[ faith and life .]
Life and FacesSin-consciousness > Original sin
2008-07-16
Sin - consciousness
keeps the world from becoming inhuman. This is why we maintain that an alert sin-consciousness allows us to live together in a more harmonious, human way. We cannot make a distinction between our failures before God and our fellow-man. When we are guilty toward men, we also turn away from God. And this alienation continues in the relationship between man and his environment. Every sin makes it worse. Looking at the pictures of sites bombed down during war, we may begin to see these connections.
Estrangement between God and man, man and fellowman, man and environment is the consequence of sin. And this shows that by turning away from God, we strike not at Him (this is impossible anyway), but at ourselves. We completely lose the sense of our destiny. Uncertainty, desperation, suffering, illness and death are signs of this. Everybody knows examples of how disorder and sin also destroy a man physically (drinking and drugs, slandering, etc.) It is not God who punishes sin, but sin punishes itself.
All of us experience how each sin increases the vulnerability to further sin. Once we are weakened, another sin does not seem to be so evil. And a chain reaction of further evils follows. And in the end there is often despair and then the question: Is there no God or does He simply not care about this tormented humanity? Man sins, but he blames God.
Original sin
On the other hand, we say, and rightly so, that man cannot be made the scapegoat for everything. Is there not much injustice and suffering in this world that cannot be blamed on individual persons? I cannot always be said to be personally guilty for it.
The Bible puts it this way: sin is not only sin as the deed of a single man, but also as the given situation of the human existence from the beginning. Every person is born into a world marked by sin. Before he himself is able to do anything unjust, he is "stamped" by "original sin", a term that is not understood by many people. What do I have to do with the sin of Adam? Why should I suffer in consequence?
Normally, sin is understood as a personal deed, but this is exactly what "original sin" is not. This is why the Church teaches that no man will be lost on account of original sin alone, since it is a condition that deprives us of something that we should have according to the will of God: active friendship with God.
Sin - rejection of the love of GOD > Nobody without sin
2008-07-06
Egoism means putting things upside-down. God and humanity are there for each other, but man separates from God and makes himself the norm of all order. As a consequence, the sources of his life dry up.
But who still thinks about "sin" today? What is it really? Have we not lost the sense of sin? In fact, we know the various forms and the consequences of sin today as well as Paul did, 2000 years ago: people dominated by sin are filled with "all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." (Romans 1,29-31). But we are no longer used to recognizing these experiences as sin and calling them such.
The "shades" of sin
Naturally, we are not conscious every time we sin that we have offended against the will of God. Often, we realize only later that we are guilty. So, sin is not immediately sin. There are degrees of sin, depending on how conscious and premeditated the NO to the will of God was. God judges us according to our attitude, our intention, how closely our action conforms to our conscience. What the action was is not decisive in itself. It may be that someone commits a sinful action without being guilty, since he or she does not see nor want its sinfulness.
Nobody is without sin
Everybody experiences failure, neglect or omission. We are always less than what we could be and, according to God's plan, should be. "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. (John 1,8).
Consequences of sin
When a sin has been committed, it is not finished. The condition of guilt exists. This is true of inter human relationships, where lies are followed by hatred, egoism and alienation. In the same way a (serious) sin leads to alienation from God and breaks the bonds of love between God and man.
There is a secret craze of innocence spreading in our society. Failure and guilt, if any, is always found with other people only, with the past, nature, heredity and the environment. We like to credit our own account with the success of our actions. But if there are negative consequences, we deny our responsibility and we always find new excuses and alibis for our mistakes and faults. These defense mechanisms even enter our interpersonal relationships. Our attitude toward life and all our planning ceases to be directed by a feeling of being responsible for each other and calculations of our own profit prevail.
....life and faces (cartoon puzzle) ugl
2008-06-26
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