Personal Responsibility
Reading: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
“It is only the person who sins that shall die.”
Photo by Manuel Meurisse on Unsplash
We live in a time when assigning blame to someone else is a popular activity. Lent is our opportunity to step up and assume responsibility for our actions. We cannot blame society or our friends, and especially not our parents. No matter what genetic or environmental forces are at work, we are individually accountable for our choices.
The proverb quoted by Ezekiel in verse 2 of our reading was one which the Israelites frequently repeated. It suggests that we are punished for the failures of those who have gone before us, relieving us of personal responsibility. Because a grandfather was a thief, I will be punished by having a bad credit rating. Because a parent was addicted to eating, I will be overweight and may die of heart disease. It was not the sins of previous generations that caused Israel’s exile. It was Israel’s own failure to love God fully.
Ezekiel taught that as human beings we have the power to choose. When we make wrong choices we have only ourselves to blame. God is not unjust. We are responsible.
We can change our circumstances. God’s message is not one of doom and gloom. It is a message of life and love and hope. “Repent and live.”
For Reflection: Am I assuming responsibility for my own life?
A Prayer Seed:
Turn back, disciple, forswear thy foolish ways,
Old now is earth, and none may count her days,
Yet, thou, her child, whose head is crowned with flame,
Still wilt not hear thine inner God proclaim-
“Turn back, disciple, forswear thy foolish ways.”
Clifford Bax, 1916 (alt.)
