Doers of the Word
Sunday, September 6
Where oh where has my Lucy gone?
Remember Charlie Brown? He was always reminded of his shortcomings by loudmouth Lucy. Who likes to keep a record of failures?
A general guide for one’s examine of conscience in preparation for reconciliation is still the Ten Commandments. A survey shows that while 35 percent of Americans can recall all six Brady Bunch kids and 25 percent could name all seven ingredients of the Big Mac, only 14 percent could accurately name all Ten Commandments!
The first three commandments are about faithfulness to God. At the root of all our failures is that first commandment concerning idolatry: setting ourselves up as the center of the universe, worshipping our computers, our adored celebrities, our brand names. These are the gods we worship. They dictate and hold up a mirror to ourselves and our priorities.
The other seven commandments concern our relationship with one another and how to live honestly in community. Violating them by individualism, disrespect, stealing, betraying, jealousy, lying, committing adultery, bullying, or murdering fractures community and sows the seeds of distrust, anger, and revenge; and no community can long survive those. We’ve seen this in our country during this pandemic.
The whole confessional process revolves around the three R’s:
- Regret: this includes empathy towards the other person, trying to understand the pain or hurt we caused them, how we have fractured community.
- Responsibility: not blaming anyone else, making excuses or, like some politicians caught in evil, using, as one crooked governor did, the passive voice: “Mistakes were made.” Not, “I made mistakes. I take the blame.” “No, some mysterious force did this. Not me.”
- Remedy: What we would call firm purpose of amendment, not repeating the sin, making restitutions.
Oh! Lucy, are you coming back?