Scott Hahn posted this quote from St. Augustine n Facebook recently:
"Let us never assume that if we live good lives that we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon."
My immediate reaction was "Oh, how negative!" But that's Man's thinking, not God's, because, come to think of it (by God's grace), such thinking is most positive indeed. How so? Well if one would instead say "when we continue to consult our life coach" or "accountant" or "fitness coach" and so on, we can see that such recourse makes sense if we admit our limitations while seeking help and pushing ourselves as far as we can go. Begging for pardon throughout our lives is seeking a remedy to what we know to be a constant in our lives: bad choices, rash judgments, selfishness, excess, neglect of our loved ones, shirking responsibilities, sloth, pride, a bit of this and that throughout our days and months and years. This brings to mind something that I am only recently learning to appreciate: God's mercy goes far beyond his pardon. His love is so gracious that, when he pardons, he moreover heals and makes more resilient. In bringing our weaknesses to him, he grants us strength.
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