Although to excuse ourselves for our faults is in many circumstances
blameworthy, whilst in general to accuse ourselves of them is laudable,
still when self-accusation is carried too far, it is apt to run into
affectation, making us wish to pass for something different from what we
really are, or, with scrupulosity, making us persuade ourselves that we are
what we describe ourselves to be.
It is true that the just man is his own accuser and that, knowing his
faults, he declares them simply, in order to be cured of them by wholesome
corrections. It is also true that it is a bad thing to excuse oneself, an
excuse being always worse than the fault committed, inasmuch as it shows
that we think we were right in committing the fault; a persuasion which is
contrary to truth.
If our first parents had not excused themselves, the man throwing the blame
on the woman, the woman on the serpent, and if, on the contrary, confessing
their sin, they had repented, they would have crushed the serpent while in
the act of wounding them, and God, who had invited them to this repentance
by His loving rebuke, _Adam, where art thou?_ would in His mercy, have
surely pardoned them.
This was what made David pray that God would set a watch before his mouth,
and on his lips, lest he should be led to utter evil words. By evil words
he means excuses which we invent to cover our sins.[1]
Our Blessed Father advises us as follows: "Be just, and without mature
consideration, neither excuse nor accuse your poor soul, lest if you excuse
it when you should not, you make it insolent, and if you accuse it lightly,
you discourage it and make it cowardly. Walk simply and you will walk
securely." I once heard him utter these striking words: "He who excuses
himself unjustly, and affectedly, accuses himself openly and truly; and he
who accuses himself simply and humbly, deserves to be excused kindly and to
be pardoned lovingly."
There is a confession which brings confusion, and another which brings
glory. Confession, says St. Ambrose, is the true medicine for sin to him
who repents of wrong doing.
[Footnote 1: Psalm cxl. 3, 4.]