Today in our modern world we, as people, often experience good, evil, forgiveness, healing and redemption. But what do all those words actually mean? People today know what these words mean in the English dictionary, but we are yet to discover these words on a religious level. Today we are going to discover the meaning of sin and healing and how it relates to Christianity and how we can act upon sin and healing on a spiritual level.
Good, evil, forgiveness, healing and redemption. We are all familiar with these words as we have either heard them or experienced it ourselves. But our understanding of this topic for our age is very basic. Good is us walking in Jesus’ footsteps, using respect, selflessness, compassion and sympathy in our everyday lives. Evil however is the absence of good. People act in an evil manner when they want to be the greater importance. These people have no empathy, selfish and don’t comprehend the feelings of others. Forgiveness is a process that two or more people undertake when a group or an individual has harmed you or sinned against you. The process of forgiveness starts with a thing called restorative justice. Restorative justice is the process where both involved in the wrongdoing talk about the actions that took place. It allows them to repair the relationship, prevent the same thing happening in the future and offers them to take responsibility for their actions. After they are able to forgive, which in the bible Romans 5:8-11 specifies, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” This allows us to have our own personal growth and happiness and helps us let go of anger so one stops seeking revenge alongside fixing the relationships we once had. Redemption is when you make up for something and prove your self different for whatever you did that was wrong.
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Sin and law are very different ideas, yet are often mistaken for the other. Sin is when some misses the mark. In the case listed before, the mark is perfect established from God’s actions. We sin by violating religious or moral principles. Sins are also taken away from us because of Jesus Christ taking his life. Law, however, is created from the government and it isn’t the rules made from God. Law is punishable from the government and the law is more of established and important rule. An example of sin in the bible is the story of Adam and Eve. This story starts when God created a perfect world. The world was free from sins and it was a good place to live. They had full responsibility and could do anything they wanted except for one rule. This rule was that they couldn’t eat the forbidden fruit from the tree. One day a serpent told Eve that she should eat the fruit from the tree, but Eve said that she couldn’t as God had requested her not to. The serpent went on to tell Eve that God no longer loved her. Eve, believing this, decided to eat the forbidden fruit and then told Adam. They felt guilty after and hid from God. God was unhappy when hearing this news and banished Adam and Eve from the place they were living. This allowed sin to enter the world and bad things happened. After, God still loved them so he decided to forgive them as it would allow them to be happy. Now God is in the process to complete a sin free world and allow it to once again be a perfect world. This story shows what sin is and how the process of forgiveness and restorative justice. They showed Adam committing the sin and then God coming with a solution to the problem which then he forgave them.
Today in Christianity, we are able to participate in specific rituals which we seek when we are need in forgiveness and redemption. Examples of these are the sacrament of penance and the anointing of the sick. Today we will just focus on one, which is the sacrament of penance. There are 3 rites in the sacrament of penance. First, and individual rite. The second is for groups with individual confession and absolutions and the third being for a group with a communal confession or absolution. This act reconciles sinners and helps them design a future of growth and allows them to be forgiven. The steps with this ritual include
- The priest greets us, and we pray the Sign of the Cross. He invites us to trust in God. He may read God’s Word with us.
- We confess our sins. The priest may help and counsel us.
- The priest gives us a penance to perform. Penance is an act of kindness or prayers to pray, or both.
- The priest asks us to express our sorrow, usually by reciting the Act of Contrition.
- We receive absolution. The priest says, “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We respond, “Amen.”
- The priest dismisses us by saying, “Go in peace.” We go forth to perform the act of penance he has given us.
This shows another way that the all of the terms above can be identified. First, we identify the evil which allowed that person to sin. We then acknowledge our sins and pray, as you would in the process of restorative justice as they are admitting and then finding a possible solution. The priest then counsel which also helps us heal. We are then forgiven, and sins are taken away.
Forgiveness and redemption are important for everyone to experience within religion and society itself. This is because it allows us to grow as a person. It brings back our mental health and physical health. It allows us to release anger and grudges against people and rebuild relationships and create a stronger bond between another person. We are able to see clear once we do this and we are able to live in the present instead of the past, in a darker time where either you hurt someone, or someone hurt you. If forgiveness didn’t exist, we wouldn’t have any connections as everyone makes mistakes and opinions of others collide and no one agrees on the same thing.
At St Joseph’s College Toowoomba, the students range from 12-18 years of age. People of this age often believe that they are always right and deserve everything they want as it is a part of growing up. At school, students often sin and break school rules. In result of this, students receive detention, talking to house co-ordinators and the situation could even be taken to the front office. When this takes place, it is formatted in the following way:
- Start with telling everyone and yourself what you did and how it was wrong and affected others in negative way.
- Think of a punishment that is suitable for the rule you broken
- Apologise to the person who you did wrong by and receive a sign of forgiveness
- Talk about a possible solution so that would make sure that the action never happens again.
These steps use the terms of forgiveness, healing and redemption. Forgiveness is shown when you are being forgiven for whatever you did wrong. You are also seeing healing by both people being able to step forward and consciously making the decision to forgive. Redemption is also shown as you are able to be responsible to try and reconcile the relationship and the fact that you want to make it better, showing that you care enough about the person and you want them to be happy too. Therefore, St Joseph’s College uses the ideas of forgiveness, healing and redemption daily when students sin against the rules made by the school’s community.
Let’s recap! Today, we are gifted the opportunity to be forgiven for our sins, whether it be through the sacrament of penance, restorative or through school’s steps of punishments. Forgiveness plays a huge part in our daily lives as it allows us to grow our relationships. Good and evil also affects the happiness of others and we have to respect that as we need to be selfless in order for a relationship to work. We also have to make sure that we heal to our spiritual wholeness which allows us to continue and grow as an individual. Sin and healing teach us how to walk in Jesus’ footsteps and follow God’s request of how we should live. Hopefully you have grasped onto the idea of sin and healing and wish you the best of luck with the rest of your time on this topic.
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