It's a smell that, when you've identified it once, you never forget.
Back when
Lauren and I lived together in our single, working-gal days (for three years- longer than my son has been alive!), we once had a
very unpleasant experience with our pantry.
For almost a week, we both kept smelling
something that wasn't quite right in the pantry. Neither of us mentioned it to the other, privately thinking that the other one REALLY needed to learn not the throw away super-stinky things, and to take the trash out more regularly if one of us did throw something disgusting away. Each day, though, despite our clean trash can and fresh liners, the smell continued to grow and permeate the kitchen. Along with the smell came the fruit flies. After a few days, the fruit reached Egyptian-plague proportions. Individually, again, both Lauren and myself searched our own sections of the pantry to rule out the idea that either of us might be "responsible" for the smell and the pests.
Finally, when neither of us could stand the stench and bugs, we talked about it and went hunting together for the source. It turned out that Lauren had an old bag of potatoes in the very back of the bottom shelf, and these potatoes had almost completely liquified.
What? You've never seen liquified potatoes? Then you, my friend, have not lived. It's a sight-- and smell.
Fortified by the straight shots of vodka that I poured down her throat (to mask the smell completely AND to give her the courage to clean out the nasty mess), my brave roomie wiped and bleached and rinsed and bleached again. Soon the odor, flies, and muck was gone, and the pantry shelf was not only clean again, but it was even more pristine than before. It inspired us to wipe down the other shelves so that they, too, sparkled.
So, Lisa, what does this have to do with sin?
All too often, we know something is not right in our lives and we feel weighed down by the burden of sin, but we ignore it, or only take a cursory glance at the interior of ourselves. However, like the rotting potatoes, sin can overwhelm all that is good and pleasant in our lives. We need a way to identify sin in our lives, and sometimes we need someone else to help us see patterns that start us on the path toward sin. The more regularly we go to Confession, the better able we are to recognize the "stink" sin is creating in our life, especially if the priest helps us to see how to recognize the early signs of the sin starting, or the small steps away from God that lead to larger sins. Had Lauren or I noticed that the potatoes were starting to head south, we could have avoided the liquefaction, smell, and bugs. It's not enough to just throw the potatoes in our trash-- we need to bag them up, say sayonara to them when the trash man comes to take them away from the sanctity of our home, and scrub out the interior.
After coming home from my ACTS retreat this month, I opened the pantry and noticed a smell, despite the fact that I knew M had just taken out the trash. On the retreat I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Confession. Plus, without a cell phone for four days and around only women for that time, I was rested, soothed, and anxious to get back to my vocation as mother and wife without delay-- no more being lazy! I pulled out the bag of potatoes and examined each one as carefully as I had examined my conscience prior to Confession.
Hmm... nothing wrong at all with the potatoes.
However, I was positive that I'd smelled that exact same stench before, and I wasn't going to let it take away from the order I wanted to create and maintain within my home
. I pulled out almost everything from the pantry until, lo and behold, I came across a sweet potato that had soured. I knew it! I double-bagged it, scrubbed the pantry shelf, rounded up all the other trash in the house, and took the now-full trash bag to the garbage can outside. I refused to allow that foul odor remain in my home even one minute longer, ruining the smells of afternoon fall baking and morning cups of espresso.
Several months ago, I
commented on Little Catholic Bubble about how a priest once explained sin to me, during the sacrament of Confession:
Imagine that you are a house. You were perfectly built, with strong foundations and walls. Each time that you sin, even secretly and known only to you and God, you add filth and decay to your home. At first, the effect is not pronounced or obvious to anyone else. But, over time, the foundation of the home begins to weaken and it can no longer support the walls. Your relationships with others suffer because you are so preoccupied with preserving your own "home" and hiding the decay from others. Confession serves as a Divine housecleaning service and gives you the tools to repair your foundation and put your home back in order. It also gives you incentive to keep it neat and tidy. Just like a good Spring cleaning, you WANT to keep the house clean (not sin... that's our analogy, remember) when it's so sparkling and pristine again. You've got the Ultimate Carpenter helping you every step of the way, because you've invited him back into your home to help you make things right.
From 2002, at my parents' home. Lauren and I have been friends since 1996!
*I recently put all of my photos up on a shelf and can't reach them very well, so I went with the first one I came across of just the two of us that I had digitized.
