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Pray For Us Sinners

This is the most obvious reality: that we are sinners. There is something altogether appropriate about asking Mary to do this. We're all just little kids.

I read a line like that in a story about DeAndre Jordan, the Los Angeles Clippers center, who had considered the idea of playing instead for the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Their owner Mark Cuban is a billionaire; I'm sure the guys can have some fun. DeAndre had gone so far as to verbally agree to a contract during the moratorium period. He'd gone to see Coach John Lucas, one of the pillars of the black community in Houston, a former NBA coach, and something of spiritual guide.

He's still just an impressionable kid, said Lucas. We all want to make people happy. I'd like to make Mark Cuban happy. He could accidentally drop some money while sneezing, and pay off your house.

A lot of times, we get in trouble with sin, because we want to make people happy. Maybe even ourselves. The devil's playing small ball with most people: sex and booze. You can do worse. The problem is, it's still very strong. You have to want to get out.

If God sees this world as I see it most days, Purgatory will be like Ellis Island: crowded. I don't see malice in most other sinners I meet; I see wounds. Wounds only a mother can fix.
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