When someone is baptised, the people present say together:

“Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin, the world and the devil, and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life”. (1)

Today we are gong to think about a topic – sin – which many people in today’s world do not like to think about.

Sin

Some people like to think that sin in general, and their own sins in particular, do not matter.  The short answer to that is to look at a Crucifix and to think of what it represents.  Jesus did not go through all that to save us from something that does not matter.

A sin is any thought, word or action which is wrong in God’s eyes.  Small sins weaken our friendship with God, big sins make us enemies of God and separate us from him.  And people who are separated from God when they die, who are not sorry for their sins and do not want God, will be separated from him for ever.  And that means being miserable for ever because God is the only source of true happiness.

Causes of sin

There are three things which cause us to commit sin.  Of these, one is within our souls, and the other two are outside.

Original sin

Since the Fall of Man, when long ago human beings first rebelled against God, every person has been born with a kind of disease of the soul, called original sin, and we were too.  This disease of the soul makes us treat ourselves, instead of God, as the centre of our lives.  That is why we find it so easy to please ourselves, even when it means doing something which is wrong and which displeases God.  Think of the way small children behave.  Small children think that a thing is good if they like it, even though it is bad; and bad if they dislike it, even though it is good.  They will think it is a good thing to eat chocolates and sweets just before dinner even though it will spoil their appetite; and they will think it is a bad thing to take medicine when they are ill, even though it will make them better.  They judge things by their own likes and dislikes and not by the wishes of their parents.

And so it is with matters of right and wrong.  We treat ourselves as the centre of our own lives, and so judge things by our own likes and dislikes instead of by God’s likes and dislikes.  That, then, is the cause within our souls which leads us to commit sin.

The Devil

Now for the outside causes.  The first is the Devil.  The Devil never has a day off.  He is always on the look out to take us away from God by tempting us to sin.  He does this by putting nasty thoughts into our minds in the hope that we will make them welcome.  St Luke tells us how the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness at the start of his Ministry and how Jesus resisted him (Luke 4:1-13). 

Occasions of sin

The second outside cause which leads us into sin is other people or, sometimes, other things.  Many people have been led into sin by bad companions or perhaps by bad books.  People – or things – which are a source of temptation, and which we know by experience are likely to cause us to sin, are known as occasions of sin.

Avoidance of sin

We have been looking at the causes of sin.  Now let us see how we can avoid them.

Original sin – self-denial

We cannot avoid this disease within souls that we were born with, but we can weaken it by self-denial, as for example in Lent when we do without things we like.

Sinful thoughts – turn them out

As regards dealing with sinful thoughts which come into our souls, the important thing is to pounce on them at once and show them the door.  We cannot stop their coming in, but we can stop their staying if we act quickly.  A sinful thought or wish becomes wrong only if we turn it over in our minds instead of turning it out.  So, when such a temptation comes, we should without delay send an SOS to Heaven for help, saying the prayer, “Jesus, help me” and keep on saying it if necessary.  If we are alone we can also make the sign of the Cross and remind ourselves of what Jesus suffered to save us from our sins.  But we must be quick, otherwise the sinful thought may fill our minds so that we do not even want to pray.

Occasions of sin – avoid if possible

So too with the occasions of sin.  These we should keep clear of these, if possible, altogether.  Very often occasions of sin take the form of bad companions, boys and girls who do no one any good.  One should have as little to do with them as one can.  Jesus put this very vividly when he said, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off…if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off…if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out…” (NRSV, Mark 9:43-47).  And he said that it is better for you to enter into (eternal) life maimed or lame or with one eye, rather than having your two hands or your two feet or your two eyes, and to be thrown into Hell.  Jesus is not speaking literally here – he is not saying that we should really harm ourselves physically.  But he is saying that we should be very careful to avoid the occasions of sin if we possibly can.

Moral and physical courage

Of course, people who stand on their own and refuse to join with others in what they know to be wrong, are often very unpopular.  That is why it takes a greater courage to stand out against what is wrong than to do some act of bravery which everyone will clap.  For example, it often takes more courage to walk away when dirty talk starts up, than it does to dive into a river to rescue a drowning person.  It is the difference between what we call moral courage and physical courage.  The Christians in the Early Church had both.  They made themselves very unpopular by refusing to go to wild beast shows because the shows were given in honour of pagan gods, but they were also ready to be thrown to the wild beasts rather than give up being Christians.

Doing good

Besides avoiding sin, we should also try to act positively to do good.  Suppose you notice that, whenever you are in the playground with a group of friends, there is a child in your class who is always left out and alone.  And suppose some of your friends start being unkind by calling the lonely child names.  You certainly should avoid joining in the name-calling, but you could also do a positive act of kindness by telling your friends to stop picking on the child.  You could go and speak kindly to the child and try and draw him or her into your group.  All of this takes courage but it is a way of being a good disciple of Jesus in your daily life.

The cure of sin

We cannot be cured of sin without God’s help.  By ourselves we can do nothing.  But we can be cured, gradually but surely, if we seek God’s help in three ways: daily morning and evening prayers, regular Confession and frequent Communion.  It is by our daily prayers that we keep in daily touch with God; by going to Confession we are separated from our sins; and by making our Communion God and ourselves become part of one another.  In the next two weeks we shall be talking about these two Sacraments.

SUMMARY