There’s something I don’t know if I ever shared with you, but I have struggled with this from the time I was a child, and it still continues to be a struggle for me. It’s this, cling wrap (laughter). I’ve never been able to do this. There are a couple things that I struggle with. The first, is even trying to find the plastic to get it off of here (laughter), and then when I do, to try to get a piece like that. Then, this should be easy, but it’s not. When you tear it off the zipper, I end up with this (laughter), to stretch it over a bowl, which doesn’t work. Then I put the bowl in the fridge for two weeks and throw it out (laughter). But this is what I’m usually left with.
“Because he clings to me, I will deliver him. Because he clings to me, I will deliver him.” This is the result of Original Sin. We were made to cling to God. But when we receive the concupiscence, which is what the effect of Original Sin is called, our clinging became a clinging to self and we no longer cling to God. We cling to ourselves. The season of Lent is a time for us to un-cling to ourselves and allow God to untangle us so that we may cling to him. All of our practices of increasing our prayer, increasing our fasting, increasing our almsgiving are ways for us to un-cling.
I’d like to focus on the seven deadly sins and how each one of these sins is clinging to self and not clinging to God. The first sin, the one we all know so well, is the sin, I always say, if you don’t know what else to confess, you can confess this one. What is it? Pride? Pride is the original deadly sin. Pride is clinging to ourselves. Pride is saying, ‘I’m going to be the one who does this.’ The opposite of pride is humility. It’s letting God un-cling us.
The next sin is Avarice or Greed. Avarice is that sin of trying to take anything that we can from anybody else, all the wealth in the world, and we cling it to ourselves leaving us bound up and not dependent on God.
The third deadly sin is Envy. Envy is when we look to something that someone else has and we want to take it to ourselves and cling to as opposed to trusting God and what he provides for us.
The fourth is Wrath or Anger. This deadly sin is a very interesting one because when we cling to ourselves, when we hold on to anger, when we hold on to unforgiveness, it’s like being in the microwave and cooking for too long. At some point it’s going to explode. When we hold anger in, when we hold unforgiveness in, when we dwell on that anger and don’t let it go, we will explode.
Next is Lust, and lust is the sexual sin of desiring to cling to another, not in the ways that God intends but in a selfish way, and we hold on to that lust. We don’t let that lust be transformed into love. This is an extremely deadly sin in our culture because it’s so easy to access, so easy to go online and, you might not even intentionally do it, but before you know it you can find yourself clinging to lust.
The other sin, that’s really big in our country, I think because we’re so wealthy and food is so accessible, is Gluttony. Gluttony is taking everything that we can eat, eating as much as we can, and trying to hold on to that for ourselves. Have you ever eaten too much at dinner and you just feel awful afterwards and you think, I’m not going to do that again? Then tomorrow night dinner happens and you eat too much and you say, I’m not going to do that again? Gluttony. That’s why fasting is so important, that we practice not eating.
The last deadly sin, the one that is behind a lot of this, is what’s called Acedia, which is a Spiritual Sloth. Acedia is a sloth especially toward the spiritual life. It’s clinging to our own routines. It’s clinging to anything that else that may keep us from focusing our attention on God or entering in prayer. Once more it’s not clinging to him but clinging to worldly comforts or even clinging to laziness.
In the season of Lent, we come here before God with our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to allow him to un-cling us. By ourselves, it’s impossible. I mean, this has been impossible to me my whole life (holding up the cling wrap), but with God all things are possible. He desires to help you un-cling to all worldly possessions in this season of Lent and to cling to him. “He shall call upon me and I will answer him. Because he clings to me, I will deliver him.”
