Instead of ‘being’ or ‘doing’ the wrong thing, a more useful understanding of sin may be of ‘missing the mark’ – a sense of not quite right-ness

• Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

As a child, I was taught we are inherently unworthy of God’s love. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” I would intone at Sunday mass, along with the other parishioners. I was imploring God, not just to overlook my theft of the last cookie in the pantry, but for something more fundamental. I asked him to remove the heavy weight of shame from my eight-year-old shoulders.

I had absorbed the doctrine of “original sin” into the marrow of my bones, even though it was hard to square with another key teaching of my church: God is love. Surely, I reasoned, a loving God would not send me to hell if I failed to believe in Him?

Jackie Bailey is an award-winning author whose latest book is The Outrageous Good Fortune of Living (HarperCollins). Jackie works as a funeral celebrant and pastoral care practitioner, supporting people to navigate death and dying

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