RELYING WHOLLY ON THE GRACE OF GOD
In
the course of my priestly ministry, I come across people who believe
that they do not really need Jesus to save them. They do not believe
their sins are all that bad. It may be true that a person has never
committed a mortal sin — it is often said that St. Therese of Lisieux
never committed one — but that does not mean that we don’t need Jesus to
save us. Every sin hinders our relationship with God and it is only
through the grace of the cross of Jesus that our sins are forgiven.
Whether we like it or not, the only way we will be saved is through the
salvific work of Jesus in His cross and
resurrection.
One of the great temptations of Satan is that he tries to get us to
diminish the effect of sin in our lives to the point that we can even
become comfortable with it. I see this time and again in the
confessional. I also know personally the temptation to fall into this
trap. This is why in the writings of the saints, we will discover a
horror for sin, no matter how small. They have embraced the call to rid
their lives of all sins, not just the big ones. In this regard, we need
to follow their example.
Little sins are the stepping stones to bigger sins. If we are honest
with ourselves, we will be able to identify that dynamic precisely in
our own lives. Sin should never be trifled with, not even in the
smallest way. The wise and sensible person runs as far as he can from
sin as soon as he recognizes it.
We need to cultivate a hatred for sin that never compromises our call
to holiness. We should be truly serious about pursuing the call of
salvation. Jesus never trifles with sin; He labels it for what it is and
then turns His back on it. We should always do the same. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL
REFLECTION
QUESTIONS: Do you tend to treat sin without the seriousness that it
deserves? Do you allow yourself to toy with temptation as well?
Holy
Spirit, grant me the grace to understand the full import of sin and
temptation, so that I will never tolerate it a microsecond longer than
when I first recognize it.
No comments:
Post a Comment