These Aren't My Pants

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Probably the weirdest thing I’ve heard working with law enforcement, is when we had a driver out of a car and the Troopers were making sure he didn’t have any weapons or drugs on him.  As they looked in his pockets, they found some drugs.  We asked the person why he had drugs on him, and he said, I kid you not, “These aren’t my pants.”  Now, I know that I live a sheltered life, but I don’t have any particular memory in my 34 years of life, or at least since I was responsible for dressing myself, that I ever wore someone else’s pants, and certainly not with drugs in them.

“These aren’t my pants,” may sound crazy as an excuse, but we’re good at excusing ourselves and rationalizing our behavior.  We’ve been doing it almost since the beginning of humanity.  God called Adam on the carpet, Adam, who represented all of humanity, for eating the fruit that we were forbidden to eat, and what did he do?  “These aren’t my pants.”  Well, not so much, because he was wearing a fig leaf.  But he did the same thing: “It’s not my fault!  The woman made me do it!”  Then God goes to Eve, and, anticipating by some millennia the Flip Wilson Show, she basically said, “The devil made me do it!”  

We’re so good at dodging responsibility.  These aren’t my pants, someone else made me, it’s the Devil’s fault, and so many more excuses come to mind.  But sin is always our fault.  We have free will, and we only sin when we make choices that go against God’s law, natural law, and just human laws.  Temptations, however, are not sins.  Sin is only when we make a choice.  

If I desire to eat that quarter pounder on a Friday of Lent, my desires are not rightly ordered, but I haven’t sinned unless I pull through the drive-thru lane and take a bite into the burger.  If I’m laying in bed Sunday morning, the birds chirping, a cool 68 degree and sunny day, wanting to play nine holes instead of going to Mass, I’m not wanting to be where I should be, but I haven’t sinned.  If I’m cut off in my car by someone who needs remedial driving lessons and my desire is to lay on my horn and raise a certain finger to greet them, the emotion of anger is probably getting the better of me, but if I don’t act on that emotion, I haven’t sinned.  It’s only when we make that choice, in thought, word, or deed, when we exercise our free will in a negative way, that we talk about sin.

The Good News is that Jesus came to conquer sin.  The people in our Gospel today didn’t recognize that, and the scribes claim that Jesus is casting out demons by the power of demons.  But as Jesus points out, if Satan is fighting against himself, how does he expect to win?  Jesus comes to destroy the reign of Satan, and does so as God.

That’s why it’s so important to turn to Jesus when we are tempted, so that we don’t give in to that temptation and sin.  We shouldn’t wait and figure that we’re strong enough; let’s be honest, we’re weak.  Almost every time I have thought: I’m strong enough; I can handle this, I end up giving into temptation.  When I realize that I am weak and that without God I can do nothing, it is then that God conquers sin through me.  

Another thing that can be very common in our spiritual life and spiritual battle with sin is to “flirt” with the temptation.  We say no at first, but then we might return to the temptation a little later, and then maybe we say no again, but then we go back to it.  And eventually it conquers us.  But if we nip the temptation in the bud, and call on God to help us at the beginning, then God will preserve us from falling into temptation.  

There is only one sin that God cannot forgive, and that’s the sin against the Holy Spirit.  While there are different theories, what I was taught in seminary is that the only unforgivable sin is the sin that we don’t allow God to forgive, because God does not force His grace upon us; He respects our free will.  If we think that this sin or that sin is so bad that God cannot forgive it, then He won’t; not because it’s so heinous, but because we don’t allow Him to.  

The other key to fighting sin comes from our second reading.  St. Paul exhorts us not to be discouraged.  That can be easier said than done, especially when we’re struggling with the same sin over and over again, no matter how big or how small.  But God will give us victory eventually if we persevere in His grace and keep fighting.  It’s only when we give up, when we decide it’s useless, that Satan wins and gains mastery over us.  If we keep fighting, no matter how many battles we lose, God can still win the war.

When we sin, don’t blame others, don’t be discouraged, and do call on Jesus to help us.  Jesus came to free us from sin, and will do exactly that if we allow Him to and cooperate with the grace He gives us through the Sacrament of Penance and the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.