OF SIN AND SINNERS BY ENOCH and JOHN RUSSELL

OF SIN AND SINNERS
BY JOHN RUSSELL AND ENOCH

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JOHN RUSSELL:

I want to thank Enoch for asking me to participate in this article. I am not a theologian as Enoch is, and some other people involved in these religious articles may be, and my approach will pretty likely reflect that fact.

The topic is sin, and how I see it's importance , and resolution, if any, as a Catholic.

Let's start with a passage about sin from the Catechism Of The Catholic Church, which is the official dogma as determined by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the official spokes-group for the Catholic Church in America -

"God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us. To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults.

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves , and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 8-9)

... Sin is an offense against God....Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it."

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Catholic doctrine recognizes different kinds of sin. There are sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit.
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"Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God.....

Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it""
http://ccc.usccb.org/flipbooks/catechism/index.html#454/z page 454

Mortal sins are grave matters, such as murder, rape, incest, perjury, adultery.

Venial sins would be such as petty lies, vanity, cheating in a game, gossiping and other minor 'offenses.'
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When I was a kid , children made their first confession at the age of 7 or 8, as I recall, which was second grade. The kids didn't know what to confess, having never done it before, and so the nuns coached a little. "I talked back to my mom", "I punched my brother Billy", "I stole a pencil off of Susie's desk." "I said something mean about Aunt Judy".

At that age , sins mainly correspond to social misbehavior.

As we get older and our interaction with the "outside world" grows immensely , sins become more associated with effecting other people. Deceiving spouses, cheating in committed relationships, harming other people's reputations, stealing, financial misdoings, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, violence etc.
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Bing Dictionary definition of SIN

sin1
sin/Submit
noun

1. an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.
"a sin in the eyes of God"

synonyms: immoral act, wrong, wrongdoing, act of evil/wickedness, transgression, crime, offense, misdeed, misdemeanor; More
verb

2. commit a sin.

"I sinned and brought shame down on us"
synonyms: commit a sin, commit an offense, transgress, do wrong, commit a crime, break the law, misbehave, go astray; archaic trespass
"I have sinned"
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So there are the definitions and dogmatic descriptions of sin. How are we to think of sin and reconciliation in practice?

Sin is a manifestation of the free will God gives every human being. The admission of sin and the desire to cleanse from our conscience the effect of our sin is also achieved through free will.

Personally, I think the element of free will to hurt another , or oneself, is the key indicator of sin. If you accidentally drop your cousin's expensive vase and break it, it is not a sin, if you did it on purpose because your cousin affronted you somehow and you are "getting even" , it most definitely is sin.

Catholics are supposed to confess to a priest at least once a year, but I believe this is widely disregarded. Individuals are more likely to "bargain" with God, and to 'confess' important sins only when their effect becomes a personal crisis (the sin of alcohol abuse leads to a DUI, for example) and venial sins are often assigned to the back of the mind.

Whether one is Catholic, or adherent to a Protestant sect, or Jewish, or Muslim , Buddhist, Hindu, or no religion at all, though, one can make the conscious effort to acknowledge "sin" as the intentional damaging of our relationships with other people, and/or with God. The non-religious would experience 'sin' as a guilty conscience, the religious see it as a break in our relationship with our Creator which must be acknowledged and repaired.

Remember Mel Gibson's drunken disparagement of Jews some years ago when he was arrested for DUI?  Gibson is said to be a devout Catholic. If that is the case he went to confession as soon as practical after the act and asked God to forgive him his sin and did the penance and act of reparation and reconciliation as assigned to him by his priest.

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OF SIN AND SINNERS

ENOCH:

There are three relationships which every human being
must address. First, one must relate to themselves. Next,
each must relate to all people with whom they come into
contact, directly or indirectly. Finally, we must all relate to
the material environment. We live in nature. We co-exist
with all its animate and inanimate forms.

How it relates to sin and sinners in Judaism is as follows.
First, there is a distinction between sin and abomination.
Sin( Chet) and Abomination (Toeayvah) and never used
interchangeably in Scripture. They do not refer to the same
things.

Sin estranges one from G-d. That separation, at its extreme
can negate salvation. Sin is never right. There are levels of
sin. They are all not good. Some are worse than others.

Abomination has nothing to do with sin or salvation. It is
merely being different in conduct from what is generally
expected. That doesn’t always make it wrong.

An abomination may be body tattoos in certain cultures. It
may not be illegal or universally unacceptable in that
culture. Some do and some don’t use skin illustrations as a
fashion or personal statement. It is just not what most
people wear.

When it is the policy of a government to promote hatred,
persecution, bigotry, prejudice and even ethnic cleaning,
those who rail against such state sanctioned things are for
sure going against the current societal tide. History and
virtue are on their side, however.

Let’s concentrate on sin.

Who can commit sin?

We as individuals can.

Other individuals can, having nothing to do with us; or in
tandem with us.

Nature does not sin. Animals are animals. Rocks are rocks.
There is no virtue or vice involved.

Let’s zero in on sins and sinners among people.

What is the Jewish position on personal sin?

What does it have to say on relationship to sinners?
During the Yomim Ha Norahim (Days of Awe: Rosh Ha
Shanah to Yom Kippur) we try to expiate our sins by doing
the following.

We go to people we harmed by our sins.
We articulate our sins.
We confess our guilt.
We express our remorse.
We plead that they forgive us.
We try to make them whole in such ways as are practically
possible.
We design and implement plans to prevent ourselves from
re-committing such sins again.
Those are for sins we committed against other humans.

What about sins committed by others, in which we had no
part?

On Yom Kippur we recite a list of Al Chets (Sins). We cover
all classes of sins that human frailty bring about. It is
noteworthy that we do so all in plural. Why?

When someone else sinned, and we were not there for them
in a moment of weakness to help, that is partly on our
shoulders.

When others sin, if we are not there to lend a hand to help
them up and out of the pit they dug for themselves by
sinning, we are not fulfilling our responsibilities to each
others as members of the same community of values.
We are all in this life together.

Yom Kippur is a day of collective repentance and atonement.
What of individual sins we commit. Not to other people.
Rather to, before and in the eyes of G-d?

In the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Code Book of Jewish Law)
there is an obscure passage which tells us never to ask why
someone is fasting on a non-fast day. Why?

Because they may be repenting and atoning directly to G-d
for what they and only they did as sin. That is between them
and G-d, not us.

How does G-d respond to repentance and atonement,
individual and collective?

In Tehellim (Psalms) 121:4 it is written, “Henei, lo yanum
veh lo yishan Shomer Yisrael”. “Behold, the Guardian of
Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers”.

G-d is always available to us when we want to repent and
atone. We can choose sincerely and of our own volition to
turn away from the corrupting influences about us. We may
elect to return our souls to the pristine state given us at birth
through repentance and atonement.

G-d is always open to this. He recognizes it happily.
As one of my mentors, Reb Daniel Goldstein (of Sacred
Memory) used to say in Yiddish, “Der Rabbenu Shel Oylum
Vill Helfen”. “The Master of the Universe (G-d) wants to
help”.

In Judaism, sin is something to try to avoid. When it happens,
it is to be expurgated. Those injured by it should have their
original situation restored as much as possible.

We reject sin. We reject such odious and repugnant
misconduct. But we do not reject the one or ones who
committed it or them.

That does not mean we are doormats.

It does mean we will be open to helping others actualize
their Divine potential if they will let us.

We believe in combining justice with mercy.

As with coins, if there is not a heads and a tails, there is no
value.

So it is with sin. We need both justice and mercy or we are
not doing things maximally well.

The COC, TOS, and the Four B’s will be enforced in this
discussion thread. Be on-point. Be positive. Be respectful. Or
Be Gone!

Please do share with us the original ideas you have about sin
and sinners. Kindly provide what your heritage, tradition,
and world view community has to offer on this topic of
universal import.

The world is made better by people of good intent working
together for improvement.