Sin When It Lacks

I’m very, very excited that I get to give a talk at my parish’s high-school retreat. My talk is on forgiveness and reconciliation. And, as I’ve been thinking/praying about this, a big thing that’s been coming up is the John Paul II quote posted in a comment by http://brilliantzenith.wordpress.com/, on Pictures of Naked Women. Here it is again:

Did I mention that your boy goes hard? I bet he listens to Polish trance-core while skiing. That or Gregorian chant.

“The problem with pornography is not that it shows too much, but that it shows too little.”

What a balling statement! It has everything; simplicity, Chestertonian paradox, holiness, truth, and a little bit of a mind twist, guaranteed to make fools trip if one were to shout it out. Which I plan on doing. The evil in porn does not lie in what we are shown, which is only sex, but what we are not shown; human dignity, love, relationship and all the rest. Exactly.

We often think of sining terms of it being “too much”. Our lust, our anger, our greed; it is all wanting too much, desiring too much, having too much of something. But what if we are desiring too little? When we are filled with greed, the problem isn’t that we want a lot, it’s that we want so very little. We want money, or possessions instead of infinity. When are filled with anger, the problem isn’t that we shouldn’t be feeling so much, it’s that we shouldn’t be feeling so little. Any animal can be angry, it takes more, much more to forgive. The sin is a sin because it is so lacking. When we lust after a girl or a guy, it’s not that we’re thinking too much, or doing too much. It’s that we are doing so damn little, ignoring the greatness of a relationship that can only be found in the human soul and the human person.

That’s why the sinner can never be the hardcore, in-your-face rebel. You haven’t rebelled, you’ve settled for less! That’s why I can never feel smug about a sin; It’s very essence is lacking. It’d be a little like having to run a mile, and, having walked one lap, gotten up in the face of the fastest runner and screamed “That’s right, I walked! Beat that!”

So there you are. I was also put in charge of making the rules video for the retreat and as it turns out to be hilarious, as well as a good example of the friends I have, I shall share it with you soon!