All Have Sinned

Lectio

"What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”   (Romans 3:9-12)

 ^"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)

Meditatio

Oh, boy.  This Scripture is being impressed heavily on my heart.  Not only do I see sin rampant all over the world, but I see it permeating and tainting my own heart.  It feels so helpless.  In the spirit of "radical acceptance," I want to be calm as I encounter such sinfulness.  It is, after all, inevitable.  On the other hand, in the spirit of pursuit of holiness (wasn't that a book title??), I want to strive.  Stop.  No more striving!  More correctly, I want to be holy, less sinful--ever less sinful--do I want to be what I cannot be?  If "there is none who seeks for God," can I ever become one who seeks for God?

Oratio

God of all creation, God of our fathers, God of the universe, I know--painfully so!--that I have sinned.  I walk in it, wade in it, breathe it in.  And I hate it.  Even now, my mind is being distracted by the things I have to do in a short hour before I go to work, and I would so much rather stay here and be with You.  Even the book I am slowing getting through, Erasing Hell, is helping me this Lent to appreciate more deeply just what You have freed me from. (Bad grammar, I know--let me get away with this one?)

When I encounter sin in others, I don't really handle it well.  I know that, in a way, they cannot help it any more than I can.  Yet it is still stinking, ugly, repulsive sin.  It hurts sometimes, too.  What did You do?  How repugnant we might have been to You, and yet Your love for us -- what? -- shielded Your holiness from the contamination of our sin!  May Your love for me and in me help me to love others, even in their sin, and as You did for me, inspire me to be ever more holy.  In Jesus's name and in the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the only way I could ever hope to do these things~~Amen!

Contemplatio

Keep this thought on my heart today and in the days to come.  Memorize these verses!!