A Time for Embracing: Reclaiming Reconciliation

Has sacramental reconciliation disappeared from the horizon of Catholic practice? Has "confession" been extinguished from your practice of the faith? Have you noticed a marked change in the way in which you have become reconciled to God and the Church community over the course of time? These questions and others are addressed in Julia Upton's study of sacramental reconciliation. Her concern is that the sacrament of reconciliation - through which the darkness of sin is illumined by the healing light of Christ's forgiveness - is an endangered species. In sacramental reconciliation the sinner experiences the tender, healing, welcoming embrace of God, which is what Upton regards as endangered. Upton's is a holistic approach to sacramental reconciliation that involves studying data from anthropology, psychology, and sociology, and integrating that with data from Scripture, history, and theology.