\u00a0OK, so maybe your father beat you up and your mother burned you with cigarettes and your teacher hit you with a paddle and your big brother abused you. What if you were to take responsibility for their sins as well as your own? What if we were to see the people who hurt us with hearts of compassion and be the agent of forgiveness towards them? What if we were to say, \u201cHere I\u2019ll take all that crap for you. I\u2019ll take responsibility for the mess of your life as well as the mess of my life.\u201d What if our first \u2018mea culpa\u2019 was for us, and the second was for other people who have messed us up? By taking responsibility in this way we will actually find forgiveness, healing and peace.<\/p>\n
If we use the second \u2018my fault\u2019 to take responsibility for other people\u2019s sins in our lives what if we were to use the third \u2018my most grievous fault\u2019 and claim responsibility for the sins of the whole world. That sounds pretty ambitious. Megalomaniacal even, but what I mean is this: don\u2019t I, in my own sin and selfishness, contribute to the sins of the whole world? What if I were to step out of my own little shell, my own little universe and see the connections? I\u2019m involved. I am not an island. I am a part of the continent, a part of the main. I am a man, but I am also humanity in microcosm.<\/p>\n
Have I not shared in the greed that has ruined our country? Have I not shared in the lust that has ruined families? Have I not shared in the pride, the envy, the gluttony, the sloth and the wrath that has soiled the world? \u00a0Yes, I have, and when I cry, \u201cMy most grievous fault\u201d in the new Confiteo, perhaps I may, in my own small way, identify with Christ the Lord who really did take the sins of the whole world to himself, and perhaps in my own small way, I may come to understand more deeply the mystery of the cross of Christ.<\/p>\n
Those who are into the sentimental promotion of \u2018self esteem\u2019 and \u2018personal fulfillment\u2019 and \u2018individual liberation\u2019 may be shocked at such a seeming debasement of the person. They may be dismayed by what seems to be yet more groveling and self abnegation. What they do not understand is the immense freedom and power that comes from genuine repentance. In this action I take responsibility (by God\u2019s grace) and I rise above the faults. I am forgiven and I forgive. In this there is not only true freedom, but true self esteem, true fulfillment, and ultimately a supernatural joy.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0OK, so maybe your father beat you up and your mother burned you with cigarettes and your teacher hit you with a paddle and your big brother abused you. What if you were to take responsibility for their sins as well as your own? What if we were to see the people who hurt us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20324","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n