Old Cars and Old Sins

Looking at her shiny new car next to the old family van, Laura Nelson realized she had grown blind to some old sins that were keeping her from growing in holiness.

For the last twelve years, I’ve been driving the same minivan. At the time we purchased it, it was the largest minivan on the market. And, because it’s red, I dubbed the car “Clifford, the big Red Van.” We’ve taken countless road trips in Clifford and have made even more memories.  

Clifford 

Cosmetically, Clifford has seen better days. His seats are stained and his paint is chipped from all the dings he received in the garage and in parking lots. And, regardless of the fact that you can’t always change the volume on his radio, I always maintained that Clifford was in “good” shape …  

… Until we replaced my husband’s car with a brand new, sporty, compact car. Because my husband works from home and I commute, I “got” the new car while my husband “got” Clifford.  

Pearl 

The new car, “Pearl,” is smooth and shiny, and every single button and knob on her dashboard works. She accelerates quickly and brakes like a figure skater gliding to a stop on center ice. She’s a dream to drive and is far safer than Clifford, with his infinite blind spots and no backup camera, ever was.  

The next time I drove Clifford to run an errand, I felt every single bump, stutter, and hesitation in his motor. And I saw every stain, ding, chip, and crack. I didn’t realize how blind I had become to Clifford’s slow decline. And it was then that I realized something — old cars are a lot like old sins. You get used to them and stop recognizing what’s wrong with them until it’s too late. 

Sin-blind 

When we spend time with people who have the same sins we do, it becomes “normal” and even acceptable. We stop seeing those sins in ourselves and in the people around us. You might say we become “sin-blind.” But when we change our context, with a new car or a new community, we start to see where we’ve fallen short in the past and we see how others are striving for holiness and growing into saints. We begin to see that holiness is possible and we want that for ourself. By changing our context and our community, we begin to see ourselves and our potential for holiness in a whole new light. 

The Communion of Saints 

It’s not always easy to change the people that we’re surrounded by. But we can surround ourselves with holy men and women through the lives and the intercession of the communion of saints. By reading about their lives and asking them to pray for us, the saints will help us begin to see our own potential for holiness and use them as our examples; as our new community.  

I was once speaking to someone I was trying to encourage to attend Mass weekly. Defensively, they told me that they didn’t know anyone who went to Mass every Sunday. Sadly, I think they were right. They had surrounded themselves with a community of people who didn’t make attending Sunday Mass a priority. So, it seemed like an impossible expectation. They were “driving” their own version of Clifford in their spiritual life.  

God doesn’t want us to grow blind to our sins. But He also doesn’t want us to beat ourselves up about them. He wants us to see our sins so we can go to Him for forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation and get a spiritual tune-up. He wants us to see that all of us can be like Pearl. We just need to be attentive, pay attention to things that aren’t right in our souls, and go to the best Mechanic in the universe. 

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Copyright 2024 Laura Nelson
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