Yesterday I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And I was in need of it too.
Because ashamedly I had recently been “doubling down” on my sins. I knew I was in need of going to Confession and so I was like “Well, might as well keep sinning since I have to go anyways”. I mean, in the most crass and basic form of explaining it that was essentially what I was like.
It wasn’t good.
That type of thinking is not good.
I know that.
But what I couldn’t get myself to do is practice the self-restraint I am called to practice. Fortunately I recently heard a series on WAOB about “asceticism” and was like “Yes! That is what I need! I need to be more consciencely/consciously ascetic! Thanks Mister Father Priest Guy for putting this into words and challenging me!”
In reflecting upon my failures and wrong-thinking I came up with a metaphor (well, since this is about God and Jesus let’s instead call it a parable :)).
The Spaghetti Sauce Parable
When you eat spaghetti with red marinara sauce and some sauce spills onto your shirt (which typically happens accidentally) you immediately get a cloth with some cold water on it and you try to blot out the stain.
If the stain is small enough the stain lifts and the shirt is saved. If it is a larger sized stain then there will still be a mark. For a time your shirt will be wet where you had to apply the water to remove the sauce stain.
What you don’t do when you spill spaghetti sauce on your shirt is you don’t (if you are a reasonable person) proceed to intentionally put more and more sauce on your shirt. You don’t rub it in. You don’t try to make the stain worse. For if and when you try to remove the stain it will be harder for the stain to lift.
I do recognize that this metaphor isn’t perfect because there is no sin that Jesus’ and God’s love cannot remove thru repentance and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But your soul will still have a mark on it which you need to work to heal (thru penance + then living properly and sinning no more).
But my main point is: Just because I have sinned a time or two and have gotten a small amount of spaghetti sauce on my soul it doesn’t mean I should then try to add more spaghettis sauce rather than try to blot it out. I should stop sinning and work to repair my relationship with God.
When I had this reflection it really made the situation concrete. I was falling into a trap of misguided thinking and God in His greatness and love found a way to show me that I was off course.
May we all always remember to seek to blot out the spaghetti sauce stains rather than to make them worse.
Psalm 51: 3-6
3 Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love;
in your abundant compassion blot out my transgressions.
4 Thoroughly wash away my guilt;
and from my sin cleanse me.
5 For I know my transgressions;
my sin is always before me.
6 Against you, you alone have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your eyes
So that you are just in your word,
and without reproach in your judgment.
Photo Footnote: Clearly that’s not spaghetti in the picture, a bowl of Pad Thai was as close as I could come to a picture of a bowl of spaghetti. But the metaphor still applies. So also don’t spill Thai noddles on yourself.
Give God Your Yes 