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.
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.
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.
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.
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!