When we take the focus off of us and look at God, our sin is still before us, but in a general way. We know we are sinners, that no one is worthy in His sight, but that His love makes us His children anyway. And in our love and gratitude, we are sad to see Him offended and unloved, and we want to make up for that in some small way. So we embrace a life of penance (within reason!) in the right spirit, and a joyful one.

It is the difference between beating ourselves up with self-hate and saying, “I’m bad. I’m bad.” and keeping our eyes on God and acknowledging humbly that we cannot be good without Him. He makes us good, from the inside out. But we know that, on our own, we cannot even utter His name.