Our Own Sins

There are days when Scripture really just comes to life for me. I became Catholic because I was standing inside the Vatican at the tomb of Saint Peter and had “you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church” come as alive as a Bible verse can be. It shook me to my core so bad that I went straight to confession and actually understood the Sacrament for the first time.

Today God is whacking me over the head with “blessed are the merciful”. I do not see much mercy handed out these days. And I’m one of the least merciful people. I think people should get what they deserve. Until I look at my own actions. Then suddenly I can think of all kinds of reasons why I should get a break. Then when I realize this, my first thought is “well I’m only human” as a way to let myself off the hook.

I have seen all the posts about Beyonce and her half-time show. I understand people’s issue with modesty, music and other things. Those are things we are going to have to agree and disagree on. Personally, I was more offended by the Calvin Klein commercial with a man in his actual underwear, but like I said, I get why people were upset about Beyonce’s clothes.

Where I see a problem is that it seems as if we want to separate everyone onto teams. Us vs Them. There is Us, who are good and Them,who are evil. That is not how God sees us.

I don’t know what kind of relationship Beyonce has with God. I don’t know if she wants to be an idol. I do know that in the line of work she is in, the fact that she is married, had a baby, isn’t on drugs, has never been arrested and other things makes her a more decent role model than most singers. I also know that it is not my place to try and judge her relationship with God based on a Super Bowl halftime show. Just like it’s nobody else’s place to judge my relationship with God based on me liking it. And as much as I’m going to catch crap for it, I see a lot of that happening in my Facebook Newsfeed.

Personally I have struggled with putting people on the Them team over an update, choice in music, choice in meme, or some other random opinion I see them hold. Today I think about how Jesus could disagree with the opinions and bad actions of people and still hang on a cross for them. It wasn’t like He gave Pilot a list of names of people who His death didn’t cover because they were hypocrites, pagans or whores. Nope, He died for us even though we were still sinners.

So, dislike Beyonce’s wardrobe? Ok. Dislike her music? Ok. Dislike her dancing?fine. But please, quit assuming she is bed with the devil and trying to take us all to hell with him. Because if her halftime show proves that, then what do our own sins prove about us? Are we also in bed with sparky and working with him to help damn as many souls as possible?

The reality is our sins are the only ones that we can do anything about. When we see the sins of others we should pray for God to have the same mercy on them that we want Him to have on us. Our own sins should be our #1 focus.