Devotional/Discussoin thought of the day:

“”Domine – ‘Lord’ Si vis potes me mundare – ‘If you will, you can make me clean!’

What a beautiful prayer for you to say often with the faith of the poor leper, when there happens to you what God and you and I know may happen.  You waon’t wait long to hear the Master’s reply:  “Volo Mundare’- ‘I will!  Be made clean'”  (escriva)

As I have been writing on brokenness this week, (and having to deal with it in my life, and in others, I came to this quote in my devotions this morning.  As a pastor who knows the blessing of the sacrament of Confession and Absolution, it is in those italicized words that I see what needs to be heard. and heard loudly.  When dealing with sin, there are three options.

The first is to claim it isn’t sin, that God didn’t really mean to label that as sin, and therefore it isn’t.  Such is a lie, and will require many more lies and the hardening of conscience against that particular sin and many like it.  It will eventually spiral out of control – and we will find ourselves at rock bottom.  (Even there we may point to others and say they are worse off!)  In the end, we have to remember that what we’ve done is sin…and that can be more painful, and harder to deal with. ( I would highly suggest that this is one of the benefits of knowing a good pastor or priest – who can help bring the comfort of Christ’s love as you peel back the levels)

The second is to simply ignore that it is sin, to revel in its pleasure, and to find the emptiness that occurs when the pleasure fades. This results in escalation, and broadening of the sin, looking to something that satisfies even more.  Suffice it to say, this is the addictive bond that many sins have – as they are poor imitations of a blessing that is fulfilling and right, and God ordained.

The third is the most simple – and the best way, the God ordained way, to deal with those times that St Josemarie described as this, “when there happens to you what God and you and I know may happen.”  St John in his first epistle talks of this:
^1:7 But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus washes all our sins away. ⁸ If we say that we have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth isn’t in our hearts. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.1 John 1:7-9 (CEV) 

He can always be trusted to forgive us… always…ALWAYS…

My friends, we don’t have to play the games, we don’t have to deny our doubts our fears, we don’t have to hide behind words that betray us, clinging stubbornly to positions we KNOW are wrong. We don’t have to play the game that “everything is all right”, when our relationship are broken, when our lives don’t seem to be filled, when we are waiting – even fearful that everything is about to come crashing down.

Come and learn of the Lord, the One who doesn’t make you wait long to be cleansed, healed, and made whole.

Take it from someone who gets to help in that process, even as I am being healed myself.

We cry “Lord, Have mercy!  Lord make us clean!”  and we look at the cross, and as our sins is cut away and discarded…we realize that He has!!!