It is in the background of solidarity that we must understand sin and love. Sin destroys the whole Creation as love builds it up. Sin cannot be spoken of without placing it in the context of love and of solidarity.

                                                               -       LOVE       -

As I have explained; God is Love and Creation is the result of God sharing His love. We are created through and for Love. It is love that creates. I have also explained what true love is for Christians. It is the power to empty myself of my own world, enter into the world of the other, see and feel the need of the other and come to his/her aid even to the point of laying down my life. Love is not a feeling. Feeling of love is important. It is an outward expression of a deeper reality. Love in its depths need not be a feeling. It is something deeper. It is a state of being which acts upon my attitudes which in turn flow into acts of creativity: of helping people, of building up. Thus Saint John says, "... Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth". - 1 John 3:8 - 

If there is no love in me, how can I empty myself of love for others? I cannot empty myself of what I do not have, or I cannot give what I do not have. Hence, Christian teaching insists on God's Love being poured into us through the Holy Spirit that enables us to love - Romans 5:5; 2 Corinthians 5:11-6:10 - God takes the initiative - 1 John 4:19 - How do we know this? We know from human reasoning that it is through His Creation. We know this also from "Revelations" in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. We know this especially when God became Man in Jesus Christ. When Mankind sinned, God in His infinite Love did not abandon us but sent His son to save us from sin and gave His life for us. "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, so that we might live through him. In this Love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His son to be the expiation for our sins." - 1 John 4:9-10 - 

Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God's infinite love not only by His becoming Man but also by His dying on the Cross for us - Galatians 2:20; John 3:16 - It is impossible for the human mind to grasp this. How can the infinite be finite? And how can God, the all powerful, die on the Cross? Hence for a number of non-Christians, Jesus Christ, who claimed divinity, is a "stumbling block". Yet, God is God. If God cannot do what the finite human mind thinks impossible, He would no longer be God because He would be limited by our small human mind. God being Infinite and all powerful (omnipotent), did what was impossible for the human mind. By this, He proves that He is God - doing the impossible. It is God's infinite love that makes him do the impossible - John 3:6 - as Man sees it.

God's love equals His infinity. He produces another impossibility. He gives himself to us as food in the Eucharist. Again this is mind-boggling. Yet He does it each time in the Eucharist because He is all powerful. Nothing is impossible to God. It is here that we differ from many Protestants-Christians. We  believe in the true presence of Christ, the Son of God, in the Eucharist. Many Protestants believe only in its symbolic nature. ( More of this later. ) Our Catholic understanding of God as revealed to us by God Himself is in perfect harmony with the nature of God. He is infinite. Therefore He can do anything, even the impossible. He is Love. Therefore His Love is expressed for us to the limit beyond which there is nothing He became like us to teach us how to live as He created us. He died for us. "Greater love has no Man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13 - And He gave Himself to us as food in the Eucharist to strengthen us so that we can live in accordance with our created nature. Beyond this expression of Love, nothing is left.

I believe that our Catholic understanding of Jesus Christ as God's manifestation of His unlimited Love for us, His creatures, is the most reasonable. It is in tune with our logic argument of what God is. It is consonant with God's nature as He is and consistent with the need of us poor humans. God supplies the need in us in a tangible form, the only way through which we can grasp His unconditional Love.

Rightly, then, Saint Paul says, "Love is the fulfilling of all laws." - Romans 13:10 - It is creative. It builds up the Christian community - 1 Corinthians 8:1 - Love unites all virtues - Colossians 3:14 -  It inspires Christians to labour - 1 Thessalonians 1:3 - it bears with inconvenience in order not to hurt his fellow Christians - Romans 14:15 - it helps the poor - 2 Corinthians 8:7f - it welcomes back a repentant sinner - 2 Corinthians 2:8-10 - Saint Paul sums this up in his beautiful hymn to love - 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 - Nothing is of value without love. Although Saint Paul speaks of love most of the time in the context of the Christian community, he does not confine it only to the Christian community. Like Saint John, he extends it to all.

Saint John sees love as coming from the love that the Father has for His Son and vice versa. This love is the Spirit. God is Love. This love creates so that "he (any person) who loves, God lives in him/her" - 1 John 4:16 - Love, as Saint John sees it, is One. There is no separation between love of God and love of others. "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother (any person) he is a liar" - 1 John 4:20 - This is an echo of Jesus' new commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you."

                                                                   -       Sin        -

If God is Love, and if all is created through and for love, sin must be its opposite. As love creates, sin destroys. Saint John says, "No one born of God commits sin; for God's nature abides in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God." - 1 John 3:9 - By this, Saint John does not mean that we have no sins. He says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves..." - 1 John 1:18 - Obviously, he is talking here of a principle. If God's nature, the fullness of love, is in us, surely we cannot sin. If we sin, then we do not have the fullness of love. Sin, as Saint John sees it, is the opposite of Love. Saint John sees sin first as state of lack of love in Man. From this, all acts of sins and sins of omission come. Because I do not have enough love, I do not help others (omission), I speak badly about others, and do all sorts of evil to them (sinful acts). So Jesus, who came to save us, goes to the root of the problem: He takes away our state of lack love by pouring into us His love. Saint John makes John the Baptist say, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin (singular) of the world!" - John 1:29 - In the Synoptic Gospels, sin is generally used in the plural (sins). John prefers the singular (13 times in the singular and 3 times in plural). This itself is significant. The use of the singular is appropriate because John sees sin as the denial of love - a state of being in Man. All sins come from this state of lack of love (sin). This is profound biblical understanding of sin. It goes beyond what most people define sin as "doing what I know is wrong". The latter is only the consequence of a state of sinfulness. If sin is "doing what I know is wrong" there must be long periods when I am sinless. Yet the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible tells us that we are always sinful before God. And now about the times when I fail to help others? Strictly I have "done nothing." Yet it is a sin because I have not enough love to impel me to help others. Sin, the opposite of love, therefore is a state of a lack of love in my being from which comes acts of sins and non-action due to the lack of love (sins of omission).

The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible use a number of words which express the state. I will mention only the two most commonly used words and therefore, the most important. Anomia (Greek) Matthew 7:23; 13:41; 24:12; 1 John 3:4; Romans 6:19; 1 Corinthians 9:21; etc. Nomos, in Greek, is Law. Anomia means lawlessness. It is a state of rebellion against the law of God. In the Old Testament it is the Jewish Torah. In the New Testament, it is the law of Christ to love, as explained.

Harmatia. This word is the most frequently employed word in Saint Paul for sin (62 times, of which 48 times are found in his letter to the Romans). It has the same root meaning with the Hebrew word of the Old Testament het'hattat. It signifies "to miss the mark". It is a word taken from hunting. When a man has missed his prey in shooting, he has missed the mark (harmatia). And what is "the mark" that Man has been created by God; for love, as we have seen. Hence for Saint Paul, harmatia or sin is not an act but something internal and stable in Man, almost a personal force that is open rebellion against God.

It is a state of rebellion that brings chaos (anomia). Harmatia has entered into mankind through Adam's sin and exercises its deadly works (which brings death) through the Torah. All acts of sin come from this state. It permeates the whole human race (universal) - Romans 5; 3:22-23 - Adam is seen by Saint Paul as the sum total of humanity in sin - Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:22 - the idea of "corporate personality" or solidarity. Just as love builds or creates community, sin destroys community. Love and sin affect, for good or evil the universe, others and death (the total destruction) - Romans 6:23 - This is the solidarity aspect of sin that we spoke in chapter one.

Original sin is this state of lack of love into which everyone is born. It permeates not only the social sinful environment but it affects the depth of my being as a human (in the fullest sense explained above). Adam, who sinned and brought on sin into humanity, is regarded by Saint Paul as the sum total of this fallen humanity. Christ came to take away this state of lack of love by pouring into us His love: "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". This is why Christ Jesus is called the second Adam - 1 Corinthians 15:22, 45-47 - Just as the first Adam brought sin into humanity by disobedience, the second Adam brought salvation through obedience - Romans 5:19 - Just as the first Adam is considered as the sum total of fallen humanity, Christ is the sum total of the redeemed humanity. Just as the sin of Adam penetrates into the being of Man, the love of Christ enters into the being of Man and removes this state of sinfulness, that is if Man freely allows Christ to do so and cooperates with His grace or love. God's love or grace never destroys Man's freedom. Since as I have said, freedom and love are two sides of the same coin, if love were to take away freedom, love would also be destroyed. In other words "Love would not be love if it were not free." But if love is accepted freely and grows in a person, freedom will also grow. This is why Saint Paul says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" - 2 Corinthians 3:17 -  

Thus, Love and sin can only be fully grasped if one has understood the notion of solidarity. Amen!

By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J.   -   Straight to Catholics   - 

-   WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY   - 

Just as God originally inspired the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, He has used this means to preserve His Word for future generations. But behind the writing lay periods of time when these messages were circulated in spoken form. [Oral Tradition] The stories of the patriarchs were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth before they were written. [Written Tradition] The messages of the prophets were delivered orally before they were fixed in writing. Narratives of the life and ministry of Christ Jesus were repeated orally for two or three decades before they were given written form.

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -