“It’s Not My Fault” and Other Legends

Andrea Solario, "Christ crowned with thorns"

“I stopped going to Mass because the priest was not inclusive of my own oh so very sensitive nature”. “I stopped going to confession because I didn’t react what the confessor said to me”. “I will not convert to the Church because you Catholics are all so insensitive you won’t allow me to have my own theology as I’ve always done”.  The list is very long.

You go around the Internet, you read a lot of this: it’s not really my fault, because another made me do it. It seems the culture of refusal of responsibility for pretty much everything (from one’s own sins to one’s own weight) does not stop in front of the keyboard, rather finds a new elan through it.

I profit of this occasion (rather fitting, as Good Friday has just begun) to say for the avoidance of doubt it was my fault when I stopped going to Mass; it was my fault when I stopped going to confession; it was my fault when I refused – or thought I did not need to – seriously examine Catholic teaching. And it was, most grievously, my fault when I refused to face the problem of abortion, thinking I could solve the moral issue just by avoiding it staring at me in the face.

Of course, there are extenuating circumstances. Still,  pretty much everyone has them, most thieves and most prostitutes among them; do we excuse the thief or the prostitute when they tell us “I stole because the priest refused to tell me what a unique and wonderful being I am”, or “I prostituted myself because the priest told me sex outside of marriage is a sin and made me feel a slut”? Thought not…

In my modest opinion, the day we learn to face our faults in this most important of matters (our soul) we have made a great step toward salvation. But please let us stop saying others caused us to do something.

The cause of what we do is always us.

Mundabor

P.s. by the way, it is I who nailed Christ on the Cross. Not physically of course but no, seriously, really, yes it is I. I do it, actually, every day in some way or other. And strangely enough, I can’t even find ways to stop hammering those nails.

Still my fault.

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Mundabor's Blog

I have often written about the Rosary and I will continue to do in the future, as I think that the Rosary is the most beautiful weapon (after the Mass) in the armoury of the Catholic and the motorway to salvation even for the, well, more difficult cases.

EWTN has on its website a short-ish but well-made explanation of this devotion with both a short historical excursus and some briefly but convincingly outlined arguments of why we should pray the Rosary.

I’d add to them that the devotion to the Rosary for one’s entire life has been described by the Virgin Mary as a sign of predestination. In short, this means that developing the habit of devoutly reciting the Rosary will have as effect that Mary’s intercession and the work of the Holy Ghost will allow us to die in the state of grace.

I can’t stress enough how important…

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