My goal today isn't to make you feel guilty. Some pastors do that. They flog their congregations with guilt and then present the Gospel as a form of catharsis. It's like the story of a Roman Catholic priest who had been at his church for years and was beloved by his parishioners except for what most of them considered one failing. He was a great believer in the sacrament of confession, and he never passed up an opportunity to remind his flock of that fact. No matter what Sunday it was, Christmas, Easter or any Sunday in between the good father would somehow weave something into his sermon about the necessity of his people being present in the confessional booth on Saturday afternoon.

Finally, they got so tired of hearing this that a delegation was sent to the rectory. There was the usual exchange of pleasantries, then the delegation's spokesman explained to the priest that they, too, believed that confession was an essential part of the Christian life, but that perhaps he, as their pastor, might also want to give consideration to other topics about which to preach.

The priest admitted that maybe he'd laid it on a little thick, and he vowed to change. The next Sunday, the parish celebrated the annual festival of its patron saint, Saint Joseph. It was a big event, and the theme of the Sunday mass was to be fatherhood, as Joseph was the father of Jesus. The priest prepared what he thought was a particularly good sermon on the subject. But when he went up into the pulpit, and surveyed the packed house, something came over him. He set his homily aside and instead he began like this, "Today is the Feast of our blessed Saint Joseph. St. Joseph, as you know, was a carpenter, and during his holy life, he doubtless built a few confessional booths, which reminds me . . ."

My goal is not to make you feel guilty, but as your pastor and your friend, is there some wrongdoing in your past that you've never been honest about with yourself or with God? Many people never really acknowledge that they have done wrong, so they never really feel the forgiveness of God in their hearts.