For over four years, I've been participating in a clergy group that gathers once/month at Virginia Seminary.  All of us are supervisors in training-in other words those that have gathered their courage to say ‘yes' to taking on the mentoring of seminarians. One of the presentations this last week was quite profound.

The presenter is a rector that I greatly admire. And he told of a time early in his ordained ministry when his mentor died, quite suddenly and he took on the mantel of a newly emerging ministry to a Hispanic congregation, that his mentor had begun.  About the same time, a law was passed that gave clergy the authority to sign off on immigration documents that would help undocumented persons gain ‘legal' status in the United States.  The morning after this bill became implemented, there were 400 plus persons lined up outside the church office, all wanting to tell their story of how they had come to the United States.  Part of the documentation process included ‘confessing' the story of their illegal status. He was humbled by their stories...and after all these years has begun to wonder how the actual substance of confession changes lives.  I was hearing an additional question...how does hearing confessional stories change the lives of the listener also?  And consequently, if this question is taken seriously, how are these changes born into the life of ‘the church' and change the witness of the Body of Christ to the world?

I find hearing confessions, that sacramental action of gathering up ones humility at the feet of another, and naming those things that haunt us, that taste bitter in our mouths as we find the courage to spit them out, a humbling part of sacramental ministry.  Those persons who've sought out my ear and guidance over the last decade and wept through recovery as drug or alcohol or sex addicts or the ways in which greed is sucking the life out of them...those who confess abusing their spouse with the violence of words or fist or infidelity...those who've stolen money and robbed themselves of an innate integrity...the list is long and hard.  And yet, the life that begins to be restored almost immediately upon releasing one's broken humanity up to God is potently instantaneous!  The longer road to metanoia, real and lasting change-an actual turning away from one way of life towards another-- is uphill-and at the same time, I'm witness to mystery made flesh...hope born anew.  Our confessional stories are a powerful testimony to God alive in our midst.

"Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?"

 For nothing will be impossible with God."

 Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her."

How can this be, since I'm an insufferable gossip? How can this be, since I'm not baptized?  How can this be, since I'm so unworthy?  Nothing is impossible with God!  Then here am I...let it be with me according to your word!

This is the frame of a pastoral conversation...someone in crisis yet also someone ready for life-giving change!  Mary challenged the mystery of God in her life to be beyond her understanding, and yet the change began as soon as she said, "Yes"...and meant it!  While also submitting herself to God's guidance and living life differently...making choices that clear a way for God to be at the center of her life.  (Do you believe that nothing is impossible with God?)