Fixing the Wounds of Sin

Fixing the Wounds of Sin

Have you been to confession lately?  Why?  I don’t sin!  Oh, I allow small incidents to enter my viewing area when a very beautiful; woman walks by but that is common to most men or women.  After all, the root basis for procreation is the attraction that sex draws our attention to the opposite sex.  Without that the world would become childless and humanity would cease.

Of course your response makes sense in one way, but the scenario you are alluding to doesn’t release any of us using these gifts to procreate in a selfish manner.  Need I go back to the scriptures and get the advice from our Lord?  “You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.”  But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  (Mt 5: 27 - 28).  

Jesus is not condemning those who fail to keep the rules of purity.  What he is pointing out to the Scribes and Pharisees is that your insistence of keeping the law to a T has fallen short of perfection.  You who insist that everyone follow the 613 commandments that Moses prescribed but ignore the very essence of sin itself are far from being pure.  He adheres to them.”You who are perfect in the eyes of the common folk are not what you portray.”  “If indeed you require the people you seem to rule over to perfection, you had better reexamine your own understanding of just what sin is really about.”   (613 commandments called the Mitzvot)

A good penance to be given a penitent is to examine your heart and see if the seemingly small infractions that pass by your senses on a daily basis are not corrupting the very essence of your confession.  “I only committed adultery once, but deep down the lust that seems to bury itself in my mind's eye of sexual desire isn’t that bad.  Maybe I’ll keep that secret since I’ve hurt no one.

This is where the question of fixing the wounds of sin becomes an issue that needs to be looked at. Sin, as an entity itself, has been around since God created everything in the universe, and once he made humanity even the angels were subject to falling from grace because of pride; the father of sin itself.  Perhaps the fall of the angels with Lucifer showed that the gift of free will would become the one attribute that each of us and them would require an accounting of our respect for God.  

When man reaches a point of successful admonition he now accepts the responsibility of accounting for his deeds, good or bad.  The hypocrisy Jesus accused the Pharisees of was their continued requirement for their followers to do what they demanded while not keeping an adherence to their own failures of moral teaching.  This is not just a failure of leaders throughout history, it is the one corrupt entity that is going to destroy the moral capability of mankind and open the already wide path to hell even wider.  

We can bemoan the tragedies of war, the greed of nations and people, but the failure to realize our personal sins will be the hammer that pounds each one of us as a nail on the Cross of Jesus.  “Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.”  (Mk 15: 24).  

Ralph B. Hathaway