The Challenge of Sin by Jorge Mario Bergoglio

"WE ARE SURROUNDED by so great a cloud of witnesses; therefore, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that ensnares us so easily" (Heb 12: 1). Sadly, we find ourselves ensnared in a sinful condition that undermines our identity as persons grounded in and belonging to the Church. The snare is lifelong and astutely laid, for it has been devised by someone with great intelligence: "He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen 3: 15). In explaining to us the problem of sin, the apostle John uses certain basic criteria: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1: 8; cf. 1 John 1: 5–2: 2). "Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3: 4; cf. 1 John 3: 4-10). There is no communion with God without transformation of the heart, and there is no transformation of the heart apart from Jesus Christ. An unconverted heart walks in darkness; it loves the darkness more than the light and does not seek to escape from the shadows (John 3: 19-20). We can view the whole Gospel message in this perspective of the struggle between light and darkness. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1: 5). "He came to his own people, and they did not receive him" (John 1: 11). And so the apostle John exhorts us, "My little children, do not sin" (1 John 2: 1). Let us ask for the grace not to take sin lightly (cf. Rom 6: 1).

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. (John 3: 19-20)