The Theory of Relativity
If you haven’t already realized, it’s a trick question. We don’t decide. We don’t watch someone being beaten to death and say “he deserved it.” We know that it’s wrong to hurt others. Your evil is the same as my evil. Sin is sin. Our society and modern culture might try to tell you otherwise, but sin does exist.
“If you don’t believe sin and evil exist, go home tonight and turn on your ten o’clock news.” ~ Matthew Kelly
Evil is alive and thriving. Hopefully you and I aren’t contributing to it’s success. Right and wrong are not relative. We all live by the same moral law, which our Creator has written on our hearts. It’s not something we can change or decide for ourselves. Of course, we can make decisions for ourselves—God gave us free will to do or say whatever we want—but the moral law remains whether we decide to ignore it, bend it, or flat out break it. Good is good and bad is bad.
It’s part of our human nature to determine right from wrong and as children we learn these differences from our parents. It’s interesting to note that most of the people who are on death row and sitting in prison didn’t have a strong family life when they were growing up and for that reason they find themselves behind bars.
A Messy Business
Sin is messy thing. I think of it as mud. When you have a new pair of shoes you walk around puddles, you stay away from oil in the driveaway, and you don’t walk in the mud. Why? Because, you don’t want to get your shoes dirty. You don’t want to ruin something that is valuable to you. Well in the same way we avoid the mud we should avoid sin. Of course it’s not an easy thing to do, especially since we live in a world where sin is so prevalent. The mud is all around us.
But we have a decision to make with each step we take. Yes it’s faster to walk that straight line from point a to point b, but that big pile of mud in the middle should cause us to think twice. Why not go around it? Sure, it might take us a few more steps to get there, but at least we keep our feet clean, right? We are faced with these types of decisions every moment of everyday. Some piles of mud are bigger and messier than others. But mud is mud. Whether it’s a big one or a small one, sin is sin. A little mud might not bother you, but as those small bits of mud accumulate you become less worried about the big bits of mud. Small sins desensitize you to larger more destructive sins.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 6:23
Not only does mud ruin your shoes, but what happens when you go into your friends house with your muddy shoes? Now they’ve got your muddy footprints all over their house. You might think your sins only effect you, but they also effect those around you. Your bad example can influence others and the results of your actions can also cause problems for those closest to you.
Keeping Your Feet Clean
Now even if you try your hardest to avoid that mud, sooner or later you are going to step in it. And once those shiny new sneakers get mud on them, they’ll never be the same again. Even when you wash them, they aren’t the same bright white as they were when you pulled them out of the shoe box. But we’re in luck. Jesus left us a way to wash ourselves and make us new again.
“I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” ~ Matthew 16:9
We call it the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Penance, or Confession. The word sacrament means to make holy and to reconcile is to bring back into harmony. And although we aren’t fond of admitting our mistakes let alone telling others—especially a priest—about them, the process of confessing our sins and doing penance not only washes away our sins, but helps us to keep from sinning again in the future.
So we are encouraged not to sin, but when we do we can take advantage of this divine washing. God knows we are human and we make mistakes. That’s why he’s the first one in line to offer us His forgiveness. So go to Confession and let the Lord wash you and make you clean again.
Watch out for the mud and keep your feet clean!