What the Scribes and Pharisees Needed
Let us lead good lives, and while we lead good lives let us
on no account take it for granted that we are without sin. Living a life that
is praiseworthy includes begging pardon for things that are blameworthy. But
people who are beyond hope pay all the less attention to their own sins, they
are more interested in those of others. They are looking for a chance to tear
others to bits, not to put them right. Unable to excuse themselves, they are
only too ready to accuse others.
Sin cannot possibly go unpunished. The forces of nature become imbalanced,
unstable and unsustainable. If a sin remains unpunished it is naturally unjust,
and so undoubtedly it must be punished. This is what your God says to you: “Your sin is punished, either by man
repenting or by God judging”. So either it, without you, it is punished by
you or else it together with you is punished by God. What is repentance after
all, but being angry with oneself? What’s the idea of beating your breast if
you aren’t just pretending? Why beat it if you aren’t angry with it? So when
you beat your breast you are being angry with your heart in order to make
amends to your Lord. This is also how we can understand the text ‘Be angry and do not sin’. Be angry
because you have sinned, and by punishing yourself stop sinning. Give your
heart a shaking by repentance, and this will be a sacrifice to God.
Saint Augustine of Hippo – Doctor of Grace
Extract from "Magnificat" - August 2012. Vol 2 No11
“He cannot have God for
his Father who will not have the Church for his mother.” -
St. Augustine
“This is the sum of
religion, to imitate whom you worship” - St. Augustine
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