Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #2392
Sin is the word for actions that break God’s law. A crime is an action that is against the law of a nation and carries a penalty for breaking it. How is a sin different from a crime? Breaking God’s law is more than breaking a regulation. A serious sin breaks relationships.
The first of the ten commandments states that God and the people are in a covenant relationship: I am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; you shall have no other gods before me. The second commands no misuse of God’s name. The third commands the people to worship God on the Sabbath, to keep up their relationship.
The other seven commandments call the people of Israel to express their covenant relationship with God by keeping relationships with each other — honoring their parents and respecting each other’s lives, property, marriages, and reputations. Breaking these commandments breaks the relationships that hold the community together.
Jesus calls us to keep two great commandments; to love God with our whole selves and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus wants us to see that our relationship with ourselves, with others, and with God are all interconnected. Love, forgiveness, and sharing are right actions that build community among us. Hate, murder, stealing, bearing false witness, and committing adultery are wrong actions that alienate people from one another. To sin or miss the mark, a person must know the action is wrong and yet choose to do it intentionally.
The sin in Sunday’s gospel is sexual. Adultery is having sexual relations with a married person who is not one’s husband or wife. Adultery is failure to keep one’s marriage vows of a faithful relationship to one’s spouse.
Sexual sins often make headlines. This gospel story makes us think more deeply about sin.
First of all, if the woman was taken in adultery, what happened to the man who was with her? Jesus challenges those who have brought her to look at themselves. He implies that they are using this woman without recognizing that they, too, are sinners.
Secondly, Jesus suggests that sexual sins are not the only kind of sins. No one should accuse, betray, or judge others. Such accusation, betrayal, or judgment is every bit as sinful as what the woman did. In the end, when there is no one left to accuse her, Jesus treats her gently. He does not excuse her activity; he tells her to go and sin no more.
Sin is the breaking down and destroying of relationships that ought to exist. When we betray others by lying to them, stealing from them, talking about them behind their backs, hurting them physically or emotionally, we are destroying relationships.
What if we lived in a world in which we could have no basic trust in the goodness of others? What if we could no longer drive through the streets of our town, trusting that everyone will follow the rules of the road and that we are safe from a drive-by shooting? What if people did not tell the truth but only what they wanted to say or we wanted to hear?
All our relationships with each other are based on trust. When we betray each other, lie to each other, use each other for our own purposes, we are breaking down relationships that we need to live together in peace. That is sin.
Sometimes it is easier to recognize sin when we are the victims of it. When have I been hurt, physically or emotionally? Been betrayed by someone I trusted? When have I been cheated? When have I felt used? When we reflect on how these experiences felt to us, we can understand how we ourselves have sinned.
The beauty of it all is this: as we begin to recognize what sin is, we have already begun to understand how to mend relationships with God, ourselves, and other people. Only then can we do our part to help create the world that God wants, a world where people live together in honesty, generosity, kindness, respect, and trust. Without this respect, no one in the whole community is safe.
What’s Worse?
On a scale of 1-5, evaluate the wrongs you regard as worst. 1 being bad, 5 being the worst.
Gossiping
Ruining someone’s reputation
Physical abuse
Lying about a friend
Date rape
Sexual abuse
Having premarital sex
Random drive-by shooting
Dropping a cement block on a car from a bridge.
Breaking into cars