Obscuring life

What is a sin?

I’ve asked this many times, and the answers change with each respondent, but at the core, there are these definitions:  sin separates us from God; sin is anything that you enjoy; sins are the flaws within us; sins are inevitable and inescapable, so you might as well just do what you want.  How’s that for confusing? 

I think, though, that the best and clearest explanation that I ever got was from a priest (who has since passed on) while I was at school.  He said that a sin is a pleasure that has been taken to excess, and which is carried out to the exclusion of others.  Doing so destroys a piece of ourselves, because we lose the capacity for true appreciation.

All good things bring us pleasure, which is intensified when we share with others.  Food is a pleasure, especially when shared with loved ones.  But food as an obsession – when we are more concerned about the appearance, provenance, volume or exclusivity of the food – is much less enjoyable.  You don’t really appreciate your food if you spend more time either shovelling it in or carefully criticizing each bite than enjoying what has been given to you.  Sex is a definite pleasure.  But sex when it’s carried out mindlessly, or when others are viewed only as ‘conquests’ loses its capacity for enjoyment, and removes the little tokens of affection, which bond a relationship and deepen the delight in the sexual act.  Having a sense of accomplishment in your work is a pleasure, but constantly seeking praise and validation strips that away.  I could go on, but I think you get the gist.

How do you know when you’ve crossed the divide between pleasure and sin?  First off, you need to be in deep communication with your true self.  When your conscience twinges you about something you’re doing, stop and examine it.  Are you doing this to the exclusion of other things?  Are you so focussed on winning a promotion that you have ignored or worse the needs of your colleagues?  Are you so committed to being a perfect homemaker that you destroy your family’s ability to relax in the home?  Are you so concerned about having the newest and best designer items that you have blown through your budget?  Is it more important to you to be right than to be kind?  If so, then you have waded into sin.

You may need that really honest friend here again.  Someone who is not afraid to tell you when you have strayed away from all that is good and right about yourself.  An examination of conscience is also crucial, involving all those really difficult questions about your actions.  Once you’ve identified where and how you’ve fallen short, you then need to work on returning to the state of being whole.  That leads into the discussion on repentance and reparation, which we’ll look at in a future post.