Keep your soul washed and waxed!
Homily preached September 11, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering

For years, my older brother, Joe, worked at a car wash in the neighborhood where we used to live in Chicago, Illinois. He revealed a secret to me one day about getting my car washed at his location.

He told me that whenever I bring my car to the wash, don’t ever pay for the special wax treatment.   He said every car gets the special wax treatment … whether you pay for it or not!    So don’t pay extra for it ... it comes with the wash!

You see, my brother’s boss realized that the cars dried off quicker and looked better

when they had a coat of hot wax applied to them at the end of the wash.

So the boss decided to put hot wax on every car regardless of whether people paid for it or not ... giving him happier customers and hopefully return customers.

You know, through our high school years, my brothers and I washed our cars thousands of times. There were times when we’d wash our cars almost every day. We made it a habit of keeping our cars clean and shiny.

I think you’ll agree that there’s something special about driving your car right after it’s been washed and waxed ... when it’s all clean and shiny.

You sit a little taller in the seat because you’re so proud of your clean car; everything feels so fresh and so new!

Well, I’m quite convinced that the good feeling that we have driving our cars when they’re all clean and shiny, is the very feeling that God wants us to have

living our lives ... when we keep our souls ... all clean and shiny.

And the “car wash” that God created for our souls is the Sacrament of Confession.

In our Responsorial Psalm today, we heard the words: “Have mercy on me, O God …

wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.”

This is what happens in the Sacrament of Confession … we are washed clean of sin.

And whenever we’re washed of our sins, we’re able to stand a little taller, and hold our head a little higher ...  because we feel so fresh and so new!

For those of you who’ve seen Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ”

you no doubt remember the touching scene where Jesus meets His Mother,

Mary as He carries His Cross on the way to Calvary.

There, after hours of brutal punishment, Jesus is looking physically worse than Mary could have ever imagined Him ... and yet ... He makes a very shocking proclamation ... declaring: “Behold, I make all things new!”

And three days later, He showed the world that He could indeed make all things new.    As the movie ends we get a glimpse of Jesus, in His new resurrected body and we see that Jesus definitely has the power to make all things new.  

Each time we celebrate the Sacrament of Confession we are reconciled with the Father and our wounded or broken relationship with Him is made new!

It’s there in this great Sacrament that we are returned to our Baptismal state of being clothed with Christ ... as our souls are cleansed of our sins and we become once again ... beautiful temples of the Holy Spirit..

You know, no matter how hard you try, Mother Nature is going to be there working  against your efforts to keep your car clean ... with things like:

 rain and mud and dust and pollen and bird droppings to contend with.

The best weather I ever experienced was living 3 yrs in the San Francisco bay area where the weather was so beautiful and your car stayed clean for weeks.

But eventually ..  it got dirty and needed to be washed.

The same thing is true with your soul. No matter where you live or how hard you try, such things as the devil, and the culture, and your weakened human nature are going to be there working against your efforts to keep your soul clean.

Eventually, it will get dirty with sin.

In fact, St. Augustine once said,   “Even the greatest of men sin 7 times a day.”

So since sin is a part of our human condition. What can we do? The proper remedy for sin is to have your soul washed in the Sacrament of Confession.

It’s here, in this great sacrament, that God washes away the stain of sin.

But He doesn’t just stop there.    No, He goes on to wax our souls ...

by giving them a generous coating of His Sanctifying Grace.

Now, we’re not just clean, but we’re more resistant to getting dirty again.

Yes, each time you go to Confession, God not only forgives your sins,

but He also puts a new coat of grace on your soul ...

to make you more resistant to the elements around you.

Temptations will then bead up as water on a waxed finished,

making them less likely to get through and damage your soul.

Notice in Jesus’ parable today, the Father didn’t just forgive His son and then say, “OK you have your old job back, so go and get on with it!” No! He did much more!

First He gave him back his royal status in the family as evidenced by the ring placed on his finger, the robe placed on his shoulders and the sandals placed on his feet. In doing this He made his son whole again and restored his dignity as his beloved son.    And then what did he do?      He fed His son with the best of food,

the fattened calf, so as to strengthen him for the days ahead.

The Father in this parable represents God, Our Father.

When He comes to meet you in Confession ... He doesn’t just wash your soul …

He waxes it!   He goes way beyond cleaning you up ...

    He also strengthens you with Supernatural Grace.

The Lord’s parable today is commonly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. What does the word “prodigal” mean? It means lavish or profuse or extravagant. 

The younger son is called the prodigal son because he lavishly, profusely and extravagantly spent his inheritance money on the world and on dissolute living.

But this parable could also rightly be called the Parable of the Prodigal Father because of the way the Father lavishly, profusely and extravagantly showered His mercy and care on his son.

You see, that’s how God’s mercy and care is! It is lavish; extravagant and profuse!

It is also unconditional! You see, God doesn’t place any conditions on His mercy.

In today’s parable, when the son asked for forgiveness, notice that the Father didn’t say, “OK I’ll take you back if you promise never to run away again.”

Nor did he say, “You can stay here but you’ll have to pull your weight in doing the

                          chores around here with your brother.”

And He sure didn’t say,

“You can be my son again as soon as you repay me all that you took from me.”

No, what did the Father do?     He ran to his son and hugged him and kissed him!

There were no “ifs”, “ands” or “buts” about it.

His actions said one thing, “I’m so happy to have you back with Me.”

You see, God is not like us. We human beings, we tend to love conditionally.

We ration out our love to those who we feel deserve it. We play the part of the Older Son in the Parable by pouting and feeling unjustly treated when nice things happen to others who haven’t done what they should have done ...

or haven’t done as much as we have done.

But God’s ways are not our ways! And thank goodness for that. God loves us unconditionally! He loves us when we’re good and he loves us when we’re in sin. He just loves us.

And, what He wants is for us to come right back to Him when we fall into sin and be reconciled with Him so that we’ll merit to live in His love forever.

St. Paul affirms this clearly in his 1^st letter to Timothy proclaimed today, writing

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

And the ongoing process that Jesus established to do this is ...

the Sacrament of Confession. (clearly established by Jesus in John 20)

This Sacrament is available every day of the week here at Holy Spirit Church ...

after the 6:45 morning Mass ... Monday through Friday ... 

from 4 to 5 each Saturday afternoon,

from 2:30 to 3:30 each Sunday afternoon

and at other times by appointment.

Just as you can’t drive your car for an extended period of time without it getting dirty, so also you can’t go very long without your soul getting dirty.

That’s why the #2 Precept of the Catholic Church has always been ...

that you must go to Confession at least once a year.

Yes, at least once a year you must get your soul washed and waxed.

That’s really the bare minimum. Just think how much better it would be if you got your soul washed and waxed every month, 12 times a year.

First of all, you have a lot less to remember ... and more importantly

you’ve been strengthened more often with Sanctifying Grace to enable you

to more readily turn away from sin and walk in the footsteps of Christ.

For those who have been Catholic all your life, it may be that you’re so familiar with Confession being one of the Seven Sacraments that you take it for granted. The thought may be, “yeah, I know Confession’s available & I’ll use it when I need it.”

Well, think what it would be like if there was no Sacrament of Confession!

In the Old Covenant, the Jubilee Year, which granted remission from sin came ...

just once every 50 years.   You were lucky if you even lived to see one!

And the Day of Atonement came only once per year. That was when

the High Priest sprinkled animal blood on the Ark of the Covenant to seek

forgiveness of the sins of all the people for the whole year!

Only by confessing our sins do we allow the Lamb of God to take them away!

Jesus is infinite mercy and He delights in imparting His mercy to us.  

That’s why Jesus, who is the inexhaustible source of mercy,

told us the parable about the Prodigal Son.

After the younger son took all his stuff and left home ... where did the Father go?

Did he just try to forget it like it never happened and go about his business?

No!   Jesus said the Father stayed on the Front Porch looking for his Son.

And when the Son approached the house, what did the Father do?

He ran to meet His son!

It’s the same with us. The moment we turn to God, He comes to us He’s been waiting!

He doesn’t play games with His affection and His forgiveness like we do.

God loves us with unconditional love ...

and so He is always ready to re-establish relationship with us.

The reason that I got hot wax on my car in every car wash ... was because ...

that’s the way my brother’s Boss chose to clean cars.

And the reason you can count on getting God’s strengthening grace in every Confession ... is because that’s the way Jesus, the Big Boss ...... chose to clean souls. 

God’s Sanctifying Grace is like the hot wax at my brother’s Car Wash.

You get it whether you ask for it or not … it’s free!

It comes with the process.     It’s the way the Big Boss designed it to be.

Let’s recognize the huge gifts that we receive in the Sacrament of Confession

 and draw upon them ... God’s Mercy and God’s Strength ...

regularly and often.

This way we’ll keep our souls washed and waxed and ready for inspection!