Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31)
Christos Yannaras writes:
In this sense the Church’s gospel “endorses” sin: it confirms that in the pursuit of true life the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the robbers – not those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous” (Luke 18:9) – precede us, show us the way. It confirms that our precursors in freedom from nature are those who have really renounced any trust in nature, trust in their capabilities, the successes in exercising self-control, the psychological satisfactions of the ego. They are those who see theirself as so sinful that it does not allow them the slightest margin for placing any trust in it. All that remains for them is to surrender themselves to the relationship to abandon themselves to love. ( Against Religion: The Alienation of the Ecclesial Event, p. 47)
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. [Step 1 & 2 of The Twelve Steps]
In the desert fathers we encounter a story which shows the help of having a sponsor to talk to when one is being overwhelmed by one’s addiction.
And another brother also was engaged in a war against fornication, and he rose up by night, and came to one of the old men and told him his mind, and the old man persuaded him to endure, and he was helped, and went back to his cell. And again he came unto the old man, and again he helped him, and the brother went back to his cell; and the war came upon him the third time, and again he went back by night to the old man, and the old man did not cause him pain but spoke with him for his benefit, and said to him, “Give it no opportunity, but come here whenever the devil vexes you, and you will expose him, and when he has been exposed he will take to flight. For nothing goads the devil of fornication so much as that a man should hide his thoughts and not reveal them.”
Now that brother came to the old man eleven times and made accusations against his thoughts, for he wished to be helped; and when the old man spoke unto him that devil took to flight, but when he came back to his cell the war came upon him. At length the brother said unto the old man, “Do an act of grace, father, and tell me a word whereby I may live.” The old man said unto him, “Be of good courage, my son, and if God permits my thought it shall come to you, and you shall bear it no longer, but you shall depart being innocent.” He said this, and God did away the war of that temptation. (adapted from The Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers (Volume 2), Kindle Loc. 2237-47)
Fraternized 