A Cosmological, Ecological and Communal Understanding of Sin
The first exercise is a meditation on the first (sin of
angels), second (sin of Adam and Eve), and third (sin of one person) sins. As a preamble let us use our imagination and
travel back to the beginning, before creation and only God exists. Let us remind ourselves that God is love; love
that desires to share. Thus, God creates
out of love.
God created everything in the universe – the galaxies, stars
and planets; our earth, the plants, the animals, humankind – out of love. Some call this ‘the original blessing’ and
since everything and everyone is connected in this original blessing, every
choice we make is somehow connected in and through creation. And every choice needs to be made in such a
way that everything and everyone is considered and respected. In this way we keep ourselves in a living
relationship with God, the world of nature, the socially constructed world, and
other human beings. We strive to live
out of our own true nature by acting with compassionate love; acting as God
acts.
Yet, sin entered the universe, into our world, and the
original unity of creation was broken. The original blessing became original sin. Some forces said ‘no’ to their own true
nature; to their relationship of love with God and with creation. This is the first sin. The second sin, the story of Adam and Eve is
that of humanity saying ‘no.’ Moreover,
to this day, each individual has the freedom to say ‘no’ to God, and this is
the third sin. Individualism is the
false belief that, somehow, we are separate from created reality. The relational and communal aspect has be
suppressed, ignored or forgotten.
When we think of sin in cosmological, ecological and
communal terms, and when we understand how the relationships of the original
creation were broken in the choice to say ‘no’ to God, we can better understand
how every choice can affect the rest of creation.
Guelph team 1998 revised Oland 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment