everyday, Sunday to Saturday, at 8 am to 8 pm. IMAGINE THAT! Supply side worked for me. I go to confession 2x a month and now go to weekday masses as often as I can. I did novenas. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Unthinkable for the sinful me five years back.
April 27, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Fully agree.
Here in the UK many priests seem to actively discourage confession.
If a priest puts confession time 30 minutes before Mass and shows up 15 minutes late, there's something wrong going on…
Mundabor
April 27, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Awesome, Pat. Isn't the sacrament of penance wonderful? It is a miracle when people return to confession after so many years. The grace they receive is real and conversions do happen.
I am blessed to go to a parish that offers confession opportunities three times a day, every day but Sunday (Saturday there are only two times, but they are longer). That's 17 confession opportunities a week. And there are other parishes nearby that offer at least one daily opportunity. I really believe that confession is back on the upswing.
April 28, 2011 at 12:25 am
when i was still living at home in small town pennsylvania, my parish had the 45min saturday confession right before the vigil mass. for 3 weeks i showed up 15mins early to pray before receiving the sacrament and the priest never showed up. on the 4th week i got tired of him not coming, went into his residence, tracked him down, and made him give me the sacrament. i asked him why he wasn't in the confessional at the only time he said he would be and he could not give me an answer. i went back the next week and he was not in the confessional, nor did he come, again. i've not gone to confession there since and i am not getting married there this summer although it is the parish i grew up in. the sacrament of reconciliation is actually one of my favorite sacraments because it offers the abundance of God's mercy and it is a shame that many priests (and people!) do not understand this.