Father's Day

Sin is about the damage we do to ourselves and to others.  Sometimes we damage ourselves and others because we ourselves have been so damaged that we cannot function without passing on the "sins of our fathers."  Their sins have carved into our minds and bodies indelible patterns of thought and behavior; without divine intervention, these patterns are destined to repeat themselves for a thousand generations.  Fortunately, there is a way out of the "empty way of life passed on to us by our fathers," as St. Peter tells us. 

Jesus Christ is a new creation, no longer conformed to the patterns of the natural man, but transforming us by His death and resurrection into a new way of life, based on the image and fatherhood of God rather than the image of Adam, the natural man.  Jesus carried within His own body the sins of the world without passing them on to us.  Instead, He crucified our natural man of sin within His own body, buried that man forever, and then brought us to a new pattern of life given to us by the Holy Spirit.  We are now no longer slaves to sin (Romans 7), but now free to keep in step with the Spirit of God:  in love, in mercy, in compassion, in truth.  No longer must we continue to damage ourselves and one another; now, like Abraham, our father in faith, we can become a blessing on the earth by the Spirit of Jesus, who lives in us.