People tend to be a bit touchy in this area because more often than not the habit is so inbreed in our Psyche that we can't admit it. Some are worse than others and some are better than others. It is the same idea about riches in this world God made some rich and some poor each in accordance to his mission in life. Often it goes like this "Mom Mrs. Davis is on the phone about cookies for the RCIA class this weekend". "Dang I don't have time. tell her I am not here. A lie is a sin, and within the Catholic faith we have Mortal and venial sins. However you slice it a lie is still a sin. However we have a amazing capacity to tell ourselves "Well it was just a little white lie". We have taken our sin and justified it or made the offense by our standards less than it is. We go trotting off to Mass and take Communion and bring destruction of ourselves due to the fact that most confession heart exams list a lie as a Mortal sin.
Why we do this is the question. Is our rebellious natures coming out of hiding or is it deeper? By this I mean could it be that we become more subject to denial in a effort not to recognize our own sins. Therefore we maintain what is to us our perfect record of non-sinfulness. In reality we have brought our record of sins and just keep stacking one upon the other. This in our society is at a epidemic rate beyond all imagination. It is even taught in our schools nobody is wrong and nobody is right. If you cheat on a test it is because issues in your formative years that are just coming home to roost. We see all to often a major public or religious leader get on TV and cry his heart out about how sleeping with a 15 year old girl really is not his fault. He is sick and needs counselling to overcome his weakness. The term sin is never used because he has justified his action by calling it a illness not a sin.
A Mother kills her two children by drowning them in the tub and presto! It is not murder it is not even sin instead it is depression caused by her recent child she gave birth to. These stories run the gauntlet from A to Z and always are due to a illness be it mental or physical or we did it because we could not avoid it from happening. Let you and I be honest with each other. Have you ever been in a situation where you could not avoid sin? If you say yes you might want to rethink your answer even if attacked you could run away. The real problem is if you or I say there was no way to avoiding sin in this situation we have done what we have learned so readily to do. We denied our sin and then justified it so it was no longer sin. In the process we have also made our old enemy Satan very happy.
Actions however are not the only thing we justify. I mean here you are sitting in Mass and it is running a little long due to the Priest being a little long winded. You think rats! Here it is 11:30 and the game started at 11:00. Man I really want to know what my Cowboys are doing in this game. Dang to close up front to turn on my cell phone and check out the web. Man I cannot believe this guy is still talking! Now finally Mass has ended and you have just broken the world record 100 yard dash so you can find out the score of the game. You dash by your friends who were attending the Catholic Mass for the first time and wanted to ask you a question that confused them. You then vault over three little old ladies in their walkers. trample two children because that score is more important to you than the Mass you were attending. You left early right after Communion and left your friends think that at Mass you don't want anybody to know you know them. Come Monday morning it is all the talk how the Cowboys lost in the last seconds of the game and you spend all Monday getting teased about your team. The incident at Church? Forgotten by 6PM after a dinner and a beer. What makes the saddest of all you have just put a football game over God and never admit to yourself that sin. If you don't figure it out sometime soon and you are called home, You wind up in Hell over a football game. Sound too fantastic to believe? If football season happens this year keep your eyes open.
It is hard to imagine this happening but it does daily and we don't even think it is a sin because we know how they should act and dress in Mass. And look they don't even put anything in the collection plate! What is their problem? They are not the problem, it is the one who is judging them that is the problem. There is one thing however one thing I am positive of. Jesus hears their prayers well ahead of theirs and offers them more graces than you can imagine. Did I just judge? No because by Jesus own words what I have said is true. There is a reason why in the book An Imitation of Christ it says to say as little as possible because if we talk less we sin less. This is not a overstatement but a statement of fact. If we guard out tongues and minds sin cannot get at us but we must be on guard at all times. I can say to you in all honesty I love the book An Imitation of Christ even though it clearly shows me the many many miles I have still to go before I would ever reach a point of possible going to spend eternity with Christ. If you don't own one get one and read it. You see allot of yourself in there and it is eye opening, but someday when you reach Heaven you may just think to yourself "Man I am glad I read that book". Be kind and giving to one another and I wish a blessing to all who read this upon their homes and families.
God Bless
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