Today is the feast day of my favorite saint and Doctor of the Church, Teresa of Avila. When I learned of her in 2017 and read her autobiography, her writings about mystical prayer brought me much “comfort and joy” (a summer reading equivalent of a Christmas gift, one might say).
In her autobiography, which I continue to come back to time and again, she worked to come up with vocabulary to describe her religious experiences. When she spoke of sin, she spoke of “missing the mark.” I thought that she came up with this phrase. I learned today that that’s not the whole story.
It turns out that the English word sin comes from the Greek words hamartia (ἁμαρτήσῃ) and/or the verb hamartano (ἁμαρτάνω), which translate to “to miss the target” (as in archery) or “to err.”
So….while sinning is not something to aim for, we don’t need to be hyper critical of ourselves (i.e., beat ourselves with a mental or emotional hammer) every time we “miss the mark” in sin. While certain specific sinful instances that cause much trouble certainly call for serious personal reflection, everyday sin is a case of us “missing the mark” in being the positive people God wants us to be.
We are called to cooperate with God’s grace to become the positive people God intends for us to be. This is a life-time “saints in training” job for us. Living the principles we learn in church and continually striving to do better is a more positive approach to dealing with the realities of our “human condition” (original sin) than to perennial criticize ourselves for being a saints-we-ain’t. A committed stance of being a saint-in-training can reduce how often we have to engage in serious reflection and clean-up the messes that stem from our darker moments of causing harm. What really matters in how we view our sinful natures is that we commit to allowing God to make us better and that we actively cooperate with God’s grace in working to be better people. Given our imperfect natures, such active cooperation does require vigilant and sustained effort on our part and a willingness to work hard at overcoming the particular ways in which we each fall short.
If you are looking for inspirational faith reading, Mirabai Starr’s translation of Teresa’s The Book of My Life is a great read (I was fortunate to have Mirabai autograph my copy of Teresa’s autobiography when Mirabai spoke in Seattle several years ago). Hint: Mirabai Starr lists on her website a number of texts she translated that are great reads (check it out!).
Kim Burkhardt blogs about faith at The Hermitage Within. Thank you for reading this faith blog and for sharing it with your friends. While you are here, please feel welcome to provide support to sustain this blog ($$).
