Sin is not a small, simplistic thing. It’s not
something normal. The result of a sin lies within the sin. That’s a fact. Sin
is capable of destroying itself. Sin is self-destructive.
“This is what the psalmist tells us. Psalmist
says it very beautifully. Sin is not something that will destroy one’s soul
only. It’s not something that will affect our heavenly or eternal life. Sin is
something that will affect one’s physical body, material life on earth, health
and everything, says the psalmist. This is what Holy Bible says,” says well-known
Catholic theologian Rev Dr Joseph Pamplani. We read from the Holy Bible about
the misfortunes of a sinner. Adam and Eve sinned. Sinners become the slaves of
devil. What’s waiting for them? Total destruction.
“People who have sinned keep away from God.
The Word of God tells us about the impact of sin on the lives of sinners. First
of all, you become the slave of devil after sinning. You lose control of
yourself. When you interact with devil with your sinful ways, your body gets
weakened. You get dried up like the way summer heat destroy things. You
(sinner) become a broken man,’ Rev Dr Pamplani says.
Psalms 38:3 clearly tells us how sin can play
havoc with our lives. “Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health
is broken because of my sins,” the Bible says. Pslams 22:15 also talks about the
impact of sin: “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to
the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”
“Sin destroys man. A sinner can lead a counterfeit
life for some time, but not ever; for the aftereffect of sin will catch up with
him. There’s a format for living a spotless life – as a husband, wife, family,
son, daughter or father and mother. When you lead a life according to the will
of God, that’s a sinless life,” he says. When you cross the boundary of this
format which is based on God’s will, that becomes a problem. In short, sin
means straying away from the goal towards God.
“A sinner sometimes leads a double life.
After leading a sinful life, he or she shows a different face to the people, or
in other words, leads a fake or counterfeit life,” Rev Dr Pamplani says. For
example, a husband who cheats on his wife and leads a promiscuous life. He
pretends that he’s a honest husband and fakes love to his innocent wife in the
family. He is cheating not only his wife, but also his conscience and God. This
kind of sin leads to what you call tragedies of sin. His body gets weakened.
So a sinless state means a state of not
cheating himself or herself. It also means not cheating others. It also means
not cheating God, he says.
The tragedies or disasters created by sin are
not that something that God gives us as punishment. God’s only plan is how to
regain the man who has fallen into sin. The belief that God punishes a sinner
is a wrong notion as God’s plan is to salvage man from sin. “The result of sin,
or the aftereffect of sin, remains within the sinful act. It’s like a person
who feels thirsty after eating salt or gets burnt with acid. Or like a person
who dies after drinking poison. The result of any sin is within that sinful act,”
Rev Dr Jospeh Pamplani says.
God is
trying to salvage the man from the tragedy of sin. God always wants the salvation
of man. God is waiting for the repentance of a sinner. The big plan devised by
God for this salvation is confession of sin. This confession and repentance
will salvage the sinner from the tragedy of sin and lead to salvation and the
sustained flow of grace, he says.
After sinning, if a person sits quietly as if
nothing has happened, God is angry about this situation. God will safeguard the
person who comes out of sin through confession and repentance.
For example, King David committed several
sins, but God salvaged David after he confessed his sins and repented. God then
showered blessings on David.
According to him, we must confess our sins.
This is what the Church is doing through the sacrament of confession and repentance.
This is not to be considered as the discovery of some churches with the
apostolic tradition. This is also the perception from the Old Testament. “We
are confessing our sins in front of the representatives of God like King David
confessed his sins to Prophet Nathan,” Rev Dr Pamplani says.
When we follow the Ten Commandments, we
should also keep in mind the parable of the rich man and Lazar in the Bible. The
sin of this rich man was his providing for himself only. He failed to notice
the sick beggar out on the street. In short, we must go out and seek such
Lazars. In other words, just leading a good life and leading a sinless life is
not enough. We must be able to identify the Lazars of this world.
