Sobering Meditation for Sunday: Have we made peace with evil?

Fall of the damned into hell - Rubens

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky offers a sobering article on the way "good" people make peace with evil in their lives. Death bed conversions are rare. As we live, so we are likely to die. If we have rationalized grave evils like abortion, contraception, "murdering" the reputations of others, etc. are we likely to even recognize them as evil on our death beds? If a personnel director makes sure abortion, contraception, physician-assisted suicide, trans gender surgery, etc. are covered in his company's health plan, well, how likely is he to see those things as evil? Even if he is personally against them, he is likely to rationalize offering "choices"  to others (even evil ones) as a necessary part of doing business. It isn't his sin, after all, if a woman decides to kill her baby or even herself. The fact that she might not have done it without the scandal of the company telling her abortion or physician-assisted suicide are acceptable "choices" will likely escape him.

We would do well to examine our consciences in the light of Christ's grace begging Him to reveal the sins we hide from ourselves. All of us have blind spots and just like missing the car in our "blind spot" on the road can lead to a disastrous accident, so can missing the serious sins in our lives have disastrous spiritual consequences. After all, what can be more disastrous than going to hell because we rationalized our gravest sins? Please Lord, don't let me blind to those things in my life that threaten my eternal salvation? Show me myself as You see me, so I can repent and turn to you with a clean heart.

I'll close with Fr. Pokorsky's question: 

"Have we ourselves – traditional-minded, pro-life Catholics made peace with some profound evil that has been buried somewhere in the tangle of our minds? What sins or patterns of sin are we overlooking or rationalizing when we go to Confession? If we could see ourselves with the eyes of others – through the eyes of God – what would we see?"