Rev José Mario O Mandía
jmom.honlam.org
We have spoken about physical evil and moral evil (cf BST 53 – 56). Let us speak more about moral evil – sin.
In the book of Jeremiah (2:12-13), the Lord says: “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
These words illustrate clearly what sin is. It is turning away from the One who can satisfy our innermost longings, and consoling ourselves with temporary solutions to our sadness and anxieties.
As we have seen in BST 54, the sin of our first parents inflicted a wound on our nature and made us all vulnerable to sin (cf CCCC 77). St Paul says in his Letter to the Romans (5:19): “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners …” But he adds right away in the same sentence: “… so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
By wanting to be like God, Adam and Eve forfeited the very gifts that made them God’s image and likeness, particularly the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace that made them sharers in the divine nature. However, Jesus Christ restored the possibility of becoming like unto God. Through His life, He set a visible example for us to follow. Through His suffering, death and resurrection, He purchased for us the light and strength – the grace – that we need to be able to win Heaven. He helped us recover a privilege that we never deserved in the first place.
The Church constantly reminds us to acknowledge our sinfulness and our tendency to evil. Each time we attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the celebrant invites us at the beginning of the liturgy: “Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.” Let us admit that we have sinned!
Saint John, in his First Letter (1:8-10) says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
The CCCC (no 392) summarizes the Church’s teaching on sin. “Sin is ‘a word, an act, or a desire contrary to the eternal Law’ (Saint Augustine). It is an offense against God in disobedience to his love. It wounds human nature and injures human solidarity. Christ in his passion fully revealed the seriousness of sin and overcame it with his mercy.”
The Catechism points out that any offense against God is also an offense against human nature and human solidarity. In other words, any personal sin is also a social sin. This definition applies to sins that may not seem to have any external repercussion.
That’s why St John Paul II pointed out in his Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et paenitentia (2 December 1984) that we live in a “shattered world” where we suffer divisions of all kinds “from the growing disproportion between groups, social classes and-countries, to ideological rivalries that are far from dead; from the opposition between economic interests to political polarization; from tribal differences to discrimination for social and religious reasons” (no 2).
The Holy Father added: “it is only by a careful examination that one can detect their root: It is to be found in a wound in man’s inmost self. In the light of faith we call it sin: beginning with original sin, which all of us bear from birth as an inheritance from our first parents, to the sin which each one of us commits when we abuse our own freedom” (no 2).
(Image: jeffjacobs1990@pixabay.com)
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