[R]eligion will not help me. Humanism will not help me. Rationalization will not help me. Going numb with drugs and alcohol will not help me. Listening to someone's story of faith will not help me.
The only thing that will help me is this: to fall on my face, daily if possible, and invite the presence and power of Christ to heal me and fight with me. To lean on the Word of God and trust it to carry me through the next battle. To grow up and fight.
Finally, I need to recognize that the more I rationalize away my sin the less I need Christ.
I have a pet peeve with my pastor (whom I love and respect, BTW): In the Mass, when you get to the Kyrie, the priest's usual line is something like "Let us call to mind our sins." My pastor always says, "Let us call to mind the ways in which Our Lord invites us to love, honor and serve Him, and how we are answering that call." I can jolly well tall you how we are answering that call, Father. We're answering it badly. Sometimes very badly, sometime not as badly as other times, but I can assure you that anybody who says, "Well, I guess I've answered all right this week" is brimming over with the well-known bovine byproduct.
We shouldn't be asking "how are we doing?" as though "Great!" were a possible answer. The focus should be on "What do I need to ask forgiveness for, and what should I try to avoid next time?" We don't say "Lord, have mercy" over our successes. Most of us think about our positive points quite enough as it is. Let us call to mind our sins.
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