2cornucopias

Posts Tagged ‘Sin’

, , , , ,

The Unpreached Sermon: “a layman thinking like a priest”. Part I

In 08 Musings by Jack Reagan on 2013/01/05 at 12:00 AM

My dear friends in Christ,

Christmas is spiritual joy because it is the beginning of our redemption. God the Son has taken on a human form so as to represent humanity in the process of atonement. Yet, because He remains God, His future sacrifice on Good Friday will be acceptable to God the Father.  Without Christmas and Good Friday, no one, regardless of how well he has lived on earth, could ever get into heaven.  Without Christ original sin would condemn us all to hell.  Something to be grateful for to say the least.

The next part of this sermon some of you might not like.  Let me preface it by stating that when a man is ordained a priest (assuming the correct understanding, motives and intentions) he become an alter Christus (another Christ).  In his spiritual ministry he acts in persona Christi (in the person of Christ).  Thus in every Mass and Sacrament, it is Christ Himself in operation through His duly ordained priest.  Now I am speaking in persona Christi because I am responsible for the spiritual welfare of all of you.

Christmas is also a time of sadness. When I look out and see the extra crowd of people  at the Mass, I know that many of you are either Christmas-Easter “Catholics” or you are intermittent and casual Mass attenders.

(In all my years of attending Christmas and Easter Masses, I have never heard the slightest reference to the lapsed Catholics sitting right in front of the priest.  I wonder if Christ Himself would have ignored the loss sheep.)

, ,

Sin

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2012/06/29 at 9:11 AM

• Our passions and sinful inclinations can truly harm us by distorting our souls and making it more difficult to see the Truth and act upon it.

• I have talked about some of the dangers of falling into sin through a weak will: how it takes away our peace and makes us vulnerable to committing more sin, and how it can ultimately lead our souls to hell.

• I have also mentioned how the virtues of humility and charity, along with the spiritual practices of fasting and penance, can help us learn to master our wills and overcome the temptations to sin that our passions can provoke within us.

• In our Gospel today our Lord gives us a little primer on sin and the importance of trying to avoid it at all cost. Therefore, I’d like to talk a little more about sin, its effects, and what we can do to avoid it.

• Benjamin Franklin once said that: “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.” And he’s absolutely right! Not only is sin hurtful to the one who commits the sin, but it is also hurtful to those around us.

• As I’ve mentioned before, sin enslaves us. It makes us less than who we are called to be. Sin robs us of our personal dignity and it distorts our true character. As the French author Andre Gide put it: “sin obscures the soul.”

• But our sins also affect on those around us, and our Lord addresses this in the Gospel today. And being a cause of temptation for others or inducing others to sin is a sin.

• Jesus says: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

These are pretty harsh words from the Prince of Peace! But we must take them seriously.

• When we lead others into sin through our sinful actions, we jeopardize their souls. Or if our sins are known to others or made public, they may cause scandal – which can cause people to fall away from the Faith, thus jeopardizing their souls!

• Sadly, the Catholic Church in this country knows firsthand the devastation that scandal can cause. For example, in the wake of the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Church in 2002, hundreds of Catholics left the Church, especially in parishes where abuses took place.

• But even on a small scale, giving rise to scandal and inducing others to sin is something we must be wary of. One issue that comes readily to mind is dressing modestly. When we dress immodestly, we may lead others to sin, and this is especially sad when it happens at Mass!

• Parents, too, must be very careful about what they say and do around their children. Children pick up on everything, and sometimes they can be very quick to call you out for your sins and moral failures.

• But what’s worse than that is that children often end up committing the same sins as their parents. If you’re living in a way that is morally compromising or if you have habitual sins that are apparent to your kids, it’s very likely that they will think nothing of doing the same things as they grow older.

• Thus, it’s very important that we try to make reparation for the damage we cause to others by our sinful actions. It begins by making apologies when necessary.

• As weak humans, all of us sin from time to time. No one outside of Jesus and our Lady have ever lived perfect lives. And because we sin, we must ask for forgiveness, first from God, but also from those who may have been affected by our sin.

• But in addition to asking for forgiveness, we also need to show we’re sorry for our sins and make restitution, and that’s why the priest gives us a penance whenever we go to confession.

• Penance helps us to restore the balance of justice we disrupted by our sin. It’s a way that we can make up for what we’ve done wrong. And that’s why it’s important for Catholics to perform acts of penance on a regular basis.

• Penance brings healing to our soul, and it helps us right our relationship with God. Penance also helps to deepen our sense of contrition, making us less likely to commit the same sin again in the future.

• In addition to talking about leading others into sin in today’s Gospel, our Lord also speaks about the necessity of avoiding whatever leads us to sin.

• We are told: if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. . . . And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. . . . And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, for it is better to go through life without these things rather than be thrown into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.

• Hopefully it’s obvious that our Lord is speaking figuratively here. He doesn’t really expect us to maim ourselves.

• Our Lord’s point is that we should do everything in our power to avoid those things that lead us into sin, what we call in Catholic parlance: “the near occasion of sin.” Jesus makes the point that we should do this because if we don’t, there may be – very literally – hell to pay.

• I say this not to scare you, but simply to underscore our Lord’s own words. Please understand, my friends, that when it comes to sin, the stakes are high. So many people today waltz through life, sinning with reckless abandon, with nary a thought to the consequences.

• And yet there are always consequences to our sins, whether we recognize them or not. Sin not only offends God, but it alienates us from God and makes it harder for us to love and live a holy life. So we must try with all our might to avoid sin at all cost.

• Personally, I love the stories of the virgin martyrs, like St. Agnes, and even more recently, St. Maria Goretti, who preferred to die rather than allow themselves to be defiled by sin.

• They give us hope and show us a great example of courage in the face of sin. The virgin martyrs remind us of how we are called to love God above all things – even our own lives.

• Now if we wish to avoid sin, then we must also avoid the near occasion of sin. For a lot of us in today’s world, that means being very careful about the type of media we expose ourselves to, especially on television and the internet.

• It also often means learning to avoid or limit contact with those people in our lives who easily lead us into one of the 7 deadly sins like anger, lust or envy.

• Ultimately, we must learn to constantly throw ourselves on God’s mercy, and trust that He will give us the grace we need to overcome temptation when we face it, and that He will forgive our sins when we fall prey to our temptations if we make a good confession.

• My dear friends, let us listen well to the words of our dear Lord today. Let us flee from every temptation to sin as if our lives depended upon it, for in truth, they do.

Copyright 2009 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

, , ,

Actions by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2012/06/21 at 9:00 AM

• One of the lessons my father constantly tried to teach my siblings and me while we were growing up is that our actions have consequences. One of my father’s favorite phrases that we heard over and over again was “think before you act.”

• While Dad wanted to orient us toward making right decisions, toward choosing the right things in life, he also simply wanted to protect us from harm.

• Unfortunately, like most boys my brother and I had to learn this lesson the hard way. But somewhere around age 12 or 13, after I had broken a couple of bones and had dozens of stitches from various accident, the message began to sink in!

• Both my brother and I have a couple of scars on our bodies that remain as reminders of some of the bad decisions we made in our childhood.

• But as a priest, I can tell you that the scars we bear on our bodies from physical wounds are never as devastating as the scars that we bear on our souls from the bad moral choices we’ve made in life.

• One of the most poignant lessons that I’ve learned from sitting in the confessional every Saturday afternoon for five years is that our moral choices have a definitive meaning and finality. Our sins affect us. They wound us and scar us. And ultimately they can kill us.

• Both our first and second readings today talk about sin and encourage us to turn away and repent. But our Gospel story today follows on the heels of the famous story of the disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

• What’s most interesting about today’s Gospel is that when Jesus appears to the disciples, He identifies Himself by His wounds. Our Lord directs His disciples to look at His hands and feet as a way to prove His identity.

• As we consider our Lord’s wounds, let us be clear about something: we put those wounds there. Our Lord was perfectly innocent during His life on earth, and yet as Isaiah prophesied, Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our sins.

• And in the process of wounding Jesus through our sinfulness, we also wounded ourselves.

• In philosophical terms sin is a privation; specifically, it deprives us of sanctifying grace. It never improves or adds to us in any way. In fact, sin makes us less than who we truly are.

• Sin distorts our true self by taking away part of our true self. It always wounds. It wounds our relationship with God, with one another, with the Church, and ultimately it wounds our souls. But there is a bright side to all of this!

• In the Easter season we celebrate the fact Jesus has conquered sin and death. Jesus has definitively won the battle between life and death!

• While Jesus still has His wounds, these wounds reveal Christ for who He Is – the incarnation of sacrificial love – and they also glorify the Father. And those wounds, my friends, are the means of our salvation.

• In the same passage that Isaiah tells us the Jesus was pierced for our offenses, he also tells us that by His stripes we will be healed. Because our Lord was willing to take on our spiritual infirmities and to be crushed for our sins, because He is the expiation for our sins, we have been redeemed.

• And yet while Christ has won the war over sin and death, and while we know what the final outcome will be, the battle for eternal life is still played out in each and every human soul.

• While we know that Christ died to save us, we still have to exercise our free wills so that we choose to cooperate with the grace that saves us. We still have to choose to repent from our sins. In this process it is important that we understand just how devastating sin can be.

• It’s important to realize that our sins, no matter how small or insignificant we think they might be, can easily ensnare and entrap us.

• For truly, my friends, there is no such thing as a “little” sin or a hidden sin. Even those venial sins that we don’t think much about and rarely confess have the power to deform us.

• And left unchecked, our venial sins can quickly lead us to mortal sins and to an enslavement from which it is not easy to recover.

• To make matters worse, we are now living in an age and in a society in which many sins are glorified and even defended as fundamental human rights.

• And those people who do have the courage to speak out against the popular sins of today arelabeled as judgmental, intolerant, and even lately, as terrorists.

• As a pastor, I am constantly confronted with the responsibility of helping you form your consciences according to the teachings of the Church. Quite honestly, this obligation I bear toward you is not an easy one, especially when we consider the world we live in.

• I am often tempted to say less than I should for fear of offending some of you, especially when it comes to difficult issues like abortion, same sex unions, cohabitation and contraception. But, my dear friends, I cannot be silent. These things are intrinsically evil.

• If we do not repent of these sins or any other sins that the Church qualifies are mortally sinful, they can lead us into hell.

• I tell you this not to shame you or scare you, but because I love you and care for your soul, and as your father in faith, I want to protect you from harming yourself, just as my own father tried to protect me.

• Moreover, I want to remind you that priests are not the only ones who bear this responsibility of witnessing to the truths of our faith. It’s your responsibility too. As baptized Catholics you too have the responsibility of being a soldier for Christ. You too share in the apostolic mission of the Church.

• In the second reading today St. John tells us clearly that we can know if we are truly in relationship with God by whether or not we keep His commandments. When we don’t keep His commandments, we sin and thereby wound the Body of Christ and ourselves.

• And so, my friends, if you are living in a way that goes against the teachings of Christ, which are proclaimed by the Church, then please heed the words of the first reading today: “repent and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”

• Last week was Divine Mercy Sunday, and what Divine Mercy Sunday teaches us is that God’s mercy is for the taking, but we have to first acknowledge our sins for what they are, and then we have to do our best to turn away from them.

• As your pastor, I am less concerned with what your sins are, and more concerned that you at least recognize your sins as sins and do your best to repent.

• We can never presume upon God’s forgiveness; we must ask for it. So please do not be hard of heart, and please do not let pride get in the way of receiving forgiveness for your sins.

• Place your trust in the Church’s teachings, for they come from Christ Himself, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and they have been safeguarded by the Holy Spirit.

• And in repenting from our sins, let us together faithfully witness to the beautiful truths of our faith so that all men might be saved.

Copyright 2009 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

, ,

“Do not enter into dialogue with temptation”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/03/07 at 9:11 AM

You wade into temptations, you put yourself in danger, you fool around with your sight and with your imagination, you chat about … stupidities. And then you are anxious that doubts, scruples, confusion, sadness and discouragement might assail you. You must admit that you are not very consistent. (Furrow, 132)

We have to instill in our souls a true horror for sin. Lord – say it with a contrite heart – may I never offend you again! But don’t be frightened when you become aware of the burden of your poor body and of human passions: it would be silly and childishly naive to find out now that “this” exists.  Your wretchedness is not an obstacle but a spur for you to become more united to God and seek him constantly, because He purifies us. (Furrow, 134)

Do not enter into dialogue with temptation. Allow me to repeat it: have the courage to run away and the moral strength not to dally with your weakness or wonder how far you can go. Break off, with no concessions. (Furrow, 137)

You have no excuse whatsoever. You have only yourself to blame. If you are aware – and you know it well enough – that going along that path, reading those things, keeping that company, can bring you to a precipice, why do you persist in thinking that perhaps it is a short cut which will help you develop or which makes your personality more matured? You must change your plan radically, even though it demands an effort and means fewer amusements at your disposal. It is high time you behaved as a responsible person. (Furrow, 138)

, ,

The Great Deception by J. Reagan

In 08 Musings by Jack Reagan on 2012/01/28 at 9:11 AM

The Law of Degradation states that things will continue to degrade further unless effort is made to stem the downward movement.  Humans begin physically degrading from conception.  Illness, left untreated, becomes worse. Garbage does not improve its aroma with time.  A mind not used well does not become more intelligent. Unused muscles atrophy.

This principle applies in the moral order as well.  One of the basic words in Catholic vocabulary is “sin.”  Sin has been and still is the major cause of personal and societal ills.  At the root of every social problem is a moral problem or habits of sin.    Sin and redemption are basic tenets of Catholicism.

Illicit drug use is a moral problem (instant gratification). Having illegitimate children is a moral problem (impurity).  Unwarranted price inflation is a moral problem (greed).  Political corruption is a moral problem (hypocrisy).  And so it goes.  We try to solve them with non-moral means, and, of course, it never works.  The worst of it is that Catholic pulpits are mainly silent on the subject of sin.  I cannot recall the last time I heard a sermon on the topic, and yet polls show that Catholics are as immersed in the sins of the culture as non-Catholics.

Sin is real whether we like it or not or believe it or not.  If we look at what used to be Christendom, we see immediately that sin is alive and well.  Too many people exist in lives of chronic sinfulness, some because of ignorance, some because of indifference, and others because of malice in the soul.  Habits of serious sin (mortal sin) have consequences because sin is a rejection of divine law.  It is a rebellion against God (which is a rather daring undertaking).  Sin always exacts a price.  Somewhere, somehow, sometime the sinner must pay the penalty for his accumulated sins.

What are some of the effects of constant, unrepented serious sin?

  1. Life becomes disordered, i.e. out of order.  God has set up an order by which each person can live and fulfill  his or her potential.  It does not involve sin.  Obedience to divine law assures us that we are in harmony with this divine plan.  Disobedience renders our life irrational, in that we, by habitual sin, thwart the divine plan and make ourselves incapable of attaining God’s best blessings.  A habitual sinner is like a person who refuses to obey the rules of math, and always ends up with a wrong answer.  Moreover, no human has the standing, legally or morally, to decide that divine law is optional for him, and that it can be ignored with impunity.  Thus the habitual sinner exists in a state of disequilibrium concerning God no matter how “successful” he may appear to be in the world.
  2. The constant sinner has rejected the concept that the creature owes a debt of commitment to the Creator.  Sinners are committed to things of this world first … money, power, popularity, illicit sex in inordinate amounts.  The greedy person never has enough of what he craves.  Power often leads to other forms of corruption, etc.  The Creator is forgotten or ignored in the pursuit of ephemeral delights.  He begins to look for ways to rationalize his way of life and to associate with like-minded people.  The problem is that natural debt to God does not vanish because someone finds it inconvenient.  The one who never attends Sunday Mass has rejected the debt he owes to God, but God  does not free him from the debt.  The final cry of the unrepentant sinner, “The past has deceived me; the present torments me, and the future terrifies me”.
  3. Habitual serious sin is grossly deceptive.  Our Lord called Satan the father of lies.  As soon as the human race appeared on earth, Satan set out on a “con job” and was very successful in the Garden of Eden.  He told Eve that God was the deceiver in telling her and Adam not to eat of a particular tree.  Satan said that if they did eat it, they would become just like God and He didn’t want that.  “So go ahead! Take a bite.”  They did.  Not only did they not become divine; they lost all the gifts and blessings they already had.  And Satan slithered off to look for Cain.

Habits of sin affect the mind proportionate to the sins involved.  We change our values.  We begin to think that evil is really “not that bad.” (In fact, there are attitudes around that say a certain amount of activity that used to be called sin is actually beneficial to you such as “free love”.) Changed values led to the deaths of 55 million aborted babies.  We see the odd sight of “Catholic” politicians endorsing and voting for sin at every opportunity.  Ultimately, sin destroys the society in which it becomes an accepted part of life.  Every one of the past civilizations that existed died from suicide caused by moral failure.  We are on the same road now. The regime in DC flaunts its disregard of traditional morality, especially in matters of life itself.  Just this week, the current administration issued an ultimatum to the American Catholic Church demonstrating that those in power could not care less about its doctrines or its conscience; Catholic institutions must toe their immoral line or else.

G.K. Chesterton said that unless man becomes an enemy of evil, he will not only become its slave, he will end up championing it.  How many “Catholics” vote at odds with their Faith? Far too many!  The divine moral law (the Ten Commandments) will never change even if every human votes to rescind it. It just doesn’t work that way. The Law of Degradation applies to sinners.  Those who begin their anti-God rebellion may begin with one type of sin, but it is not long before other types become habitual as well.  Just as one initial disease can cause others to appear, habitual sin has a way of expanding because the sinner can only rely on the grace of repentance.

It is no longer “cool” to believe in sin, judgment, Heaven, Hell, good and evil, truth and error. But these ideas matter and have objective existence even if we snicker and sneer at them. The most important moment of your life is the last one. If you have lived striving to be obedient to divine law, you can smile.  If you have lived according to your own laws …

, , ,

Repentance

In 07 Observations on 2011/04/22 at 3:39 PM

One cannot merely scrape away at the surface of evil; one has to get down to its roots, its causes, the inner truth of conscience….Lord, let me know how to live and walk in the truth.  K. Wojtyla