Recently, many of my friends, specifically those that adhere to the Jewish faith, spent a day atoning for their sins. Actually, they spent from sundown of one day to sundown of the next day, so technically two “days” are involved, but the time period approximates a 24-hour period, which we could arguably define as one “day.” But I digress.
Point is, these friends of mine got to wipe their proverbial slates clean. Sure, they couldn’t eat or drink for 24 hours, but isn’t that a small price to pay for a cleansed soul? Having never gone a full day without eating or drinking, it’s tough for me to judge, but purity seems like a pretty cool virtue to aspire to, so I think the tradeoff’s a positive one.
As my friends hungered for sustenance, I spent the day at the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy, gorging myself on fried Oreos (you have no idea how good they are) and imbibing in a variety of barley and hops-based liquid products.
Luckily, I had asked many of my Jewish friends to atone for my sins while they took care of theirs, so I figured I was in good shape.
I realized I’ve really got it pretty easy when it comes to ridding myself of sin. I mean, I’m Episcopalian, which I only somewhat jokingly refer to as “lazy Catholic.” Basically, we’ve got a lot of the pomp and circumstance, but without all the guilt or Papal Edicts. Our Christian sect basically exists because some long-dead King of England wanted a divorce. Great reason to establish a religion if you ask me. But you didn’t. So back to my point.
Since I’m not Catholic, I don’t have to go to confession, and we Episcopalians don’t have anything similar. Sure, we say the Lord’s Prayer, which, depending on which version you recite, can include a line about forgiving sins, but it’s not like I have to say 50 Hail Marys for every impure thought. And, as already established, I’m not Jewish, so I avoid the whole fasting thing.
In the end, it all comes down to the fact that Jesus died for my sins. He took it on the chin for me. And the crazy part is He lather, rinse, repeats it every year. Do you know how many sins that is? Not just mine, which are numerous, but the sins of all Christians…except I guess the ones that are forgiven in confession, but He might die for those too. I just don’t know.
Bottom lining it, I get to sin away with reckless abandon, which is a mindset that leads to much sinning (it’s vicious cycle), and once a year the Son of God just takes care of all my indiscretions for me. No fasting, no atoning, no confession. Just a one stop sin purge.
Given all that work He’s got to do, I just wanted to say thanks to my Jewish friends for lessening the burden by atoning for some of my sins this Yom Kippur. Now Jesus only has to deal with half a year’s worth of my sinning.
That should give Him some time to destress by catching up on His T.J. Monkey’s reading.
Or by healing the lame…