Reflection From

Fr. John

March 30, 2025

If we are honest about it, we know that sin and selfishness always mess things up. The grace of Lent, however, is to make greater efforts to get in touch with this reality and welcome the spiritual house cleaning, the conversion, healing and the new life order that comes from the mercy of Christ.

The great Saint Augustine once defined sin as a "word, deed, or desire in opposition to the eternal law of God." The word for sin in Greek is "hamartia," which implies "failure to hit the target." In Latin, the word for sin is "peccatum," which has to do with mistakes and "failure." Surely during this Lenten season, our approach to penance and renewal should lead us to want to more accurately hit the target of a healthy moral and spiritual life. We should also seek to deal with our past failures and enhance the quality of our living. Indeed, the whole point of Lent, of course, is that we seek to clean our souls, reorient our lives, and rid them of sin and selfishness, so as to be appropriately disposed to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of our Lord. The journey toward Easter and the new life it brings is held in the balance. It's important, therefore, that we understand a bit about the nature of sin, and its adverse impact on the spiritual life.

It may be helpful to consider sin from three different paradigmatic points of view: relational, teleological, and deontological. Don't fret about the big vocabulary! Let me explain.

From a relational point of view, ancient Israel saw their sins as offenses to God's love and providence. And so, as we reflect on our own relationship with God, why would we want to offend him? Why would we want to deliberately do anything to harm the health of our relationship with him? To do so deliberately would be known as mortal sin, an intentional separation of oneself from God; the charity which sustains the relationship would be lost. Venial sin, however, though not deadly to the relationship, is nonetheless harmful to it. Sickness can be likened to venial sin. Although it weakens the body it does not kill it. If it kills (the relationship) then it is called mortal sin. Relationship is "key."

From a teleological point of view, sin can be seen as a failure in a goal. The moral life is undertaken to advance a person along the road to happiness, i.e., eternal life. Sin in this case is when we go off target or go away from what we know is the desirable or proper goal. Mortal sin is deliberately missing the target. This occurs when we completely go off the road. Venial sin, however, is "hitting the target, but missing the bull's eye." It makes the road rougher. We must always keep our eye on the target; the ultimate point of our lives.

Finally, from a deontological point of view, sin is also a transgression of duty. As Christians, we have a duty to do what is right and just, to do good and avoid evil. This approach emphasizes our obligation to accept a code of appropriate behavior or moral standards established by divine authority. Mortal sin, according to this way of thinking, is the intentional breaking of a Commandment. Venial sin in this context is an act which is superficially insufficient to fulfill the demands of the law. In other words, it is imperfect compliance with God’s expectations.

From these vantage points, it is clear that sin often complicates our lives. Look what it did to the Prodigal Son and the elder brother. We all need the clearing out from our lives those things that lead us to fail in our relationship with Christ, the ways we miss the target of moral and spiritual health, as well as transgression against moral rectitude. Christ's mercy awaits the repentant heart. He has words of everlasting life!

Father Michael Davis

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