Our Own Sins: The Sense of Our Own Sinfulness
February 25, 2010 | VIII.Grace: To have a felt sense of how sin ruptures my relationship with the God who made me out of love and for love.
Text for Prayer: Lk. 5:1-8
Reflection: In the Sunday liturgy, we always pray at the beginning of the mass, in the penitential rite, three times, “Lamb of God, you take away the sins [plural] of the world, have mercy on us.” We ask again, in the Gloria, “Lord, God, Lamb of God, You take away the sin [singular] of the world, have mercy on us.” Finally, we proclaim in the Creed, “We believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” Finally, immediately before communion, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.”
In our most perfect prayer, we are constantly mindful of our sins- both individually and communally. The most important lesson in all this, is that in every instance, we are not reminding ourselves of our sin in our own isolation but rather it is all in the context of prayer and acts of faith. They all come up in the context of our direct dialogue with the Lord, the Lamb of God. Most intimately, our sin is recognized in the immediate anticipation of receiving him most perfectly in the Eucharist. Our sinfulness, then, is most perfectly dealt with out in the open, along side those with whom I am praying and before the Lord who made me and keeps calling to me when I fall away from my relationship with him.
It is essential at this moment in the Spiritual Exercises to come to a profound recognition of my own sinfulness and how it is that it breaks the relationship that the Lord desires to have with me, personally. Having considered the cosmic dimension of sin and how it is that the sin of Adam and Eve and of the angels has had such a destructive and distorting impact on human history, I now turn to my own sinful condition and habits and consider the impact this has on the very real relationship Jesus desires to have with me and how my own sins prevent me from the full enjoyment of the freedom and joy relationship with him makes possible.
The more particular I can be in coming to this recognition, the more particular and concrete will the grace of reconciliation become for me. If I am vague in my recognition of my sin, I am only disposed to receive mercy and forgiveness in a vague manner.
However, this focus on our own sinfulness at this point is not meant to throw us deeper in to the isolation of shame. We are to have a sense of the sadness of being separated from the Lord. So even our sinfulness is meant to be seen in the light of the relationship that the Lord creates us for – with Him.
Questions: What do I miss in my life because of the sin that brings isolation? What relationships are suffering? What does the Lord hope for me when He sees me in the isolation which my sin brings upon me? What new life and love do I seek today? Can I feel disgust and fatigue for the ways that sin has brought me down? Do I want to be free now?
Posted by Fr. Chris Collins, S.J. in VIII. | Trackback
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