Leopoldo Mandic
Saint of Reconciliation
Pope Pius XII said that the greatest sin of our time was "having lost all sense of sin", Leopold Mandic had, conversely, a deep sense of sin and an even more solid sense of God’s grace.
He was a confessor of continuous prayer, a confessor who habitually lived absorbed in God, in a supernatural atmosphere.
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Sacrament of reconciliation
The ministry of the sacrament of Reconciliation is a hard penance for him. He exercises it in a small room of a few square meters, without air or light, an oven in the summer, an icebox in the winter. It remains closed there for ten to fifteen hours a day. "How can you last so long in the confessional?" one day a brother asks him.
"It's my life, you know," he replies with a smile. Love for souls makes him a voluntary prisoner of the confessional, since he knows that "to die in a state of mortal sin without repenting and without accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from Him forever, through our free choice", and that "the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin immediately descend after death into hell, where they suffer the pains of hell, 'eternal fire'.
In order to procure the immense benefit of God's forgiveness for all those who turn to him, Father Leopoldo shows himself to be open and smiling, prudent and modest, an understanding and patient spiritual adviser. Experience teaches him how important it is to put the penitent at ease and inspire him with confidence.
One of them reported a revealing fact: "I hadn't been to confession for years. Finally, I made up my mind and went to see Father Leopoldo. I was very restless, embarrassed. As soon as I entered, he got up and approached me, delighted, as if I were an expected friend: "Please, take a seat".
In my bewilderment, I went and sat down in his chair. Without saying anything, he knelt on the ground and listened to my confession. When it was finished, and only then, did I become aware of my stupor and wanted to apologize for it; but he, smiling: "Nothing, nothing, he said. Go in peace." This trait of goodness remained engraved in my mind. By doing so, he had totally won me over."
Father Leopoldo was concerned with instilling in penitents the desired dispositions to fruitfully receive the sacrament. It involves "on the one hand, the acts of the man who converts under the action of the Holy Spirit: that is, contrition, confession and satisfaction; on the other hand, the action of God through the intervention of the Church" . Among the acts of the penitent, contrition comes first.
It is a pain of the soul and the reprobation of the sin committed, accompanied by the resolution not to sin again in the future. Contrition involves hatred for the disorders of the past life and an intense horror of sin, according to the following words: Free yourselves from all the faults you have committed against me, form yourselves a new heart and spirit.
(Ez. 18, 31).
It also includes "the serious intention not to commit any more sins in the future. If this disposition of the soul was lacking, in reality there would be no repentance... The firm intention not to sin again must be based on the divine grace that the Lord never fails to give to him who does his best to act honestly" (John Paul II, March 22, 1996). To receive absolution, therefore, the intention to sin less is not enough, but it is indispensable to be determined not to commit more serious sins.
Leopoldo: "Father, how do you understand the Lord's words: That he who wants to follow me, take up his cross every day? Must we do extraordinary penance for this? - It is not the case to do extraordinary penance, he replied. It is enough that we bear with patience the ordinary tribulations of our miserable life: the misunderstandings, the ingratitudes, the humiliations, the sufferings caused by the changes of the season and the atmosphere in which we live...
God wanted all of this as a means to operate our Redemption. But for such tribulations to be effective and to do our soul good, we must not escape them by all possible means... Excessive concern for comfort, the constant search for ease, has nothing to do with the Christian spirit.
This is certainly not taking up one's cross and following Jesus. It is rather avoiding it. And he who suffers only what he could not avoid will not have many merits"." The love of Jesus, he never tires of repeating, is a fire that is fed with the wood of sacrifice and the love of the cross; if it is not fed like this, it goes out".
