Accepting responsibility for our sins
Exodus 32: 21-24, 30-32
Moses asked Aaron, “What did this people ever do to you that
you should lead them into so grave a sin?” Aaron replied, “Let not my lord be
angry. You know well enough how prone the people are to evil. They said to me,
‘Make us a god to be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the
land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Let
anyone who has gold jewelry take it off.’ They gave it to me, and I threw it
into the fire, and this calf came out.”
On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have
committed a grave sin. I will go up to the LORD, then; perhaps I may be able to
make atonement for your sin.” So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Ah,
this people has indeed committed a grave sin in making a god of gold for
themselves! If you would only forgive their sin! If you will not, then strike
me out of the book that you have written.”
We have
some great idiomatic phrases these days to avoid taking responsibility for our
actions, when we want to “pass the buck.”
One popular expression is “throw someone else under the bus,” which
became popular in the 2008 presidential election season. David Segal wrote in the Washington Post,
“This humble mode of transportation has become an unstoppable serial killer
this presidential season, metaphorically speaking. Hardly a week goes by without someone
reviving the cliché of the 2008 campaign – that a former ally of a candidate
has been thrown under a bus.” Another
great expression is “plausible deniability.”
Have you heard that one? That’s
where those higher in an organization can deny complicity in immoral or illegal
action. The funniest example is Sgt.
Schultz from “Hogan’s Heroes,” who frequently said, “I hear nothing. I see nothing. I know nothing!” We have all kinds of clever ways to get out
of trouble.
In the
first reading from Exodus 32 – a chapter you should be familiar with – we see
someone who used these excuses long before Schultz and 2008, namely,
Aaron. Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai
to find the people worshiping the golden calf, and clearly Aaron is in charge
and responsible and guilty. But what does
Aaron do? First he throws the people
under the bus by saying, “You know well enough how prone the people are to
evil.” And then Aaron plays the
plausible deniability card, saying, “Well, the people gave me their golden
jewelry, I threw it in the fire, and this calf came out. I had no idea that would happen!” Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “That’s the
lamest excuse in all human history!”
Now, that’s what Aaron did, but what did Moses do? He took the heat for the people himself, even
though he was innocent, saying to God, “If you will not forgive them, strike me
out of the book that you have written.”
Moses threw himself under that unstoppable serial killer.
This is
why Catholics go to confession: to stop making excuses and accept responsibility
for our actions. I remember one Catholic
school teacher who told her students at the end of their confession to say,
“These are my sins and I take full responsibility for them.” After 19 years of hearing lame excuses in
confession, those words are music to my ears!
Imagine for a moment your 10 year old child who broke the window coming
to you and saying, “I broke the window and I take full responsibility for my
actions.” How refreshing would that
sound to you? Folks, we are masters of
making excuse for our mistakes. But in
confession we get off that bus, accept responsibility for our actions, and stop
blaming that unstoppable serial killer for our faults.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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