Sins of Omission

Sometimes we hear someone defensively say, “I haven’t done anything”⎯which suggests a subject: Innocence isn’t always merely a matter of not doing anything. The privilege of life calls for positive performance, and sometimes the sins of omission are as serious as are the sins of commission. It isn’t enough merely not to have done the wrong things. It is also essential to do the right things. And if we haven’t performed our part, if we haven’t been profitable servants, in the final accounting we may have difficulty in justifying the space we occupy and the substance we consume. The greatest good is not passive any more than the greatest evil is, and much that is missing in human happiness comes under the category of things we should have done but didn’t do. The talents we fail to develop, the opportunities we pass by, the kindness and consideration we might have offered others, the souls we might have saved, the work we withheld, the products we could have produced, the love we might have given those who are entitled to our love, the encouragement we might have given the downhearted and despondent, the comfort we might have held out to the sorrowing, the things we should have taught our children that now they haven’t learned, the word we could have said to correct a false accusation, the friends we might have defended, the part we might have played in solving public and private problems, the positive commandments we didn’t keep, the needed, possible, reachable deeds we didn’t do could accusingly come under the category of sins of omission. In the Savior’s parable of the good Samaritan, it wasn’t only the thieves whom the Master was indicting, but it was also those who didn’t do anything when something should have been done. Doing things we should do when we should do them is the essence of all our opportunities. If the Creator hadn’t created, the earth would still be without form and void. And when we face our ultimate just Judge, it may not be quite comfortable to account for the things we should have done and could have done but didn’t do.