5. Earthen Vessels to be purified

Prayer

"Against you alone have I sinned" said the great prophet and King David. Lord Jesus I know there is no other greater evil than sin. I have learnt right from my tender age that sin has to be avoided. In your name I have forgiven, as a priest, small and great sins in my pastoral ministry. Yet Lord I am getting used to sin because it almost surrounds me. I am losing the sense of sin. Send your Spirit into my heart and mind to understand the mystery of sin so that I may avoid it and its occasions and make others do the same.

What is sin?

Addressing a meeting on the “Internal Forum” the Pope Benedict XVI said: “The contemporary world continues to present contradictions so clearly outlined by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council (cf. Gaudium et Spes, nn. 4-10): we see a humanity that would like to be self-sufficient, where more than a few consider it almost possible to do without God in order to live well; and yet how many seem sadly condemned to face the dramatic situations of an empty existence, how much violence there still is on the earth, how much solitude weighs on the soul of the humanity of the communications era!
In a word, it seems that today there is even loss of the "sense of sin", but in compensation the "guilt complex" has increased.”¹

In fact , “Just a few years ago, its near disappearance provoked Dr. Karl Menniger to write a book with a question for its title: Whatever Became of Sin? As one of the most eminent psychoanalysts of our time, he acknowledged the wide variety of factors that can lessen human freedom, and in describing the mess that people make of their lives and the evil they can cause in the world, he made full allowance for the influence of heredity, environment, instinctual drives and subconscious motivation. But he insisted that there is still such as moral responsibility. To emphasize this conviction he pleaded for a revival of the word ‘sin’ and suggested that the world would be healthier place if we showed more concern for repentance and conversion. As a psychiatrist he explained that it does little good not repent a symptom, but it may do great harm not to repent a sin. He called on clergymen to exercise their spiritual leaders, to preach, to prophesy, to cry out. How? Preach! Tell it like it is! Say it from the pulpit, cry it from the housetops! Sin! Sin!” ²

One cannot escape from the unequivocal description of what happened in the garden of Eden which our first parents transgressed the command of God:"So when the woman saw that the tree was good far food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons"(Gen. 3, 6-8). Every sin, follows this pattern; sin is not only a disobedience to the command of God but self-destructive. Whatever God created was for man's good. To make him enjoy the company of God perceiving the beauty of creation. God's plan will always remain as He intended it to be. But man thwarts it not understanding what God wants of him.

Let us analyze the passage: the tree was good, the aim of creation. In fact, scripture says: "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good"(Gen. 1, 31.).But the reasoning of the woman is for immediate satisfaction. Every sin follows the reasoning of Eve. One commits sin not because what one sees is not good but good for the immediate advantage. However long time one takes to commit the act every time the immediate satisfaction of any of the appetites is inexorably connected with sin. It is enough to think of any small or great sin we have committed and we will realize that this aspect is contained therein. Here we are not dealing with the gravity or not of the sin but the psychology of sin.

The result is to find oneself "naked". It is not the lack of clothes that made Adam and Eve realize that they were sinners. There are so many tribes who go naked. But here nakedness means that our first parents lost their moorings. They found that they, were finitely independent they were without their Creator and hence they were in a hell of their own left to themselves. St. Augustine's words explain their sad and desperate situation:” Our heart is restless unless it rests in thee". The only way was to go out of paradise; it was not theirs any more. Scripture says that "he Lord send him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground tram which he was taken. He drove out the man"(Gen.3, 23 - 24). It is an anthropological way of saying but man found himself out of Paradise. It was not his any more.

Let us delve a bit deeper into this mystery of sin. "According to the witness concerning the beginning which we find in Scriptures and in Tradition, after the first (and also more complete) description in the Book of Genesis, sin in its original form is understood as "disobedience" and this means simply and directly transgression of a prohibition lay down by God. But in the light of the whole context it is also obvious that the ultimate roots of this disobedience are to be sought in the whole real situation of man. Having been called into existence, the human being - man and woman- is a creature. The "image of God", consisting in rationality and freedom, expresses the greatness and dignity of the human subject, who is a person. But this personal subject is also always a creature: in his existence and essence he depends on the Creator. According to the Book of Genesis, "the tree of knowledge of good and evil" was to express and constantly remind man of the " limit" impassable for a created being. God's prohibition is to be understood in this sense: the Creator forbids man and woman to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The words of the enticement, that is to say the temptation, as formulated to transgress this prohibition - that is to say to go beyond that "limit": "When you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like (like "gods"), knowing good and evil."

"Disobedience" means precisely going beyond that limit, which remains impassable to the will and the freedom of man as a created being."³

Man hides himself from God through his alienating concern for self-enhancement, self-determination and wisdom for his own glory. He refuses to see the gratuitous gift of God in all that man possesses and can do. Through its own literary genre, Genesis demonstrated the immediate grave consequences of this alienation from God. It renders man a stranger to himself and seriously disturbs his relationships with his neighbour and the world about him. The man who refuses to adore God seeks domination over his neighbour and even his marriage partner, sexulal relationship included. ‘Man shall rule over you’(Gen 3:16)⁴

A man who does not consider God worthy of being recongnized or adored inevitably chooses chaos of values. His whole life and personal relationships are disturbed by this fundamental alienation. ⁵

You can carry on reading the chapter of Genesis. The description is very vivid:” the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden'" (Gen.3, 8). As Hans Urs von Balthasar says the same fire burns in paradise and hell: the fire of the love of God⁶

As a result we are rotten at the source at the source and no clean water can issue forth from our murkiness: "Properly speaking man is not sinful because he commits sin, rather be commits sin because he is sinful in the depths of his core freedom. In this case, sin is not something he can commit instantly, for no one can change suddenly his fundamental option for God into a fundamental option for sin. It is not the rivulets issuing from the spring, but the spring itself that is poisoned"⁷

In order to understand the gravity and the enormity of sin let us go another garden: "This sense of abandonment profoundly lived by Jesus in another garden, the garden of Olives:" he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death remain here, and watch with me."(Mt. 26, 37-38).The Son of God as man is frightened... yet the person of Jesus is balanced no sin ever touched Him, but in agony "He sweats blood". The momentary happiness of Adam and Eve and their posterity makes the San of man so to say helpless and forlorn deprived of every consolation abandoned by the Father as if He too is chased out of the garden of paradise.

There is no compromise on the exorbitant damage the sinner brings on himself “In spite of all the compromises of theologians who go too far with a certain type of secularization, I firmly hold to the concept that sin is an offence against God, an injustice towards and Creator and Father, a refusal of his friendship. The death of Christ manifests to us this horrifying aspect of sin. However, we must insist equally on the other aspect, namely, that sin damages most of all the sinner himself and the world around him. The sinner falls into the slavery and alienation of sinfulness. He becomes a temptation to his neighbour and a source of alienation to his total environment. ⁸

Prophet Jeremiah vividly portrays the self destruction the sinner brings on himself: “Two sins have my people committed: they have forsaken me, a spring of living water, and they have hewn out for themselves cisterns, cracked cistern, that can hold no water”

(Jer 2:13). The two sins are here shown in their oneness; the second sins the unavoidable result of the first, namely, of forsaking the spring of living water. The prophets are very explicit about this: ‘Is it not your desertion of the Lord your God brings all this upon you? .. (Jer 2: 17-19)⁹

What the world need to day is “a rehabilitation of all the word ‘sin’. Not for its own sake, but in a way that will re-focus and revitalize our understanding of Christian morality, help us to accept responsibility for our wrongdoing, and enable us to appreciate the incredible, liberating and recreating gift we have been given in God’s forgiveness” ¹⁰

The consequences of sin is that man is not able any more to feel the presence of God; he will always be afraid of God he will feel insecure he will hide from God because he has lost love. He searches far happiness within himself. He is driven to despair seeing the goodness of the all-embracing Love of his God.

The sinful man is surrounded and embraced by the overwhelming love of God but he is like a man covered by a water proof metallic protection that does not allow the water to enter in: "A waterfall, rushing down in an endless, continuous stream, is a breath-taking spectacle, a telling testimony of God's power and might. lf a man were to stand under the waterfall entirely covered by a metallic armour he would surely stand dry, very dry. The metallic protection would prevent the thunderous waterfall from reaching him. The rushing waters are there, descending in a mighty torrent against him enveloping him entirely - and yet they cannot penetrate him, he stays dry. let is much the same with God's omnipresence and love for the sinner. As long as he is surrounded by the hard shell of his own selfishness, the waters of God's love cannot penetrate him; they simply bounce off; they may fall all around him, but they do not penetrate him" ¹¹

Sin an offence against reason, truth and right conscience; it is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbour caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. let wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. let has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law"¹². No wonder David cries out "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight"(Ps.51:4). .

The New Testament speaks on every page of God's love and mercy, which are made visible in Christ. Jesus, in fact, who "receives sinners and eats with them" (Lk 15:2), and with authority affirms: "Man, your sins are forgiven you" (Lk 5:20), says: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick do; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:31-32).

Another consequence is clearly seen in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifest its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate's cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas' betrayal - so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and disciples'

flight. However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of the world, the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly"¹³ .

The Loss of the sense of sin:

One of the great tragedies of the modern world is the loss of the sense of sin Pope Pius XII has told us. There is so much subjectivism in our relation with God that we are inclined to forget that sin as a mystery is an objective reality. The Lord had given the 10 commandments- they are inscribed in our consciences - to make man aware that if he does not follow them he is rushing headlong into self destruction. probably an undue emphasis given to personality development has obscured the reality of sin. Today disobedience is styled "responsible growth"; unchastity is named "self-fulfillment"; aggrandizement of riches or a comfort loving life is called "to be on par with the progress of a technically advanced world".

We know too well that sin is so ingrained in our nature that we cannot avoid all sins even venial for a whole life time without a special privilege from God as Council of Trent teaches¹⁴.

We are not intending to develop a learned treatise on sin but as priests anointed by the grace of God we must be very sensitive to God's offence however small it may be. Between individuals in love any lack of attention is a cause of discomfort. Perhaps we have the idea that it is only a question of venial sins, something very trivial, of no consequence.

We often forget that venial sin can be very dreadful handicap to our apostolate; Perhaps even more than a grave sin. In fact, Karl Rahner, who with his insight and experience could say: "Indolence, love of comfort, uncharitableness, arrogance - in a word, the sort of thing that gets on the nerves of lay people when they see it in clerics - are only venial sin, but how damaging they are to aid for souls, to our apostolate, to the reputation of the Church" ¹⁵

At the same time Rahner was able to appreciate and evaluate where the real danger lay. "Are there not people of whom we are inclined to say that they have in fact committed some grave sin and perhaps not yet got rid of it, but in the last resort are loving, selfless, inwardly looking to God, more than some others who nervously avoid introducing any kind of disorder into the tidy pattern of their lives? One of those beatified as martyrs at the time of the Boxer rebellion had been a hopeless opium addict and always said that his only chance lay in martyrdom, although in other aspect he was a devout Christian. His parish priest - rightly it might seem - refused absolution far years. Yet, if this longed far martyrdom, really knew and admitted before God how miserable and wretched he was and asked God to free him from his self-imposed imprisonment, may we not ask if, even before his martyrdom, his life was not really rooted and founded in the lave of God - more perhaps than that of the parish priest who rightly refused absolution?"¹⁶

Even though we may say that after all it is only a slight matter, a venial sin, and hence no need of confession our position becomes tenable only when we flee to God and ask far his mercy. Hence by the grace of God one can say that he has not committed grave offences yet he is not justified before God.

Freedom and sin:

Man's freedom is like an ocean with an infinite number of layers, of currents and

undercurrents that either move peacefully, making hardly a ripple on the outer surface, or churn forcefully the impenetrable depths of the ocean. There are innumerable levels of depth, but most of the activity takes place on the upper layers next to the surface, whilst the bottom of the ocean, which hardly ever stirs, usually remains dark, undisturbed, and impenetrable. Similarly, man's freedom is structured in a series of layers, outer, middle and inner, and it is deep down at the very bottom he takes a radical l decision, there that he makes a fundamental option far or against God. It is at this deep level that man constitutes himself as a lover of God or a selfish sinner¹⁷

In a moment of weakness a Christian may yield to the downward pull of the flesh, but taken by itself, this single sinful act, usually performed with man's peripheral freedom, does not have sufficient power to change man's fundamental orientation towards God which engages his deeper care freedom. The whirl wind will pass off and the marital quarrel will cease, but the general orientation will continue. Just one sinful act does not seem to be capable of destroying the indwelling and turning man's general direction towards God into a general trend against biro. This is, generally speaking, simply not possible.¹⁸

It should be carefully noted that "neither sin nor repentance from sin can be attained quickly, for both imply that man commits his core freedom either way and changes his orientation radically, and this, though possible, is not easy.” ¹⁹ It is really consoling to be aware that the “the Holy Spirit will not lose his grip on man so easily, for a really mortal sin, in the sense explained, namely, as destructive of the indwelling is probably not such a common occurrence as people imagine. God's lave far man, manifested in the reality of the indwelling, is far greater than man's self- destructive capabilities."²⁰

The fitting conclusion for this short meditation is what Fr Haring wrote in his book Sin in a Secular Age when relativism has taken its stand also among those who are professedly committed to combat sin. “The Pharisees and scribes, and some of their modern counterparts – theologians, canonists, specialists in religion – become such meticulous specialists that they practically lose genuine knowledge of God, and veil his countenance. This their estrangement becomes worse than that of the prostitutes and tax-gatherers.” ²¹ Which group do we belong?