About Sin
Much talked about... but little understood
It should not be a tool of enslavement through guilt
Much talked about... but little understood
It should not be a tool of enslavement through guilt
PURPOSE
The purpose of this brief document is to explain, to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear (1), what constitutes Sin, how to avoid it and how to conquer our predisposition to it. This is an illumination that Jesus Christ brought to humanity about 2000 years ago but that was turned from a liberating message, to a tool of enslavement through guilt.
BACKGROUND
As you well know, sin entered into humanity through Adam and Eve. Their disobedience to the only command God gave them (2) resulted in the much talked about Original Sin, a characteristic with which each human is born and few ever understand. This Original Sin gives us the predisposition to defy God, knowingly or unknowingly, through rejecting His Love when making a choice.
That "defiance" is really what constitutes Sin and that "predisposition" is what we call Original Sin - it is that simple.
Expressed differently - Sin is the rejection of Divine Love, a Love which has set down just a few basic Laws for our own well being ; a well being that is not defined as "instant happiness" but as "long term enduring happiness".
Without getting ahead of ourselves, but not wanting to miss this opportunity: The above paragraphs, not only define Sin but also establish how to resist AND conquer it. Sin can only be routed out by Love and the more we love God, the less we want to reject Him through our defiance of the few basic Laws He established for our own well being .
Brethren, this could not be any simpler. Unfortunately, the blind and deaf have yet to realize that the greatest control they could possibly have on the sheep is only attained through Love (3) and not guilt manipulation. St. John Bosco proved this over and over again by his life and work. (4)
DETAILS
As the saying goes: If we had a penny for every page written by "theologians" about Sin we would be immensely rich in the material plane. Obviously, so many pages have served no purpose, have they? Look at the world today!
Venial sin, mortal sin, in between sin, yak, yak, yak (5).... and the faithful continues to be disoriented and haunted by guilt. Let us, through the Grace of God, attempt to place some order into this chaotic situation.
In simple numerical terms: Commit Sin No. 1 : That yields 10 miles of separation between you and God. Now satan can influence you more because your "distance" from God has increased by 10 miles.... You now Commit Sin No. 2. This one, having been influenced greatly by satan, yields 50 miles separation from God, not 10 miles, but 50 miles. So now, you are [10 + 50 =] 60 miles away. Following the same logic, Sin No. 3 will be even greater than No. 1 and No. 2 sins, thus, it will an additional 100 miles of separation from God. So now, you are [10 + 50 + 100 =] 160 miles away from God - not 30 (10 miles x 3 Sins), and so on.
Now, let us review the "Law of Gravity" in the Spiritual domain through a brief parable:
For a rocket to reach, say, the Moon, it has to escape the gravity pull of the Earth. That requires a certain amount of engine power. Once that engine power is more than the minimum amount required to break away from Earth's gravitational pull and move away, the rocket is free to fly away from the Earth and keep on going, in theory, forever, thus its separation from the Earth could be permanent if it keeps on going.
The same occurs with sin. One may start with a "duly justified" minor transgression - the proverbial "little white lie" - and, if no correction is made, the next time it will be a bit less minor and so on. At each step we continue to distance ourselves from God more and more until the "sin power" increases to a point that it launches the soul on a journey away from God that may result in permanent separation unless there is Divine Intervention (6).
CONCLUSION
What to do? It is quite simple - as all from God is when the veils are lifted.
Avoid sin and all occasion of sin as much as it is humanly possible.
The purpose of this brief document is to explain, to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear (1), what constitutes Sin, how to avoid it and how to conquer our predisposition to it. This is an illumination that Jesus Christ brought to humanity about 2000 years ago but that was turned from a liberating message, to a tool of enslavement through guilt.
BACKGROUND
As you well know, sin entered into humanity through Adam and Eve. Their disobedience to the only command God gave them (2) resulted in the much talked about Original Sin, a characteristic with which each human is born and few ever understand. This Original Sin gives us the predisposition to defy God, knowingly or unknowingly, through rejecting His Love when making a choice.
That "defiance" is really what constitutes Sin and that "predisposition" is what we call Original Sin - it is that simple.
Expressed differently - Sin is the rejection of Divine Love, a Love which has set down just a few basic Laws for our own well being ; a well being that is not defined as "instant happiness" but as "long term enduring happiness".
Without getting ahead of ourselves, but not wanting to miss this opportunity: The above paragraphs, not only define Sin but also establish how to resist AND conquer it. Sin can only be routed out by Love and the more we love God, the less we want to reject Him through our defiance of the few basic Laws He established for our own well being .
Brethren, this could not be any simpler. Unfortunately, the blind and deaf have yet to realize that the greatest control they could possibly have on the sheep is only attained through Love (3) and not guilt manipulation. St. John Bosco proved this over and over again by his life and work. (4)
DETAILS
As the saying goes: If we had a penny for every page written by "theologians" about Sin we would be immensely rich in the material plane. Obviously, so many pages have served no purpose, have they? Look at the world today!
Venial sin, mortal sin, in between sin, yak, yak, yak (5).... and the faithful continues to be disoriented and haunted by guilt. Let us, through the Grace of God, attempt to place some order into this chaotic situation.
Summarizing: Sin is a rejection of God's Love that may lead to perpetual separation
from God. The seriousness of a sin is determined by the level of damage that such
rejection of Divine Law inflicts in God's Creation - human and otherwise.
Think of every Sin committed as placing "X" miles between a soul and God. The
furthest we move away from God, the seriousness of the Sin increases, so the value of
"X" increases.In simple numerical terms: Commit Sin No. 1 : That yields 10 miles of separation between you and God. Now satan can influence you more because your "distance" from God has increased by 10 miles.... You now Commit Sin No. 2. This one, having been influenced greatly by satan, yields 50 miles separation from God, not 10 miles, but 50 miles. So now, you are [10 + 50 =] 60 miles away. Following the same logic, Sin No. 3 will be even greater than No. 1 and No. 2 sins, thus, it will an additional 100 miles of separation from God. So now, you are [10 + 50 + 100 =] 160 miles away from God - not 30 (10 miles x 3 Sins), and so on.
Summarizing: The further you are from God, not only will you sin more but the
seriousness of the sin will also increase.
Now, let us review the "Law of Gravity" in the Spiritual domain through a brief parable:
For a rocket to reach, say, the Moon, it has to escape the gravity pull of the Earth. That requires a certain amount of engine power. Once that engine power is more than the minimum amount required to break away from Earth's gravitational pull and move away, the rocket is free to fly away from the Earth and keep on going, in theory, forever, thus its separation from the Earth could be permanent if it keeps on going.
The same occurs with sin. One may start with a "duly justified" minor transgression - the proverbial "little white lie" - and, if no correction is made, the next time it will be a bit less minor and so on. At each step we continue to distance ourselves from God more and more until the "sin power" increases to a point that it launches the soul on a journey away from God that may result in permanent separation unless there is Divine Intervention (6).
CONCLUSION
What to do? It is quite simple - as all from God is when the veils are lifted.
Avoid sin and all occasion of sin as much as it is humanly possible.
If your sin propensity is sexually related - avoid circumstances that will cause you to fall.
If you sin is gambling - stay out of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Macao, Monte Carlo, etc.!
If you sin is gossip - make an effort to never speak ill about anyone.
If money hoarding is your sin - make an effort to share more with those in need more.
etc.
If you sin is gambling - stay out of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Macao, Monte Carlo, etc.!
If you sin is gossip - make an effort to never speak ill about anyone.
If money hoarding is your sin - make an effort to share more with those in need more.
etc.
Is your excuse that you cannot do so because you are too weak? Who isn't? Paraphrasing our Lord and only Master Jesus Christ: "Let the strong one cast the first stone!" ["strong one" without Divine assistance, that is.]
Only the hypocrites deny their weaknesses even though they may be the weakest. Because of their lack of true Faith, they do not trust in the Mercy of God. If they trusted instead, they would not fear acknowledging their weaknesses to themselves - which is the first step in overcoming them.
Here is where the Love of God shines the brightest... When any of His creatures approach Him seeking His strength to avoid sin, which means : avoid drifting away from Him, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can stop Him from lending such help.
If you think that this is not possible, then you either:
(a) Do not really believe in God as much as you think you do; or
(b) You believe that evil is stronger than God.
(b) You believe that evil is stronger than God.
satan will try to convince you that God does not care for you enough to save you from sin. Wrong! Why would God create you if He did not care enough for you? We are not God's toys; we are the visible manifestation of His Love.
This is why we insist that anyone who is truly determined to overcome his/her sinful (disordered) behavior is the one who needs the Bread of Heaven the most - so as to gain the strength necessary to better resist the false enticements of sin - as long as scandal is avoided, of course (7).
Why spend time splitting hairs and categorizing sins?
+ Keep you eyes focused on God, not Sin.
+ Keep your eyes focused on Love, not Rejection and Punishment.
+ Keep your eyes focused on Redemption, not Condemnation.
+ Keep your eyes focused on Love, not Rejection and Punishment.
+ Keep your eyes focused on Redemption, not Condemnation.
The more you love God, the less apt you will be to drift away from Him.
Oh, yes... your mind may wander to the gutter, your physical desires will entice you to follow your mind, BUT, we know, without a shred of a doubt, that the closer you get to God - as the result of Love and not Fear - your chances of yielding to temptation will be greatly reduced until finally they reach "zero" for every category of serious sin and "almost zero" for minimal deviations.
EPILOGUE
We can hear a chorus of reader's voices saying: "All that is good and well but... What constitutes a sin in concrete terms?"
This is also quite simple: God gave Moses the Ten Commandments as to what to do and not to do. God, in the Person of Jesus, personally delivered a list of what to do (The Sermon of the Mount, for example) and what not to do. The Holy Spirit of God was sent to Guide our paths and choices. So, what else do you want?
He said "Thou shalt not kill". What part of that the faithful cannot understand?
He said "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and Jesus clarified that further. What part of that the faithful cannot understand?
etc.
The truth is that what man wants is someone else to tell him/her the exceptions of the Laws so that, like Eve passed on the blame to the snake, man can pass the blame of "selective killing" or "semi adultery" to someone else. Brethren, we have news for you - Did Adam get excused by God through his passing the blame on to Eve? No! Did Eve get excused by God through her passing the blame on to the snake? No! ...and the snake did not excused either!
Yes, as we explained (8), it is wise to have Spiritual Direction but the Spiritual Director is not to take the place of Divine Law and much less dispense exceptions to Divine Law. Why did the Roman Catholic Church invented "Just Wars" so that people could be "justly killed"? For the simple reason that they had to justify the use of brutal force to impose their temporal power by force while using the Holy Name of Jesus to do so.
Just remember: Do Not Despair - Never, Ever Lose Hope for All Is Possible With God! He loves you as no human could ever possibly love you and He wants you Home!
NOTES
(2) Not counting: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over
every living thing that moveth upon the earth. [Genesis 1:28]
(5) Giving credit where credit is truly due - the Roman Catholic Church Catechism
has an excellent section on "Mortal Sin" even though it is too wordy and complicated.
(7) 1Corinthians - Chapter 8
En Español: Sobre el concepto de Pecado - No debería ser utilizado como instrumento de esclavitud
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