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After the disobedience of our first parents, Cain was the first to indulge in his wickedness, He killed Abel out of jealousy. In the same way all generations have proven to the Lord how wicked we are.
The Lord patiently waits until we change, He has shown His anger before and He has exhorted us to change, by way of the Commandments, the prophets and then by sending His own Son. Jesus came to teach us perfection and justification through faith in Him, He has left His church the gift of His Presence in all the Sacraments.
Jesus healed a man who had been sick for thirty eight years, He said to him "now that you are healed , go and sin no more otherwise something worse may happen to you" [John 5:14]. The Lord has warned us time and time again that our transgressions call for punishment.
Many people fall into the trap of losing the sense of sin, they justify themselves because they no longer listen to the Word of God. They seem to ignore that there is judgment after death and that we must be alert [Hebrews 9:27]. Some may think that becoming holy is a thing for priests and nuns, and that in order to be saved they only need to say one prayer now and then. They think that they will repent when they feel that they are terminally ill, they suppose that they are going to have a lot of time to change before they die.
They don't study the Bible to learn the commandments of God, they don't go to Church on Sundays to participate in the Lord's Supper, the Holy Eucharist. They don't frequent the sacraments that sanctify us , they don't study the Catechism to learn the teachings of the Church. They choose to be learned of the world and ignorant of God.
We live in a sea of sin, surrounded by temptation coming from within ourselves and from everywhere. As much as we struggle to live sinless, we must face the reality of our sinfulness and try to change, we suffer because of our weaknesses, this doesn't mean that we must give up, on the contrary this kind of suffering for our spiritual being is the constant call of the Spirit, giving us the Grace to carry on.
We must watch the windows of the soul, our senses:
Our eyes must be kept from seeing too much of what we can not have, or what we should not have, it could be obscene pictures that trigger desires and move our passions. Or we may also sin as we delight too much in looking at beautiful things because they may lead us to the desire for material possessions, therefore we must watch carefully, in a way we must fast with our eyes.
Watching television is a way of delighting the eyes, as we entertain ourselves, our minds are working subconsciously, and before we know it temptations creep in and we may sin by agreeing with what we see.
Other way in which we are lead to sin is by listening, we may become addicted to music or even just to noise, empty conversations, etc., this is a wonderful distraction of the mind that makes it difficult to find time to pray.
We may overindulge in our good taste for food, because this is enticing the senses to always hunger for what is excellent and delicious, we resent to spend some time with God in prayer and it becomes the most difficult moment of the day.
We may also get carried away by the smell of perfumes, lotions and other good smelling things, not that this is sinful in any way but somehow, our simplicity is replaced by vanity.
On the surface all the activities of the senses are very innocent but they lead to the slavery of the soul to the things of the world and the flesh.
To live a life for Christ we also must become very familiar with the tricks of the enemy, any good thing can be used by him to lead us into sin.
No wonder the Lord has said that we must deny ourselves, that means doing with as little as we can, eating only what is required for our nourishment, not being too desireful of exotic foods or expensive things. We must not be too anxious about what is going on in the world, because nowadays there are no good news, they all contribute to keep us tense. We must cut entertainment from our lives, since dissipation leads us to tepidity. Our souls must take the most important place in our lives. What is the good of gaining the world if we lose our souls? [Luke 12:21]
If we live our lives by the high standards of the world, we disregard the needs of the poor in order to over indulge on our vanities and pleasures. Whatever is a surplus for us should be what is lacking to the poor. But we sin by injustice not being concerned about others.
Perhaps the greatest sin of all is not so much the sin committed directly but the sin of omission. There are so many good things that we are supposed to do, but we don't do them.
On the last day the Lord will not judge us for how much we sinned but for what we did not do for our neighbour. I was hungry and you did not feed me, naked and you did not clothe me, in prison and you did not visit me. I needed help but you could not help me because you were so busy with your self [Matthew 25:41-46].
If we fast regularly, and by that I mean taking less food than required, using less time for entertainment and more for prayer, spending less on luxuries but helping the poor, if we restrain our tongues by not offending anyone and if we look at every other human being as a member of our own families, then we would be ready to ascend the road of holiness that Jesus invites us to follow. [Isaiah Chapter 58]
We must bear in mind that in baptism we become members of the body of Christ. A hand is good for nothing, if it is cut off from the body; the same happens to any other part. If any part of the body hurts, all the members must do something about it, just as when we are attacked by infection and the immune system works to defend us .
The people of God are not united as they should, they don't share as in the early days of the Church [Acts 2:42-47], we must care for the needs of others, otherwise we are sinning.
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