Homily

It is a very strange thing. We see it so clearly in other people but we often have a more difficult time seeing it in ourselves. We wish other people would avoid it, but we ourselves often have trouble avoiding it. What is it? Sin! Isn’t it true that we can likely recall the sins we saw other people commit yesterday than we can remember our own. Did you sin at all yesterday? No? Sainthood is not far from you.

Here is another observation I find very interesting. A person says or does something I don’t like, and this person has said or done the same thing many, many times. Each time I react as though it’s the first time they ever did it. “I can’t believe you said that!” even though you have often said things like this. Somehow I am shocked to hear it or see it. But when I do or say something that is sinful, I am usually not shocked by it or surprised. It all just seems comfortable and natural. I think it’s generally true that while we are surprised or angered or frustrated by the sins of others, it’s not quite the same reaction when we are sinning ourselves. We always have good reasons for why we did this thing or that.

We live in a time that largely denies the reality of sin. How do we account for the bad and evil deeds we see in the world? Some people look to the past to find the answer. Why did Mr. Smith murder his neighbor? It must be due to some trauma he suffered in childhood. Why is Mr. Jones a drug dealer? It is because he was raised in poverty in a broken home. While it’s true that one’s past can have profound influences on present behavior, the problem using that to explain why people sin tends to deny that people have free will, and that we can choose to do good or evil, even if there are strong influences from our past. Why doesn’t everyone who grew up in poverty or a broken home become a murderer or drug dealer?

Another way of thinking that denies the reality of sin comes from the idea that we should have the maximum amount of freedom to do what we would like to do. So we have seen, over the past few decades, one sinful behavior after another being accepted as legal and often times even morally correct, even to murder in the womb and helping someone take their own life. How difficult it is to teach our children moral behavior, doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong, when society keeps changing its understanding about what is right and what is wrong? Moral standards that have been upheld by Christian society for 2,000 years are now thrown out onto the trash heap, under the guise of personal freedom.

Many of the so-called freedoms people insist on today are not expressions of true freedom, but simply permissions to do what is wrong and evil. It is truly disturbing to hear people say that these so-called new freedoms are evidence of how evolved and sophisticated we have become. Since we have removed past restrictions, we have become a better society that no longer prohibits many actions and behaviors that used be considered as sins. We have evolved. But where is the evidence of this modern evolution? Is it found in better marriages, happier families, less mental illness, emptier prisons, fewer addicts, more honest politicians, decrease in poverty, fewer homicides? Where is the fruit of this great evolution? Where is the evidence that it has done us so much good?

People toss around the words “freedom” and “my rights” today as a way to justify immoral and bad behavior. But what happens with these new-found rights and freedoms? Just as one example, what about Oregon’s decriminalization of drug use? I don’t see many people worried about the rights of children to be raised in a safe home with a mother and a father and not be subjected to the effects of their parents’ use of drugs. The so-called rights of adults always come before the welfare of children in our society today, because what adults want to do is the only thing that needs to be considered. Sin is always self-centered and self-serving.

St. Paul says in today’s epistle: “God proves His love for us because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Our sins can be forgiven, but they cannot be legislated away by Congress. Our freedom can only be found in choosing what is good, right, proper, and holy, not in the legal and social acceptance of actions motivated by greed, lust, and self-centered desires. Our calling is to serve, not to be served, as the Lord Himself showed us. Our goal must be to grow in the love of God and of our neighbors—a sacrificial love that does not demand that my desires be allowed to go against the law of God or the good of my neighbor.

Christ died for me, a sinner. I have no right to His love. I have no true freedom except that freedom which He has given to me—a freedom to do what is good, noble, loving and holy, not what is degrading and harmful. Not only did Christ die for me a sinner, but by His grace my sins and yours can be forgiven and wiped away, leaving more room in my life for virtue, and leading me down the path to heaven.

Yes, it is hard to pursue holiness, virtue, genuine love, and grace. It is hard. But with the help of the One Who died for our sins we reach for the best of all possible lives. We reach for joy in Christ our Lord.