He's Gotta Be Kidding, Right?

Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.

The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.

Forgive your neighbor's injustice;

then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD?

Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins?

If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?

remember your last days, set enmity aside;  remember death and decay, and cease from sin!   

Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.

                                                                                                                       

Oh My Goodness ! What I am to  make of this reading from the book of Sirach?  This spells out something that is quite hard for me to do and it spells it out in simple terms that even a two figure I.Q. person like me can understand!  God expects me to forgive and not to take vengeance against someone who hurt me!  There has to be a loophole somewhere.  I know, this is from the Old Testament, that's it! Forget about this, I am covered by the New Testament. What do you mean this subject is also covered in the New Testament?    

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,

"Lord, if my brother sins against me,

how often must I forgive?

As many as seven times?" 

Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. 

That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king

who decided to settle accounts with his servants. 

When he began the accounting,

a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. 

Since he had no way of paying it back,

his master ordered him to be sold,

along with his wife, his children, and all his property,

in payment of the debt. 

At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,

'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'

Moved with compassion the master of that servant

let him go and forgave him the loan. 

When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants

who owed him a much smaller amount. 

He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,

'Pay back what you owe.'

Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,

'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

But he refused. 

Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison

until he paid back the debt. 

Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,

they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master

and reported the whole affair. 

His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! 

I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. 

Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,

as I had pity on you?'

Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers

until he should pay back the whole debt. 

So will my heavenly Father do to you,

unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

Oh My Goodness !  It looks like I am trapped!  I am charged with forgiving my fellow servants if I am to expect God to forgive me.  How can I do this?  Doesn't God understand just how deeply I was hurt and how grave the offense against me was?   

As I have gone through life, I have acquired hurts and scars and painful endings.  Outside the person that the world sees appears to be as strong as steel but inside the hurts have accumulated and have become very heavy on my back. These things have affected me and my thoughts in ways that would astound and frighten the child of God that lives inside of me. This child of God can turn into a mean spirited brat child seeking only the self satisfaction that payback for the hurts afflicted on him which will lead me away from God and into sin.  

I am commanded by God to forgive those who have injured me. I am to release all of the negativity that we are carrying around in my soul.  God indeed knows how deep the hurts have penetrated my very soul.  He is also aware of the gravity of the offense committed against me and he still insists that I grant pardon to my fellow creatures.  If I do this He will not consider the gravity of the offenses I committed against Him.  He will forget the injuries I have heaped up against Him as I thoughtlessly have gone through life and He will cast memories of my sins so far away that they will be remembered no more.  

On the other hand, if I insist on my way, if I insist on attaining complete satisfaction from those who hurt me, then He will insist on in immediate payment in full when I stand before Him on my judgement day.  On that day I will stand before God naked and afraid and without the means to pay my debts to Him. He will deal with me as I dealt with my fellow humans on earth and hand me over to the torturers until I have paid the last penny of my debt. 

Friends, this is serious stuff. Your whole eternity hinges on how you love and how you forgive. Face the facts.  The sins committed against you pale compared to the sins you committed against God.  We must forgive in our hearts those that have done us wrong. 

  

THAT DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO THAT PERSON  FOR ANOTHER HELPING OF THE OFFENSE.  It is not expected, for example, for a wife who has been beaten by a husband to return to him to make forgiveness complete. We just need to be like God to those who offend us and forgive and forget and leave vengeance to God's care. Clear your heart of all hate and resentment. Grant pardon even to those who don't deserve it. If you can't do it yourself then give it all to the Lord to handle for you. He is the expert, He will help you do this, and He will heal you and welcome you to be with Him forever in heaven. 

THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY WOULD BE FOREVER GRATEFUL TO YOU IF YOU OFFERED A PRAYER FOR THEM THIS DAY. PLEASE PRAY FOR MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY THAT MAY BE THERE AND PLEASE PRAY FOR THE SOUL THAT HAS BEEN THERE THE LONGEST AND HAS NO ONE TO PRAY FOR HIM OR HER.

Reading The Fine Print in The Gospel

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.  
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.

When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants

who owed him a much smaller amount.

He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,

'Pay back what you owe.'

Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,

'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

But he refused.

Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison

until he paid back the debt.

Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,

they were deeply disturbed,

and went to their master and reported the whole affair.

His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!

I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.

Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,

as I had pity on you?'

Then in anger, his master handed him over to the torturers

until he should pay back the whole debt.

So will my heavenly Father do to you,

unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."

The truth is simple, by Christ's death on the cross we were forgiven of our sins and on that day the gates of heaven swung open wide to admit believers into the bliss of eternal life with God in heaven.  This is truth in its simple yet glorious form, and God will certainly keep His end of the bargain.  

Do you remember Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the first version with Gene Wilder?  At the beginning of the tour of his candy factory each child had to sign a contract. The contract started with huge print and as it cascaded down the wall the print got smaller and smaller until it was minuscule.  The words, no matter how large or small all formed the basis of the agreement between Willy and the children. God does not use fine print in His contract with us, but we as humans tend to read the "good" things and gloss over the things that obligate us.  

It is true that we are forgiven.  The sins we commit against the dignity of God are forgiven as soon as we confess them.  We, in turn, are expected to forgive our fellow humans for what they do against us.  I can hear them coming now, the "buts."  Some of us are willing to forgive everyone except him or her or this group or that group because the evil that they committed against us was so great.   Those of us who are "But" people are in a whole heap of trouble because we are the unforgiving servant in the reading above and as you can see, it does not go well for him 

Forgiveness is the one selfish thing we can do that is approved by God.  When we forgive someone who has hurt us deeply, we are accruing graces through that righteous act and we are making our soul more God like in its attitude and outlook and we are doing something good for ourselves.  By forgiving even the biggest grievance we have against another, it becomes easier to forgive the smaller things and our life and our serenity is not disturbed as much by the thoughtless acts of others.  We also become more thoughtful ourselves and gain greater ability to put ourselves into someone else's shoes and in doing this we are offended less. Forgiving is a win/win situation for us while not forgiving is a lose/lose. 

God could not make his desires any clearer, but He does repeat Himself so as to make sure we have the opportunity to absorb the requirements he has placed upon us. 

1.  "Father forgive them, they know not what they do"
2.  "Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times."
3.  "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"  
4.  “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
5. So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
6. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

So, I think it is easily seen that forgiveness is one of the most important parts of being a Christian.  The word "but" cannot be used to absolve us from this duty.  It is NOT easy for us to forgive everything.  The word everything encompasses evils that are unimaginable in their scope.  Can we forgive Hitler for the Holocaust? We have to!  Can we forgive Stalin the millions of people he killed? We have to.  Forgiving is not approving what a person has done. The judgement against the Hitler's and Stalin's and bin Laden's of this world will be rendered by God, not by us.  We need not and should not approve what these people have done but we should leave it to God to mete out what payment these evil people should receive. No, it is not easy to be a Christian, if done right, being a Christian will always cause at least a little inconvenience in your life as you look deep inside yourself to see where you and Christ are most alike and where you are not.  Forgiveness is a habit and like all habits, it becomes easier the more you practice it.  When someone offends you, just think of Jesus on the Cross and what He said, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do.   There is no law saying you can't use those same words is there?

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY. PRAY FOR YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY OF COURSE, BUT DON'T FORGET THE FORGOTTEN SOULS WHO HAVE NO ONE TO PRAY FOR THEM.  

Holding A Grudge for Dummies

As far as the east is from the west,

so far has he put our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him

The story began on April 22, 1990.  My mother was in the hospital and underwent surgery for lung cancer.  She came through the surgery as well as could be expected.  Going into the game we knew what the ultimate outcome would be, there was no hope, she had terminal cancer and the surgery was done to buy her some more time.  My two sisters and my brother arrived at the hospital at 9:00 AM to be with Mom until the surgery was scheduled at 11:00 AM.  We arrived on her floor and were amazed to see her on a gurney in the corridor, the surgery had been moved up.  We got there just in the nick of time to give her our love and to let her know that we were pulling for her.  Then began the waiting, one hour, two hours, the time dragged on. Finally, the surgeon came and told us that she had come through the surgery fine and he had done what he could to extend her time on earth. We thanked the doctor and were taken to intensive care where my mother was on a ventilator but awake and alert. She smiled as her children gathered around her and she happily responded to questions using a dry erase board that they had given her.   We were all relieved and assumed that we would have Mom with us for the year that the surgeon promised.  We all visited her the next day and she was a little less okay, more distant.  I could not visit on April 24th and on the 25th Mom's eyes were open, but she no longer wrote on the dry erase board.  After some time, she closed her eyes and stopped responding to us and at 7:11 PM my mother went home to the Lord. We celebrated her life at a Mass that following Saturday and she was sent to be cremated as was her wish. 

I was walking around in a daze.  this was not supposed to happen, we had been given a year.  The very fact that Mom was dead was a great wrong, she was only sixty-four when she died.  She died because of bad doctoring, and I do not mean the surgeon.  Mom worked for a doctor and part of her compensation was free medical care.  The doctor she worked for provided the absolute minimum in care and in doing so misdiagnosed the cancer that eventually killed Mom.  She provided her with a salve to put on a growth on my mother's shoulder.  It got no better and after six months Mom went to another doctor friend who immediately diagnosed cancer and had the growth removed but it was too late.  The disease had spread to her lungs during the six months on non-caring care that she had received.  

The funeral was a typical Catholic funeral. The Church did her job and offered prayers for my mother's soul.  For the next six months, I was in the grip of a great depression.  I held in my heart a great and bitter hatred for the doctor that cared so little that she did so little and in effect murdered my mother almost as if she took a gun and shot her. My life was in disarray.  I could not concentrate and went through the motions of life.  Then one day I came to the realization that while I was morose and in pain, the doctor that caused it was fat and happy and practicing her trade not bothering to think of what she had done.  Then it happened.  I passed a Catholic Church and the God of the Universe inside the tabernacle reached out to me and I forgave the doctor who caused my mother and me so much pain.  At that moment, through the grace of God, I came back to life.  

Since that time I cannot hold a grudge.  I forgave the person that murdered my mother, what else could someone do that would allow me to keep them in bondage? 

Every so often I trot this story out because I think it is important to remember that we have been forgiven much by God and we are called to forgive as well.  I write this as a reminder to myself. 

A Deal is A Deal - even when we pray !

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Have you ever really sat down and taken the Our Father apart?  Jesus gave us this prayer as an example as to how we are to pray and what we are to pray for. I am not going to tear the prayer apart on this blog today.  I would recommend that sometime today that you find a quiet place and meditate on the prayer we call the "Our Father."

I do want to touch briefly on just one aspect of this prayer.  The words we say are so familiar to us and we pretty much say them by rote so we may miss some of the important things we are actually praying for.  

We do ask God to forgive us our sins, and He does, in the same measure that we forgive those who sin against us.  If you hold a grudge if you are unforgiving of someone who has hurt you, well, do the math, God will hold the same amount of guilt against you.  

But, how can this be?  God forgives our sins and casts them as far away as the east is from the west.  When we sin against God, we are hurting the infinite goodness and dignity of the creator of the universe. Yet, he is willing to forgive us our sins against his dignity provided we are willing to forgive those who have sinned against ours.   How can God demand this from us?  Doesn't He know what she did to me and how much it hurt?  Yes, He knows the pain of being betrayed, of being ignored, of being the subject of mockery, of being hated.  It happens to God all of the time, yet He forgives.  He asks that we imitate Him and see our way clear to forgive those who trespass against us and He for His part will forgive us the many sins He could hold against us.  Seems like a good deal to me.

Welcome To Gehenna

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother

will be liable to judgment,

and whoever says to his brother,

Raqa will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,

and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna."

Welcome to Gehenna!  How do we interpret this passage of scripture?  I think it is relatively simple.  Jesus says that if you hate your brother, well, you can go to hell.  But, the news is even worse than that.  You may not hate your brother, you might just be angry with him, or you might call him a fool. In either case, you would become a citizen of Gehenna.  

The listeners did not have to think metaphysics when they heard these words of Jesus for they could go to Gehenna any time of the day or night that they wanted to.  Gehenna lay outside of the walls of Jerusalem and was a place where the, using the polite term, garbage was burned.  The fires burned day and night just under the surface the process of decay aided by the worms, flies, and maggots continued both day and night.  To be sure, Gehenna was not a place that the local Chamber of Commerce put into their brochures as an enticement to visit the city. 

As nasty as this place is, it is the place we are invited to move to by Jesus if we just call our brother a fool.  It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus, it never has been, and it never will.  What He proposes runs counter to the way we think.  When we are offended by someone, our natural self-wants to go on the offensive and strike back at the person or persons that have offended us.  

In order to avoid Gehenna, we must wage a war not against those who offend us but against that part of our soul that is reaching for the sword.  Our war should not be against our brother but against ourselves and the defects in our nature that cause us to respond with hate instead of love. 

This is not easy nor is it natural for us to do.  Yet, throughout our life, we should learn to practice forgiveness of those who offend us because there is no good neighborhood or good neighbors in Gehenna. 

Lent - Dodging The Stone Throwers

Monday's readings were about justice and judgment.  We have as our Old Testament story a tale that could have been ripped from today's Six O'clock News report.  Susanna was a beautiful girl. Two dirty old men, politicians who held the power of life and death over the people of Israel, fell madly in lust with her.  They waited until all of her servants had left the garden and the entered and closed the door so no one could see what was going on.  They then made her an offer that she could not refuse. They told her that she had to make horizontal hokey pokey with them or else they would accuse her of adultery, which of course, carried the death penalty.  She had been brought up to be a follower of the Law of Moses and she told them that she would rather die than to offend the Lord. Sure enough, they accused her of adultery and the crowd descended on her and was dragging her away to stone her.  Daniel yelled for them to stop and he said it was not right to execute a person without proof.  He proceeded to grill the two politicians, separately and got to the truth of the matter. The two old lecherous politicians got what the Law of Moses prescribed, they received the penalty they attempted to railroad Susanna into and were led away for execution.  

Our Gospel story is of the woman caught in adultery.  This woman was caught in the arms of her lover and righteous indignation infected the crowd.  I always thought it took two to play the game, so I wonder where the offending man was hiding.  Anyway, this all too human woman was being dragged out to meet the fate spelled out for those that committed this offense.  Those that were out to get Jesus saw a way to trap Him into saying something that they could use against Him.  They dragged the woman before Jesus and asked Him what should they do?  They pointed out that the Law of Moses specifies death to be the award for this offense.  

Now, Jesus was in a pickle here. If he said that she should be killed, He would have a hand in her death and all the talk about love, mercy, and forgiveness would sound like so much prattle. On the other hand, if He said to forgive her, well, then He is running counter to the Law of Moses and therefore would be proving Himself to be a charlatan and a fake. Jesus did not rush to judgment.  He bent down and started writing in the dust.  The suspense started to build.  His enemies thought that they had Him now!  He looked up from what he was doing and told them that the one that was without sin should cast the first stone.  He bent back down and continued scribbling in the dirt.  One by one, starting with the elders of the temple, they turned and walked away.    Soon, it was just Jesus and the woman, alone. He stood her up and asked her where her accusers went?  She told them they were all gone. Then Jesus smiled at the woman and told her to leave and to commit this sin no more.  He had given her the forgiveness of God.

What great parables these two stories are. In both we see the power of the law and the law being tempered by God's mercy. Susanna was saved because she put not offending God at the top of her list of things to do while the woman caught in adultery was saved from her sins by the direct action of the mercy of God.  Jesus did not gloss over her sin, rather, He made her confront it head on and deal with it but in the end, mercy triumphed over justice.

We live today in a time of mercy. Our Lord has announced through Sister Faustina that mercy is available to those that want it.  The gentle hand of God calls us to His side.  He wants us to tell Him what we need the most in our life. For me, I need His friendship and I need His forgiveness.  I am not the twenty-something kid that ran roughshod over his laws.  I grew a large crop of wild oats. As a Catholic, I have an opportunity to receive this forgiveness in the sacrament of confession. In this sacrament, we do not gloss over the symptoms of our illness.  We get straight to the point and through the priest acting in persona Christi, we receive the forgiveness of God and of His Church. 

If you haven't been to confession recently, think about going before we celebrate the joyous feast of Easter. If you go to confession often, make this one special. Pretend that you haven't been to confession in a while and spend some time making a full examination of your conscience.  Bring it all to Jesus.  Lay the burden down, it is too heavy for you to carry. Remember, today is the day of mercy. I do not mean to scare you but when Jesus comes, he will bring justice with Him.  

Better mercy today than justice tomorrow. 

Lent - I've Never Been Good At Math

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,

"Lord, if my brother sins against me,

how often must I forgive him?

As many as seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times 

but seventy-seven times."

Okay, I will  admit it, I've never been good at math.  It all started around 1960 or 1961 when my alma mater, St. Joseph and St. Anne School decided to teach it's inmates, I mean students, "The New Math."  Even today when I think about The New Math I shake my head and wonder why humans have a tendency to want to fix things that ain't broke.  Back then I was considered stupid by the good Sisters of Saint Joseph and the transition from arithmetic to The New Math seemed to prove them correct in their assumption. In first and second grades, after my father gave up trying to help his dope of a son and my mother took over trying to help me understand math.  She was able to make wonderful progress.  Through her tutelage  I was able to master the art of adding and subtracting which included the concept of borrowing. Then, without warning came The New Math and everything went to hell in a handbasket.  In the modern world given the same circumstances, I would be recognized as having a learning disability and modern techniques would be used to help me understand what to my mind was gibberish. Sister Emerita, if you are out there somewhere, none of my employers over the last forty-something years has asked me to subtract two negative numbers, just saying.  Today I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide with the rest of humanity.  

In today's Gospel, we are told to forgive our brother seventy-seven times. That is a number I can wrap my hands around.  On a number line, it is seventy-seven places to the right of zero, it is not a prime number, it is odd, and only twenty-three places on the number line from one-hundred.  But, Jesus is not giving us a math lesson here. He is giving us a life lesson.  Peter is being generous and asks if he should forgive a person seven times.  That was a lot back then where the law was still an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  Peter may have been trying to score some points with Jesus by appearing generous.  Jesus wasn't having any of it.  I can imagine Him turning to Peter and saying ""I say to you, not seven times 

but seventy-seven times." 

The number seven, of course, is "God's Number" it is a number of the day that God rested from His work of creation when He saw that all of what He made was very good.  What Jesus is telling us to do, is to forgive an infinite amount of times. We are to strive to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.  We are to forgive as many times as the Father forgives us.  We can throw sand in the face of God every day of our life and repent just before we die and be forgiven. There is no circumstance in life that precludes forgiveness.  I know, I know, it is hard to forgive what he did, what she said, what they did.  We are called to forgive and to bring ourselves the peace that forgiveness of those who offend us will bring here on earth.  It is not easy to be a Christian.  It is not easy to forgive.  But we must imitate Christ who, from the cross, said, "Father forgive them, they know not what they are doing."   If Jesus can do that from the Cross, can we not do it as well as safe on the ground, eating an apple, we watch Him die?

Lent = Being Forgiven

`Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.'"

We all know the reading about the prodigal son.  We know that the father spends his time watching and waiting for his younger son to return.  We know how he is greeted and how he is treated.  Let's face it, the kid was a brat. He wanted what was his, all without working for it and he proceeded to lose it all. We know how he was treated once he returned,  This is a wonderful example of God's mercy, He will always take us back. But what about the older son? Let's put us in his position. Once his brother left, he was left to do all of the work. It was hot, hard, dirty work.  As the older son, you had to handle twice the workload while your brat brother was dancing with a hootchie coochie dancer and sipping cold drinks turning his liver into a hunk of wood.  But, you loved your father and you did what you had to to keep the place going.   Suddenly, this lowlife comes running home and instead of being thrown off of the place, your father welcomes him back and throws him a party.  What nerve!  You reveal your bratty side and refuse to welcome your brother back.  Your father, just as he had done for the older son, does not wait, he comes to you and tells you of his love and he affirms that although his brother is back, all that the father owns is his older sons.  He will have his reward for his loyalty.   It is now up to us to extend the olive branch to our brother and to reunite the household of the father. 

The young son and the elder son both were forgiven much. The younger for being absolutely stupid and the elder son for being so disrespectful to the father.  But the father, he showed both sons the way it was going to be in his household.  There would be no division.  He also affirmed the older son by confirming that all that he had was his.  He proved to be a loving and just father. 

Lent - Day 9 - The "F" Word

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,

and there recall that your brother

has anything against you,

leave your gift there at the altar,

go first and be reconciled with your brother,

and then come and offer your gift.

There is not a whole lot that I can add to this reading.  Jesus kind of says it all.  Forgiveness is more important to the second person of the Holy Trinity than worship. What makes forgiveness hard is that sometimes, we have to swallow our pride and make the first step.  It is even harder when you are actually on the "right" side of the argument.  

Jesus tells us that our relationship with God and with our fellow creatures occupy the level!  How can this be?  Well, our Baptism made us adopted sons and daughters in the household of God.  We in effect are princes and princesses.  We are called to be ambassadors for our Father's Kingdom.

When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, God did not wait for Adam and Eve to appear.  He knew that there had been a sin committed and He went looking for Adam and Eve, He did not wait until they came to Him.  

So, for us, we are called to imitate our Father.  We are called to make the first step.  Are you ready to do this?

Lent Day 3 - Sin and the gnashing of Teeth

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;

in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt

and of my sin cleanse me.

R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

For I acknowledge my offense,

and my sin is before me always:

"Against you only have I sinned,

and done what is evil in your sight."

R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;

should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;

a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Whatever happened to sin?  Do we sin anymore?  I don't think that we sin any less!  Sin has disappeared from our conscious thought and escapes our attention.  When I was a boy, my sins were always before my eyes,  This was because I was in the charge of God's most cherished employees, the Sisters of St. Joseph.  They made sure that we, meaning the boys in the class, were always aware of our sins. Oh, sometimes a girl would be caught doing something wrong, but it just was not in their nature to go against sister's wishes. Once in sixth grade, I had sinned most grievously.  I pointed out to sister that she had picked only her favorites for speaking parts in the class play.   Sister Margaret Jean was not one to suffer such brashness and insubordination quietly.  I guess that she turned her other cheek for some things and not for others.  I was quickly and efficiently dealt with.  She just about flew over to where I was standing, you never, ever, spoke to a sister while your butt was in contact with a chair.  She grabbed me and placed me out in the hall facing the wall.  Then for next several weeks, while the other kids went to practice her play, I got to stand in the hallway facing the wall until they came back.  The finishing touch, meant to put me in my place, was that she gave me a "D" in school spirit on my report card.  To show you how rare that was, it was once thought that to get a "D" in school spirit, you had to be caught with bottles of gasoline with rags stuck in the necks and a lighted match in hand ready to burn down the school.  Going against the "Teacher's Pet" system was almost as serious.

A sin of any type comes between God and us.  If you think of the punishment of the rebellious angels was when St. Michael, my patron saint, by the way, swept them from heaven into hell, the major part of their punishment was forever being unable to see God.  There was a barrier placed between them and God.  This barrier caused great sorrow.When we sin, we too create a barrier between us and God.  If we sin in a minor way the barrier is not total.  If we commit a major act of rebellion the wall we build shields us from the Face of God.  If we die with this wall in place, our choice becomes permanent and God will honor our choice to be without Him in eternity.  A preacher once was preaching about sin and hell and he yelled out, "And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!" A voice of an old lady in the back of the church piped up and said, "But pastor, I don't have any teeth."  Without missing a beat the pastor replied, "Teeth will be provided !" 

I might be dead wrong about this but I think we have lost or sense of sin. In the olden days, especially during Lent, the lines at the confessionals were long.  Today, not so much.  I got myself in trouble on the Catholic Answers forum once.  I mentioned in a reply to another member's question that I thought the sacrament of confession was underused by Catholics today.  I was given a "major violation" and was told that it was none of my business if someone went to confession or not.  The self-righteous moderator missed the whole point of what I was saying.  I no longer participate in Catholic Answers forum because of this but my contention still is that the sacrament of penance is underused today.

Lent is a time to clean up the cobwebs that have gathered in our soul. But confessing to a priest, can't I go directly to God and ask for forgiveness?  Of course, you can and it is a brilliant first step. But the way Christ wants us to do it is to confess to Him through the priest who is acting in persona Christi. You see, sin is not a private matter between you and God.  We are all part of the Body of Christ and any sin, no matter how private, hurts the Body and needs to be healed. But, you say, "It's been years since I last went!"  So what? Mention that to your confessor and he will be even more gentle with you because he knows how hard this is for you.  Oh, the act of confession was never meant to be easy.  It is a very humbling experience to be in confession and to give voice to what God already knows.  Getting it out on the table is the first step in getting your imperfection healed.  Do not be afraid of seeing who you really are.  Remember, what we are is how God sees us and he sees us, imperfect as we are, and loves us anyway.  Whisper to God and listen for His reply.  His reply to you, the prodigal son or daughter, will always be, "I love you, welcome home!" 

The Death Penalty

On June 21, 2016 Pope Francis that "No matter how serious the crime it is an offense to the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, as well as a contradiction if God's plan and His Merciful Justice." (Catholic News Service) He went on to say that the death penalty is not justice, it is revenge.  
The pope is correct in his thinking here.  Although there are many examples of people being condemned to death and being executed in the Bible, let's look at the first reported murder, the case Cain versus Able. The motive for this killing was simple jealousy and Cain slew his brother because he was jealous because God did not accept his sacrifice.  God of course knew what Cain had done.  Did He apply the death penalty? Actually no he did not. He sent Cain off to exile. 

The Bible says "Whoever sheds the blood of men shall his blood be shed for God made man in His image."  The catechism says that the death penalty may be used if there is no other way to protect society from harm from the perpetrator.  Today we have such a method, it is called "Life in prison without the possibility of parole."  We can take the worst of the worst and keep them away from others until such time as God calls them home in order to answer for their crimes before His tribunal. 

Maybe we are too concerned about the perpetrators here and are not considering the victims?  Let's talk about them a bit. Very often it is claimed that the execution of the one that hurt their loved one brings closure.  If you do a little bit of research you will find that, in America, the long time between conviction and the ultimate execution keeps the wound fresh red and raw in the victim's family.  Then when the execution finally does occur there is no closure because many of the families realize that this second killing did not bring back their loved one. 

What are Christians such as you and I supposed to do?  Jesus is very clear on this.  We are to love one another as ourselves and we are to include our enemies in this.  We are to turn the other cheek.  But since we are to love others as we love ourselves we are also allowed to deal a lethal blow to defend our lives against an aggressor.  What I think we are being asked to do is to err on the side of mercy.  

Let me tell you a personal story.  My mother, Violet, was a wonderful woman. She had a hard life growing up during the depression.  Her mother wasn't especially good to her during her childhood.  She grew up, dropped out of high school and obtained work in a defense plant.  After the war she met my father, married, and gave birth to me and my siblings. She was always looking for happiness to come into her from outside, she never learned that happiness comes from within. She ended up divorcing my father and she went to work for our family doctor. When he retired she continued working for the doctor that bought the practice.  Part of her compensation package was that she was to receive free health care from them.  This doctor apparently took this obligation with a grain of salt.  She misdiagnosed a growth on my mothers skin and prescribed an ointment to fix it.  It was not going away but she really could care less because she was not receiving any money for treating my mother.  Mom was getting very concerned and she went to see her former employer who recognized it as what it was, cancer.  She was immediately put into the hospital where she received the news that it would have to be removed.  The surgery went well and afterward the follow up showed no return of the cancer.  Then on the third follow up it was discovered that the cancer had indeed returned and had invaded her lungs and that her condition was terminal.  She went to a surgeon who said she could buy herself more time if she had the tumors removed.  She was scheduled for surgery and the doctor came to see us and gave us the good news that it had gone well and that she might have as much as a year or a year and a half to live.  Three days post op she went into a coma and died.  At the funeral a lady came up to me and offered condolences which I accepted.  My younger sister came up to me and said that that was the doctor mom had worked for.  I looked at this so called doctor and my heart filled with hate and rage.  I never knew I could feel such negative emotions as I did at that minute.  I nurtured those feelings over the next months.  I also went into a deep and dark depression that lasted for six months!  Then one day I realized that I was a Christian and Jesus was calling me to forgive.  I did forgive this worthless excuse of a doctor, gave her an unconditional pardon and at that moment my depression lifted and I felt once again the warmth of God's love filling my heart.  Don't get me wrong, I wound not cultivate a relationship with this doctor, I would not take her to lunch, or play Parcheesi with her, but I no longer wished her any harm and placed her under God's care. 

Jesus knew that forgiving brings its own rewards and that is why he asks us to do not the impossible, but the very, very, very, difficult and forgive those that do harm to us. 

What are my views on the death penalty?  In general I am against it.  I think there are some people whose offenses are so heinous that the death penalty has to be on the books to deal with them.  I cannot imagine the world would be better off if we kept people like John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, or others like them alive.  But they are the exceptions to the rule. 

The death penalty is fraught with the danger that an innocent person will be put to death.  IF you are poor, black, living in Texas, or California, Alabama, or Florida you are likely to get the death penalty if you are found guilty of murder.  In Texas there is was a ruling that a capital defendant is entitled to a lawyer but they don't have to be awake during the trial.  This is true I swear it.  Let's face it, once you are dead, you are dead even if ten minutes or ten years later DNA evidence proves that you are not guilty.  And let's not forget if you execute the wrong person, the killer is still at large. 

So I guess I for the most part agree with Pope Francis. Let's get rid of the death penalty.  It's time to prove that we can be better that the people we jail.  It really makes no sense to kill people to teach them not to kill.   What do you think?