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\u201cMy fault, my fault, my most grievous fault\u201d is what we will soon say in the Confiteo. I know, I know. We will be blamed for dishing out the guilt and making people feel bad, but I think it is going to be refreshing\u2013and here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n
Our whole culture is awash with the pop psychology counseling mentality which encourages us to blame somebody else for our problems. \u201cI have anger problems because my mother didn\u2019t breast feed me\u201d or \u201cI am not self assertive enough because my mother didn\u2019t breast feed me.\u201d Every problem we have, every fault in our character, every weakness or sin we blame on somebody else. I heard a girl once excuse her promiscuity with the claim, \u201cI sleep with lots of men because my father didn\u2019t love me and I\u2019m looking for a father\u2019s love.\u201d Or what about the guy who was unfaithful to his wife because, \u201cI\u2019m still looking for the perfect woman because my mother walked out on us when I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the side effects of this victim culture is that, because we blame other people for our problems and weaknesses, we also think that somebody else should solve our problems for us. There\u2019s a logic to it: My problems were caused by somebody else. Somebody else should solve them for me. They\u2019re not my responsibility. Thus the entitlement culture goes with the victim mentality. Somebody owes me a living. Somebody owes me solutions to my problems. Somebody else will bail me out.<\/p>\n
The new Confiteo is a refreshing antidote to the victim-entitlement poison. I beat my breast and say, \u201cMy fault, my fault, my most grievous fault\u201d and as I do I take responsibility for myself in a most solemn threefold vow of acknowledgement. I take the blame. I take the responsibility. I take the problem as my own. This is one of the most mature things anybody can do in life\u2013to take responsibility. To decide to do something about the problem, and if nothing can be done about it, then to bear the suffering with dignity and silence. This is not only mature, but it is a little touch of the God image in each of us. When I pick up the responsibility I am engaging my will and deciding that I am going to be involved. Me and nobody else but me.<\/p>\n
Furthermore\u2013let\u2019s be even more radical and pick up other people\u2019s trash. In other words, instead of being the poor little spoiled brat victim. Why don\u2019t we be adult and clean up somebody else\u2019s room? What I mean to say is that instead of blaming other people for our problems why don\u2019t we not only take responsibility for our own sins and weaknesses and problems and failures, but why don\u2019t we take responsibility for other\u2019s as well?<\/p>\n
OK, 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":"
\u201cMy fault, my fault, my most grievous fault\u201d is what we will soon say in the Confiteo. I know, I know. We will be blamed for dishing out the guilt and making people feel bad, but I think it is going to be refreshing\u2013and here\u2019s why: Our whole culture is awash with the pop psychology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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