The prayer of the prophet Daniel imploring God’s mercy invites us to question every movement of self-righteousness we experience. It is one thing to understand that we ourselves are sinners, another thing to feel and exert compassion for our sinning neighbors, and still another to implore God’s mercy and forgiveness on us all together as the body of Christ. Confessing our sin – as in the sin of the community, the people of God, is the place where humility and compassion come together. In an age of individualism, we could see repentance as an act where it is every man for himself. We could understand the “one soul that I need to convert,” as my own in a very self-centered sort of way.
