What is wrong with the World?

"Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan's pow'r when we were gone astray. Oh tidings of comfort and joy"

Christians believe that "the world has been established and kept in being by the Creator's love; has fallen into slavery to sin but has been set free by Christ, crucified and risen to break the power of the evil one. . ." (GS 2 § 2, CCC 421).

What is wrong with the world? Whether or not you can relate it immediately to a theological perspective. One can see it first with clarity regarding oneself, and then one begins to look around and notice that sin is not just bad because it is just missing something, next to what it should be, or because God says it is (as real and relevant as each of these are). It is bad because it creates a poverty of that which is not replaceable for man and its restoration is only possible through a lifetime of bitter redemption and healing and even then, not until the consummation of the ages.

First let us consider, that the corruption/woundedness of nature turns man spiritually into what Christ was both spiritually and physically on the cross (broken, torn apart, faltering, almost physically indisposed to what restoring the good requires). When we love others, thus, it is Him in His anguish we are loving analogically and indirectly in our fellow man and yet still actually and directly in several ways. Our fellow man, to various degrees and expressions, shares in the singular poverty man has, which results from sin, the ensuing degradation of our nature in general and in each of us particularly causes our every trial which receiving with intent to redeem does not stop the spread of God's reign but allows it all the more to burst forth. That obedience and love that can be found in such suffering in offering is what makes it fruitful, not so much the pain/poverty itself, and yet the love could not be right and just without it in world like this. It is our duty and salvation, always and every where to offer God such praise as obedient love. It is that love which is our strength.

Second, our parents even if they did the things we would have them do would likely to some extent do them in ways that may undermine their goodness. This is not to say the poverty we experience in their regard is not real or difficult to deal with, but it is part of what we must accept to help make up for this poverty in us and them, to bring forth the kingdom. If Christ struggled to do what is necessary to save us, how much more will we fallen creatures struggle to choose what is necessary for our salvation since we must follow Christ in many ways to do so and assist others. This action in its material aspects is doing what love demands with all of both what our strength affords, and the providential strength God’s grace affords.

In conclusion, sin is what is wrong with the world. Maybe it is more helpful, though, to be clear about what is meant by this. This does not mean only that it is full of folks who just don’t obey the law of God. Rather it means this and also that we share a common disease whose antidote is something we do not fully understand or feel capable of. We have been shown a lack of love time and again, and we struggle to see that we don’t have to grasp after it wherever we suppose it to be. God was offering it to us from the beginning, we let ourselves believe the contrary and now struggle to see it is true. In such a scene, we fell apart to the point love is confused with many things, God is misunderstood, truth is often unclear, and it takes following Christ through passion and death to bring a sense of what love is and to be strengthened in our efforts to love. We must receive God’s love very intentionally and realize we have not disposed ourselves to doing so. Each time we do this we must include our hurts and brokenness in this effort because the next step of difficulty in enduring a broken world in an unbroken/holy way requires this of us. Neither our brokenness nor the difficulty of these things nor the grace God offers us, nor the love God has for us can be underestimated and still render us successful. Let us assist our Lord in our redemption through His love by following Him from whence many run, His passion, and death, that we may share in His resurrection. This is the bad news that makes the good news of Christmas meaningful.

Written by Carter Carruthers & also available at Vivat Agnus Dei