Man's greatness and misery
Sin - rejection of the love of God
Egoism means putting things upside-down. God and humanity are there for each other, but man separates from God and makes himself the norm of all order. As a consequence, the sources of his life dry up.
But who still thinks about "sin" today? What is it really? Have we not lost the sense of sin? In fact, we know the various forms and the consequences of sin today as well as Paul did, 2000 years ago: people dominated by sin are filled with "all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." (Romans 1,29-31). But we are no longer used to recognizing these experiences as sin and calling them such.
The "shades" of sin
Naturally, we are not conscious every time we sin that we have offended against the will of God. Often, we realize only later that we are guilty. So, sin is not immediately sin. There are degrees of sin, depending on how conscious and premeditated the NO to the will of God was. God judges us according to our attitude, our intention, how closely our action conforms to our conscience. What the action was is not decisive in itself. It may be that someone commits a sinful action without being guilty, since he or she does not see nor want its sinfulness.
Nobody is without sin
Everybody experiences failure, neglect or omission. We are always less than what we could be and, according to God's plan, should be. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (John 1,8).
Consequences of sin
When a sin has been committed, it is not finished. The condition of guilt exists. This is true of inter human relationships, where lies are followed by hatred, egoism and alienation. In the same way a (serious) sin leads to alienation from God and breaks the bonds of love between God and man.
There is a secret craze of innocence spreading in our society. Failure and guilt, if any, is always found with other people only, with the past, nature, heredity and the environment. We like to credit our own account with the success of our actions. But if there are negative consequences, we deny our responsibility and we always find new excuses and alibis for our mistakes and faults. These defense mechanisms even enter our interpersonal relationships. Our attitude toward life and all our planning ceases to be directed by a feeling of being responsible for each other and calculations of our own profit prevail.