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!
