Preface:

   
Faith is an orientation of the soul, not an accord with a collection of
facts .  Faith is not only the fact that we believe, but what we
believe.  God calls us to the former, and has given us the latter. Not
all faith is good, not all religion is good. The truth in anything
comes by the actions of the Word, Jesus Christ.  He "enlightens every
man that comes into the world." Mere faith is not true and living
faith.  Mere faith does not "orient" us to God, because mere faith has
not the true God and His Revelation as its raison d’etre. Mere faith is
not "an orientation of the soul."

  
If sin ultimately means alienation from God, then its cure, true
repentance, must consist in a radical re-orientation of one’s mind,
soul and life toward Jesus Christ and His great moral imperatives.
   
Western neo-Platonism, which was insinuated into Orthodox thought
especially during the three-century "Latin captivity" of Russian
seminaries and theology, and the publication of Greek texts by Roman
Catholic publishers in Italy during the Turkish occupation of Greece,
still corrupt many of our concepts of sin, virtue, morality, ethics
and, consequently, the nature and meaning of repentance, and even of
Redemption. A clear example  of this theological corruption is the
book, The Soul After Death,
    The Orthodox understanding of sin is related to
death the passions. Death is the ontological obstacle to salvation, sin
is the existential or moral obstacle to it, because both death and sin
prevent deification.
    Actually, these scholastic, pagan ideas
concerning sin and morality are partly responsible for the successes of
modern atheism. In this article we will look briefly and in simple,
direct language at the concept of "sin" in Holy Scripture and Orthodox
teaching.

    WHAT DOES "SIN" MEAN?

     "Sin" as it became
understood in the post-patristic West, is a poor translation of the
Hebrew and Greek concepts it is supposed to represent. Consequently, it
expresses inadequately the Scriptural idea it is used to render. This
is no fault of the English language, which is sufficient for any
theological concept; rather it is a reflection of the theological and,
perhaps, linguistic inadequacies of the Scholastic era in the Latin
world from which the concepts were derived.
     The term in Greek
and Hebrew means "to fall short of the goal, miss the mark, fall short
of one’s destiny." This term is rendered in Latin as "sons," "sontis,"
which means "guilt; guilty," and has a forensic significance. We can
see already that there is an important difference here. The terms used
in Holy Scripture (Hb. khet; khatnah. Gk.‘amartia, etc.) refer to
something far greater than the Latin term used to translate them. The
Latin term (and the understanding usually given to the word in English)
is legalistic and juridical, and understood in a forensic sense.
Culpability are certainly expressed in Hebrew and in Greek. We must be
prepared to humbly accept our responsibility, our culpability when it
applies. However, this does not limit the meaning of sin since we can
find ourselves "missing the mark" and falling away from God not only by
acts which are not "illegal," but sometimes even through our virtues,
when there is no legal guilt.
    However the Scholastics treated sin juridically, the idea of sin as guilt originates with Augustine.
   
Ironically, this concept of sin also lowers and degrades the concept of
morality. If sin is only a violation of the law, then morality consists
only in obeying the law. Such morality could not contribute to one’s
salvation, but could only render one as hypocritical as the Pharisees
and as alienated from Christ as was the rich young ruler (Mt.16:19-12).
It was, in fact, perfectly lawful for the righteous and moral Pharisees
to throw a poverty-stricken widow out of her house if she owed them
money or they held a lien on the house. In the same way modern
"prosperity gospel" moral evangelicals would foreclose on a poor
widows’ mortgage or lien without violating a law, so it would be a
perfectly moral act from the forensic point of view.
    "Sin" does
not refer simply to a "violation of the law" which is "punished by
God’s justice." This is not to suggest, however, that there is no guilt
in sin, and we will discuss this later. The essence of sin should also
not be understood as a contravention of God’s will in a legalistic
sense, nor to fall below a given norm of behaviour. To sin means to
violate God’s will in this sense, that "God wills all men to be saved."
Sin means to fall short of the destiny (mark, goal) for which man was
created. Since the "goal," "destiny" and "mark" for which man was
created is full communion with God, to partake of the Divine Nature
(theosis) (2Pet.1:4), sharing in His glory and immortality, then "sin"
(as a either a verb or a noun) means to fall short of the destiny of
theosis (participation in God). Death, then, may be called "the sin of
the world," since death is both cause and result of missing the goal of
the immortality which results from union with God. The Apostle
expresses this concept of sin when he says that "all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God" (Rm.3:23) (that is, "everyone has
missed the mark and fallen short of the goal of man’s destiny, which is
to participate in the glory of God" — theosis). All mankind, therefore,
is "sinful" and each one is a "sinner" because in the life of all and
each, they fall short of the destiny for which they were created.
"Sins" are those things we do which openly manifest and reinforce our
separation from God, or "falling short."  Every sin is "mortal" sin,
because all sin separates us from the source of immortality — God.
Indeed, even our virtues can be sin if they somehow separate us from
God, for instance, through pride taken in these virtues. True faith,
then, is an unconditional orientation of the whole person toward the
will of God.
    God does not punish man for his sins and sinfulness
in this life, or even in the life to come. We forge our own destiny.
Let us not forget that heresy and schism are sins.  The destiny of a
man outside the Church is foreordained. The Church is the Body of
Christ and our relationship to her is organic, not legal.  Dispassion
and perfection are impossible outside her divine-human precincts. We
must remember that the Church does not "send" anyone to heaven or to
hell, rather the Church prepares us for our ultimate encounter with the
love and glory of Jesus Christ. Thus, that which we call "hell" is our
own creation. We may experience it already in this life and, by our own
choices, experience the fulness of it in the age to come. God’s plan
for mankind when He created us was  immortality by grace, participation
in the glory of the Godhead, the joy of the all-embracing divine love.
God has set this as our destiny and not only taught us how to attain to
it, but in Christ has made it clearly possible for us to arrive at it.
Because of his sins (all those ways by which man misses the goal of
union with God),  man always falls short of this destiny, but because
of Christ Who, as true human, arrived at this destiny and attained to
it for all mankind (Rm.5:12), we can inherit it anyway by choosing to
strive for a life in Christ (Rm.3:24-30). "All have sinned, falling
short of the glory of God, but are made righteous freely by His Grace
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a
sacrifice to make us one [with Himself] through faith in His Blood. He
did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His Divine
forbearance, He overlooked all the sins which had previously occurred.
This He did to demonstrate at the present time that He is righteous and
the One Who bestows righteousness upon the one who has faith in Jesus.
What then becomes of our prideful boasting? It is ruled out. On what
principle? Good works? No, but on the principle of faith. For we
maintain that a man is righteous by faith apart from works of the law"
(Rm.3:23-28).

    SIN IS MORE THAN BREAKING A LAW: DEATH IS THE "SIN OF THE WORLD"

   
Death, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, is not a
punishment of God: it is, rather, the result of man’s failure to live
up to his destiny of participating in God’s immortality. Death is the
primary manifestation of separation and alienation from God; it is also
our principle source of bondage (Hb.2: 15) and the driving force behind
individual sins. Thus death is the "sin of the world," and we are in a
bondage to the manner in which the world deals with the question of
death, as Paul again says, "Even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world…" (Gal.4:3).
     "Sin"
refers to all those things which form a barrier between us and
participation in God. We also refer to these things as "passions." If
we read the Holy Scripture carefully  and see that "the Kingdom of God
is within you" and "you are temples of the Holy Spirit," we learn that
the essence of sin is really this: we choose to build in our hearts the
principality of this world rather than the Kingdom of God. The struggle
against sin can really be defined as man’s role in building a new
kingdom within himself, as Paul says: "Are ye not aware that to Whom ye
yield yourselves to obey as servants, ye are truly His servants Whom ye
obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience [to God] unto
righteousness?" (Rm.6:16)
    The principality of this world rules
in a man’s heart. He chooses to conquer that principality and replace
it with the Kingdom of God. He knows that with God’s help it can be
done. Such a person then becomes a warrior of God’s Kingdom. He begins
to train for battle, he enters a spiritual "bootcamp," learning about
the faith, studying the Scripture, learning how to fight and struggle
against this principality of death within himself. In this war, which
is fought in one’s own conscience, mind and soul, each "sin" is a
defeat, a failure to conquer one of the enemy’s strongholds and attain
our goal. Sin is not merely a "violation of the law," as our Saviour
made plain to the rich young ruler (Mt.19:16-26). For no matter how
perfectly the young man had fulfilled the law, he still fell short of
the mark and goal (sinned), not because his wealth was evil, but
because he chose to give it, rather than Christ, dominion over his
heart. He made a choice between two kings.

    THE PROBLEM WITH LEGALISTIC MORALISM IN PLACE OF TRUE MORALITY

   
We can already see how ludicrous it is to give any kind of literal or
theological significance to the allegorical pictures of sin and
corresponding punishments (such as "visions" in various paterikons,
which were often actually concocted stories used as teaching devices
for monks. Some of these artificial "visions" show, for example, liars
or gossipers being suspended from hot meathooks by their tongues, or
demons judging souls at toll houses with bus stop-like designations for
legally specific sins).
    We can also see the fatal danger of
regarding ourselves as being "as good as the next person," or following
the new cult of "I feel really good about myself. I don’t feel that I
have any sins." People who offer such proud and un-Christian opinions
of themselves are also victims of the legalistic, forensic view of
"sin." This is why Christ Himself specifically refuted such ideas in
the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Lk.18:10-14). The
Pharisee, who was "ethically perfect," remained unrighteous and was
lost; whereas the publican, who was an active sinner, far from being
ethically perfect, through repentance obtained righteousness as a gift
from God and was saved. We are not proclaimed righteous (forensic
innocense), as Protestants believe. By the grace of our connection with
Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit in His Church (of which we are
a member), by; the Mysteries, we grow in perfection until we become
perfect and enter the Kingdom of God, as the brethren of Christ, the
sons and daughters of Christ..
    We do not enter the heavenly
kingdom by means of ethical perfection (i.e., "correct behaviour) in
this life, by completely conquering the inclination to sin or by
becoming sinless. We enter the heavenly kingdom by having received it
already, in ourselves, in this life, by having the Holy Spirit dwelling
in us and having acquired divine grace as a "wedding garment" (Mt.
22:11) in this life. But let no one think that these things are
acquired without much prayer, fasting and struggle! which presents an erroneous concept of the
nature of sin, judgment, the relationship between soul and body, the
presence of the Holy Spirit, the nature of Redemption and the nature of
Heaven and hell.

    A soul
departs this life either already in possession of the Kingdom of God or
else forever deprived of it. How do we acquire this Kingdom of God
within ourselves? By struggling actively against the passions in our
nature which induce us to sin (fall short of the goal), not as if the
passions were violations of a law (this is mere  repression, and not at
all a true moral struggle) but barricades which keep us from obtaining
union with our beloved God. Thus, we can never obtain true repentance
from fear of wrath, judgment or punishments; we can come to it only  by
means of love. The only fear which can help lead us to true repentance
and moral victory is fear of being separated forever from the love and
glory of our dear Father. When one "repents" from fear of punishment,
he is only "repenting" that he cannot get away with it, he is not
repenting because his passions separate him from God and keep him from
his proper destiny. Fear cannot produce moral behaviour; it can only
produce socially correct behaviour by force of repression. Only love
can produce true morality and moral behaviour. No deed which is
constrained or forced by fear of punishment has moral significance; it
is hardly useful for salvation (comp. St. John Damascene, Concise
Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 2:12).

    ABOUT RANKS OF SIN

   
We should, therefore, put away from us the pagan Hellenic notions of
deadly (or mortal) and "venial" sins as well as the "cardinal" and
lesser virtues of Plato (see, eg. The Republic). All sin is mortal,
since all sin causes us to fall short of the goal of immortality in
God, but all sin may be repented of and forgiveness obtained. (The one
"sin unto death" — 1 Jn. 5:16 — is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit,
although it is clear from several sayings of Christ that refusal to
forgive others is also an unforgivable sin).
    When the monastic
fathers explored various "kinds" of sin, they were not legislating or
making legalistic gradations. They were exploring the various ways in
which man stumbles and falls short of his destiny. Those passions which
they considered the worst were the ones which are the most difficult to
overcome and which bring one into the greatest bondage. They were not
legislating "mortal" and "venial" sins in the fashion of Augustine of
Hippo and the scholastics. Rather, they were charting the course of our
struggle and illuminating the path of our ascent by shedding light on
dark places and dangerous stumbling stones and pot-holes on the path.
Moreover, by their own intense struggles, their own fallings and
risings again, they were acting as guides for us, learning and then
teaching us how to avoid, or at least rise again from these falls.
   
When the early preachers were teaching the illiterate populace they
used a great number of parables and allegories to describe, on that
level, higher spiritual principles. The Latins made dogmas of these
allegories, but we must separate ourselves from them and return to a
truly Orthodox understanding.
    If no one attains to true
righteousness and if we all sin throughout our lives, how do we gain
our salvation and acquire the Holy Spirit? How are we saved despite the
inclination to sin which is so strong in all of us?
    The whole
matter is summarized by Apostle Paul at Romans 3:23-28 (in which we
also find a clear Scriptural refutation of the novel doctrine of sin
put forth in the work, The Soul After Death). Apostle Paul says:

   
"All have sinned, falling short of the glory of God, but are made
righteous freely by His Grace through the Redemption which is in Christ
Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice to make us one (with Himself)
through faith in His Blood. He did this to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in His Divine forbearance, He by-passed all the
sins which had previously occurred. This He did to demonstrate at the
present time that He is righteous and the One Who bestows righteousness
upon the one who has faith in Jesus. What then becomes of our prideful
boasting? It is ruled out. On what principle? Good works? No, but on
the principle of faith. For we maintain that a man is made righteous by
faith apart from works of the law."

    Evidently, as we saw in the
book The Soul After Death, the corrupted contemporary religious thought
of many monastics gives no genuine power or effectiveness to the Holy
Mysteries (sacraments), nor to faith and repentance in general. The
reason for this is that much of this theology has so completely
assimilated medieval Latin legalism and scholasticism that it simply
does not understand the Mysteries of repentance and confession, and has
a very poor understanding of the dogma of Redemption. In Scholastic
thought, so clearly expressed in the cited work, repentance is no
longer a Mystery of mental and psychic transformation, but a crude
ritual of brutal expiation. It really negates Christ’s redemptive work
and replaces it with a doctrine of auto-salvation through personal
expiatory feats and trials. Our struggle is for sincere repentance, for
the conquest of our inner human sufferings (the passions), and not a
means of inflicting suffering on ourselves in order to "please God" by
our pain.
    Sin, as we have said, is sin not forensically as a
violation of a law, but because it separates us from God, bringing us
short of our destiny. It keeps us from being true humans (as God
created us) and makes us subhuman. It is evident, then, that sin
separates us from the Church, that even legal members of an Orthodox
parish who sin and do not repent separate themselves from the Body of
Christ — the Holy Church. This is why those suffering from and
struggling against certain passions are commanded by the canons to
stand in the vestibule of the temple and not to enter into the body of
the temple: precisely to teach us in graphic terms that sin is a
separation from God and from the Heavenly Kingdom. The Mystery of
Confession is, in fact, a mystery of reconciliation and reunion with
the Church, the Body of Christ, the community of the redeemed.
Confession and repentance cannot be separated, as we see, because
repentance means to "reverse one’s mind," to "reverse one’s
perspective." Epitimias given under the canons of the Church are never
punishments (since what is forgiven cannot be punished) but guides and
means of helping in the process of reshaping the mind and will of the
one who sins. This is why prostrations, as types of the death and
Resurrection of Christ, are the most frequent form of epitimia.

    FORGIVENESS AND REMISSION OF SIN AND SINS

   
In the Mystery of Confession, the repentant person receives, by Divine
Grace, the remission of his sins. What does this mean? Sin means to
fall short of union with God. If this "falling short" is remitted, it
is obvious that "forgiveness" or "remission" here means reconciliation
with God: precisely, reunion with the Holy Church, the Body of Christ.
    Putting aside the crude anthropomorphisms of sectarian literalism in interpreting Divine Scripture, let us summarize:
   
Human nature is yoked by sin, so man can never attain his destiny by
himself. For this reason, God became man, truly man, perfect man, and
healed human nature, manifesting again the perfect human nature on
earth. Thus, the yoke and bondage of sin and death are broken in the
One Man. We choose either to unite ourselves with the perfect human
nature of Christ (which is united to God) or to remain yoked by the
fallen human nature (which is bound to Satan by the power of death —
Hb. 2:15).
    We accomplish this union with the true human nature
through the Holy Church which, in a way, constitutes this true human
nature being united with Christ God just as a wife is united with and
made one flesh with her husband. Our true union with the Church is our
real union with God. This is why when we sin again (once more fall
short of the goal), we must be reunited with that goal (union with
God). This is the essence of the Mystery of
Confession-Repentance—reunion with the Body of Christ.
    Nothing
is given by God as a punishment, but everything He allows to happen is
given to teach, to educate, to heal, to save us. God does not punish us
for our sins and He does not become "angry" with us over them (for
then, to whom would God confess and repent for being bound with the
passion of anger?) We do not, cannot, make "expiation" for our own
sins, for then Christ would have died in vain and Holy Scripture would
be in error.
    Let us hear the words of St. Antony the Great about this:

   
"God is good, without passions and unchangeable. One who understands
that it is sound and true to affirm that God does not change might very
well ask: `how, then, is it possible to speak of God as rejoicing over
those who are good, becoming merciful to those who know Him and, on the
other hand, shunning the wicked and being angry with the sinner?’ We
must reply to this, that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, because
to rejoice and to be angered are passions. Nor is God won over by gifts
from those who know Him, for that would mean that He is moved by
pleasure. It is not possible for the Godhead to have the sensation of
pleasure or displeasure from the condition of humans. God is good, and
He bestows only blessings, and never causes harm, but remains always
the same. If we humans, however, remain good by means of resembling
Him, we are united to Him, but if we become evil by losing our
resemblance to God, we are separated from Him. By living in a holy
manner, we unite ourselves to God; by becoming evil, however, we become
at enmity with Him. It is not that He arbitrarily becomes angry with
us, but that our sins prevent God from shining within us, and exposes
us to the demons who make us suffer. If through prayer and acts of
compassionate love, we gain freedom from our sins, this does not mean
that we have  won God over and made Him change, but rather that by
means of our actions and turning to God, we have been healed of our
wickedness, and returned to the enjoyment of God’s goodness. To say
that God turns away from the sinful is like saying that the sun hides
itself from the blind". (St. Antony the Great, Cap. 150).

    We
have set forth in outline the Orthodox concept of sin and repentance.
For a more theological and in-depth study on this subject, we recommend
that one read On The Ancestral Sin, by Fr. John Romanides. We had also
promised to make a brief comparison of the Orthodox concept of sin and
repentance with Gnostic and Augustinian concepts, such as those set
forth in the work, The Soul After Death. For those who have read the
book, the comparison is already clear. In The Soul After Death, we
encounter a very juridical and absolutely forensic doctrine of sin and
personal expiation (almost an autosalvation), of a ruthless, juridical
god who brutally punishes man for every even petty violation of a law
or infraction of a theoretical ethical code even if the person was
ignorant of the fact that some action violated this theoretical code.
Forgiveness of sins (sin being understood in the Latin fashion) is
practically impossible to obtain, and indeed, we do not actually
receive it. God does not forgive man in the doctrine of this book,
rather He is willing to be satisfied in His passions if man makes
satisfactory personal expiation for his legal guilt. If a man did not
manage to expiate enough to satisfy this god in this life, then he must
somehow expiate after death. Even if a person is "saved," he must be
purged by aerial trials of his legal guilt, and can only pass through
this purgation if he has sufficient good works to cover his items of
legal guilt. He may also pass through this purgation if his spiritual
father has enough excess merits that he can use to buy his way through
this aerial gauntlet. Sins paid for are not forgiven because punishment
and forgiveness are mutually exclusive. Thus we see that the forensic
concept of sin, together with any dualistic notion of the nature of
man, is heretical.

    THE CONSCIENCE: GUILT AND HEALING

   
We had promised to say something about the question of guilt; we cannot
do this without also mentioning the conscience of man.
    Guilt is
often given too much credit. People can become burdened under a weight
of guilty feelings and complexes and be destroyed by them.
Nevertheless, guilt is a valuable and necessary human self-awareness. A
person who does not feel guilt when he or she actually is guilty of
something is usually referred to as a psychopath. Without the
realisation of guilt one could not repent and struggle to change his
perspectives and the course of his life. How do we have a healthy sense
of guilt and how do we deal with that guilt?
    The conscience is a
holy prophet that has been implanted in us by God. It testifies to us
if we are undertaking an action which is wrong, leads us away from God,
harms someone else, etc. It is our conscience that informs us that we
are guilty of something wrong, and calls upon us to correct ourselves.
This is why our Saviour tells us, "Be reconciled with your
accuser/adversary [i.e., our conscience] in the way [in this life],
lest he …deliver thee to the judge……"(Mt.5:25). To have a healthy
conscience is as important, perhaps even more important, than to have a
healthy body. Enmity with one’s own conscience can result in genuine
mental illness. There is, however, no excuse for guilt complexes. If we
follow the teachings of some Christian groups, we could be burdened by
a crippling sense of guilt over practically every aspect of our
ordinary humanity. It is necessary to have some idea of what things we
should feel guilt for and what things we should not feel guilty of. Let
us begin by mentioning the "blameless passions," as some of the fathers
have called them. What we are speaking of is those "appetites" which
are necessary for life. Hunger is not the same as gluttony, for example.
   
If there is any "rule of thumb" that can give us a general idea of what
constitutes "sin" and what does not, then perhaps it is this: if an
action or way of life is pursued from egoism, self-centredness and
self-love, then it is a sin. If a course of life is chosen which is
based in unselfish love and humility about one’s self, then it is
likely not sinful. Egoism and self-centredness are, perhaps, the most
clearly defining factors in sin. If we feel guilt for such actions or
manners of life, then our conscience is likely trying to bring us to an
awareness of this and lead us to repentance— that is, a life of
continued re-orientation toward the will of God, toward co-suffering
love.

    REMISSION OF SINS AND HEALING FROM GUILT

   
Remember that repentance means to "re-think," to "turn and go in
another direction" with our lives and deeds. Without a healthy sense of
guilt when it is appropriate we might have a society which is a living
hell or nightmare. If the feeling of guilt is transposed into a
"complex" or a general sense of ourselves, it can also create, for the
individual, a living hell. It can and does create serious neuroses and
psychotic disorders. It is a great sin to burden people with a sense or
feeling of guilt for their very humanity itself, or to leave people
unhealed of their actual guilt. This unhealthy sense of guilt or guilt
complexes can cause be the cause of many depressions, suicides and
other psychiatric and personality disorders.
    How do we approach
guilt? This is fundamental aspect of both prayer and the Holy
Mysteries, in particular Confession—the Mystery of Repentance.
Realisation that we are genuinely guilty of some wrong should lead a
believing person to pray about the matter and find true repentance.
This includes apologising to someone we have hurt and making amends
where possible. The Mystery of Confession is given to us so that our
parish priest or spiritual father can help us come to true repentance
and find the means to turn our lives around, to strengthen our focus on
transformation. This determination to turn our lives around is the
source of our forgiveness. This process is by no means limited to
Confession, although it is referred to as the "Mystery of Repentance."
The life of the Church is a mystical or "sacramental" life, a life of
continued sanctification. In this divine/human life of the Church, the
unseen is revealed through those things which are seen. The presence of
the Church is a seamless life in which we do not isolate the Holy
Mysteries in some legalistic fashion, nor do we limit them in number as
if they were "departments" or "closets" of ritual. The life of the
Church is a unified and harmonious working of divine grace among the
faithful. Every aspect of it serves for the sanctification of the
believer and his world. We clearly declare in the prayers of the Church
that we receive Holy Communion "for the remission of sin and life
everlasting." In the Mystery of Anointing, we also proclaim that we are
anointed for the remission and healing of both bodily and spiritual
infirmities and receive the remission of our sins. The blessing with
holy water is for the sanctification of those who receive it.
Confession should not be understood in a narrow, legalistic manner, nor
should the matter of forgiveness. Confession is not the only manner in
which we receive forgiveness and remission of our sins. With regard to
Confession, here is the crucial point: if is easy to gain forgiveness
from God, sometimes, however, it is not so easy to forgive ourselves
and reconcile ourselves with our own conscience. And yet, Christ has
warned us to be reconciled with our conscience in this life. It is in
Confession that we receive, through the prayers of the Church,
"permission" or help in forgiving ourselves so that we not labour under
a harmful and destructive burden of guilt. True repentance should
deliver us from the burden of guilt because it reconciles us, brings us
into agreement with, our conscience. We often need help in this
process, and the Church responds to that with the Mystery of Confession.

    SUMMARY

   
Let us briefly summarize these matters. Mortality, inherited from Adam,
is in the nature of all created things. Man is not immortal by nature,
nor does he have a naturally immortal soul inhabiting a mortal body.
Immortality is a gift of grace to humans and angels alone. Mortality
can be a gift because it can focus us on God and our relationship with
Him, for "in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
Death, on the other hand, is the result of separation from God, Who
alone has immortality and is the source of life. Death is the "sin of
this world" because it is the manifestation in all mankind of an
alienation from God. When we refer to individual sins, we are not
referring to "breaches of law" but to any and every action which
separates us from God or increases our alienation from Him. Fear of
death leads us into more and more individual sins and also into the
corporate sins of society (such as neglecting the poor, waging wars of
conquest, etc.) The root of all sin is egoism and self-love, and the
fear of death pushes man into more and more deeds and life styles of
egoism and self-love. Thus, "The wages of sin is death" (Rm.6:23) while
death is the product of sin (Rm.5:12). Sin is the falling short of the
goal of everlasting life in union with God (theosis). Thus sin and
death are partners, or rather "shades of the same thing." As the root
of them is our egoism and self-love, our self-absorption and
self-centredness, the healing of them is the unconditional,
co-suffering love of God in Jesus Christ, which recapitulates our
nature (Eph. 1:10). Having received such a gift of divine love, our
struggle is to assimilate it to ourselves and struggle to conquer our
own egoism, replacing it with unselfish love. This is the path toward a
re-orientation of our lives toward the will of God, and the very
meaning of faith. The faith that saves us where works of the law could
not is an unconditional orientation toward the will of God. This is not
a call for moral codes or moralisms, but a call for a transformation of
the human heart toward unselfish love of God and neighbour,
accomplished by the grace of true faith and the Mysteries ordained by
God and transmitted to us through the living Tradition of the Church.

Glory to Jesus Christ!
+Archbishop