The Oblates of Mount Saviour Monastery

by Fr. Michael Perry

If you’ve made the stations of the cross lately you got to contemplate what Jesus endured to save us from our sins .

But what does that really mean “ to be saved” or even better, what really is “sin”?

By my definition, sin is any action or attitude freely chosen that disintegrates the self created by God.

Sin is self imposed brokenness.
Sin is self chosen destruction.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

When we break a bowl or a lamp
All the pieces are still there though shattered
And if we choose, we can put them together

But when we sin
When we break ourselves apart
It’s different because
We can’t put ourselves together  again

All we can do is allow the One who made us to try
To undo the damage we have caused
But
We have to cooperate
We can’t hide either the brokenness or
    Any of the pieces

So we go to confession where God who made us
    Remakes us
But instead of treating us like a puzzle
Fitting all the pieces together
God works our healing from within

Remember when God created Adam from the mud and breathed God’s own life into him?
That breath is the Holy Spirit
And it is the Holy Spirit who is at work to remake us when we have undone ourselves

The Psalmist says: “Before l was born you knit me together in my mother’s womb”

Now
Through God’s love and mercy, by forgiveness, 
We get stitched together again
To become actually more beautiful than before.

Scripture says that where sin abounds
Grace super-abounds

What was good and turned bad is re-made
To become even better than before

For as sinful and self destructive as we may have been;
For as bad as our choices may have been
They are opportunities for God to show us His love even more
And to give us salvation
Through forgiveness of our sins

All we have to do is allow it to happen

Ask and you shall receive
But you do have to ask;
Seek and you shall find;
Knock and the door will open;
Say you’re sorry
And God will forgive anything you may have done to undo in your self the work of God
And Jesus, from the cross, will even make excuses for you: 
Father forgive them because they had no idea of the damage they were doing to themselves

The End