Sins of Omission

Sometimes we hear someone defensively say, “I haven’t done anything” – but innocence isn’t always merely a matter of not doing anything. The privilege of living calls for positive performance, and sometimes the sins of omission are as serious as the sins of commission. It isn’t enough merely not to have done wrong. It is also essential to do right. And if we haven’t performed our part, 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 is what we should have done but didn’t do. The talents we fail to develop, the opportunities we pass by, the kindness we might have offered others, the work we withheld, the products we could have produced, the encouragement we might have give the downhearted, the comfort we might have offered someone in sorrow, the things we should have taught our children, the falsehood we could have corrected, the friends we might have defended, the part we might have played in solving problems, the commandments we didn’t keep, the good we didn’t do – all this 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 the Master was indicating, but also those who didn’t do what should have been done. Doing things we should do when we should do them is the essence of all our opportunities. 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.