We’re not supposed to hate ourselves, but only the evil in our human nature. Within each of us is a spiritual battle of good and evil. Saint Pio’s words here remind me not to let this hate fester up into a brooding, skin-crawling kind of hate where we despair, thinking we are so incurably defective and broken that we cannot be saved.
To think something like this would downplay God’s power, expressing to him an unbelief that his mercy could flow into even the darkest corners of human nature.
He invites us to walk with him and towards him, and not to get fixated on our brokenness. This ability to live in the present and keep moving forward without dwelling on the past is so clutch. Forgiveness of past offenses ties into the Catholic Sacrament of Penance. We were cleansed at Baptism, yes, but beyond that we still fall into sin and make mistakes, so we obtain that occasional cleaning through confession.
I think of Baptism as stepping out of the ocean. We are fully cleansed of sins. But then we walk on the sand and our feet get dirty. That symbolizes sin, so then we wash our feet and that’s like confession: YouTube: Father Mike and Ascension Presents: Why Confess My Sins to a Priest?
