Paul’s lament has got to be so familiar to all of us, I think. Most of us really want to be better people, to live the right way, to give witness to Christ in our daily lives. And much of the time, I think we accomplish that. But there’s always that downfall in all of us, that pattern of sin, that set of circumstances or group of people who bring us back to the nastiness that is the evil in our own lives. And try as we might to do good, there it is, close at hand, as St. Paul tells us in our first reading. There seems to be no end in sight; no way for us to actually be good people. But all we need is the desire, and, as he also tells us, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the mercy and grace that is extended to us in the Sacrament of Penance. The more we desire it and approach it, the more help it will be to us. We don’t have to be good all on our own, we can’t. But, thanks be to God, we don’t have to.