As we each move toward our individual Judgment, we realize that it will take a miracle for our sins to be forgiven. Paraphrasing St. Ignatius, “Our sins are so awful that it’s a wonder the earth doesn’t open up and swallow us.”
Thinking about what we think about shows where our priorities are, and our thoughts usually don’t indicate that obeying God is uppermost in our minds. Nonetheless, we keep on doing what we do, hoping, if only subconsciously, for the miraculous outpouring of mercy that will allow us to enter Heaven.
Christmas is the miracle of God loving us enough to come to earth, suffer, and die for us. So, we know that miracles do happen. It is the mark of some remnant of sanity to have the hope within us that the miracle of forgiveness will be granted to us. It will, if we have sense enough to ask for it. Often.
