Did and Didn’t
Posted On May 8, 2009
Imagine St. Peter greeting you at the “Pearly Gates.” He pulls a large volume from the shelf and flips through the pages until he comes to your name. His face lights up momentarily with an approving smile:
“Well, I see you’ve done a pretty good job resisting temptation and avoiding serious sin.”
He turns a page, and then another, and another. “Hmmm … ” He looks up sadly: “But there’s an awful lot you haven’t done.”
Ouch! It reminds me of the way I sometimes feel at the beginning of Mass. There’s a phrase from the “Confiteor,” during the penitential rite, that jumps right out and smacks me. It’s the part where, along with the priest and the rest of the congregation, I confess that I have sinned “in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.”
Ever think about that last line? How many times, as we prepare for confession, do we think about the things we have failed to do? In identifying and acknowledging the wrong actions we have committed, do we also try to discover the good actions we have omitted?
“Sin,” writes Fr. David Knight, “is a failure to respond.” It is, as Scott Hahn defines it “a refusal of divine sonship.”
It’s so easy to get caught up in a “Thou shalt not” orientation, where we focus primarily on the things we should not do, trying our best to avoid evil, to refrain from thoughts, words, and deeds that are not good.
Is this wrong? Of course not. But there’s a higher level of awareness, of striving, where we try to focus on what we should do, moment by moment. In some ways, this is a much more personal thing, because it involves a one-on-one relationship with God, whereby I try to hear and respond, not just to an external set of rules, but to an inner awareness of what God is calling me to do, at each moment.
For real spiritual growth into holiness, I need to develop a positive spirituality. It’s not enough to have a list of things I shouldn’t do. It’s important to recognize good and evil and to struggle against any temptations or addictions that will lead to serious sins of pride, anger, lust, greed, gluttony, etc. But I need to go deeper. Yes, God wants me to avoid evil thoughts, words, and actions. But there are also personal and unique things He is asking me to do, moment by moment, that may be different from the things He is asking you to do. It’s this personal imension that is so often missing in our relationship with God.
I’m the Father of 7 children, and I love them all. But not just “all.” I love them “each.” I love them all equally, but I love each one differently. Each is a completely unique person, and if I tried to treat them all the same, it would be a disaster. So, gradually, my relationship with each one has developed into a one-on-one, personal relationship that is different from any other.
Pope John Paul II taught that Christ came to show us that God is a Father. We need to really understand what this means. You exist because God the Father wanted you as His child. Knowing in advance all the millions of different persons that could have been born from your mother and father, He chose you. He wanted you born. He loves you differently than He has ever loved anyone else, and He wants to father you, leading
you on a personal journey to the holiness that will fill you with joy and enable you to be with Him forever.
Scripture makes this so clear:
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer 1:5) …
“See, upon the palms of my hands, I have written your name” (Is 43:3) …
“I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3) …
“You are precious in my eyes” (Is 43:3) …
“Even the hairs on your head are all numbered” (Mt 10:30) …
I will be a father to you” (2 Cor 6:16) …
When you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you” (Jer 29:11).
“With all your heart!” Christ calls each of us, not merely to avoid major sin, but to seek God with all our heart. At every intersection of my life, every big and little point of decision, God the Father gives me the grace, through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to respond in accordance to His will for me at that moment. To fail to respond is sin that pulls me off the personal path to holiness that He has chosen for me. It’s a refusal to be fathered by God.
As Pope Benedict XVI explains in his book, God is Near Us, “The true law of God is not an external matter. It dwells within us. It is the inner direction of our lives, which is brought into being and established by the will of God.”
It comes down to this: Am I going to spend my live in a mechanical observance of “do’s and don’ts,” or am I going to respond to the personal love of God the Father and do whatever He calls me to do at each moment?
Yes, let’s try to keep the 10 Commandments and avoid doing anything we know is wrong. But let’s also keep in mind Mary’s famous one-liner at Cana and let it become our guiding principle for continuous growth in personal holiness: “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).