{"id":22188,"date":"2022-09-02T15:21:12","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T20:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=22188"},"modified":"2022-09-02T15:31:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T20:31:53","slug":"sin-lets-talk-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/sin-lets-talk-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin. Let’s talk about it!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you\u2019re over 50, you were brought up with a pretty clear idea about sin. Quite simply, it was doing something \u201cbad\u201d. Lying, cheating, stealing, lusting . . . are the first things that come to mind. And when we did any of these things, we pictured a \u201cblack mark\u201d on our soul; some dirt or mud that covered our former innocence. To this day I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a bad start (at least for children) in realizing the damage sin causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s go deeper. What IS sin? Does it exist? Can you hold it in your hand? The answer is \u201cnot quite like that\u201d. It exists in a negative way. Let me explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evil (another name for sin) can only be detected in the presence of Goodness. Think of the bright sunlight that falls on your apple tree. Both the sunlight and the tree have their proper being and purpose. There is a positive \u201cgood\u201d to them. But there on the ground, is a shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shadow only exists because of your lovely tree. The most that can be said about shadows is that they lack sunlight! Shine a light on them and they disappear! Theologians say sin\/evil is a \u201cprivation\u201d, a \u201clack of being\u201d. Something is wrong, only in light of what\u2019s true. That\u2019s why the devil is called the Father of Lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many other images help us picture the negative nature of evil. Rust holes on your car\u2019s fender, a vacuum that sucks up oxygen, a hole in a perfectly good pair of socks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

So what does sin lack? That\u2019s simple . . . goodness. Another way to put it, sin lacks love. And what is the source of all love? God. And so, finally, we can come to an adult understanding of sin as \u201cthat which offends against God who is love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see now why the 10 Commandments are couched in negative terms, \u201cThou shalt not\u201d. In other words . . . refrain from doing what is lacking in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s why \u201cconfessing our sins\u201d is not a matter of finding the times when we \u201cbroke the rules\u201d. It\u2019s recognizing when we have injured goodness as it exists in truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What does Jesus tell us about sin? Without abandoning \u201cthe shalt not\u201d of the commandments, Jesus gives us a new law based on the positive. \u201cI give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d John 13:34<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So two things are at work here: refrain from doing evil, but also to DO<\/strong> good. A good check on ourselves and our actions is to ask the question, \u201cWhat would love do?\u201d St. Paul\u2019s letter to the Corinthians is a reminder of what love DOES<\/strong>. (1 Corinthians 13<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, in going to confession, certainly there are things that we have done that are \u201cbad\u201d and for these we are sorry. But let\u2019s begin to see these sins as lacking what love wants us to do. And in seeking to love as Christ has loved us \u0016- – – we grow in our union with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, show us the way to your Peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Tim<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re over 50, you were brought up with a pretty clear idea about sin. Quite simply, it was doing something \u201cbad\u201d. Lying, cheating, stealing, lusting . . . are the first things that come to mind. And when we did any of these things, we pictured a \u201cblack mark\u201d on our soul; some dirt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22188"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22202,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188\/revisions\/22202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}