On Sin

 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1John: 8-9

Recently a friend lamented some of the Church's failures, among them, focus on sin. I sympathize. Bishop Barron has said that leading with sin or leading with rules is a sure way to drive people from the churches. Two words are important in those two sentences, "focus" and "leading." The focus ought to be on our friendship with Christ, on His love and mercy. We should lead with that.

But wait. Mercy? Doesn't that imply we need it?

We live in an era in which the very word sin is frowned over. Someone very close to me announced—after following a new age spiritually program—that sin doesn't exist, it is a human construct. My answer to that was, "Have you read the newspaper?" On the other hand, many of us grew up under a form of Catholic practice overburdened with scrupulosity and narrowness, and we need to toss that off.

Does sin exist? Heck yes. It isn't hard to identify the things that are not of God if we look around.

• Chaos
• Violence
• Hatred
• Vengeance
• Inhumanity
• War
• Homelessness
• Starvation
• Domestic abuse
• Tribalism--any system that puts people in boxes

Sin in human nature, the nature we share, is all around us. Since the war in Ukraine its easy to feel like we're staring into Dante's Inferno. We have to wonder what we—each of us—does, no matter how small, to contribute the the world's share of those things that are not of God,

A more famous list are the traditional Seven Deadly Sins. We get the seven deadlies from the desert fathers by way of medieval practice and Dante. They have a pretty good handle on human nature, and they add the self indulgent ones to the violent ones: Anger, envy, greed, pride, sloth, gluttony, lust. It's a reasonable list of the dark underbelly of human nature.

So, if sin permeates human nature, what is wrong with the church's focus on sin, aside from bad PR? A lot.

Over the centuries the focus on individual sins (plural, as opposed to sinfulness) led to a way of thinking that sliced and diced, analyzed and categorized sin into smaller and smaller bits, mostly aimed at the confessional. There are three big things wrong with that.

1. It is ego-centric. The my sins/my perfection/my salvation point of view is a trap in the spiritual life. We are by nature self centered critters prone to view all of life—including spiritual life—as our own story. It isn't. It is God's story. Barron calls it the Theodrama. Our failings are myriad. In themselves they turn us inward on ourselves. Failing to acknowledge them is bad, but so is obsessing over them. God already knows we fail; He just wants us to admit it and turn to him. Focus on our petty little failings can become an exercise in selfish pride, in which we fail to keep our eyes on God and his mercy--and the grace he gives ups to be bigger than that. 

2. We make too much of the small stuff. Petty sin is the flip side of petty virtue. We're meant to live life fully with great courage and great virtue. The more risk we take the more danger we may fall into. The failures may be bigger. But oh! the opportunity for great love.

3, Clericalism. There is an arrogance and judgement in the church's approach to the sins of individuals--in some places, by some teachers, by some clerics. That's the institutional version of turning in on oneself and taking our eyes off Christ. It is extremely destructive. The issue of the sins of the institution itself, requiring public acknowledgment and reform, is another subject, one that undermines the role of priest as intermediary big time.

But what about the reality of sin? Yep. It's out there and in me to--insofar as I am human I am part of the human condition. Lately I'm asking myself what is repentance, and what do I need to repent? A couple of things have occurred to me. One has to do with the story of the rich young man in the gospels. He obviously had managed to avoid the big stuff. Jesus said, well, then give everything to the poor. Now, most of us fall somewhere between anger/violence/hatred and full on Saint Francis give all to the poor. Maybe where we fall on the selflessness continuum is where our need for mercy lies.

 I use an examination of conscience that begins with "Is God first in my life?" and moves on from there. As Jesus said there are two laws, "Love the Lord your God with your whole heart," and "Love your neighbor (aka everyone he puts in your path) as yourself." Sin is everything turns me--turns each one of us--away from those two laws in on ourselves and away from God. Mistakes made while attempting some ill conceived sort of love and generosity are likely more forgivable than pitiful little acts of greed and selfish indulgence. Its a work in progress, and I can't do it on my own. I require the graces He gives.

Saint Irenaeus said "The Glory of God is a living man" (sometimes translated as a man "fully alive") He goes on to say “the life of a man is the vision of God." In other words, the glory of God is a man who lives a grace filled life, here and in the next life.

Sin exists, sorry about that. The necessity for redemption is all around us. It had to happen. Thank Him. Love Him. We empty ourselves to be made full of Christ. That's the anti-sin. 

Next time? Reconciliation.

Photos

1. Grief by Bertram Mckennal

2. The Dark and the Light of Rosh Hanikra, photo by Christopher Down, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons