Father Glenn J. Comandini

Here we are again at the beginning of another Advent. Now we begin a new Church year and a new cycle of readings from the Lectionary. It seems that the key word in any new year is “cycle” because we advance chronologically toward a new year; however, paradoxically, the Church’s time cannot be measured chronologically. Indeed, the liturgical season of Advent looks backward – in commemorating the birth of Christ; yet, at the same time, Advent points us to the future – not the beginning of 2024 but to the second Coming of Christ. In a certain way, then, we are suspended in time – remembering how God intervened in our salvation history through the sending of his only Son and anticipating this Son’s return in glory.

Private confession in the West became the only form of penance and no one questioned its validity until the time of the Reformation. According to Luther and Calvin, only Baptism and Eucharist were true Sacraments whose roots are in Scripture. Although Luther liked the dynamics of confession, because he felt that it might be good therapy for people to talk over their sins, he did not see this as a sacrament. Calvin did not like the notion of penance at all because it seemed to imply to him that one could attain justification by oneself. He feared that this bordered on semi-Pelagianism.  In the face of this crisis, the Council of Trent made it a point to define not only the Canon of Scripture but also the seven Sacraments as instituted by Christ.