IF YOU HAVE NOT AS OF YET SENT IN YOUR 2016 STEWARDSHIP PLEASE DO THAT TODAY!
THE PARISH COUNCIL & I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUAL SUPPORT OF ST. JOHN"S. WITHOUT YOU NOTHING WOULD BE AND COULD BE ACCOMPLISHED HERE. GOD BLESS YOUR EFFORTS AND DEDICATION!
ON APRIL 10, WE ARE MARCHING ONCE AGAIN IN THE GREEK INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE! IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE PLEASE BE AT CHURCH THAT DAY TO JOIN US IN THIS WONDERFUL EXPRESSION OF FREEDOM FROM OPPRESSION FOR THE GREEK PEOPLE.
Generational Sin!
Whenever I am asked to baptize someone the question always arises about the prayers we read in the Narthex having to do with exorcism. Many ask, “What sins could this little child have done to warrant an exorcism.” My response is always the same and it points to the basic problem we have as human beings.
Sin is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “an offense against religious or moral law, an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible, an often serious shortcoming, fault, transgression of the law of God, a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God.”
As a result of sin Adam and Eve missed the mark that caused their estrangement from God. From that time on all of their prodigy would inherit a Fallen Nature and World. What was once Paradise in the grace of God where humanity had the ability to achieve eternal life was now gone. Father Tom Hopko in his book entitled, “The Lenten Spring,” say that, “All people inherit and imitate the sin of Adam and Eve. We inherit sin just by being born in this world. This does not mean that we are personally guilty of something which our ancestors did. It does mean, however, that we are sinful from our very conception. We are already caught up in a world alienated from God, broken and distorted, fragmented, and fallen. It means that our life is already ‘off the mark.’ (Sin means, literally, ‘missing the mark.’).
As you can see from the above quote the hope for humanity after the Fall was very tenuous. Life became an anomaly for humanity. The life of Prelasparian man was a life of ease and enjoyment in God’s grace. However, all this changed after the Fall in such a dramatic and radical fashion that life came unrecognizable. To bear this fact in Genesis we read that, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; from dust you are and of dust you will return.”
Sin is something that humanity cannot escape; it is in our DNA, so to speak, as the result from the Fall of Adam and Eve. However, that does not mean we cannot live a life as a righteous person. We are now in a state of imperfect perfection and we have the ability through Jesus Christ to be renewed through Baptism and become a new man or woman. The Generational Sin that permeates our genes can be eliminated if we wish to, but that means we have to strive to reach a virtuous life here on earth.
Moreover, if we inherit 10,000 genes that have to do with the olfactory sense that is our sense of taste and smell, and then how far fetched is it that we can inherit a proclivity to sin. As a result, all people are sinful and can sin. It is up to each of us to fight what we think comes natural to us, and to live a life that reflects the blessing we receive at baptism. It was there that we are made whiter than snow, but we still need to fight each and everyday the inclinations we have to sin. Christ could sin, but he chose not to, as we are given the same grace to choose likewise.
Finally, Generational Sin can be uprooted if we make the effort to realize that it is there, and have the intestinal fortitude to go against what seems innate within us. When you think about it, all sin is self-centered, and has to do with something that the person wants. So take the “I want, I need” out of the equation, and see what happens to the way you see the world around you. Share the goodness that God has granted you in your life. Have a blessed and Holy Great Lent and keep the faith struggling to do what is right to do. Amen!
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