BCP: The source of evil in us – original sin
8 September 2021
The Holy Mass starts with the Penitential Act: “Let us acknowledge our sins…” A brief pause for silence follows. To really acknowledge their sins, it would be useful for priests and believers alike to use, at least sometimes, the following examen: “In order not to deceive ourselves, let us realize that there is a source of evil in each of us. Let us now acknowledge how it manifests itself. Firstly: I am an egoist; I push my own will over God’s. Secondly: I am a hedonist; I seek pleasure, even sinful pleasure. Thirdly: I am a critic; I condemn others, but I refuse to see or admit my fault.” (Pause for silence)
P (Priest): Lord, have mercy. C (Choir): Lord, have mercy.
P: Christ, have mercy. C: Christ, have mercy.
P: Lord, have mercy. C: Lord, have mercy.
This short repentant impulse leads us to become aware again of the reality of our sinfulness and of our specific sins. Why do we sin? Because of the root of evil – original sin – within us. Wars, torture, sadism, tyranny, murder, all the evil that has been present in humanity comes from this common poisoned root. This root begets all sins and ultimately causes eternal damnation.
We have to acknowledge the evil within us as well as our specific sins, and only then can we really see our condition and the fact that we cannot help ourselves. Here we finally realize that our only salvation is in the forgiveness of sins. This is conditioned by repentance. On the Day of Resurrection, Jesus said to the apostles: “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins shall be proclaimed.” The forgiveness of sins is associated with the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God and with His redemptive death on the cross. By His cross, Jesus saved us from the path of self-destruction – the path of sin that leads to hell.
Repentance consists not only in acknowledging my sin, but also in giving my sins to the crucified Son of God and receiving forgiveness through faith. We sin every day. If we repent truly, acknowledging even our little sins as soon as they occur and immediately bringing them to the light of God, then it is true: “If we walk in the light, the blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin.” (1Jn 1:7) When we are grieved even by minor falls and immediately feel the need to repent, we make a break with sin and receive light and strength to avoid grave sins. If we neglect to do so, we become more and more blind to ourselves and it is then true that pride precedes the fall.
True self-criticism teaches us to walk in the truth, to have a true relationship to ourselves, to God and to our neighbour, and it forms our conscience.
Now let us look at the roots of our sins. In the first chapters of the Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul distinguishes between sin in the singular, for which he also uses the synonym “old self”, and sins in the plural as the fruits of the old self (see Rom 1-8).
The biblical description of the beginning of the world, man and sin – the fall – does not give account in the manner of modern historiography, but speaks through images. However, the main elements of the event are clear and the dogmatic fact is obvious. Man would owe his brother the most vital thing if he did not proclaim Christ, who brought us above all the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from its bondage, and hence true happiness on earth and eternal life in heaven.
With an undistorted, realistic observation of man and history, we can see the evidence of original sin daily. We find clear manifestations of alienation, caused by sin, which at the same time disrupts mutual relations – man to God, to other people and to himself.
How does original sin pass to man? It passes through procreation, which is connected with sexuality, which has its meaning and order in marriage. Sexuality is associated not only with procreation, but also serves to confirm lifelong fidelity, and thus a harmonious marital relationship.
Separation of sexuality from procreation
At present, there is a serious crisis of morality, closely linked to apostasy from Catholic dogmas.
In the moral decay of today’s world, the inseparable link between sexuality and marriage has been broken. By separation from marriage, sexuality lost its starting point and became a ubiquitous evil power. After its separation from marriage, sexuality was also separated from procreation. Logically, this resulted in an absurd lie, so vehemently propagated today, namely that every abomination and sin associated with sexuality is worthy of man and equal to married life. This leads to the elimination of the institution of marriage and the family, the basic cell of society.
He who has discarded moral principles then seeks the satisfaction of lust in adultery and many also in sinful and criminal paedophilia, zoophilia, necrophilia, sodomy… Gender ideology legalizes perversions, which it is shameful even to speak of and which are often associated with mental deviations, with demonic possession and diseases, as the Gospel shows (deafness, dumbness, blindness, paralysis…). Such people become a medium of unclean demons. Jesus did not tolerate those demons but cast them out. The source of evil in us aims at our self-destruction. The means of achieving it is also mass mRNA vaccination, which already belongs to the process of chipping and is associated with the reduction of humanity, i.e. with programmed mass genocide. All these crimes are encoded in the source of evil, which we call original sin. We all carry it within us and we must separate from it, not submit to it or be enslaved by it.
Perverted sexuality is not a neutral thing; it essentially affects the human mind. Whoever becomes a slave to this unnatural instinct is disposed to commit other crimes, such as murder, violence, cynicism, sadomasochism, even rebellion against God, satanism… Hereditary sin is the root of evil and crime in us. Behind it is the spiritual power of evil that passed through the devil, the serpent of hell, to our first parents. It works secretly in us and we must oppose this power of lies and sin, because otherwise we will destroy our life both temporal and eternal.
In the exhortation Amoris Laetitia, we find the “subjective approach” to be set as the norm instead of the objective truth and God’s commandments. Thus all morality falls, because behind the subjective approach is the root of original sin, whose goal is the devil’s agenda, eternal damnation. According to Gal 1:8-9, each of the promoters of this new anti-gospel is expelled from the Church.
Homosexuality is being legalized, and heretical theologians, false prophets, not only accept but also enforce it. People have changed their thinking to such extent that perversion has gradually become an inalienable right, an aspect of the so-called liberated man. What a criminal fraud! There is no longer room for truth, repentance or salvation! It is the path of a blind man to perdition.
However, there are other reasons for this uprooting of the human being from the depths of his nature. If fertility separates from a marriage based on lifelong fidelity, it turns from the blessing to its opposite, that is, it becomes a curse for individuals and society. The path to perdition is then labelled positively as “the individual’s right to happiness”. Thus it happens that abortion, in fact the crime of murdering an unborn child by its mother, is called a “right” and another form of “liberation”. These false paradigms have, little by little, been abnormally enforced over the last half century by the spirit of lies and death.
In the Church, heresies have violated the existential dogmas that are the basis for maintaining true morality. Man needs motivation and the power of faith to fight the source of evil in us, that is, sin. When the pillars of truth and light have fallen, morality has no justification either. If sin is denied, neither the Saviour nor Christianity has any justification. This spiritual suicide and betrayal of Christ is the fruit of worshipping the idol of the ego, whose father (author) is the devil (Jn 8).
Society is being satanized. We are witnesses to anarchy, disintegration of just law, anti-law, decadent philosophy, denial of the difference between good and evil, drug addiction, loose morality, unbridled sexuality associated with crime and injustice, abortion, euthanasia, abuse of science and technology and medicine for self-destruction, experimental vaccines… All this breeds suffering, epidemics and false pandemics, wars and God’s punishments. If hereditary sin explodes with unrepentant pride and unrestrained sexuality, a person is no longer willing to humble himself and receive the truth. He remains in self-deception, in a lie, rejects God and walks the path to his own destruction. And this is the agenda of original sin in us: temporal and eternal self-destruction.
The core of man’s temptation, the core of his downfall, is expressed in the Bible in the words, “You shall be like God” (Gen 3:5). This means free from the law of the Creator, free from the very laws of nature, absolute masters of their own destiny. But what awaits such an unrepentant egoist at the end of this journey is hell after death! The only way of salvation is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour; only in Him do we have the forgiveness of sins through repentance.
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
+ Methodius OSBMr + Timothy OSBMr
Secretary Bishops
Download: BCP: The source of evil in us – original sin (8/9/2021)
