My basket full of holes

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
—Luke 15:2

“A brother in Scete happened to commit a fault, and the elders assembled, and sent for Abbot Moses to join them. He, however, did not want to come. The priest sent him a message, saying: Come, the community of the brethren is waiting for you. So he arose and started off. And taking with him a very old basket full of holes, he filled it with sand, and carried it behind him. The elders came out to meet him, and said: What is this, Father? The elder replied: My sins are running out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I come to judge the sins of another! They, hearing this, said nothing to the brother but pardoned him.”
—Wisdom of the Desert

We modern people are so reluctant to acknowledge our sins. We are quick to judge the faults and failures of others, but even then we are not willing to make a fair assessment of our own, nor to call it “sin.” This is the arrogance and pride that comes with the rampant individualism of our day.

Jesus ate with sinners because, as Father James McKarns says, if he didn’t he would always eat alone. The truth of this should not inspire some puritanical effort to be perfect, because that’s not Christianity either. Rather, the message is that despite our brokenness—even through our brokenness—we are loved and healed and made whole anyway. And because we have received this grace, we must grant it to others when their brokenness is made plain as well.