The Hidden Damage of Sin: Why Society Has Lost All Reason

In Canada, euthanasia (MAiD) has shockingly become one of the leading causes of death—proof of how far society has lost its reason. But this loss isn’t random… it’s the hidden damage of sin.

In our latest episode, I share the 3 deadly effects of sin: how it darkens the mind, weakens the will, and enslaves the heart. Understanding these truths is vital if we want to remain faithful in a world that calls evil good and good evil.

Transcript

Hi, if you're new to this channel, my name is Ken. For 25 years, I've been sharing the Catholic faith as a full-time speaker through parish missions and in conferences. But then in 2020, something happened. Co hit and all my international travel stopped and I took that message here to YouTube and that's why we're here today. So, thanks for being here. Today's message is the hidden damage of sin and why society has lost its reason. Number one, sin wounds our capacity to know God. If you recall the Baltimore Catechism of the Catholic Church, the purpose of our life, one of them, it says, is to know God. And sin wounds our capacity to do this. If you recall in Genesis, when Adam and Eve take of the fruit, they eat and they fall out of relationship with God, their response is very telling. The very the first thing they do is when they fall out of relationship with God is they cover up and they hide. Now I find this unusual because why? Who is God? He's all powerful. He's all knowing and he's everywhere. When you play hideand seek with somebody like this, you're always going to lose. You can't hide on God. So this tells us that Adam and Eve lost the capacity to know who God was, who God is, because they're trying to hide from him. And that's very important for us to know. Sin wounds our capacity to know God and to understand truth. And the more a individual and a society goes down that road of sinfulness, the more it loses its ability to know truth. God the Father said to St. Katherine of Sienna. You know that every evil is founded in self-love and that self-love is a cloud that takes away the light of reason which reason holds in itself the light of faith and one is not lost without the other. So the point here is that selflove leads to a loss of reason and then a loss of faith. Just as the clouds block the sun, disordered self-love blocks the mind's ability to see truth clearly. Sin bends our thinking, we rationalize evil, excuse wrongdoings, or confuse good and evil. This is why St. Catherine says sin darkens the intellect. It's a spiritual blindness. So the more that we go down a road of sin, the more unreasonable we become. And this is also true for society. For example, I am a Canadian living in Canada and we have something called MA. M A I D. What it stands for is medical assistance in dying. Basically, it's legalized youth in Asia. And it was proposed and brought into law about 10 years ago. When policymakers and lawmakers brought this forth, it was proposed and thought to be a very rare exception. I mean, who would choose something like this? Well, within less than 10 years, it has gone from that very rare exception that people thought it would be to the fifth leading cause of death in Canada in less than 10 years. And I suspect it's even higher because those numbers are typically under reported. And now in 2027, it's going to be ex the eligibility is going to be expanded to people who suffer from mental illness. So when a person feels down, we'll put them down like an animal. Except here's the thing, a person shouldn't be treated like an animal. Society has lost his reason. In August of 2024, the Toronto Sun reported, "It was nearly 2 years ago when Veterans Affairs Canada came under heavy scrutiny after several Canadian Force members and veterans seeking mental health and transitional support were instead offered medical assisted by case workers." One Canadian combat veteran said they were offered made repeatedly by case workers. You see, health care should do just that, care for people, not kill people. And this is an effect of sin. It causes a loss of reason. Number two, sin wounds our capacity to love God. Jesus said in John 14:1 15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Notice he didn't say, "If you love me, you will always feel passionate for me. If you love me, you will always desire me. If you love me, you will always be excited about me." No. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." What does that tell you? It says that love is in the will, not in the emotions. But our society has got this backward. It tells society tells us that love is in the emotions and not the will. If you feel like you love somebody, then you therefore must love somebody. But what the problem with that is this. What if you stop feeling like you love them? Well, then I guess you conclude, I have fallen out of love. But did you know it's not possible to fall out of love because love is in the will. You can choose to love somebody or you can choose not to love somebody. But our society has got it backwards. If we feel we love someone, therefore we must love them and we must therefore act upon these feelings. And in fact, we have a whole month dedicated to this, don't we? In June with rainbow colors, I feel this way, therefore I am and I must act upon my feelings. There is no idea of self-mastery or self-control. And that robs a person's ability to love because love again is in the will and it is a deliberate choice to act for the person's good. It is a deliberate choice to act for a person's good. And love proves itself through sacrifice. And we can see this with Jesus. How did he do that? With the ultimate sacrifice of him on the cross. The image of the crucified Christ is a communication of God's love to us. Did it feel good to be on the cross? Of course not. It was terrible suffering. It was a torture. A torture reserved for criminals. And this is where God went to demonstrate his love. Love is not in the emotions. It is in the will. And it demonstrates itself by choosing the good for the person. And it proves itself through sacrifice. Yes, of course that there's emotional components to love, but we must never reduce love to an emotion or else we will run away from self-sacrifice. And we see this again with Adam and Eve in the garden. What happens when that serpent, that crafty serpent, Genesis tells us, starts going to Adam and Eve? We have to look at that that language that serpent. It doesn't that language in Hebrew doesn't mean a a garden snake. It means a dangerous serpentine reptile. Something like a dragon. Those words can be interchanged. So this this serpent, this snake is actually a threatening creature. And this threatening creature is the one that comes to Eve. But what does Adam do? nothing. See, that's the problem. He was supposed to be Eve's defender, but he did nothing. He He didn't lay down his life to sacrifice for his bride, which the second Adam does, Jesus. So, Adam is unwilling to protect his bride. His bride is assaulted by this s this dangerous looking serpent dragon, and she's deceived and she falls. And so, what happens? We have this wound within within us that prevents us from self-sacrificing for the good. And the more that we go down the road of sin, the more that we're unwilling to sacrifice for the good. And this is where society is right now. There's a hesitancy to sacrifice for the good. And if you can't sacrif s sacrifice for the good, you're never going to grow in virtue either. And what's a virtue? A firm habitual disposition towards the good. You have to acquire it. And how do you acquire virtue? By repeated action. And this repeated action hurts selfishness sometimes until we acquire it. It takes great sacrifice to grow in virtue. So as a result, we run away from self-sacrifice in our society. And so our society is becoming less and less virtuous. Just I I had a friend I have a friend. I just had lunch with him. He employs a number of people. He has a business. And he said that day he had four people that didn't show up for work. He says as soon as a person earns a sick day, they feel entitled to take it whether or not they feel sick or not. And I think any employer knows this. It's harder and harder to find somebody that simply shows up who has a little bit of fortitude who just has to who struggles pushing through a little bit of a hardness because people have become soft. Why? That's what sin does. Sin makes us soft. Number three, sin wounds our capacity to serve God. Again, Baltimore Catechism of the Catholic Church, the purpose of our life to know, love, to serve God. So, it wounds our capacity to serve God because it makes us a slave. How do we know this? Well, from human experience. Think of your experience of going to the sacrament of confession. Isn't it common for you to go to the sacrament and confess the same sin over and over and over again? Or is it just me? That's most people's experience because sin makes us a slave. It becomes habitual in our life. Or if you don't have the habit of regularly going to confession, you can probably see that you struggle with the same negative sinful behaviors and it makes you a slave. Now think about the sin for example of unforgiveness because unforgiveness is a sin. We're supposed to forgive others. Jesus forgives all sin. We are to do to do the same. And not to love like Jesus is a sin. Okay. Unforgiveness is a sin. What effect does that have on a person? Well, it makes them a slave to anger and to bitterness and to rage. When you have unforgiveness towards a person, which is sin, and you meet them or you think about them, what happens? Your emotions start getting enraged, your memories go back to when you were hurt. Maybe you you're lying in bed at night and you're trying to fall asleep, but you have memories of this person and it's still in your peace and you can't fall asleep. You see how unforgiveness makes us a slave? It starts mastering us. And that's true for all sin. Either we master it or it masters us. And we master it not simply through self-will. We master it by the grace of God. Because Jesus conquers sin and he gives us the grace to live a life that is victorious. He said in John 10:10, "I've come that you would have life and have it abundantly." Now, we do live in a valley of tears and there's always going to be a struggle and God does allow this always for good. But Jesus also does promise victory over sin. And the ultimate victory over sin is heaven. I want you to think also let's say the sin of uh someone being addicted to and how that affects the marriage relationship. If a spouse is addicted to, are they free to make a free gift of themselves to their spouse? When their passions are captured by lust? No. They're ruled by lust, not love. Again, sin makes us a slave. John 8:34 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." St. Thomas Aquinus commenting on John 8 says this. This kind of slavery is the worst because it cannot be escaped from wherever a person goes he carries his sin with him. Physical slavery on the other hand can be escaped at least by running away. Thus St. Augustine says what a wretched slavery. A slave of sin drags his sin with him wherever he flees. Sin wounds our capacity to know God, to love God, and to serve God. In other words, sin robs us of the purpose of our life. And if I look within society, I see a lot of people who've lost their purpose, who wake up in the morning and don't know why they exist. You know that's kind of the worst kind of suffering not have not to have a reason for your existence. But the truth is which has been revealed to us by God and we find it subsistent within the Catholic Church that the purpose of our life is to know love and serve God in this life. This brings meaning and peace and purpose to our life and it leads where to heaven which is the fulfillment of all desire. Friends, thanks for watching today. Comment below. Share with me what stood out to you and why. And we'll see you next week. [Music]