You know when someone says that a car was ‘totaled’? Simply put, it means the insurance company calculated that it would cost more to fix the car than to scrap it and get a new one. Do you ever feel that way in your spiritual life?
“There is something about experiencing brokenness in our lives that I think a lot of people say, like, ‘It’s done. My striving after the Lord, if I had any chance of having happiness or joy in my life, if I had any chance of being a saint, it’s done with,’” said Fr. Mike Schmitz, priest of the Diocese of Duluth and well-known speaker, when he joined The Patrick Madrid Show as a guest host.
Most people experience that occasionally, believes Fr. Schmitz. The further you fall into sin or vice, the more you might start to wonder if God’s mercy has run out in your life. Even when you work hard to return to his grace, it might not seem like enough.
But there’s so much more to the story that just you and your sin. “Some people say that you just go to Confession and … that seems too easy. And you realize it’s easy for you and it’s easy for me, but it wasn’t easy for the Lord. The price of restoring our souls, the price of restoring our hearts, the price of restoring our relationship with the Father, was his life,” Fr. Schmitz explained.
You might struggle to go to Confession and think it’s so extremely hard to do so. Here’s something to consider: “It’s not harder than what Christ went through in order to make Confession possible, in order to make reconciliation possible.”
So is your spiritual life a total loss? It depends on how you look at it.
“A total loss is when the cost of fixing the thing is worth more than the value of the thing. And we realize that in some ways, that is Jesus. The cost of fixing is the death of God. The cost of fixing my heart, the cost of fixing my relationship with the Father is the very death of God. And I know for myself it’s not even humble, it’s just telling the truth to say: I’m not worth that,” reflected Fr. Schmitz.
But thanks be to our good and gracious God: God sees you as so valuable that he would give his only son to fix you. Even if your life is a “total loss”, you are worth saving. God has already paid the high price for you to be made new.
This Lent, get to Confession and open yourself up to the mercy of God and his desire to heal your soul. It’s an invitation that you don’t want to pass up.
Tune in to The Patrick Madrid Show weekdays at 9am-noon ET / 6-9am PT only on Relevant Radio®.
