It's Just A Little Sin

Jesus said to his disciples:                                                                             
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

The water was angry.  It was stopped in its rush downstream by something called a dam. It was flowing freely and without a care in the world when suddenly it was barred from going any further.  It's anger built up but no matter how hard it pushed against the wall of the dam it was stopped dead in its tracks.  Then, with one more mighty attempt it was able to move a single particle of sand.  The water was happy again.  It would take some time but it would break free of its prison. As the current of the once mighty river hit the dam a certain portion of its pent-up power was committed to the place where that one grain of sand had failed.  The years passed and through drought and flood, the dam held the river back. Then came the great spring storm. Inches upon inches of rain fell on the countryside and it all emptied what it could not use into the great river which soon was overflowing its banks.  At the dam, unseen by man, the place where the one grain of sand had fallen away so many years ago had become larger and the dam was cracked and the water entered the dam and finding more weak spots it exacerbated them and widened them making the dam even weaker.  Then the water found its way through to the other side. A powerful torrent broke through and the dam already weakened by the water that had found and formed cracks inside gave way and the waters that had been pent up for so many years finally was able to continue its journey downstream.  Trees, rocks, boulders, houses, and outbuildings and people were swept away by the raging torrent. The water was free again. 

 When we sin, even the smallest sin, can cause erosion of our morals, of our conscience, of our ability to love God.  It may not be much at first, but if we can "get away" with a small sin and feel no consequence, maybe we can please ourselves just a little bit more with a sin that is just a bit larger but still small in our eyes.  Over the years we learn to sin and sin starts to take over our lives. Eve was just going to look at the fruit, surely there was no harm in that was there?  Just so.  Jesus says that those of us that commit these small sins and teach others to do so will find ourselves in the back of the great hall in heaven.  

Let me ask you to think about something.  It may be true that you do not have any major sins on your conscience.  That is a good thing. So why not do a fearless examination of your conscience, leaving no stone unturned, and this weekend make time to go to confession.  Does that scare you?  What do you have to be frightened of?  You know your sins and God knows your sins. You are just two friends getting together to make things right between you.  The sacrament of penance is truly one of the greatest gifts of Jesus to us.  We can be forgiven any sin if we just admit to ourselves and to God what we have done wrong and promise to try to not do it again.  What could be easier?   Don't let the devil have any hold on you. He only needs a tiny hole in your defenses to do his dirty work. God is there to help.  Step out of the land of fear and enter the land of love, joy, and above all forgiveness. 

Remember to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory.