Thursday November 7, 2024

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Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica

The only real shame is rationalizing our sins to call them good.

Good News Reflection for:

Thursday of the 31st Week of Ordinary Time
November 7, 2024

Today’s Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I ask You for the grace of always searching for the riches hidden in other people and to be aware that You always want to rescue us due to Your mercy. Amen.

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Today’s Readings:

Philippians 3:3-8a
Ps 105:2-7
Luke 15:1-10
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110724.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-november-7-2024

Overcoming the shame of our sins

Why do we have such a hard time admitting our own personal sins to others? Why is it so hard to apologize? Why do we resist going to Confession, even when we know it will provide us with grace to resist that sin in the future? Why aren’t we sharing with others our story of overcoming a personal sin as a testimony of Christian growth?

It’s because we feel too ashamed to face the reaction of others. We’re in this condition because we’ve been judged unfairly by others, and we’ve judged ourselves unforgivingly, and this has made us afraid to face our sins, let alone speak openly about them. We need mercy but we feel condemned.

Worse, we ourselves have been judgmental toward others, and unconsciously we assume that whatever we have done to others will be done unto us. We know that if we’re capable of doing it, so is the next guy. Therefore, we choose to keep this side of our spiritual lives private.

And yet, by opening up and talking honestly about how we have sinned (appropriately of course), adding why we regret it and how Jesus has helped us overcome it, we become an aid in the spiritual growth of those who listen. Others gain courage to face their own sinfulness, because we’ve given them hope: The mercy they long for really does exist; repenting and changing really is possible.

This is far more important than the disapproval of those who condemn us. It’s not their opinions that matter anyway. It’s God’s, and only God’s! The trouble is, we’ve been hurt by the judgmentalism of humans, and so we expect God to be judgmental, too. We forget about the mercy that becomes available in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And we judge the priest in the confessional as unmerciful (or perhaps we judge him for his own unrepented sins), and thus we deny ourselves the opportunity to meet Christ in that priest.

Look at what today’s Gospel reading says about this. The angels rejoice when a sinner repents! There’s no shame in repenting. The only real shame is rationalizing our sins to call them good, refusing to examine ourselves to see if we need to change.

When we realize that we’ve been excusing a sin as okay or necessary or better than what the Church teaches, we can be like the woman who lost the coin. Upon finding the precious treasure of forgiveness, we can call together our friends and neighbors and say, “Rejoice with me! Let’s party!” For now we are becoming more like Christ.

For more on this subject, see our WordByte “Why must we go to Confession if God’s love is unconditional?” @ wordbytes.org/faqs/why-confession/.

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