December 20, 2014 - Saturday

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. (Romans 6:22 NABRE)

Often, when we take a new job, our employer provides us with a benefits package that includes some sort of retirement savings. The idea is that as we work at our jobs, we store up savings we'll need in the future when we retire and stop producing an income.

In the same way, when we took a new position with God at our baptism, he gave us a benefits package that includes a one-of-a-kind savings plan! Saint Paul tells us that our new position in God's organization not only provides us what we need to live a holy life now, but also what we need for eternal life after death.

Because we are bapatized in Christ and have faith that he came to earth to save us individually from sin, we have the promise of eternity spent in the complete joy and peace of his presence.

But take note: Even though believers are freed from it, "sin endeavors to reclaim its victims."* We will always be confronted in this life with temptations to sin. Ouch! That sounds harsh, doesn't it? But at the same time, it rings true.

Sin has become an extremely unpopular, discomforting and confrontational word in our culture. Hasn't it? We prefer other, softer words for the wrong things we do. We prefer words that do not carry consequences or judgment with them. We prefer words that encourage compassion and understanding. We prefer words we think won't challenge our fragile self-esteem. We prefer words like mistake, oversight, or slip up. For the practically minded, however, sin is anything we do or say, desire or omit that goes against reason, truth and right conscience.

The good news is that we shouldn't flinch at all at the word sin. There is no need to pretend we are not tempted constantly to sin. And we don't need to act like we're perfect and never fall into the traps of sin (since we all do, more often, I think, than we even realize). Saint Paul tells us very clearly that God's grace outmatches sin every single time! In chapter five of his letter to the Romans, he points out that, "where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more."* I can live with that!

Let's bring sin out into the light! Let's call it what it is because the ugliest part of sin is how one sin leads to others until we can get too stuck in it to get free. When we turn and face sin in ourselves, confident in Jesus' true compassion and mercy, we begin to get unstuck.


Today, with some fear and trepidation, I will boldly scrutinize my words and actions to recognize where sin lives, so that it may not reclaim this victim.


Saint Dominic of Silos, whose life reminds us that God chooses each of us for a unique purpose, pray for us.