Readings:
Ezekiel 18:21-28; Psalm 130; Matthew 5:20-26

Thus says the Lord, If the wicked man renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my law and is law-abiding and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die… What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of the wicked man it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks-and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?… When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit sin, and dies because of this, he dies because of the evil he himself has committed.”
Ezekiel 18:21-23, 26

Jesus said, ‘If you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.‘
Matthew 5:23, 24

When hitch-hiking on one occasion I was given a lift by an Irish Buddhist, who told me that Buddhism attracted him because it had no concept of sin. He had found this concept very destructive in his own Catholic life, filling him with fear and guilt.

Some instruction on sin is itself sinful, presenting a God who, ‘in his infinite mercy’, has sown our world with minefields, some of which wound, but not fatally, and are called ‘venial’, others wounding to kill and called ‘mortal’. The secret of the exact location and explosive power of these mines is entrusted by God to the clergy, who relay it to the faithful through their teaching, preaching and writing. The effects are deadly, leading people to reject the whole notion of God, and therefore of sin, or crippling them with fear, anxiety, timidity and neuroticism.

Sin is not the same thing as wrongdoing, or breaking laws. Sin is a religious word and means an offence against the living God, who is love and who is present in all things and all people. God is, in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘World’s strand, sway of the sea, Lord of the living and dead.’

Sin is not letting God be the God of love, tenderness and compassion. That is why we must not go to the altar until we have become reconciled with our brother first, because we cannot be at one with God until we are ready to be at one with those who have offended us. We wish God had not arranged it so, and try to solve the problem by convincing ourselves that God must be on our side, so that we are justified in continuing our feuds. Religious people can be especially guilty of this. In refusing to be reconciled, we harm not only our enemies, but also ourselves, because we cut ourselves off from God’s life and love. God does not punish: we inflict punishment on ourselves. “What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of a wicked man?” (Ezekiel 18:23). Sin is not letting God be God, being forgetful of his goodness. We may never do wrong, or infringe any law, but we still sin, because the aim of our life is our own respectability, or rectitude, which we pursue without love.

Prayer
Enlighten our minds and hearts, Lord, so that recognizing you in our own lives and in the life of the world, we may detect, abhor and oppose all attitudes and actions which are destructive of your love within us and around us. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.