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If you are someone who knowingly persists in mortal sin there are three responses you can have when they see others engage in mortal sin.
1. Indifference. You just don’t care.
2. You get incredibly angry at the other. It’s a projection thing. You are really angry with yourself for how far you’ve allowed yourself to fall. So, to feel morally superior, you lash out at everyone around you that you see engaged in mortal sin.
3. You tolerate and accept other mortal sins because you feel by not condemning others’ action, maybe you’ll gain some brownie points for being nice. Also, because you want to keep engaging in your mortal sin, you feel it would be hypocritical to tell others that their actions are bad. We see this response most often with s€xual sins.
I used to fall into camp two. I was so angry with myself for how I’d allowed myself to fall away from the principles I held dear. Because of pride, I just couldn’t face truly examining myself and admitting out loud what I’d done. (Plus, I wasn’t Catholic yet and didn’t have the Sacrament of Penance to heal me.)
To make myself feel better, I started angrily correcting everyone around me. This helped me feel morally superior.
Many, today, though fall into camp three. There is some mortal sin that they want to continue engaging in and, so, because they don’t want to be called out, they tolerate and accept others’ mortal sins, even going so far as to wholeheartedly condone true evils. With this one, you’ll always condone sins that fall into the department of the sin you are committing.
I’d say there’s a big problem with indifference, too.
We must be keenly aware—KEENLY—aware that if we die with unrepentant mortal sin on our soul, we have decided H€ll is where we want to go and God, in His justice, gives us what we deserve and ask for.
We must never presume that just because we think we are a “good” person or that God “won’t be mean,” we can risk persisting in mortal sin.
The correct response is always to work to remove mortal sin from our lives and to quickly confess it if we commit it.
For some, this is going to require massive overhauls to their lives and a fair amount of suffering and pain. But, I promise you, there is no pleasure on earth that is going to outweigh an eternity of misery.
If we actively work to be free of mortal sin, Catholic Pilgrims, we must never be indifferent to it in others or encourage it. To do so, would be to wish damnation on them and I can’t imagine anything less loving.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Thursday.
I was watching a video the other day on the Passion of Jesus by Edward Siri. At one point, he is standing inside the Holy Sepulcher up on Golgotha. (Yes, it's all inside this massive church.) It brought back a lot of amazing memories of being up there. That's me under the altar there in the picture. See the rocks under the glass cases? Anyway, watching Edward Siri talk, I realized something very profound. Up on Golgotha, there is the space where Christ died. The altar is over the hole in the rock where His cross was stuck in the ground. Facing the altar, over on the right side is a place for Mass. It is beautiful and lighted. Over on the left side, it is dark. Very dark. What's so interesting is that it's dark and huge and it seems to drop off into an abyss. What I realized is that on either side of Jesus hung two thieves. Their responses to Jesus truly reflect the aesthetics up on Golgotha. The "good thief" had the first confession up there on his cross and he repents, asking Christ to remember him. Jesus tells him he will be with him in Paradise. The side with the place for Mass reflects the good thief's decision to come to Christ.--light and beauty. The other thief mocks Jesus and never repents. The side of darkness up on Golgotha reflects his decision to harden his heart and continue to deny Christ up until his last breath. This is the choice laid before all of us: Do we choose to turn to Christ and repent desiring to be with Him in Paradise? Or do we choose to turn away from Christ and be suffocated by our sins to only one day fall off into darkness and the abyss? This Good Friday, as we meditate on Our Savior's Passion, let us do whatever it takes in our lives to always turn towards Christ. May you have a blessed Good Friday, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingOn October 20th, 2020, when my family was living in Izmir, Turkey, we experienced a 7.0 earthquake. My kids and I were on the 15th floor of our apartment building and the building swayed and bucked in the most terrifying and unnatural of ways. For 45 seconds, which seems like an eternity in an earthquake. Certain that the building was coming down on me and my kids, I did all I could think to do and we stood in a door frame praying the Our Father. After it was over, I told my kids to just run. Run out. They ran out with no shoes on and I quickly followed. To make a long story short, the higher ups in the military were worried about a tsunami and so they told my husband to get all military members to higher ground. We ended up in a very poor neighborhood surrounded by Syrian refugees. The contrast in groups could not have been more striking. At one point, a Syrian mother came over to me and started pointing at my feet. I couldn't understand her but it was clear she was asking where my shoes were and the shoes of my children. Through lots of hand gestures, I tried to explain that we just ran out of a tall building. She seemed to ponder this and then walked away. Soon, she came back with shoes for my kids. I was baffled. Here was this poor woman giving to me from the little she had. She saw a mother and her kids in need and she wanted to help. At first, I denied them. I felt horrible taking from her. But, she quickly made it clear that I was not to deny her. I realized that I needed to gratefully accept her gift because she was trying to serve us in some capacity. She was trying to help. She was trying to love. It was one of the greatest acts of charity I have ever received. Peter initially tells Christ not to wash his feet. He doesn't want to be served, he should serve. But, Christ gently rebukes him for this. We find meaning and purpose when we serve others. Sometimes our service to others helps to humble us; sometimes receiving service helps to humble us. It is a great reminder that one of the best ways to love each other is to serve each other, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed Holy Thursday. *These are the shoes given to us.
Continue ReadingWhen I was 17 and turned away from God, I still pretended that I was some kind of stellar Christian. However, I traded a relationship with God to feel comforted by my anger. That's weird to say, but the intense anger I felt was comforting to me. It wasn't real comfort, but it fueled me. But, also, I traded church for sleeping in because I was tired. I traded reading Scripture for watching, listening, and reading whatever secular trash the world could supply me. I traded prayer for doing whatever I wanted to do. All the while, I sat there and lived this barely existent Christian life, yet I had the gall to feign like I wasn't betraying my Lord. "Surely it is not I?" In fact, I did say similar things to Judas in my attempt to pretend like I wasn't one of the betrayers. "Me? Oh, no, not me?" Judas traded the Bread of Life for some money and nearly 2,000 years later we look back and say, "Man, look at him. Gave it all up for thirty pieces of silver. Idiot." However, many give up the Eucharist for even less and we fail to see it. For good music. For an inspiring sermon. For sports. For sleep. For simply the desire to sin while pretending God doesn't see us. There isn't a trade on earth that is worth giving up Christ, Catholic Pilgrims. Nothing could possibly satisfy us like He can. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Wednesday of Holy Week.
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