One of the great signs of the Spirit of God guiding the Church and our Catholic faith is that the Church tells us the whole truth. That means the truth about God, about the world and about ourselves. 

 

That is especially evident in the manner in which the Catholic faith constantly reminds us of the reality of sin and of our own participation in it.

 

We see the opposite in some modern approaches to spirituality. How often, for example, do we hear someone say in this day and age, “I’m spiritual but I am not religious”? Typically that means that someone does not belong to a particular church or denomination. 

 

However, it often means as well that one has adopted a view of faith which seeks to maximize what makes me feel good. In this way God often is seen as affirming but not demanding. 

 

His law and His will are often reduced to and indistinguishable from my own whims and desires. Subtly, God is removed then, and simply replaced by each individual’s own personal view of reality.

 

What is missing from this sadly growing understanding of faith is the basic concept of sin. Here is where the Church tells us the whole truth. 

 

An essential part of our Catholic faith is the acceptance of the reality that sin is real and that each of us participates in sin personally. 

 

God’s Word, in the Bible, begins with the story of creation in the Book of Genesis. We are told that God made everything and it was very good. There was, originally, a harmony between God, the human race and the created world. 

 

But the Book of Genesis describes the misuse of their freedom by Adam and Eve. And once they reject God’s Law, and therefore His love, everything changes. 

 

They hide from God in the Garden of Eden, unwilling to look God in the eye, as we might say. They see that they are naked, and so begins the distortion of the body and sexuality. Adam and Eve blame each other, thus beginning the challenges to marriage and to social harmony.

 

Pope St. John Paul II wrote about this cascade of consequences that flowed from that sin of Adam and Eve. “Since by sinning man refuses to submit to God, his internal balance is also destroyed and it is precisely within himself that contradictions and conflicts arise. Wounded in this way, man almost inevitably causes damage to the fabric of his relationship with others and with the created world.” (Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, N. 15).

 

The ultimate consequence of sin, of course, is the choice against God and for eternity apart from Him. That is use of freedom but the choice is for hell itself. 

 

Again, the Church’s faith teaches us that hell is real and that it is a logical consequence of the reality of sin. But only by knowing this truth do we understand our own existence and the ultimate choice that each of us must make.

 

Of course we don’t make that choice alone. Even while He allows us the full use of our freedom, God has never given up on us. From the sin of Adam and Eve onward, God has desired to reestablish us in harmony with Him.

 

This is the ultimate meaning of the Incarnation, of the Son of God coming into this world even to the point of taking on our flesh and nature, dying for us and then rising to overcome death.

 

To think about sin and to reflect upon our personal guilt is not then to wallow in depressing negativism. It is rather to understand the struggle of our life and existence. 

 

It is also to understand more fully how deeply God loves us. He gives us every opportunity to choose harmony with Him so that in the end, sin does not prevail.