It may surprise some readers to think that sin is rooted in fear. Did not the blessed apostle St. Paul himself say that pride goes before a fall? True enough. I maintain that pride and fear work together. Perhaps fear is ultimately the source of pride.
Ask yourself. How afraid am I that someone may find out something about me I am keeping secret? I know in this day of “status updates” and twitter “feeding” we can not believe anything is kept secret. Most of the times we want to yell TMI (for too much information) under some person’s status update. If we can answer yes there is a secret, then we are tempted to make certain it never gets out.
We can always try to cover it up. We can bluster and pretend we could never possibly be tempted to do what we have done. We paint a self-portrait that cannot have any flaws. If some one knows the secret, we may start alienating that person. Murders come from such actions. The sins increase while we attempt to avoid confession and the grace of forgiveness.
Or we may ask ourselves the following question. Am I in fear of being in need? If we have such a fear than greed and envy become twin motivators in how we will “protect ourselves.” Stealing is a way of giving into such a fear. Or as the devil tempted Jesus “turn this stone into bread.” And the sin comes because we fail to rely on grace.
Lastly, there is the golden rule of historic domination. Do unto others before they do unto you. If one is afraid of not having enough power (or we may say respect) then one is tempted to gain the advantage over other people. Sins such as blackmail and “lording it over others” come in to play here with the constant fear of losing ground. All the sins forbidden in the ten commandments come about because we are afraid. Virtue is based on courage. Yet, courage does not overcome fear. In truth St. John the Apostle said it best “perfect love casts out fear.”
Love, the greatest of the theological virtues, is the only action that can heal our sin and the fear it is rooted in.
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