Homily for December 5, 2021
Advent 2 – Kerygma 2 of 4
Sin Is the Cause of All Unhappiness
We’ve
been preaching a series this Advent on the Kerygma – the core of the
Gospel message. There are four parts – God loves us, we sinned and brought
death and destruction upon the world, but Christ took our sins upon Himself and
reconciled us to God, and we can have access to salvation through our living
relationship with Jesus Christ. Last time we spoke of God’s immense love for us
– but now we turn to the bad-news part of the Good News!
When I
was a teen, I used to attend a wonderful Catholic retreat in the summers – but
it had the most awkward name. It was called “Catholic Familyland” – and despite
how much fun it was there, I couldn’t ever tell my friends where I was going –
such an embarrassing name!
But at
Catholic Familyland, I remember the priest always telling us, “Sin is the cause
of all unhappiness in the world!” I have never forgotten those words, and I
think they are profound! How much misery is caused by sin!
You see,
every human being is searching for happiness. But sin is choosing a counterfeit
happiness over the real one. When I lived in Maryland, it was a big deal for us
to make a trip to NYC. One year when I was a seminarian, I accompanied the 8th
graders at the local Catholic school to New York. On the way home, a kid named
Alex came up to me on the bus and said, “Hey, look at this great Rolex I got
for only $10!”
I
laughed and said, “Where’d you get it?”
“Oh,
some guy in Battery Park was selling it from a blanket on the sidewalk.”
“You
know that’s not real, right? It’s a fake knock-off.”
“No, no!
Of course it’s real! The guy selling it told me it was real!”
“Okay,
Alex. Whatever you say.” About ten minutes later he came back to me, all
despondent, and said, “This is terrible. My Rolex stopped working.”
“Well,
yes, that’s what happens when you get a counterfeit.”
And
isn’t that the way with sin? It promises happiness – and it provides misery. It
makes us happy for ten minutes, and then when that wears away we feel a greater
emptiness than ever before.
Think
about the way we have been hurt by sin, both ourselves and others’ sin. Maybe
it was because of our parents’ lack of love. Maybe it was because we were
bullied growing up. Maybe we fell into the shame of addictions to drugs or
alcohol or impurity. Maybe we broke relationships, or others broke them with
us. Maybe we lived selfishly, and are reaping what we’ve sown.
Even
natural sufferings like sickness, poverty, and death are made more bitter by
sin. If we truly loved God, we would rejoice at sickness, because it is an
opportunity to share in Christ’s Cross. Poverty, in the light of faith, allows
us to serve God unfettered by possessions. And death is the door to total union
with God in Heaven. These natural sufferings, which are meant to bring us
closer to Christ, end up being bitter due to sin. Besides, these sufferings are
a result of original sin – so one could truly say that sin is the cause
of all unhappiness in the world!
Consider
– a bird is happiest when it is flying; a fish is happiest in the water. So we
are happiest when we are doing what we are meant to do. And what is the meaning
of our lives? To know, love and serve God here on this earth so we can be
eternally happy with Him in Heaven. To sin is to act against the very meaning
and purpose of our life. Much like a bird underwater or a fish in a tree, we
are unhappiest when we sin!
All
parts of the human person suffer because of sin. God initially intended us to
live forever; but now, because of original sin, our bodies suffer sickness and
death. God desired our souls to live in intimate union with Him; but now, sin
separates us from Him. Our intellect was meant to know truth, but sin blinds us
and makes us believe in errors (most atheists I know started down that path
because they were living a sinful life and didn’t want there to be a
God!). Finally, our free wills have become corrupted because of sin – we now
desire things we know to be harmful. Before Original Sin, broccoli would be
more delicious than chocolate; praying would have been more enjoyable than
Netflix; we wouldn’t have to struggle to do the right thing. Now, our wills are
weak and flabby, and we have to exert serious effort to pray or live
good lives. Sin corrupted all of us – body and soul, intellect and free will.
But –
here’s the good news – sin is not the final word. There is hope – and hope is
named Jesus Christ.
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