What is in an Apology?

I wasn't sure that I really wanted to write about this, but it seems that I cannot get past the "apology" of Tiger Woods. We all know what he did, you can't really escape it. And I don't necessarily want to talk about the quality or lack thereof in his apology. But what I do want to talk about is why?

I find it entirely ironic that a society that willingly accepts and even promotes behavior from its celebrities, sports stars and music stars that most of us consider wrong (at best) and downright horrible (at worst), would feel that it is owed an apology from this man. Is it because we allowed him to make so much money? Is it because we made him a star? Why is it that a society that is essentially devoid of God and bristles at the notion of "right" and "wrong" feels itself so wronged by what he did?

There may not be a really good answers to these questions but I think there is a lesson for us to learn here. Christ says in scripture that we must not be concerned about the sliver of wood in our neighbor's eye when we have a log in our own eye. During our Lenten journey we are called to introspection, of looking within ourselves, at our thoughts and desires, and seeing them for what they truly are. We are not called to do that to others. As we saw in the story of Ham, we are called to look away from the sins and faults of others.

The media certainly did not look away this past week, nor did most of society. I think that if we could be half as concerned about our own actions as so many were about the actions of a man who is essentially a stranger, we might truly begin to practice introspection. Perhaps the media frenzy that was Tiger's apology was a wake up call for us to refocus our own attention and get back to the work of Lent: prayers, fasting, humility and repentance.

If there is an apology to be concerned about, it should be ours to God in contrite humility at our confession.