Sin and sinless

We, of course, have to be realistic, but that should not prevent us from being idealistic also. To be realistic means, among many other things, that we are all sinners. We don’t seem able to avoid it. But to be idealistic means that we are meant to be sinless. We have to find a way to put the two situations together. And there’s always a way.

The celebration of the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary reminds us that, like Mary, we were and we are meant originally and ultimately to be immaculate, sinless. That was how our first parents were created, and how Mary, by a very special privilege, was conceived and born.

Thus, in the Eucharistic preface of the Marian solemnity, we pray: “Full of grace, she was to be a worthy mother of your Son, your sign of favor to the Church at its beginning, and the promise of its perfection as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty.”

What Mary is as our Mother, and what Jesus is as our Savior and Perfecter of our humanity is also what we ought to be. That is God’s will for us which has to be corresponded to in this lifelong drama we have in this world where we cannot avoid sin.

Yet, in spite of that, we are told that where sin has  abounded, God’s grace, his mercy has abounded even more. We have to drink heavily of this wonderful and fundamental truth. Our problem is that we see things in quite a reduced and partial way. We often forget this happy and saving truth.

And so the way to bridge the gap between our sinfulness and our call to be sinless is the spirit of penance, of continuing renewal and conversion. St. John the Baptist called for it. And Jesus led the way, living it himself  by taking up the cross and offering his life for our sins.

In the gospel of the second Sunday of Advent, we are told of how St. John the Baptist proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, so that “every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Lk 3,1-6)

These are very beautiful and heart-warming words that are not meant only to be so. They are true and they can apply to us if we do our part. This is the challenge that we have.

It’s good that we look closely at Christ since he is the one who shows us how to make up for our sins, and how to convert death due to sin into life everlasting due to God’s grace and mercy.

This spirit of penance shown to us by Christ starts with an all-out effort to avoid sin. We should try our best not to get used to sin, to our weaknesses and to the temptation.

That, of course, is easier said than done, because in our present condition, with all the sin and temptations around, we sometimes fail to distinguish what is sinful and what is not, what is temptation and what is not.

Our conscience, though not totally destroyed, is many times damaged and can miss to make the right judgments. So we cannot help but suffer, which is the natural consequence of our sins and our weaknesses.

We need to look at Christ who shows us how to suffer—quietly, and confident that what he was and continues to go through is part of his Father’s will that only reflects our wounded condition. Only victory can be expected from this suffering, the sting of death removed with Christ’s death in obedience to his Father’s will and his glorious resurrection.

An integral part of this spirit of penance is the practice of daily examination of conscience so that we at least would have a running account of how our spiritual life goes. In spite of our failures, with the examination of conscience we have the chance to end our day reconciled with God just by making an act of contrition.

Obviously, the most important part of this spirit of penance is the frequent recourse of the sacrament of God’s eternal mercy, which is confession. We need to develop our love for it, always finding strong reasons for why we need it.

This is how we can reconcile the realistic state of our sinfulness to the ideal calling we have to be sinless.