Sin in a Hebrew sense is missing the target. The nomadic people used to move with their livestock from one waterhole to another. As they moved there were markings on the way left by the earlier travellers. Some used to miss the mark and reach the wrong places. Thus they understood sin too as missing the mark/target. Someone can give wrong markings to others coming after them; which Jesus commented on as a serious sin, ‘it is better for such a person to tie a millstone around the neck and jump into a well.’
Sin is not an individual act but an attitude toward life. Sinfulness is not counted as individual acts but as metadata. We must have a drone view, an aerial view of life and see whether we have been a constructive person. What am I using the gifts given by God for? We have many gifts, eyes to see, hands to work, mouths to talk, legs to move around, intelligence to think, our body, friends, money, technology, everything is god’s gift, do we use them for constructive purposes, or misuse them, abuse them for destructive purposes?
As a modern human being, most things that are spoken in the Ten Commandments are taken care of by the courts and justice system. Thus many avoid doing them lest they are caught and punished severely. What matters here is the law of the Lord, the law of love; which is a choice that we make. The New Testament positions sin as an aberrant imagination. People use and abuse things, positions, and people for the wrong reasons. There is an increase in addictions, porn addiction is one of them. We must understand that porn is not sex. Watching porn is an aberration of sex. Sex is a beautiful personal consensual intimacy with another individual, often within the framework of marriage.
Luke 15 gives three beautiful parables to look at our lives of sin, confession and reconciliation: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. All three parables have the same theme of losing, finding and celebrating. But the gravity of the matter and the reason for losing are different. First, a sheep is lost from a sheepfold of hundred. The proportion is negligible. The coin is lost from a collection of ten coins. It looks serious for the proportion and it is not just anything but most valued money. Finally, from two sons one son is lost, which is really serious and damaging.
Every effect has a cause. What are the reasons for losing? The sheep left due to ignorance (anjatha). Ignorance is to be treated with religious fervour and importance. The young are more socially conscious. They now seldom utter words of body shaming, caste and class reference, etc. With the older generation passing away some of the ridiculing words also will disappear. Unless we try very hard to transfer it to our young ones; we with our insecurities and smallness of mind might do that. We must unlearn patriarchal, hierarchical prejudice about people; and relearn ways of the gospel. Ignorance is the reason for most sins of the body. Boys should be taught how to handle their bodies. Girls get at least some training in their bodies from their mothers as they reach puberty.
The coin that is lost is not an ordinary coin. It was part of the wedding ornament that was worn on the head around the forehead. She was supposed to be very careful in keeping those 10 coins, but she lost one of them. The reason for losing is negligence (asrattha). This is what acts of omission are all about, you don’t do what you are supposed to do, and it is very serious.
The son is lost because of rebellion, and arrogance (ahantha). He asked for his father's property, his inheritance, while his father is still alive, thus he is treating his father as dead.
What is the way out of ignorance, negligence, and rebellion? One must work at wisdom, meditation, and humility. You miss the target and miss the marks leading to the waterhole because of ignorance, negligence, and rebellion.
There are three counter actions to correct ignorance, negligence, and rebellion. Be wise: be spiritually, psychologically, critically, and socially, wise; we must invest in learning, and processing what happens in our lives. Meditate: live every moment, be aware, and take time for things that matter, relationships, art, and love. Be humble: don't jump to conclusions and be entitled, acting like I want what I want right now. Washing one another’s feet was the last teaching of Jesus. John presents it in the place of the Eucharist -it must become our domestic Eucharist.
The end is a life of happiness and celebration. The shepherd with the found sheep calls for celebration, the woman calls for celebration, and the father has killed the calf he was fattening (he did expect his son’s return). Come sit at the table and join the banquet.
The good news is that nothing/no one is lost forever; everything and everyone is back home. The Gospel is the statement of return, hope, and optimism. The gospel says in a loud and clear voice, you can change your script. A man who robbed a sheep was tattooed on his forehead sheep-robber, as the custom of the tribe. Realising his mistake he changed his behaviour and never robbed a sheep again, on the contrary, he began to take care of the sheep. Though he changed his life, the black tattoo remained. One day a young boy asked his mother, why is it that we see him protecting sheep, but on his forehead, he is called a sheep robber? His mother did not know how to face the child, for she too was part of what had happened to him. Then the mother told the child, that if he has a tattoo of sheep-robber on him and he goes around protecting sheep, it could only mean one thing that he is a saint. Every saint has a past.
St. Francis of Assisi talks about, ‘when I was in sin’, but they have not explained what sin it is, and they also don't talk about Francis having an indecent loose life. But Francis knew something that others perhaps had thought of as heroism. Francis had indulged in killing people. He had gone for two wars. Francis knows that there is no just war. There is no just violence. After the bloody Kalinga war and massacre, King Asoka became a Buddhist.
St. John is called an apostle of love, but he was the most hostile person among the apostles. When a village was not accepting Jesus, John’s suggestion was to bring down fire from above and burn down the village. When John suggested it, it is said that Jesus was shocked. In modern language, John had the seeds of fascism in him; but out of him came the apostle of love. We can change our script at any point in time, and that is gospel.
Notes taken during my annual retreat, preached by Bobby Jose Kattikad, Capuchin.
Comments
Post a Comment