Why do we sin?

I suppose the most direct answer is because we misuse or abuse our freedom. Instead of using it to love God and others as we are clearly commanded to do, we use it to love our own selves or to do our own will.

Obviously, there can be many reasons why we misuse our freedom. One could be ignorance. Instead of realizing that freedom is God’s gift to us and that it can only be lived properly by conforming our will to God’s will and law, we consider it simply as our own making, solely dependent on our own will.

We fail to realize that freedom is basically a relational affair that involves our responsibility toward God and others, toward what is objectively true, good and beautiful. We corrupt it by making it simply our own, self-centered affair.

Another reason could be confusion. As we struggle through our life, we are often assailed by our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. The lifelong struggle will always create some dust and blinding lights.

We somehow know what is right and wrong. Our conscience, no matter how deformed, would in a certain way tell us so. But in the ensuing battle for fidelity, we can fall because we don’t have a clear view of the moral law, and our strength is not that reliable in spite of God’s grace.

Let’s remember that we are ranged against very powerful enemies. We have our own wounded self to contend with, in the first place. That’s truly a difficult predicament, because how can one easily do battle with his own self?

Then we have the world that continues to absorb all the sinfulness of men, now getting more sophisticated and tricky. The new technologies and new developments, while having their valid usefulness, are unavoidably embedded with dangers. Then we have spiritual enemies to do battle with.

Of course, we sin also because we just want to, that is, we do it with full knowledge and consent. This is where true and sheer malice takes place.

We should try our best to avoid falling into sin. We have to learn to stay away from occasions of sin and temptations. We have to strengthen our conviction that God gives us all the graces we need to counter temptations and sins.

And yet, in spite of all this and our best efforts, we know that we somehow manage to sin. It’s something that we should not be too surprised about. If our first parents, in their perfect condition of original justice, fell to sin, we, who are already wounded in our humanity, could more easily fall.

Nevertheless, we should always remember God’s mercy. We have to be most wary of the devil’s most devious cut when he would tempt us to stay away from God through shame and fear whenever we fall into sin. That would make things worse.

God’s mercy will always be given to us. So we should go back to him as soon as possible. We should develop the unshakable conviction that no matter what sins we commit, no matter how ugly they are, there is always hope, because God is all too willing to forgive. It’s his delight to forgive.

May it be that while our sinfulness would have the understandable effect of making us feel bad and sad, we should not allow it to scandalize ourselves to the point of running away from Christ rather than running back to him contrite. And this, even if we seem to be already abusing God’s goodness.

Let’s strengthen our conviction that Christ has a special attraction to sinners, that he is ever willing to forgive us as long as we show some signs of repentance that he himself, through his grace, will stir in our conscience.

Let’s remember the thief who was crucified with Christ. He simply said he wanted to be with Christ in Paradise. And Christ granted that request without much ado. Same with Mary Magdalene whose sins were grave. She simply cried and cried, and for Christ, that was enough for her sins to be forgiven.

All these should not undermine the importance of the sacrament of confession. Recourse to this sacrament is the best but not the only way to show our spirit of penance. In fact, this sacrament would somehow require the complement of the other forms of penance.

It is also important that we form our conscience well, because many of the confusion with regard to sin and penance is due to certain deformations of conscience.