Day 246: Mercy and the Mystery of Sin (1846-1853)

• It’s Day 246!!

• ARTICLE 8: SIN

• MERCY AND SIN

• We can’t really understand MERCY until we understand SIN

• We can’t really understand what it is to be FORGIVEN until we really grasp WHAT IT IS we are forgiven of

• THE DEFINITION OF SIN

• THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIN

• So let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we pray to you. We ask that you please receive our thanksgiving, receive our praise today. And Father we also ask that in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we ask that you please grant us a heart that is open, a mind that is open. Grant us that gift of docility that you can teach us. And we can not just hear your words-hear the words of your teaching, but also to receive them. Help us to truly receive what it is you want to reveal to us today. The mystery of mercy and the mystery of iniquity, the mystery of sin. Let us in our hearts be convicted by sin. And let us in our hearts be convicted by your mercy. We ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• The Church begins ARTICLE 8: SIN by talking about MERCY

• Paragraph 1846 says, “The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God’s mercy to sinners.”

• What is the Good News?

• The Good News is the Revelation in Jesus Christ of God’s mercy to sinners

• What is required for the Good News to be good?

• It’s not just news

• It’s not bad news

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike’s heart transplant anecdote…

• The Good News of God’s mercy to sinners is NOT good news UNLESS we realize that WE ARE SINNERS

• In our culture, we have forgotten the REALITY of Original Sin

• Every single one of us is born into a broken relationship with God, with other people, and with ourselves

• The Gospel of God’s merciful love to us sinners is lost on us because we are not that desperate heart patient

• We are people who think we are fine

• We don’t think we have this need for mercy

• We don’t feel this need for forgiveness

• We don’t feel this need for God

• Why?

• Because we think we are fine

• BUT…

• If we pay attention to the REALITY OF OUR LIVES that every single one of us is born into this world with a broken relationship with God, other people, and ourselves

• We continue to break our relationship with God, with other people, and with ourselves

• THEN we realize that we need this Good News

• We need this Good News to be ABSOLUTELY TRUE

• Paragraph 1846 continues, “The angel announced to Joseph: ‘You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ The same is true of the Eucharist, the sacrament of redemption: ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”

• We love the Eucharist because this is TRULY Jesus Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity at Mass

• AMAZING!!

• The Eucharist is the sacrament of REDEMPTION

• If we are going to receive God’s mercy, we have to admit our faults

• If we are going to receive God’s mercy, we have to admit the fact that we need mercy

• If this gift is perceived as a burden, then the joy and gratitude of the amazing Good News of God’s mercy is LOST

• BUT…

• When we realize that we are dead in the water…

• When we realize that we are NOT GOOD ENOUGH…

• When we realize that God is good…

• When we realize that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is enough…

• Then we have to realize that we have to admit our faults and realize that we need Him 

• Paragraph 1847 says, “‘God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us.’ To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’”

• God created us without our permission

• BUT…

• God will NOT save us WITHOUT our permission

• This is why we need to admit our sins and acknowledge our need for God

• We were lost and have been found

• That is why Amazing Grace saved a wretch like me

• Paragraph 1849 says, “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as ‘an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.’”

• When we have chosen sin, we have traded the ultimate thing, which is God Himself, or a penultimate thing like love of neighbor, for a non-ultimate thing

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike recap the story of Jacob and Esau and the red stuff…

• Here’s Fr. Mike’s definition of sin: “God, I know what you want. I don’t care. I want to do what I want to do.”

• Every time we lie, we are trading in the truth, that is connected to God himself, for the convenience of the lie of getting out of the truth

• Every time we give in to the sin of gossip, we are trading taking care of our neighbor for the momentary pleasure of having information that gets people interested in us

• Every time we sin, there is an ATTACHMENT

• A PERVERSE ATTACHMENT TO CERTAIN GOODS

• A perverse attachment does not order them rightly in the sense that God ALWAYS needs to be the ultimate

• ULTIMATE is love of God

• PENULTIMATE is love of neighbor

• True love is willing the good of the other

• AND YET…

• We can sometimes have this perverse attachment to certain goods that causes us to choose ourselves over God and others

• When we sin, we become less human

• It wounds our very nature

• We are made for goodness, truth, life, joy, and beauty

• Every time we sin it wounds all those things

• Every time we sin it wounds human solidarity

• You can be someone who shares gossip or someone who is confided in with gossip

• At the same time, you realize that this person will talk about you behind your back as well

• So it wounds and injures human solidarity

• It is not just in our actions

• It is also in our words

• It is also in our desires that we feed

• Paragraph 1850 says, “Sin is an offense against God: ‘Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done that which is evil in your sight.’ Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become ‘like gods,’ knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus ‘love of oneself even to contempt of God.’ In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.”

• When we were kids we may have thought, “How can that be a sin? No one got hurt.”

• And we realize that every sin is not about did someone get hurt

• The measure of sin is did I violate God’s law?

• Did I work against what God has revealed to me that He wants me to do?

• “God, I know what you want. I don’t care. I want what I want.”

• In other words, CONTEMPT OF GOD

• What did Jesus do?

• In ALL THINGS Jesus was OBEDIENT

• He was obedient to His mother and father on earth

• He was also obedient to His Father in Heaven

• Paragraph 1851 says, “It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate’s cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas’ betrayal-so bitter to Jesus, Peter’s denial and the disciples’ flight. However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world, the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.”

• How does Jesus vanquish sin?

• THROUGH OBEDIENCE TO HIS FATHER!!

• IT IS REMARKABLE!!

• This list of all the ways sin can manifest itself can be a mirror for us, like an examination of conscience

• Unbelief 

• Murderous hatred 

• Shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people 

• Pilate’s cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers

• Judas’ betrayal 

• Peter’s denial and 

• The disciples’ flight

• These are all things we know happened at the Passion

• This list can help us

• “Lord, where is there unbelief in my heart?”

• “Lord, where is the murderous hatred in my heart?”

• “Lord, where is there shunning or mockery or cowardice in my heart?”

• Paragraph 1852 says, “There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: ‘Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.’” 

• Do you consider all of these to be sins?

• Do you consider that if you engage in them, you are omitting yourself from God’s Kingdom?

• Or here’s Jesus’ list, “From out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.”

• Do you believe these are sins?

• We talked about the difference between simply agreeing and actually having faith

• If we ask for examples, then we can simply agree or not

• If we have faith, we know that Scripture highlights these as violations of God’s law and what God wants

• I have faith

• I trust in God

• We have to trust that we have to do everything in our power and live by the Spirit so that we can avoid these sins and avoid hell and avoid eternal death

• Ok we may need to ask what licentiousness is

• But we need to move from “Prove it to me so I can agree” to the place of “Explain it to me, and I trust you.”

• Does that make sense?

• Some of these sins are in thought

• Some of these sins are in word

• Some of these sins are in deed

• Some of these sins are in omission

• BUT…

• The root of sin is in our free will and in our hearts

• We need the Lord in our hearts because from our hearts come these wounds and these sins

• Paragraph 1853 says, “But in the heart also resides charity, the source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds.”

• Your heart is good, just broken

• From your heart comes all these sins

• BUT…

• From your heart also comes love

• That is why we are focusing not just on sin but on sin AND mercy

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I’ll see you when I see you!!