Standing by the Cross upon which Jesus gave his life willingly! For me?

Standing by the Cross upon which Jesus gave his life willingly!  For me?

As our Lord hung there I could feel his eyes seeking for my attention since the very day I came there I had already sinned.  Would I try to hide my weakness?  He already knew what I was hiding behind a shameful immediacy for his mercy.  He could see it in my eyes, not a clouded blushing but a voice that cries out with personal anger that says to myself, “Why do you turn away since you have come to find his mercy?”

O, Yes, my Lord; as I pray every day and confess the weakness that should have been cleaned up, and yet with one hand I cry for help, and the other hand has been reaching back to yesterday’s failure.  As I speak volumes of Mea Culpa and know I am forgiven, I realize with each breath of mercy there is a demon ready to contradict what I was freely given through his Passion.

Then I remembered that the Incarnation would lead a lot of us to the threshing floor that contains splinters of peace that come from the suffering of saints and the blood of the martyrs who themselves struggled with the righteousness that Satan tried daily to block their grace that Christ already handed to them.

This is the common and most essential euphoria that plagues the human heart; one looking to fulfill the spiritual need that only the Risen Christ can give to a waning heart.  

Stand if you will, or bend the weak knees before the glory that has become the Gift of God every time we fail, letting sin become the classic admiration that only demons and sinners look for.   No matter how often we confess, the devil’s demons are waiting for our stepping away from the confessional and will take the opportunity to jump before us with another reason to disobey God.  We need to remember though;  The law entered in so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all then more, so that as sin reigned in death,grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Rom 5: 21 - 21).

Sin, as you might, the grace of God is ever more waiting to overcome the evils that sin produces.  The temptation before saints and holy men/women is to commit even one tiny sin that will lead to mortal death if not taken care of by confession; the state of Mea Culpa.

Ralph B. Hathaway