Acknowledging our sinfulness

THIS is one important matter to attend to if we want our

Christian life to keep going. We need to acknowledge our sinfulness

and everything related to it so that, at least, we can start asking

for forgiveness and developing the corresponding proper attitudes and

virtues.

   

            There is no use denying this obvious fact of life. As St.

Paul quoted the Scriptures: “No one is righteous—not even one. No one

is truly wise; no one is seeking God…For everyone has sinned; we all

fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Rom 3,10-11.23) St. John

reiterated the same point in his first letter: “If we claim to be

without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1,8)

  

            The sad fact that we have today is that many people are

losing and have lost the sense of sin. Any idea they have about sin is

strictly limited to their own very subjective view of what is bad and

wrong. And this usually has no, or hardly any, relation to the

articulated will and commandments of God.

  

            What is clear is that many people have lost their relation

to God and as a consequence, have also lost their sense of good and

evil. Pieces of evidence are aplenty. Just recently, in preparation

for the Freedom Day of a certain country, people were asked about how

they define freedom. Practically everyone said it is freedom to do

anything they like and to be what they want to be. There was no

reference to God at all!

  

            No wonder that we have in some countries the legalization

of abortion and same-sex union. Things have become so bad that when a

US pro-abortion official, for example, was asked if dismembering live

babies still in the womb can be considered humane, the answer was yes.

  

            Unless we return to God and follow his laws as much as we

can, unless we acknowledge our sinfulness according to God’s laws and

seek conversion, things can only go worse. There is no other

possibility.

  

            To be sure, we need to humble ourselves before we can

acknowledge our sinfulness. This may be one of the obstacles to

surmount, since humility is becoming an extinct virtue in many places

nowadays. Many people have become proud and conceited, vain and oozing

with a self-confidence that is not properly anchored on God.

  

            It’s not that we have to go around proclaiming to the

whole world that we are sinners or that we have sinned in some

particular issue. We have to practice prudence, discretion and

naturalness in this regard. But we should have a working way of

acknowledging our sinfulness on a daily basis by making regular

examination of conscience, for example, and by having recourse to

frequent confession.

  

            We should always remember that God is full of mercy and

his delight is to forgive us. In fact, if we have to go by the lesson

we can learn from the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and the

prodigal son (cfr. Lk 15,3-31) acknowledging our sin, saying sorry to

God and returning to him would give him the greatest joy. So we can

even make use of our sinfulness as an occasion to make God happy.

  

            We need to encourage everyone, especially during this

Lenten season, to truly develop a deep sense of penance where our

sinfulness is acknowledged and where we ask for forgiveness and have

another conversion which, by the way, is actually a continuing affair

for us, given our earthly condition.

   

            It might be good to consider very often that Christ

himself fraternized more with the sinners than with the

self-righteous, though at the end, he offered his life for all as his

way of assuming all our sins and conquering them with his death and

resurrection, and thereby offering all of us forgiveness. But we have

to acknowledge our sins before we can have that forgiveness.