Why do we talk about sin so much and why
is it so serious? Sin is the one thing that can separate us from God for
eternity. That is why Jesus often spoke about it. He said,
‘If your eye
causes you to sin, tear it out… or if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better to enter life without a limb, than to fall into hell with all your
limbs.’
So what is sin and what is serious or
mortal sin? I have also heard people ask if the teaching on sin has changed, or
become too watered down. Is that true? No. Sin is still sin. However, our
understanding of these things is all the time changing and hopefully growing
deeper, especially as we grow in understanding of how complex we are as people.
Before he was made Pope, Cardinal
Ratzinger said an interesting thing with regards mortal sin. He said that
probably not that many people commit mortal sin, because in order for it to be
‘mortal’—meaning it causes the death of the soul—three things are needed. You
must know that it is something very serious, you must deliberately choose to do
it knowing it is very serious and you must be completely free to do it. It is
not often that all those categories are met, especially the freedom part. All
of us are affected by compulsions and are affected by the stresses and strains
of what is going on around us and all of that affects our freedom. Sin is
always something for us to try and avoid of course, because it is what
separates us from God and only in God will we find total fulfillment. If sin didn’t
matter Christ would not have had to die for us in order to break the power of
sin, but it’s also important that we keep it in perspective or else we can feel
overwhelmed by our own weakness and become disheartened.
There is also a big difference
between falling into sin because of our own weakness and deliberately living a
double life. For example, a man (or woman) who is happily married, enjoying his
work and life and then one day he meets someone he finds very attractive and he
begins to lust after her, knowing that he should not. And he seduces her
disregarding his marriage vows and not caring.
Now imagine a different scenario
where a man is really struggling with his marriage, under great pressure at
work and generally finding life very difficult. One day he meets someone who is
very understanding, supportive and compassionate and they end up becoming
friends. One day they end up sleeping together, but afterwards they are deeply remorseful
and realize what they have done is wrong and they must end the friendship. Both
of these situations are sinful and adultery, but the circumstances are very
different.
I think we often forget to take all
the circumstances into consideration, but God sees everything and God is always
trying to help us, to encourage us. That is one of the reasons why God has
given us the beautiful gift of confession, so that we can begin again as often
as we fall and maybe more importantly so that we don’t become so discouraged as
to give up. Satan is the one who tries to discourage us, to tell us that we are
useless, hypocrites, a bad example and that there is no point in trying to live
the Christian life, because we are not able. The Lord does the opposite. Jesus
is the one who continually helps us to get up again and start over, assuring us
of his mercy and compassion.
In today’s readings we are reminded
that we have a choice. The first reading says, ‘If you choose you can keep the
Commandments. They will save you.’ We can choose for God or not, for sin or
not. God has given us that freedom and it is ours to enjoy. Hopefully we will
use it to choose for good. But even if we do fall, we can turn to God and ask
for his mercy. The important thing is that we are striving to live as God calls
us to, which is the path that leads us to him.
In the Gospel Jesus challenges us not
just to live on the surface in a legal way, fulfilling the minimum requirement
of what is asked, but instead to live from the heart. If my relationship with
God only involves attending mass each week and confession once a year, that is
living it at the minimum level. And we know what happens if we live any
relationship at the minimum level: it fades away. Why was Jesus so critical of
the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the time? Because although they
lived the law perfectly, they had lost a sense of compassion and mercy. We can
easily fall into the same trap. We can fulfill our religious obligations by
going to mass on Sunday and maybe giving to charity, but if the rest of our
life doesn’t reflect our faith in some way, then our religious observance
doesn’t mean a lot. Here is an example, although it is an extreme one.
I went to a conference one time and I
heard a lady give her testimony. She shared how God had healed her from
terrible abuse she had suffered from an early age, at the hands of her father. She
had grown up with incest, abuse and pornography all around her. Her father had
even sold her to other men. And yet this family went to mass every Sunday. Obviously
there was something seriously wrong there. That is a very extreme example, but
Jesus is telling us that just filling outward obligations is not enough. We are
called to something deeper than that.
You have
heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall
not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to
you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.
The same thing can easily happen in
religious life; we can life the ‘rule’ perfectly, while becoming monsters
underneath, as we have seen happen. It would be better that we don’t live the
rule perfectly, but that we learn to be compassionate and merciful, because our
love for God is expressed by how we treat the person beside us.
Finally, I think the most important
thing is that we strike a balance. Focusing on sin too much is not healthy and
we can easily feel discouraged and overwhelmed because everyone sins. Our life
in Christ is not about sin, it is about the freedom from sin that God has won
for us. At the same time pretending that we never do wrong is naïve. In St. John’s first letter he says:
‘If we say that we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us’
(1 Jn 10).
We will always be
sinners, but that is why Jesus came for us. That is what the mass is all about,
what the death and resurrection of sin is all about: ‘So that sins may be
forgiven.’ Every day we must choose for or against God. That is the freedom God
has given us. But one path leads to God and the other to separation from God.
If you choose you can
keep the commandments, they will save you;
If you trust in God, you
too shall live;
He has set before you
fire and water;
To whichever you choose,
stretch forth your hand.
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