A number of years ago, one of our older sisters was telling me how grateful she was. “I’m even thankful for my sins,” she said, “because I can see the good that God has brought out of them.” I was surprised, to say the least, since I was far from thankful either for my own sins or for anyone else’s. I remembered this conversation today after hearing once again the words of the Mass calling Lent a “joyful season.”
What does it mean to be thankful even for our sins? Does it mean that we should languish in wrongdoing so that God may bring good from it? After all, sin does hurt people. Paul himself asks, “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)
It may sound strange to hear that we have died to sin — we who know so well our own faults. But it is true that we have already begun to share in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are already being transformed into the image of Christ.
Yes, grace does abound and our loving God does work to bring good out of everything in our lives, including our faults and failures (Romans 8:28). So we praise God, who gives us “this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery” — that marvelous mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection which shows us the love and the life to which we are called.