Sin is a sickness. It is a disease that afflicts the
soul and therefore has a spiritual character. Understandably, our
hospitals do not treat or offer a cure for sin. For this kind of
ailment, we would need to turn to God in faith.
In
today’s First Reading, the Lord speaks to Israel and by extension to
each one of us, “I shall cure them of their disloyalty; I shall love
them with my whole heart” (Hos 4:4). The Lord thus declares that he has
the cure for sin and pledges to heal and give life to all those who turn
to him.
When physical
illness is not attended to and treated, it becomes worse and in the end
the diseased becomes deceased. Similarly, when spiritual illness (sin)
afflicts a person and the patient does not receive the needed treatment,
it results in spiritual death. A major symptom of spiritual death is a
life lived without love. On the other hand, when sin is treated, a
person develops the capacity to love.
Jesus,
in today’s Gospel text, places premium on love when he re-echoes the
core value of the commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with
all your strength…You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk
12:30-31).
God does not
want us to die a spiritual death. Thanks be to God, sin is curable. All
that we need to do is to turn to the Lord Jesus and be healed.
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