Beware of losing sense of sin

WITH all this talk and general thrust of the Church today
on mercy and compassion, a very commendable campaign, I must say, we
just have to make sure that we do not lose our sense of sin as a
consequence or unintended side-effect.

            We always have to be wary of the possible bad effects that
our good plans and initiatives can have. The world is not perfect.
Loopholes, hidden traps, mistakes, etc., can always spoil what
otherwise is thought of as a very good strategy.

            We might get too easy and presumptuous about God’s
omnipotent and gratuitous mercy that we may not be able anymore to
acknowledge sins, ours and those of others, that need to be forgiven.

            In other words, we might get too intoxicated with divine
mercy that initially would lead us to think it would just be ok to
commit sin since it will be forgiven anyway, and later on as in a
slippery slope, as we get used to committing sin that can get forgiven
anyway, we would find ourselves not anymore considering anything as
sin.

            Our conscience would be distorted and would become lax.
Little by little, we lose our capacity to hear God’s voice in our
conscience. In its place, we would just hear our own corrupted voice.

            This can happen because our capacity to identify what is
good and evil depends on our relationship with God. If that
relationship is not good, or is not healthy and working, then
obviously we would have a bad or wrong notion of sin, or even lose the
very sense of sin.

            The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say about
this point: “To try to understand what sin is, one must first
recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this
relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as
humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it
continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.” (386)

            So what comes to mind is that together with this strong
campaign to reassure everyone of God’s mercy should also be an equally
strong campaign to heighten people’s sense of sin.

            This strong campaign to heighten people’s sense of sin can
be done by encouraging everyone to have a true life of piety, by
having first of all a personal and intimate relationship with God, and
then by availing of the instruments and practices that would sustain
and develop that life of piety.

            All this should be done in a most delicate way.
Preferably, it has to be done in a more personal way than on a
collective way. The latter should be delivered in a positive,
encouraging tone. No thunder-and-lightning condemnations, please.

            Without this working piety, we sooner or later would lose
our sense of good and evil, and we would rely simply on our own
personal hunches or, worse, on some vague social consensus.

            While the loss of the sense of sin is usually associated
with those who are skeptical or have little or no faith at all, like
some self-professed agnostics and atheists, it can also fall on those
we generally regard as “good” or “pious” people who always count on
the mercy of God without making the corresponding effort to be with
God. In other words, they can be spoiled by an easily presumed divine
mercy.

            At least, with the skeptics, agnostics and atheists, we
can easily identify them and be more ready to devise the appropriate
means to deal with them. But with the “good and pious” people, it’s
harder to know if they are really having a working piety. They are a
harder case to handle actually.

            They can easily mimic piety, and hide their sins and
failures by covering them up with their other natural gifts that can
act as a decoy insofar as the true state of their spiritual life is
concerned. They can appear healthy in many aspects other than their
spiritual life and piety.

            Everything therefore has to be done to help everyone
develop and keep a working piety. This is the most challenging task
for those whose office, calling or position, like priests, parents,
teachers, counselors, etc., assign them to render this spiritual help
to others.

            There has to be constant appeal for conversion, a constant
call for confession and spiritual direction. People have to be
encouraged to make use of some plan of piety that works for them,
given their concrete conditions. This is when they can be reassured
that God’s mercy is always available and, in fact, is given in
abundance.