This is my March column for the East Tennessee Catholic.

March 20, 2026

The grace received in the sacrament of reconciliation is powerful and transformative

By Deacon Bob Hunt

I am a sinner. There’s no use beating around the bush. Yes, I am a Catholic. I am a Catholic husband, and a Catholic father, and a Catholic grandfather. I am even an ordained permanent Catholic deacon. All of that is true. Even still, I am a sinner. How is it that, after so many years, decades even, of dedicating myself to Christ and of trying to live faithfully the teachings of the Gospel, I still fall into sin and fall so easily and quickly?

It’s as if the devil knows exactly what buttons to push. “Let’s see what Deacon Bob is up to,” he seems to say. “I know exactly what temptations he’s most likely to succumb to. No use re-inventing the wheel. Those same standard temptations are just as effective as anything new I could devise. Plus, they’ve been so successful in the past. Let’s just put this old faithful temptation in front of him and … yep, there he goes! As good and reliable a sinner as I’ve ever known.”

One of my favorite Gospel passages is that of the woman caught in adultery. The group of men who had discovered her sin brought her to Jesus, accusing her of having broken the Law of Moses by sleeping with another woman’s husband. (Naturally, they didn’t bring the man to Jesus!). And she was guilty. Everyone knew she was. Jesus knew she was. They wanted Him to condemn her so they could get on with the stoning.

But He didn’t condemn her. Instead, He reminded her accusers of their own sinfulness. I find it interesting that the Scriptures say they dropped their stones and walked away, “beginning with the elders.” Yes, the older we get, the more we are aware of our imperfections, our disappointments, our sins. Knowing that none of them were without sin, the condition Jesus placed on their assuming the privilege to stone her, they walked away. When no one was left but Jesus and the woman, He asked her if anyone was there who had condemned her. She answered, “No one, sir.” “Neither do I condemn you.”

This Gospel pericope was so controversial because of Jesus’ radical forgiveness that there was debate in the early Church over whether it should be kept in the text of John’s Gospel. The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, wisely discerned that it belonged, that it was, indeed, the inspired Word of God. But Jesus’ mercy is not the end of the story. After refusing to condemn her, He told her, and this is important, “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” He didn’t condemn her, but neither did he leave her off the hook. She was responsible for her sin. Her sin was forgiven. Then came the hard part: sinning no more.

Fear is at the root of a great deal of sin, I think. Gluttony is rooted in the fear of starving, either physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Pride is rooted in the fear of not being respected. Lust is rooted in the fear of not being loved. Avarice is rooted in the fear of not having enough, of genuine poverty, again either physical, emotional, or spiritual. Sloth is rooted in the fear of being given responsibilities or expectations we think are beyond our capacity, and then failing. Anger is rooted in the fear of not being taken seriously. And envy is rooted in the fear of not measuring up. All these sins, finally, are rooted in the fear that God will not come through for us, that He is not to be trusted, that He will not keep His promises. It is lack of faith, pure and simple.

Isn’t that what the serpent tempted Adam and Eve with in the garden; the idea that God was a liar, that He was selfishly keeping divinity for Himself, and that He would not come through for Adam and Eve in His promise to provide for them? So, they took matters into their own hands. And when they did so, they paid dearly for it. God surely keeps His promises. He also keeps His word: “when you eat from it, you shall die” (Genesis 2:17), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Death as a consequence of sin is, I think, less a punishment and more the natural consequences of not trusting in God. God, after all, created us and sustains us (Colossians 1:16-17). If we reject our Creator and Sustainer, how could we hope to live? Hope for God’s forgiveness and eternal life is based on trust that God will keep His promises. Experience has proven to me that He does exactly that.

Happily, sin is not the end of the story. Just as the woman caught in adultery could have been stoned to death, she also could have been left in her sin by Jesus. Yes, Jesus protected her from being condemned by the crowd of men, but He could have turned to her and told her that she was to be punished by God, struck down in her sin. Jesus, who challenged the one who was without sin to cast the first stone, could have stoned her Himself, since He was without sin.

But the mission of Jesus, and of His Church, is not to remind us how our sins keep us from God. Ultimately, His mission is reconciliation with the Father. To accomplish that, He took on sin when He hung on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, sin died on the cross. The cross is the altar of “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” He gave the power to forgive sins to the Apostles of His Church. The successors of the Apostles, namely, our bishops, share that power with their priests, so that even more people can be reached by the merciful hand of the Father.

The grace received in the sacrament of reconciliation (confession) is powerful and transformative. We confess our sins because we are genuinely sorry for having committed them. I know it sounds cheesy, but God has given each of us so much; why do we then turn from Him like ungrateful children? The possibility of being forgiven is a gift, which is to say it is a grace, which is to say it is what the sacrament of reconciliation is all about: to receive the free gift/grace of God’s mercy. But to do that, it is necessary to go to a priest, who represents Jesus—alter Christus—and the Church and speak our sins to Jesus. And Jesus, knowing every detail of the good and the evil we have committed, gives us His absolution, His forgiveness, and we start anew. What better way is there to prepare for Easter? Go to confession this Lent.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.