Sin: The Great Equalizer
Every Sunday at our parish, our priests offer a special blessing for those who are celebrating birthdays that week. All those who wish to receive the blessing come to the front of the church. Each week I am struck by the collection that comes forward. Very often the ages range from babies to the most senior in the crowd and everything in between. Sometimes little guys come up by themselves, tentatively approaching the front while someone unrelated and 40 years their senior moves aside to give them a spot. On the other side is a teenage girl, and then a mother holding a baby (is it the baby’s birthday or the mother’s—either way the picture is a beautiful one!). When all have arrived, Father begins this blessing:
Watch over these thy children, O Lord, as their days increase; bless and guide them wherever they may be keeping them unspoiled from the world. Strengthen then when they stand; comfort them when discouraged or sorrowful; raise them up if they fall; and in their hearts may Thy peace which passeth understanding abide all the days of their lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
We are all children as we stand before God. And we all need to keep unspoiled from the world, to stand when our strength is failing. We all need comfort when sorrowful and to be raised up when we fall. And we all are in dire need of the “peace which passeth understanding” throughout our lives.
No one escapes suffering and sin. No one escapes the need for redemption.
There is another sight at our church that illustrates this great equalizer—our sin problem. That is the line for confession. It has the same look as the birthday blessing, though the babies and pre-schoolers are there only to stand by mom and dad. But those little ones who have reached the age of reason, the six or seven year olds, are standing next to the grown adults, the grandmothers, the fathers holding babies, the teenage boys, the newly married, the widowed and the young single adult. The powerful and the weak. The rich and the poor. Each and every one is there to fight their sin problem by owning up to their sins and seeking forgiveness from God through his instrument, the priest. Each one walks away cleansed from those sins with graces to begin to overcome them in the future.
No one escapes suffering and sin. No one escapes the need for redemption.
The last thing that each penitent hears before they leave the confessional is:
God the Father of mercies, through the Death and Resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you of your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Thanks to our merciful God, everyone has access to the joy of being forgiven, to the hope for an eternal home, to the happiness that comes from being united to the God Who made us and for Whom we were made.
great post. ive never thought of sin as an equalizer, as the consequences of various sins vary so much. but in a sense of course you are right and its helpful to think of it this way!