The cult of veniality

"None of our sins are small or of little account.  To belittle our sins is to belittle ourselves, to belittle who it is that God creates and calls us to be.  To belittle our sins is to belittle their forgiveness, to belittle the love of the Father who welcomes us home." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon


This is as complete, succinct, and eloquent a summary of this idea as I've yet encountered. It has been some time since I could engage in this particular self-deception with regard to the worst moments of my past; there's just no denying the evil of them.  But it seems to me that we all - myself certainly included - engage in this sort of thinking to excuse the "little things" we'd rather not give up, that we rationalize are "not really hurting anyone (wink)."  Rather than an invitation to self-hatred, a Spirit-led awareness of our sinfulness calls us to stop settling for our puny wants, and to strive toward all that God, in his infinite love, dreams for each one of us.  More from Fr. Neuhaus:


" . . . Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, 'The line between good and evil runs through every human heart.'  We would draw the line between ourselves and the really big-time sinners.  For them the cross may be necessary.  For us a forgiving wink from an understanding Deity will set things to right.  But the 'big time' of sinning is in every human heart.  We make small our selves when we make small our sins.  Fearing the judgment of great evil, we shrink from the call to great good."


It seems to me that therein may lie our chief sin, or at least, our great tragedy.