Personal Responsibility Before God: A Call to Repentance, homily, 15th August

The First Reading speaks plainly about personal responsibility before God.

The people of Israel had begun to blame their fathers for their own condition.

But God rejects the excuse.

Each person must answer for his own life.

We inherit many things from others.

We may inherit wounds, bad examples, difficult circumstances, even patterns of sin.

But before God, none of these removes our freedom or our responsibility.

The question is not simply: what happened to me?

The question is: what am I doing with the grace God gives me now?

God says through Ezekiel: “Repent and turn from all your transgressions.”

Repentance means turning around.

It means refusing to make peace with sin.

It means naming what is wrong, confessing it, and beginning again.

God does not desire the death of the sinner.

He says: “Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”

And then: “Turn, and live.”

That is the heart of the Gospel.

God desires life for us. But we must receive that life.

In the Gospel, people bring little children to Jesus.

The disciples try to send them away.

But Our Lord says, “Let the little children come to me.”

A child comes with empty hands. A child depends upon another.

A child receives before he can repay. That is how we must come to Christ.

Not defending ourselves. Not blaming others. Not presenting a list of excuses.

We come admitting our need.

This is especially true in Confession.

We do not confess the sins of our parents, our spouse, our neighbour, or society.

We confess our own. I have sinned. I need mercy.

And when those words are spoken with sincere repentance, Christ does not turn us away.

He receives us.

He absolves us.

He gives us a new beginning.

My brothers and sisters, there may be much in our past that we cannot change.

But by the grace of God, the past need not determine our eternity.

Stop blaming.

Stop postponing.

Stop excusing the sin which God is asking you to surrender.

Come to Christ with the simplicity of a child.

Bring Him your sins.

Bring Him your weakness.

Bring Him your empty hands.

For the Lord who commands us to repent is the same Lord who stretches out His hands to receive us.

“Turn, and live.”