It is not my fault

Justice is with the Lord our God.

“It’s not my fault!”   Isn’t this a constant refrain?    Parents hear it all the time from their children.   Coworkers try to avoid the consequences of their poor performance.   So it’s almost jarring to hear the exiled Israelites proclaim, “Justice is with the Lord” .

With this jolt of honesty, the Israelites joined the likes of Daniel and Nehemiah in offering a prayer of humble, heartfelt repentance.   They didn’t shy away from admitting their faults and acknowledging that their own disobedience had caused their exile.   As they confessed their sins, they remembered God’s actions and his character: he was the gracious God who had brought them out of slavery, gave them the Law, and guided them into the Promised Land.   Yet despite these blessings, the people had chosen to ignore the Lord’s commands, and so found themselves taken captive and forced to march to Babylon.   It was not the Babylonians’ fault.   It was not the Egyptians’ fault. Israel and Israel alone had sinned, and now they were paying the price for it.

Sin has caused us all to experience separation from the Lord.   Baruch’s prayer, then, can show us the way back to God.   Don’t sugarcoat your sin.   Own up to what you have done.   Take responsibility for your actions.   Tell the Lord, “I have sinned . . . in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.”   Even when you sin and suffer the consequences, you can take a lesson from the Israelites: rather than giving up, you can turn back to your God, the Just One, who loves to forgive and justify sinners.

And don’t do this only when you are faced with “big” offenses against God.   Every night, before going to bed, review your day and see if anything pricks your conscience.   Get it out right away.   Ask God’s forgiveness, and trust in his mercy.  Pope Francis once shared what his nightly prayer looks like: “In the evening, before going to bed, I say this short prayer: ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean!’    And I pray five Our Fathers, one for each of Jesus’ wounds, because Jesus has cleansed us with his wounds. . . . Jesus always hears us”.

-word among us