‘Welcome back!’

“Whew!” Claire sighed with relief. “I’m finally home!”

“Welcome back, Claire,” Eva said as she shifted to give some space for her friend in the pew.

Claire knelt down and silently prayed. It was evident that she was undergoing a powerful spiritual transformation. Her lips softly but intensely pronounced a heartfelt prayer. Her eyes tightly shut as though she didn’t want to open them to keep her spiritual lights treasured within her soul forever.

“That’s funny, the priest said the same thing to me when I entered and informed him that my last confession was back in grade three,” she whispered to Eva.

“Didn’t I tell you that priests don’t bite?” Eva joked. “But on rare occasions they could probably nip for our own good as well.”

“Yup,” Claire agreed. “Thanks for not giving up on me Eva.”

“I think we should give thanks to God and his instruments for being patient with us. I guess we all go through some difficulties and even rationalizations before really walking the road of conversion.”

“Same here,” Claire admitted. “After all these years, I couldn’t get myself to tell you that I didn’t have the courage to simply let go of my vices and comfortable spiritual lifestyle.”

“Thank Him, Claire. After all, He’s the one working and wanting our conversion. I was just like many others for you and for me: instruments.”

“You know, it would make you even happier that I’ve resolved to go to confession monthly?” Claire confided.

“Congrats, girl!” Eva brimmed with joy. “What convinced you?”

“Like I said, when the priest said ‘welcome back,’ I felt that I was simply being taken ‘as I was’, without being judged. Then it seemed he was in no hurry at all to answer my questions and he even had time to ask about my family and my work.”

“I know what you mean,” Eva replied. “It really helps when they help warm us up to God again.”

“It helped me to be more confident in God’s mercy and even to witness how a miracle was being worked through another sinner like me, in a man who humbly becomes God’s spokesperson and His channel of grace.”

“That really is so beyond me, but instead of making me less confident it increases my faith more,” Eva added.

“Speaking of miracles, before I left the confessional I still had a bit of doubt about how to understand miracles when science could not fully explain them.”

“I have read about that somewhere, but I don’t exactly recall what it was. What did the priest say?”

“He said that even though miracles cannot be proven by science or math, it doesn’t mean that they are not true. Precisely, it only goes to show that there are realities whose laws cannot be quantified or demonstrated because they are beyond the competence of science. But it would be too simplistic to disregard them simply because they can’t be quantified.”

“So it’s like trying to prove or weigh love and affection, generosity and sacrifice,” Eva said.

“Right; and we must humbly admit and accept that there are things that God does that we have to believe with faith, trusting that these are for us to witness so that we may abandon ourselves more to His plan of love for us.”

“So that’s why you were taking so long in the confessional!” Eva teased her friend.

“Well, I guess so. Still the doubt about miracles lingered….”

“And…?”

“So I asked the priest if he had ever experienced one,” Claire explained.

“Did he?”

“He surprised me when he immediately said, ‘Of course!’”

“Wow!”

“I asked if he could tell me what it was and when,” Claire continued.

“And what was it?” Eva was all ears to hear about the miracle.

“He said: The miracle of your confession!”

“Amen!” Eva said.