Innocence

This morning one of the brothers was preaching on innocence. He reminded us of the roots the word has in a sense of of harmlessness. "Innocence" is compounded from the Latin verb noceo, to harm, as in the medical motto, primum non nocere, "first do no harm."

We can fail to understand innocence because of the backwardness of the world's logic; it makes us look at innocence as a lack, a lack that is then completed by experience or wisdom.

Real innocence is, in fact, the power not to harm ourselves, others, and the earth by our sins. The corruption of sin traps us in patterns of thinking and acting by which we come to hurt ourselves and those around us. To become innocent is to recover the power not to hurt anyone.