John helps us to focus on Jesus. I believe there is a point in our lives when we have to make a personal choice to follow Jesus. Nothing can substitute for Him. The reason we pray, the reason we go to Church or read the Bible, etc, must be to be close with Him. Have I made the fundamental choice to follow Jesus and let nothing take HIs place? not even what I do for Him?
John points to Jesus and identifies Him as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” I wonder, if He has taken away the sin of the world why do we experience sin all the time? True, we are sinners... all the time. But why is it that some sins seem to be more “present” than others?
Jesus does take away our sins but sometimes we have a hard time to give them up to Him. We want to do everything by ourselves... even get rid of our sins. How can that be possible? We cannot erase sins from our souls! This only complicates our lives...
Then, we have to come up with a plan. A plan that can help us correspond to the Grace that He have given us. How can I experience victory if I fight with no shield or sword?
A Plan, then; first step is to identify the biggest sin, then come up with a solution so that I can avoid triggering the sin.
I pray that I may discover more and more what the role of sin is and most especially the great gift that is to have Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
2 comments:
I love the idea of a plan. It helps turn an "occasion of sin" into an "occasion of grace." Thanks!
I believe St. Thomas Aquinas said it best. When we choose free will (competion with God) over accept-ing God's will we are seeking finite goals/gods. We are in essence saying I will let my "self evaluating ego (Father Barron's words) select what is good or bad for me. The result is sin. Of course, we can never get enough of our god, wheter it be sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, fame,etc. Then some-thing happens when we realize the finite things don't satisfy and if one is honest with themselves they realize the Good Shepard is there to accept us. So, yes we need to follow a plan, but before select-ing a plan, we need to evaluate our life. Take the trip Dante took, go down in the depths of our soul, see our sins, accept they belong to us, decide to follow Jesus and see the world through His eyes.
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