Fr. Voigt, Whatever became of sin?
Without any hesitation our dear Lord informed His apostles that He was going to Jerusalem and there they would hand Him over. They would mock Him; they would spit upon Him; they would condemn Him and crucify Him. But on the third day He would rise. Why would all this happen?
One reason only: sin exists and must be conquered by using its ultimate effect, death.
In the recent past a book was published by the Mennizer Institute of Psychology entitled: Whatever Became of Sin.
In their analysis they followed sin out of the churches and into the legal arm of the government and into the psychiatric offices. Sin was taken out of the spiritual realm and placed in the psychiatric as a sickness. It must then by nature go to the civil realm and be encapsulated in a law. Unfortunately, neither the psychiatric offices nor the lawyers can do a thing with sin. Only the Catholic Church has the answer and the antidote to sin of all kinds.
First, one must recognize that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, entered this world to combat sin and bring each of us to the potential of eternal happiness with the Blessed Trinity. He came to do battle with the Evil One who continues to deceive mankind with the poison of pride. If deceived, the person falls into a spiritual blindness. He cannot see his sin as it is, a blindness to the presence of the loving God Who created him and desires his redemption. Instead the habitual sinner takes God for granted and falls in love with the pleasure of the sin.
Note that the apostles could not understand the horrendous effect of sin until they saw the payment that God had to offer for their sight to return. Once their sight is restored then sin loses its grip upon them and anyone else who is touched by the unimaginable Love that sheds every drop of blood for the salvation of the sinner. This action of the divine Son is the act of re-liga (=re-bonding). Sin breaks our union with God and only God can re-bond us to Himself. This is our religion. John states it so clearly in his third chapter when he writes: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whomsoever will believe in Him may be saved."
If the act of religion causes our salvation, then it is this action which brings us eternal vision. Without this eternal vision we would carry on in our sinning. We must recognize the act of the Son of God and cry out as the blind man did: "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
The crowd tried to shut him up, but he cried out all the louder. The blind man could see eternally and recognized the Son of God. All the others were truly blind spiritually. Today the world has gone blind and seeks to destroy the very memory of Jesus's presence in this world. Eliminate Christmas, forget about Easter. Just go about your work, you men, remember it's the economy, stupid! The consequence of the murdering of consciences is the blindness to the eternal presence of God.
In his schools Don Bosco would place sayings upon the walls with his favorite being: "God Sees Me." If we live in the presence of God then sin is a disease which can be healed in the confessional. Without this understanding then sin turns into a sickness that no man can cure. Only God can forgive sins as the pharisees remarked. So what must we do to regain eternal vision. We must examine our consciences both personally and socially. We must return to the natural law and condemn those states of sin (e.g. abortion, same sex unions, extortion, lust in the marketplace, television that is inappropriate, etc.) which are causing the demise of our nation. We must lift up Jesus Christ as our rightful King. Depose the president, the congress, the senate, the supreme court, anything inspired by the Jewish elite and return to the only true religion: the Catholic faith.
Entrust all to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and pray many rosaries that we might conquer the scourge of sin and blindness in our nation and our world today. Be assured that we will conquer for only Grace has substance and sin is only a parasite on goodness. Let us cry out for the eternal vision from the one and only Son of God begotten of the Virgin Mary. Be calm under pressure; know that heaven awaits thee; pray the holy rosary many and often; unite as often as possible with the Eucharistic Body, Blood, Soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, the King of kings.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt
