(Listen to this homily here.)
It has been said that the greatest sin in modern times is
the failure to believe in sin itself.
Indeed, if there is no sin, there is no need for a savior.
After
commending the church at Ephesus for their strengths, Jesus warns them: “Yet I hold this against you: you
have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first.”
An
important facet of the Christian life is to realize how much we fall when we
sin.
This
goes against modern attempts to dismiss sin altogether. One strategy used to chip away at the
reality of sin is to focus solely on communal evils such as poverty, war or
injustice without admitting of personal faults. Another is to blame all behavior on upbringing or
genetics. Another is to appeal to a
false understanding of conscience—if my conscience says its okay, it must be
okay. (While we must obey our
conscience, we must also inform it!
And while habit, addiction, passions and the like may diminish the
responsibility for sin, it never takes away the sin itself).
When
we sin we hurt ourself, our family, our parish and our Church. And most of all we hurt God. We must honestly recognize how far we
fall in sin, not to beat ourselves up or to fall to scrupulosity, but to fall
on our knees and ask forgiveness in Confession. When we recognize the depths we fall, we will have a greater
appreciation to the heights Christ’s mercy will bring us.
May
we take our sin seriously and ask for God’s pardon and peace.
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