sins of omission

Sometimes I am not a very nice person.

I do things, and say things, that are mean and horrible and bitchy.

Worse yet, I do them to people I love, like relatives and friends.

Luckily, most of these people love me back, and forgive me, otherwise I'd probably be sitting on a corner somewhere with Piper, my banjo and straw hat for tips, all homeless and beat up, because even the homeless people don't like me very much.

Forgiveness, when it's genuine, is redemptive. Sometimes I think that Christianity has the crux of human salvation-- that is, through the act of forgiveness-- quite right, even if the economics and politics of sin through official church institutions turn me off, and I'm at lost how to explain how we forgive corporate sin (as defined by theologians, not Walmart.)

I've always thought of forgiveness and redemption though, as quite a human mediated process--no matter what the divine consequences may be--and think Judaism has this particular facet down much better than Christianity.

Here's why: Jesus can forgive you all He wants for being an asshole to your mom or unsuspecting coworker or best friend, but you know, your mom/unsuspecting coworker/best friend still has to forgive you, or at least accept that you fucked up, for the whole process to begin to work properly.

(And, if you've ever noticed, it's easier to ask Jesus for forgiveness for being a jerk than it is your mom or best friend. Because Jesus = dead guy, not around. Mom/Best Friend/Whomever You Just Pissed Off = not dead, and around for awhile.

It's like, "So Jesus forgives you for being a fuck up. Dude man, that's not all that special. It's his job to forgive you for being a fuck up. He's like, Jesus and shit. That's what he does."

Human beings, on the other hand, who I think of as not generally possessing divine powers of absolution, have a choice to forgive you. I think this idea of choice is what is partially meant when Catholics go on and on about free will and grace, and Protestants go on about how that Catholic free will/grace talk is bullshit.

And, generally the choice you have means you have to genuinely want to be forgiven and they have to genuinely want to forgive you.

Sometimes you don't. Sometimes they don't.

We are all going to fuck up, that much is clear.

But, over all, choosing not to ask someone for forgiveness, and choosing not to forgive others is overall a good working definition of what Catholics call a "sin of omission," and sometimes can be even more damaging than that which is committed.

While this definition probably isn't helpful when we're talking about Really Bad Stuff, I do think it works on an interpersonal level.

And who the hell really knows what to do about the Really Bad Stuff, any way? Granting pardons for for say, genocide, must be God's territory, because it certainly isn't mine.