Have you ever seen skeet shooting? It was recently in the Olympics in Tokyo.
Wikipedia defines skeet shooting as “a recreational and competitive activity where participants, using shotguns, attempt to break clay targets mechanically flung into the air from two fixed stations at high speed from a variety of angles.” When you hit the clay object, it shatters in the air and the pieces fall to the ground. There are plenty of YouTube videos on this sport.
As I watched this activity in action and saw the clay objects shatter, I had the thought, “Boy, if only I’d get after my sin so aggressively.” I could call it, “Skeet shooting my sin” or “Shatter my sin but good.”
How can we do that?
Well, first we have to know our sin. If we don’t know what our specific sins are, we have no target. We would be shooting at the air only. If you don’t know your sin, ask those closest to you. They may be able to help you. You could also ask the Holy Spirit to help you know your sins, but you must face yourself honestly and ruthlessly with a sincere examination of conscience.
Once we know our sins, we can then confess them in confession, which is a very important step. Then we will have the grace to aggressively skeet shoot and shatter the sin in times of temptation.
St Ignatius suggests an excellent way to go about this: He calls it “agere contra” which means to “act against.” Fr. Thomas used to teach us about this Ignatian teaching. It is quite simple but not always easy. It is when we act against the sinful tendency. Do the opposite.
A few examples are:
- If you like to take care of yourself first — let’s say you are at a party, and there is a long line at the food table. If your tendency is to get first in line, then you act against that inclination and go to the back of the line.
- If someone annoys you, do a charitable act toward them regularly.
- If you are proud, welcome correction.
- If you struggle with hoarding, then give things generously away and resist the temptation to acquire more.
- If you are quick to judge someone, then give them the benefit of the doubt.
- If you are lazy, then energetically do what you don’t want to do.
You get the idea. These are only a few examples of skeet shooting our sin. In our “actions against,” we shatter the sin. We become good target shooters. We don’t give the temptation or sinful tendencies any oxygen. We starve them quickly and feed the virtues we want to strengthen and grow.
We are in this battle for life, so we might as well get a good aim and shatter the sinful targets as quickly as we can.
God bless you!
Mary Ann / Mother Hen
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