Excuses, excuses!
Instead of clinging to sins
with lousy excuses, the only way to find atonement for sin is to turn to God...
When Moses asked Aaron why he had made an idol
for the Israelites, Aaron could only retort with what is certainly among the
most pathetic excuses in history: "The people gave me their gold jewelry,
and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out!" Such a pitiful reply would be laughable, if
only it were not so tragically lamentable!
In all honesty, though, too many of us would
have to admit that, when it comes to fumbling to justify our own sins, we've
often appealed to excuses every bit as lame as the one offered by Aaron. Just as he claimed to be the victim of
circumstances, so do you and I too often cast the blame for our own sins on
other people and the complications of situations, when, in reality, our own
guilt is just as real as Aaron's was.
The simple fact is, excuses for sins never
justify anyone - they only serve to make sins worse, by strengthening their
staying power and muffling the God-given voice of conscience. Instead of clinging to sins with lousy
excuses, the only way to find atonement for sin is to turn to God in
soul-cleansing confession of sin, pleading, as Moses did, for His forgiveness,
and then pulverizing sins with penance....