Me? I have nothing to apologise for

“No one is going to lecture me on morality... And certainly not that person...”

We often hear it from politicians. But it truly defines certain general character traits of Spaniards: arrogance, pride and haughtiness. This is how at least how Fernando Díaz Plaja defined it in his book El español y los siete pecados capitales (The Spanish and the Seven Deadly Sins), in 1966.

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I remember an interview with the Spanish Communist leader Santiago Carrillo about two years before his death.The interviewer asked him: “Don Santiago, do you regret anything in your life?” Then, Carillo, with his characteristic calm and measured manner, replied: “No. I have nothing to regret... Nothing”.

[destacate]When asked by the interviewer if he repented of anything, King Juan Carlos said: “I try not to have regrets... We all make mistakes”[/destacate] One got the impression that he was on guard in case the interviewer decided to ask him about the ‘Paracuellos affair’ during the Civil War. But no, the interviewer didn’t ask about it. But even if Carrillo had no responsibility for those thousands of murders (what a huge responsibility that would be!), is it possible that after living for more than 90 years, someone can say that they have nothing in their life to repent for?

Only out of arrogance or a desire to look good in front of others could someone give an answer like the one given by that old politician.

Because I, at the age of 13, 14 and 15, already had many things to regret. Augustine of Hippo's ‘stealing of pears’ when he was a young man, which he spoke of in his Confessions and which he so deeply regretted before God, would be a joke compared to some of my actions at that young age.

But something similar happened in the interview with the Spanish King Emeritus Juan Carlos I on the publication of his book, some weeks ago. When asked by the interviewer if he repented of anything, Juan Carlos said no, and added: “I try not to have regrets... We all make mistakes... I would be more careful if I had to start over”

[destacate]Trying ‘not to have regrets’ is a way for people to ignore their consciences, which continually accuse them[/destacate]These statements are nothing more than a way of avoiding repentance, which would be necessary for those who know they have sinned gravely. Because trying ‘not to have regrets’ is a way for people to ignore their consciences, which continually accuse them and aim to ‘lead them to repentance’ (see Romans 2:4).

On the other hand, the phrase ‘we all make mistakes’ is another way of trivialising serious sins and generalise responsibility, as if to say ‘others are no better than me’ or ‘I am no worse than others’.

But there is a great difference between the ‘mistakes’ in our lives and those other ‘things’ that offend God and our neighbour... There is no escape; the only option is to proceed to repentance, as God commands us in His Word. To ask sincere forgiveness for the wrong done and to try to make restitution for the damage done. That is what I already learned as a child when I was a Roman Catholic. What’s more, this is also in the Bible. Because trying to look good in front of people, appealing to all the good you may have done, without acknowledging the evil... that will not excuse you before society, much less justify you before God.

Learning and be ready to change is almost impossible for someone who has shaped their character throughout their life in the context of a people and a culture that, as we said at the beginning, is characterised by being arrogant, proud and haughty; even when this is cloaked in apparent ‘simplicity’, ‘naturalness’ and even, in some cases, ‘religiosity’.

[destacate] It is not enough to be ‘Catholic’ or ‘Protestant’ but to have been the object of God’s grace and a true conversion to God[/destacate]Nothing new under the sun. Early Christianity had to struggle against this tide as well. Nations have their ways of being, and what is negative cannot be changed except by a transforming power stronger than that which has shaped people’s lives over the centuries.

That power is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why it is not enough to be ‘Catholic’ or ‘Protestant’ but to have been the object of God’s grace and a true conversion to God, which is always, always brought about by the power of God (Romans 1:16-17).

The first attitude described in the statement, ‘No one gives me moral lessons...’ expresses pride and is destructive because it is not open to advice, exhortation, and that which is so hated today: repentance.

The second attitude, one of humility and openness to true wisdom, is edifying because it enriches our lives and the lives of those who witness that another way of ‘seeing things’ is possible, without having to justify ourselves before others. This, in addition to opening the way to God and His eternal salvation.

Ángel Bea, evangelical pastor in Spain.

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