Somewhere Between Presumption and Despair

I wanted to do something a little different for our reflection this week and not necessarily use the readings from Sunday. Since Lent started back on Ash Wednesday, over two full weeks have gone by. I have given a lot of thought to the following two words, responsibility and accountability. As Catholics we are well aware of those two words, sometimes too much and it will lead to excess feelings of guilt. Other times we are not aware of those words and it leads to presumption, presuming God’s grace.

There are two extremes we are to avoid, despair and presumption. Lent calls us to take a deeper look at ourselves and to allow God to enter into the deepest recesses of our being. When that happens we are aware of our weaknesses and sins with greater clarity. That awareness should lead one to seek forgiveness of an always ready and willing God who forgives and forgives completely.

Yet, at times we despair because of Catholic guilt. Guilt itself is not a bad thing, but most people when they speak of Catholic guilt are talking about something that hinders our relationship with Christ and in this case that is correct, any guilt that makes us feel we are horrible and cannot be forgiven is not of God but of sin and even the devil. Sin is never, I repeat NEVER stronger than God’s grace!

At the same time, however, presumption is also a danger for it has no guilt at all. Responsibility and accountability do not exist. As Christians we are responsible for all our actions even the words that pass from our lips. “I tell you, on the Day of Judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak.” (Mt. 12:36). We presume on God’s grace without accepting responsibility for our actions. The way we do this is by excusing our own actions, believing since God is all good and loving He overlooks anything I may have done or we begin to psychoanalyze all human behavior reducing it to some human deficiency. Just as despair is dangerous so too presumption.

We are called to be balanced, a balance that accepts responsibility, has a healthy sense of guilt and one that leads me to say to another and to God, “I’m sorry.” But also an understanding that God is forgiving no matter my sin and once I am moved by the conviction of the Holy Spirit to seek forgiveness God embraces me wholeheartedly and never looks back on my sins.

Aristotle claimed that virtue is the middle ground (or the mean if you will) between extremes, for example, bravery is the middle ground between recklessness and cowardice. Taking this approach responsibility along with trust is the middle between presumption and despair. Responsibility is my acknowledging that I have committed sin and trust is my assurance that God has forgiven me. We must pray that we find the virtue and live it - the middle ground somewhere between presumption and despair.

Fr. John