CONSEQUENCE OF SIN

I have a friend who is fond of eating an excessively high-fat diet and abhors vegetables. He would accompany eating grilled liempos either with beer or brandy. In other words, he eats “sinfully”.  It did not surprise me that at a very young age of mid-thirties, he has been recently diagnosed with colon cancer. Indeed, we reap what we sow. In our spiritual life, sin brings its own punishment. The sufferings we bear are not necessarily from God but rather consequences of our own doing.

God's love and mercy is made manifest in the stern warning Jesus made to the Jewish villages of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Jesus preached there and did mighty acts in as much as he wanted these lost sheep of the house of Israel to repent and go back into the sheepfold of God. But they would neither listen to Him nor be persuaded by His wondrous deeds. Years after Jesus' preaching in these villages, they would cease to be faithful Jews either. The destruction that came upon the stubbornness of their hearts was the building of a pagan temple dedicated to Medusa in the very walls of their synagogue in Chorazin. They were assimilated to the Greek and pagan practices of their time; from the very trap from which Jesus wanted to save them. If only they listened and allowed themselves to wonder before Jesus, they could have been better.    

In the history of the Jewish people, they suffered the consequence of their ill actions (cf. Baruch 1:15-22). They were exiled to Babylon away from Jerusalem; from the temple where God's presence was very evident for them. Disobedience to God led them towards that road of perdition. They did not heed God's voice and were only too ready to disregard His voice. They had the law of Moses as sure guide, but they chose to make their own direction. They refuse to be guided by the Lord. Each of them went off after the devices of their own wicked heart, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God. And so they were removed from the presence of God, as that was the outcome of their misdeeds.

The Good News is we do not have a punishing God, only a merciful and loving Lord. The desire of the Lord is to deliver us from sin and death to which we may have trapped ourselves. This will only be possible if we listen to Him and to the One He sends to us. The Lord can deliver us from all evil should we repent from our sinful ways and return to His true fold.