Unrepented sin

Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time A-1

Entrance Antiphon Ps 66 (65):4 All the earth shall bow down before you, O God, and shall sing to you, shall sing to your name, O Most High!

Collect Almighty ever‑living God, who govern all things, both in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the pleading of your people and bestow your peace on our times. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51; Psalm 144:1b, 2, 9-10; Mark 3:1-6

Jesus went into the synagogue again and there was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched him whether he would heal on the Sabbath day in order that they might accuse him. He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up in the middle.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” But they remained silent. And looking round on them with anger, being grieved for the blindness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch forth your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored to him.” And the Pharisees going out immediately made plans with the Herodians as to how they might destroy him. (Mark 3:1-6)

Unrepented sin John Henry Newman, the leader of the Anglican Oxford Movement in nineteenth century England and future Cardinal of the Catholic Church, was once visited during his Oxford years by members of Cambridge University. He was told about various persons at Cambridge, and he replied that their problem was that they lacked fear. He meant by this that their image of God was of one who is entirely “benevolent” and from whom, therefore, there is nothing ever to fear. They lacked a sense of the wrath and anger of God in respect to unrepented and deliberate sin. In various of his discourses he attacked the prevalent image of God as of One who is simply “benevolent” and from whom nothing could be expected other than happiness — despite deliberate sin. Indeed, he wrote, there was a widespread assumption that a moral God (in the very nature of the case) could only be “benevolent” and that a good God could not be judgmental and punishing of wrongdoing. In his various sermons he spoke at times of the loving kindness of God, and at other times of his anger and judgments and made the point that the infinite richness of God includes both his boundless love and his holy abhorrence of sin. Scripture illustrates time and again the holy anger of the all-loving God in respect to sin — difficult though it might be to express this theologically and philosophically. But it is by no means unimportant, for Newman says elsewhere that the first principle of religion itself is the thought of a judgment, which evokes fear. The thought of being sentenced to Hell for serious and unrepented sin can lead a person to turn to the all-loving God who is our Father. All this is to say that it is part of divine revelation that in a sense analogous to human indignation God is angered by unrepented and deliberate sin and that it is deeply offensive to him. His anger at sin is shown in his judgments, and his judgment on sin is likewise part of divine revelation. The answer to the fact of sin is not to deny that it offends God, but genuinely to repent of it and thus to discover his infinite love.

We surely catch a glimpse of this in our Gospel scene today in which our Lord is portrayed as being angry. Inasmuch as our Lord was and is God himself, God the Son made man, our Gospel scene today portrays the anger of God. Our passage tells us that he asked the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” But they remained silent. And looking round on them with anger, being grieved for the blindness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch forth your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored to him.” (Mark 3:1-6). The setting is that of the synagogue and there was a man there with a withered hand. The Pharisees were present watching like vultures to spot any violation of the Sabbath so as to be able to accuse Christ of religious wrongdoing. Would he heal the injured man? Their attitude was one of cold and determined hostility and a refusal of the light. Christ challenged them with his question and none were willing to answer — undoubtedly for fear of being publicly and resoundingly refuted. Their silence placed them beyond the reach of Christ’s light and grace, and his love showed itself in his anger. He loved goodness, he loved truth, and he loved them. Their silence manifested their unrepentant sin against the light and it constituted a hard resistance against the divine power to save. Christ’s reaction? He looked round on them with anger, sorely grieved at their deliberate and sinful blindness. God the Son was angry at their deliberate refusal to see and assent to his truth. It is a warning to us that we ought have a wholesome fear of the anger of God. We must strive never to commit a deliberate sin and if we do then we must repent of it. God loves the repentant sinner, but the refusal to repent grieves him in the way it did Christ and that loving grief of Christ showed itself in a holy anger. This is not the only time that Christ’s anger is shown in the Gospels but it reminds us that sin is offensive to God.

It all comes down to this that the God who revealed himself to Abraham and Moses, the God who is the Father of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, is an all loving and at the same time an all holy God. He is love, as St John writes, but it is a holy love. He commands us to be holy, for he is holy. If we disregard this and choose the path of unrepented sin, God will not be pleased. He will be offended and his judgment on sin will come. So let us resolve to show our love for Christ by renouncing sin and striving to repent of it all through life. Let us live and die truly repentant.

(E.J.Tyler)

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