It is easy to share one's joys, sorrows remain more private. On Palm Sunday we shall be commemorating the Lord's entrance into Jerusalem, his disciples dizzy with joy at their Master's triumph. On Maundy Thursday evening they will flee, afraid for their own lives, unwilling to have any part with him. On Good Friday he will die a shameful death with only his mother and John standing by. The easy triumph, the lonely death, and what an agony of abandonment between! Something of this pattern is to be seen in all our lives. We share our moments of happiness in an uncomplicated way, but our anxieties and fears, our deepest griefs, are more hidden. Perhaps we need to remember that the Light of the Risen Christ shines even in the depths of our sadness and our failures. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that we cannot share with him, and the Sacrament of Penance, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is an invitation to share not only our griefs but our shabby little failures, our whopping betrayals, our sins.