Second Confession

Nothing is worth doing that is not worth doing badly. So, I will continue blogging.

Perhaps I should have called this Confessions of a Busy Catholic. With a full-time job and two kids in school, I'm not sure when I thought I would have time for this. But I'll forge ahead.

Yesterday, I went to Mass on my lunch break. My job is not terribly busy. In fact, I sometimes have a little extra time on my hands, yet I still find it hard to drag myself out to noon Mass.

First, I often give in to the temptation to eat lunch too close to Mass time, thus counting myself out of receiving the Eucharist.

Then, I think how inconvenient it is to walk to my car and drive away from campus (I work on a secure campus.).

The next challenge is finding a parking spot in a seedy part of town that caters to bonding companies and small law offices. Of course I need to have change for the parking meter and be willing to walk 4-6 blocks to the chapel inside St. Peters.

Really, after all the martyrs went through, the fact that I give in to these challenges sometimes is quite humbling. But yesterday, I didn't. Yesterday, I went to Mass and I had the pleasure of hearing the gospel about forgiving 70 times 7.

And I finally got it; I understood the message of forgiveness. How the one who is forgiven much loves much. And I realized that I have to forgive those who injure me because God forgives me when I injure him. And I injure him whenever I sin, although he has blessed me so abundantly. That realization was worth the inconvenience of getting out on a gray, cold day and finding a parking meter so I could walk to Mass at St. Peter's.

It was worth the inconvenience for the blessing of drawing close to God in the middle of America, where we are often too distracted by our IPODs and American Idol to pay attention to the most important thing.