Our Gospel this Sunday speaks of devils, casting them out, and, above all, about sin. It’s a collection in other words of all those things that the modern world finds difficult about Christianity.
In particular, the world isn’t fond of the word “sin”. That shouldn’t be a surprise, since it is linked so strongly to a lack of belief in God. In order to speak about sin you have to believe in God. Anyone can speak of right and wrong. Anyone with an understanding of morality can speak of good and evil. But to recognize sin, to know it as a turning away from God, a harming of a relationship, requires faith.
In this Gospel Jesus uses the word for a stumbling block, to describe the consequences of sins. If we have faith, this helps us to understand the impact of sin as something that gets in the way of our love for God. Sins damage the most important relationship in our lives, sometimes in little ways,sometimes in ways that completely rupture it. It helps to understand why Jesus uses such dramatic language to demonstrate the proper response.
If I am deeply in love with someone, if my relationship with them is the most important thing in my life, I can’t tolerate anything getting in the way. I may be very fond of, say, video games. I may enjoy them very much. But if my attraction to them, and how I play them, makes me less able to share the life of my beloved, I’m going to have to give up video games. Indeed, I am not going to allow anything in my life, however attractive it may be on the surface, to harm that relationship. It’s one of the ways we know whether such a relationship is ‘for real’ in fact. That we prioritize it above other interests.
Surprising as it is to some, there is a joy in coming to really understand that we are sinners. To be a sinner, you have to have a relationship of God that can be hurt. Acknowledging sin isn’t just finding out what’s wrong, it’s much more about understanding there is a precious thing in my life that is worth more than any lesser good – my relationship with the most wonderful lover I will ever know.
The challenge then of this Gospel is to recognize that relationship, and to put it in its proper place in my life. If I truly understand this relationship as being the way to the greatest possible joy for me, there will be nothing I will not sacrifice to attain it.
Fr. Christopher Denham
