From the movie, Two Popes, Pope Francis says this, and it is a direct quote from his book The Name of God is Mercy.
“For some time, I have been contemplating sin. What is it? How do we come to it?”
Sin seems to be the bits of our lives that weaken our faith, prevent us from loving, hold us captive to a behavior we dislike. Paul writes about this when he says, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”[1] That sounds like sin to me. And this is the type of sin I have been considering. This leads me back to the question I have been exploring with God: Might the adult’s struggle with sin be a manifestation of the wound received during childhood? If so, then as a body of Christ, a church, a spiritual director, our call, my call, is to be a place where healing for the wound is extended.
How might we the church, the body of Christ, welcome
the wounded Christian like Paul, the one stuck in the manifestations of their
wound? Sin is more than a stain. Sin is a wound; it needs to be treated,
healed.[2] Come, let us be healers to one another. James encourages us to confess your sins to one another,
and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.[3] Paul might add to this, let us stop passing
judgment on one another and lets us never be a stumbling block to another.[4]
[1] Romans 7:15, NRSV.
[2] Pope Francis, The Name of God is Mercy, (New York: Random House, 2016), 26.
[3] James 5:13
[4] Romans 14:13