Sin breeds sin

[Teresa9]

Dear friends

I have been thinking lately after some long contemplation that sin breeds sin. I have noticed that when someone sins against you (by you I mean a person in general) there is a huge temptation to sin yourself in some sort of retort, either verbal or physical. It is odd how the first thought is usually, one of ‘getting the other person back’ instead of trying to see where that other person was coming from and why they did what they did/ said what they said etc and having love and compassion for them. Or on the other hand it can lead to a self-destructive sin where the person internalises the sin and that sin of the other person leads a person to first commit a sin against the self. Sin seems to have a nasty chain reaction and we all fall foul of this at some point.

This could even be true of personal sins that are hard to break, they seem to have a cycle and a rythmn of their own and one sin then breeds the next sin.

In some cases sin can escalate from a minor sin leading into a deeper more serious sin until the spiral is out of control and a person sees no way out. The sins have become a way of life and a person cannot see how to climb out of the hole they are in.

What do you all think?

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[tru_dvotion]

Yes, you are correct. That is how it works in the world. There used to be a film showing how germs spread: There was this nurse who did not wash properly and went around the hospital touching things and everywhere she went and touched, there was a stain left on the surface. In a short time the ward was covered with the stain. Sin is similar in that it spreads just like a germ. The answer is in the washing. If we make a habit of daily self examination, and going to confession often, and we have an astute confessor, who will get at the intent as well as the sin, we should not be overpowered with the stains of our sins.

 

[Teresa9]

tru_dvotion:

Yes, you are correct. That is how it works in the world. There used to be a film showing how germs spread: There was this nurse who did not wash properly and went around the hospital touching things and everywhere she went and touched, there was a stain left on the surface. In a short time the ward was covered with the stain. Sin is similar in that it spreads just like a germ. The answer is in the washing. If we make a habit of daily self examination, and going to confession often, and we have an astute confessor, who will get at the intent as well as the sin, we should not be overpowered with the stains of our sins.

Dear Tru Devotion

Excellent analogy. I suppose this could also be applied to the philosophy of the secular…‘if they are doing then so will I, it must be ok, if everyone is doing it’ and so the sin spreads.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[mtr01]

I have to say I completely agree with you both, Teresa and Tru. It seems Satan has sure been busy and found an effective way of transmitting sin through our fallen nature. I think we all need to keep praying to God to help make our will his in order to avoid this type of sin chain-reaction.

I think Tru makes an excellent point about frequent confession, especially having a good confessor who can help us see patterns. I also think a spiritual journal of sorts can be helpful. We can then make note of all the areas in which we need improvement and see how we are progressing each day (and during each day as well).

For my part, I find it extremely helpful to have as many external reminders (of where my mind and heart should be) as possible. For example, I was just enrolled in the brown scapular yesterday, and it has already helped me. In a situation where I could have easily fallen into sin (like described in the original post) I felt the scapular against my skin. My thoughts were instantly re-directed to where they should have been, and a whole chain of sin may have been avoided

 

[Mijoy2]

Teresa9:

This could even be true of personal sins that are hard to break, they seem to have a cycle and a rythmn of their own and one sin then breeds the next sin.

In some cases sin can escalate from a minor sin leading into a deeper more serious sin until the spiral is out of control and a person sees no way out. The sins have become a way of life and a person cannot see how to climb out of the hole they are in.

What do you all think?

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

Undoubtably!! Learning this has helped me tremendously in discovering the Truth of my Faith. Sin is not something you can dabble in without it grasping you with a firm grip. When I learned to avoid (or maybe better stated: “to flee”) the near occurance of sin I learned that I was able to avoid it altogether. To stomp out almost entirely the temptation. The wonderfull thing about this was that this process showed me that the opposite is true to even a greater degree. Righteousness breeds righteousness. The difference is you not left with guilt self loathing and despair. You are left with love.

Great point Teresa. It sounds so simple, yet it is so difficult to learn and practice. Although once done, so rewarding.

 

[tru_dvotion]

Teresa, we are not always aware of the effects of our actions. At least, I know I am not.

I remember a few years ago going to a person to ask her forgiveness and she was totally baffled by it and kept repeating, what do you mean? I was eaten up by remorse and she did not even have a clue. I tried explaining it to her, and at one point she said, you know, I do not want to hear anymore about this, because now I am beginning to feel resentful for thinking of me that such and such would offend me. She also gave me a totally different account of what happened and from her point of view there really was no injury. So why did I feel so guilty? Probably because although I did the right thing, my motives were not entirely unselfish. So this brings up the possibility of a complete reverse of the situation: We do things with good intent and yet these are perceived as ill intent and our actions, although well intended cause injury in the other person. But we have no clue, not until they began to act differently, or sometimes when they are gracious and do not resort to revenge, we may not even realize we offended. The possibilities are then we are either insensitive or perhaps are unaware of the other persons personal baggage. I am not sure how this fits here, but in any case, I saw a connection.

 

[Teresa9]

Dear Mijoy2

‘Righteousness breeds righteousness’

This is a little harder to bring about but it is true in that if the majority of people you knew were righteous, then their ways would undoubtedly rub off on you. I think it is far easier for people to let sin breed sin than for righteousness to pervade the opposite.

What I have noticed is kindess tends to breed kindness, if someone is kind to another person, that person is more inclined to be kind to them. (there’s always the case where this doesn’t happen, as could be said for the case of a person who’s sins don’t breed sin, they break the chain).

One day, I thought, I am going to smile at every single person I see today…so I did!! Guess what, most of them smiled back, some just seemed other wise preoccupied , probably never saw me even smile, but some just looked at me as if to say…‘what are you smiling at me for?’ The majority of people smiled back and even a few stopped and had a chat with me, total strangers …it was a great feeling, since that day I have resolved to do this everyday. (I even managed to have a conversation with one person about Christ Jesus…this was because we talked about the fact that Christmas is coming…I mentioned I was Catholic and they asked what we did at Christmas, so I told him…it was a lovely chat to have)

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[AlanFromWichita]

tru_dvotion:

The possibilities are then we are either insensitive or perhaps are unaware of the other persons personal baggage. I am not sure how this fits here, but in any case, I saw a connection.

Dear tru_dvotion,

I think there is a connection as well, and I agree that our being unaware of others’ personal baggage is a major factor in misunderstandings. Also our own can be, such as in the case that you cited where the other person wasn’t offended at all. I think part of the problem is most people are trained to “act nice” to each other, instead of being honest. They hear or see something that doesn’t seem right, but feel an obligation to get over it or “let it go” rather than say anything about it. I have found that people who act like this are not very good friends, and are probably talking to others about their perceived faults with me since they don’t feel they can talk to me. My best friends will challenge me immediately if I say or do something that bothers them or that they think is wrong, and we get it straightened out right away. Friends will not let me go around guessing whether I have egg on my face. If we learn how to be honest with everybody, we can avoid the escalation of sin in many cases because misunderstandings and anger don’t have a chance to build. If there is a problem, I know they will let me know so if they don’t I know there is none, and I am at peace.

Alan

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Dear Teresa,

Maybe one of the reasons we have this “revenge” idea is that we are socialized in a reward/punishment system. We think that wrong must go punished. Jesus taught exactly the opposite. Do not resist an evil person. Love your enemies.

If we are to transform our minds to be like Christ, I think we have to totally change our thinking on dealing with sinners. In the world, we are concerned with what is “fair” and so we tend to pity the victims of transgressions and show anger toward the sinner. We believe this is right because, again, our socialization tells us that we should clearly convey disapproval of those doing wrong so they know what they are doing.

What if we were to look at the sinner as the real victim of his own sin? In the story of the rich man and Lazarus we pity Lazarus because the rich man was so selfish. We really need to pity the rich man because Lazarus will be taken care of by God, while the rich man will not.

When somebody acts like a jerk toward us, we should look to them with kindness and pity because they obviously do not have the peace of Christ. When Christ tells us not to be angry at our enemies, it isn’t for the benefit of the enemies but for us! If we behave like an enemy toward others, regardless of how they’ve behaved toward us, it separates us from Christ by disobeying His great commandments. Some people think that if you treat an enemy with kindness you must be a wimp. I’ll take a chance at being such a wimp to walk with Christ.

Alan