We The story in today’s Gospel, my friends, about the 2 brothers doing or not doing what their father wanted them to do, gives us the chance to recall something I hope you remember learning a long time ago.

It’s about contrition and our sense of sin. To be contrite is to be sorry for something we have done or failed to do.

And way back when we were being prepared for First Penance, or First Confession, we should have been told that there are two kinds of contrition: perfect and imperfect.

I bet you haven’t thought about these for a while.

Perfect contrition happens when we are truly sorry for something because we love our God, and we have disappointed Him by breaking one of His commandments or we have not been behaving virtuously.

Imperfect contrition happens when we are sorry for something because we got caught, and now we have to pay the consequences.

So perfect contrition is about our relationship with God. And imperfect contrition is about ourselves, and the pain or suffering we have to put up with.

Often-times, when I’m ministering to the kids up at the juvenile detention hall, I ask them what they’ve been charged with.

And after they tell me, I’ll ask why their bad action was wrong: why it’s wrong to break into someone’s house or car and steal things, or why it’s wrong to beat up someone else and maybe rob that person of what he or she has in a wallet or purse.

And not surprisingly, the answer I usually get from the kids is: “It’s wrong because I got caught!” Well, it’s then that I usually give them a little holy card with the 10 Commandments printed on them. And as I give them this little card, I always ask them if they know the 10 Commandments.  The answer I usually get back is: ‘Oh, I heard about them.”

So we take some time and go through them, explaining that these are what our loving God wants us to do and not do. And if we want to love God back, keeping these Commandments is how we do it.

Then I ask each kid, “When you die, do you want to go to heaven?” And they always say “Yes.”

Then I say: “Well, if you died today, as any of us could, and you were suddenly standing before the judgment seat of Christ, would you be found to have kept these commandments, or broken them?”

And that’s when they sheepishly bow their heads in humility and confess that no, they haven’t kept all the Commandments.

So then I say: “Well, now is the time to tell God you won’t do this sin again, not because you got caught, but because you want to be with God in heaven, and you sure want Him to keep blessing you during the rest of your days here on earth.”

You know: ever since the term “no-fault” crept into our language, our sense of sin, and what is ethical and unethical, have really become deficient. From no-fault insurances to no-fault divorces, our personal responsibility for our words and actions has almost all gone out the window. Nothing is ever anybody’s fault, until that is, it can be proven in court.

And as you’ve heard me say before: “The real conscience of today’s world is not the Commandments, the Church or the clergy, but it’s the courts: people do or do not do what they do depending on whether or not they may get sued.”

So let’s resolve ourselves, personally and individually, to examine our consciences at the end of each day, as part of our night prayer, and do so in the light of the 10 Commandments and the virtues the Bible teaches, because that’s what our loving God expects of us, and we want to love Him back so that He’ll keep blessing us  for the rest of our days here on earth and then take us into heaven when it’s our time.

       Thank you.