‘Keep the commandments, and they will save you’
Credit to Author: Ricardo Saludo| Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2020 17:45:54 +0000
If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water; to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him. Immense is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power, and all-seeing. The eyes of God are on those who fear him; he understands man’s every need.
— The Book of Sirach, 15:15-19
When was the last time you heard a Mass homily about sin? Indeed, recall or listen to the sermon at today’s Sunday Mass. Chances are the word “sin” won’t even come up.
There’s a widespread and growing reluctance to talk about sin and divine punishment. This despite the majority of people who profess belief in transgressions offending God.
According to a 2018 religion survey, 2 out of 3 Americans hold that “everyone sins a little, but most people are inherently good.” Narrowing the data to just Catholics in the United States, 9 out of every 10 Catholic poll respondents accept the concept of sin, “that some actions are offensive to God.”
If one goes by today’s Mass readings, there are certainly clear admonitions in the Bible against sin. The Book of Sirach, quoted above, makes plain the choices before every
human being: “live and death, good and evil.”
The Responsorial Psalm 119 underscores that imperative to “follow the law of the Lord. … Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart.” In case that’s not clear enough, the Psalm continues: “You have commanded that your precepts be diligently kept. Oh, that I might be firm in the ways of keeping your statutes.”
The second Mass reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (2:6-10) compares “a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away.” That divine wisdom is “mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew.” Nor those who lord it over our age, for that matter.
Turning to the Gospel reading from St. Matthew (5:17-37), Jesus himself declares: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of these the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
Don’t talk to me about sin
So, why the apparent reluctance to talk about sin, despite the general belief in dos and don’ts that the faithful must follow?
Maybe it has to do with the way the rules and morals imposed by religion may be driving many believers to leave the Church and seek what is called in the US “religionless spirituality.”
Many believers are seeking spiritual life and experiences outside organized religions, eschewing commandments and conventions, and forging their individual ways of knowing, heeding and loving the Almighty.
Now, if the idea of sin and punishment drives away some or many believers, then that may dissuade leaders and ministers of the Church from talking about the “S” word.
On top of being turned off by admonitions against sin, those leaving the faith may also be influenced by the liberalism and relativism of modern culture, which gives paramount value to human freedom, and rejects any absolute view of right and wrong. Instead, all are accorded the right to live and believe as they wish without hurting others, the only limit on what one may think, say or do.
Needless to say, that view of right and wrong goes fundamentally against what religion has taught for millennia: that there are acts and omissions offending God, which must be avoided, period. And freedom of choice should be exercised in obedience to God, rather than personal willfulness.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus even goes beyond the strictures imposed on Jews, and imputes guilt in one’s heart, not just one’s hands. The Fifth Commandment against murder can be broken even by wishing ill on another. And the Sixth forbidding adultery also bars entertaining lustful thoughts and desires, which then Pope St. John Paul 2nd even forbade between spouses.
And our Lord also decries those who would cause others to sin, including those who lead the youth astray. And that may well be those moral leaders who not only fail to warn against and expound upon transgressions.
Or worse, proclaim that there is no such thing as sin, since we can decide what’s right and wrong for ourselves — the very faculty that the serpent tempted Adam and Eve to arrogate to themselves by eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Hang on, some may argue, isn’t mercy the greatest attribute of God, for which He even became man and died for our salvation? If He is merciful, will He still send sinners to hell and not forgive them?
God always forgives, but we must ask for mercy. Now, if one does not think there is no such thing as sin, why must he or she seek forgiveness?
Think about that as the Lenten and Easter Seasons, the greatest celebration and dispensation of Divine Mercy, comes upon us in the coming week.