A broken and contrite heart He will not reject. It is Christ who makes us righteous and not our ‘good works’. Jesus first forgave the women accused as adulterous and then said go and sin no more. Repentance and then good works will follow so the priest had it backwards in my opinion—a little like the Pharisees of Jesus day but not as vicious.
The priest at our church always calls for repentance each sunday mass.
I don’t entirely understand FR. Z’s logic here myself. I was not aware that if one is married to a non-Catholic, and the marriage wasn’t celebrated, or concelebrated in a Catholic Church, one was living in a state of sin.
I was under the impression that such a marriage, while not sacramental, is still considered valid. Thus, while the Catholic spouse does not enjoy the Sacramental benefit of such a marriage, it’s still a marriage so to be living in such a state even as husband and wife is not a sin.
At least this was my understanding before reading this. I may do some more research on this, it doesn’t seem right to me that such a marriage isn’t recognized in some way by the Church. It is considered valid after all.
“It is Christ who makes us righteous and not our ‘good works’”
What does that have to do with this? No one said our good works make us righteous.
Jesus forgave the woman accused as adulterous and said go and sin no more. This woman was saying - I expect to keep on sinning, in response to the “go and sin no” more requirement this priets requested; in other words the priest in effect said, “please regulate your marriage to the proper sacramental status”. What then if the adulterous woman had responded to Jesus that she did not intend to change anything about her behavior? Jesus forgives her - if she changes.
Also please explain scripture: John 20:21-23. If it wasn’t necessary - why would Jesus specifically give the power to forgive sins to His earliest Bishops; the apostles? Jesus had concrete reasons for each and every one of His statements and actions; no instructions of Jesus are to be ignored.