Hook, Line, and Sinner: Critical Care for the Mortally Wounded Conscience

By Mario M. Inglima

We all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). This thought should not make us feel down or bad about ourselves, it should inspire us to do better! Hook, Line, and Sinner is thought-provoking and ignites change, and will assuredly take you down a challenging path of self-discovery and personal honesty. Author Mario M. Inglima uses colorful

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Nov 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781685152451

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

What Were They

Thinking?

"W

hat have we done? Were these the first words that Adam and Eve said to each other after being evicted from paradise? They touched and ate the very fruit they were commanded not to. The next few years of their lives were perhaps spent in tears. Shock, anger, and resentment were likely the first three children born to these poor, dying sinners. Anger is often displaced and projected onto others. Adam and Eve were likely in denial at first, blaming God for their error and asking themselves questions like How could He do this to us? and Why does He not love us?"

To this day, we continue this unhealthy pattern of anger and resentment. How many times have we asked, How can He just stand by and watch us suffer? or Why does He put these desirable things in our life if He is just going to tell us we cannot enjoy them? There is this idea that God is just setting us up for failure. Were Adam and Eve any different than you and me? What were their lives even about anymore? They were no longer welcome in paradise, so what purpose did their lives have on this raw, new Earth? These questions would be answered in time, as they still are in our lives. Although many may refuse to believe it, God does not cause our suffering. We complicate our own lives as humans, resulting in injury and sadness.

I can imagine that these questions asked by Adam and Eve were met with absolute, painful silence. They had everything they could have ever imagined. Prior to their fall from grace, they knew nothing about pain and sin, and in one moment, that all changed. They both ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9). They realized their nakedness and hid from their Creator, but that was just the beginning of a litany of agonizing firsts they would experience. There was no standard of life expectancy at that time, but how long they were going to live was still likely a concern of theirs. As Adam gazed upon the woman he loved, his heart must have sunk deep within his chest as she bore wrinkles upon her once perfect face—she was getting old. Imagine Eve lovingly watching her husband gather firewood in the distance, helplessly witnessing him trip over a stone. He lets out a scream in anguish as he lands on his already sore and torn shoulder. He is no longer invincible.

How long did it take them to give birth to their next child, acceptance? I can only surmise the negative attitude and dejection inappropriately directed toward God for their own faults. How distressed were they, having given birth to more and more children and watching each child suffer through rashes, hunger, headaches, and restlessness? All the while they knew that obedience is what it would have taken to avoid all of this torment. Plastered throughout the halls of their brains like unremedied plaque was the wish that they had just remained gratefully present in paradise. Instead, they wanted more than the abundant graces and gifts that used to overflow in their former life. In order to ascertain what was going through each of their minds that caused them to defy God's command, we should ask ourselves, Why do I disobey God?

Why do we still fail miserably when it comes to resisting the very things that God forbids us to partake in? Why do we drink cup after cup of our iniquities, indulging in our vices beyond saturation as they overflow through our nostrils? Their bitterness bursts the delicate vessels in our eyes as we cough up our excess, yet we cannot prohibit ourselves from engaging in immorality and depravity. I believe one of the reasons is exactly the same reason that Adam and Eve did: we have this delusional misconception that we are invincible and indestructible. In Genesis 3:9 it says, And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? God gave Adam and Eve their space, even in paradise. They were completely free to prove their love to God by remaining obedient to His one command. In the same story, verse thirteen says that God asked Eve, Why hast thou done this? Extending them trust and space and the freedom to move about unmanaged and unmolested, He made Himself vulnerable to the inevitable injury that these two creatures He loved deeply would cause Him. What was God feeling? Here are two living beings that He not so long ago breathed life into, already turning their backs on Him in an act of betrayal. I suppose He must have justifiably wanted to cry. In His righteous anger, He deeply admonished and imposed sanctions upon mankind that were just and deserved.

Many will ask, as I have, Why was the serpent allowed in paradise? Scripture does not say that the serpent was in paradise. It does say in Genesis 3:1, Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. Like he is permitted still to this day, Satan prowls about the earth seeking the ruin of souls (the St. Michael Prayer written by Pope Leo XIII). Adam and Eve were given the earth as their personal garden habitat. The Garden of Paradise was where they were capable of freely entering what could be considered a giant living cathedral where their Creator God would come and abide with them. If one act of disobedience put them beyond the reach of this divine palatial territory, then how are we to believe that Satan, the Father of Lies, was permitted to enter?

This still leaves the question unanswered of why God permits Satan to tempt and torment poor sinners till this day. First, I will ask this: although Satan committed the first sin, does that mean that he is the only one capable of inventing and proliferating sin? Are you and I not just as crafty? Yes, we may have learned how to sin by watching others, but do we not pride ourselves in how creative we can be at times when it comes to topping others who thought their sinful innovations were original works of art? We are constantly competing with Satan and each other when it comes to fashioning new and unique ways of offending God. If I could see Satan, I have a feeling sometimes he is just standing right there next to us like a proud parent, getting goosebumps and the shakes watching us offend God in new ways. He is even jealous that he did not think of that awful idea first. Why do we want credit for the good ideas we invent but blame Satan when we transgress? Which is it? Are we thinking for ourselves or not? Did God not give us the ability to create our own ideas and produce unique little successes that we put our own name on? Why, then, is it someone else's fault when we invent new ways to offend our God and those He loves?

Years ago, there was an art gallery with a celebrated work of art that was the image of Mary the Mother of God with dung plastered over her. People were offended—oh, were they offended—and rightfully so. We were offended because we could actually see with our own eyes what we do not only to God, but His mother as well, when we sin. If we were capable of fully understanding what sin actually is, we would probably lock ourselves up in solitary confinement so as not to offend her sweet innocence ever again. We lose when we sin. We receive no glory, and we certainly do not glorify God with sinful behaviors. Who, then, was blessed and filled with ever more grace when the dung was hurled upon the image of Mary, the Blessed Mother? She received it. She patiently endures, every single day, the abominable assaults on her precious and pure soul. All the while, her heavenly Father watches His Holy Mother with sacred pride while she remains obedient and unavenged.

There will come a day when those who have endured for the sake of righteousness, like our Blessed Mother, will receive the entirety of their reward. God will not permit dung to be hurled upon her forever. He will put an end to the calamitous concoctions that we spew upon His Son, His Mother, and all who love Him and suffer for His sake. The question becomes Does that mean He will put an end to me as well? The answer to that question is in the prayer we have all prayed many times, The Lord's Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. How have we handled offenses against ourselves? We may not fully understand how deeply our sins affect God, but we know how they affect us when others cause injury to ourselves or loved ones. What would you do to someone who casts animal feces upon your mother or daughter? Would you patiently wait until they stopped? Would you lunge at them and beat them, possibly to death? Would you have them apprehended and placed behind bars? For how long? These are the thoughts our sinful souls are incapable of having during the moments when we need to be thinking them the most. We love to blame everyone else for what we have done, like Adam and Eve. We are no different. We sin because we want to. It is that simple.

We commit sin by choice. We do not commit sin when it is someone else perpetrating a sin through us. For instance, a child who is being abused and violated is not sinning. The acts they are engaged in are indeed sinful but not attributed to the innocent. They are credited to the aggressor. In order to put an end to our iniquities, we must understand certain things about them. For instance:

How to identify sin.

How it affects others.

What dangers it poses to ourselves and others.

What makes a sin sinful?

What are the benefits of sinning?

Who is responsible for my sins?

Can I clean my slate?

If we can imagine ourselves enjoying a nice day out on the river with friends and we are all just floating along, we float because of the buoyancy properties of water. Spiritually speaking, grace gives us buoyancy. Sin, on the other hand, sucks a little air out of our being. It is like lead. We only have so many pockets of air, as we are only so big. We do not know exactly how big our soul is, but what we can consider is that it does not have unlimited pockets of air. Every time we sin, we replace a pocket of air with a nugget of lead. That lead has little barbs that claw into our beings and become very difficult to remove. Each little piece of lead also has a seemingly never-ending piece of twine that unravels as it drags behind it. It begins to get caught on things under the water. Very quickly it begins to wrap itself around others in your company and their twine around you. Do you notice anyone who is getting spiritually ahead of you downstream? Are you noticing what used to be smooth sailing is turning into a heavy drag? Does your head keep dipping below the surface and your feet scraping against the rocks below as though something is dragging you down? This is what the expression hook, line, and sinker means to me. It is time we take a deeper look into the ugliness of sin and attempt to remove the hooks that are embedded in our souls.

CHAPTER TWO

Sloth

D

eadly sin number one: sloth. In order to properly uncover the sinfulness of sloth, we may benefit from examining it through different lenses. The first of these is a common chore that many of us have likely been tasked with when summer is around the corner: we begin the uncovering of our swimming pool. Typically, we would not dare immerse ourselves in stale, filthy water. We would first drain the pool and then thoroughly clean it. This year, before we do that, there is something important to be discovered just beneath the murky surface. Will you join me as I descend the first few steps?

As we initiate our uncomfortable acclimation to the cold, waist-high water, we should begin by considering that sloth is perhaps the spiritual virus that gives birth to every other of its kind. Like the animal that is named after it, sloth is an antiquated way of saying lazy. This laziness is not merely a mood we experience from time to time.