Back in the 1940s, a rural family had an outhouse that they used. They didn’t need to use an outhouse − indoor plumbing had long been the norm in most homes in the area − but the father didn’t want to spend the money on it. The oldest son, a boy of about ten, hated using the outhouse, which was located on the bank of a river several yards behind the house.
One day, the son devised a plan to get rid of it once and for all. He would wait until spring came and for the river to rise; he would push the outhouse into the fast-moving water, where it would quickly be carried away. Then, he thought, his father might consider installing indoor plumbing.
Spring arrived, and the river was swollen with water; so, the boy grabbed a large stick and used it as a pry bar to topple the outhouse into the water, and it quickly disappeared downstream. He walked toward the house proud of his accomplishment.
That night, at supper, the boy's father told him they would be going to the woodshed after supper. The boy knew this meant he was to be punished and the reason for it, but he still asked, “Why?” His father said, "Someone pushed the outhouse into the water today, and I think it was you.
The boy admitted he had done it, but told his father, "Dad, I read in school today that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and didn't get into trouble because he told the truth."
The boy said because he had told the truth, that he also should be spared punishment. His father replied, "Well, son, there’s a difference. You see, when George Washington cut down that tree, his father wasn’t sitting in it!"
Today, we begin the season of Advent, a time when we acknowledge our sinful nature and our individual sins and seek the mercy and forgiveness of God, as well as the grace that we need to live lives in accord with the will and the plan of God.
This season is a time when we not only acknowledge our sins, but also a time when we celebrate that God doesn’t want to take us out to the woodshed; God doesn’t seek to punish us. Instead, God seeks to have us recognize that His mercy is always present in our lives, always being offered to us, and that it has a great influence on our lives when we open ourselves up to that mercy, embrace it, and allow ourselves to be transformed by it, thus keeping us in touch with the love and the grace of God.
Many people decry what they call “Catholic Guilt” and an overwhelming focus on punishment from an angry God. At times, in the history of the Church, there has been a lot of focus on that but, if we ignore the mercy of God, then our faith lives are simply lives of fear: fear of punishment, fear of retribution, fear of death.
A little bit of guilt can be a good thing. Guilt that sometimes our actions, attitudes, and words don’t help us or others to be close to God who created us and loves us. Guilt can help us to recognize the need to accept the mercy of God and to change what we need to change in our lives in order to be filled with God’s grace and to truly accept His love in the depths of our hearts and souls and in every moment of our daily lives.
A little bit of guilt can help us to choose to turn from sin and choose to turn toward God’s mercy, to choose to be the kind of people that God created each one of us to be, to choose light over darkness, joy over misery, life over death.
So, let us pray that God will help us to recognize that He is a merciful God, slow to anger and rich in compassion. Let us pray, too, for the ability to open our minds, hearts, and souls to God’s mercy and to always look for opportunities to share that gift of mercy with others. +
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