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Question


Dear Father Angelo,
despite being a practicing Catholic Christian, I wonder why, as Saint Paul says, does sin generate death?
And more specifically, how does sex in an engagement relationship generate death and therefore can negatively affect a couples relationship?
I happened to experience it on my own skin but  I was not able to give myself a convincing, logical and profound explanation.
In the hope of having been clear and profound in the question.

Response from the priest


Dearest,
1. Saint Paul in the letter to the Romans says that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).
St. Thomas comments: “Death, while not the end of the one who works sin, because when he sins he does not intend to incur death, nevertheless it is the end of the same sins that by their nature lead to temporal death – since when the soul separates himself from God, it is right that his body be separated from it – and eternal one, because when one wants to separate from God temporarily, for the lust of sin, it is right that he will be separated from God forever, which is the eternal death, in conformity with what Saint Paul said: “Those who do such things are worthy of death” (Rm 1,32).
2. The explanation given by St. Thomas is given here on the ontological or metaphysical level.
But it is also true that sin also generates death on the operational level.
To depart from the law of God that is immanent to us (that is, it is written in our very nature) means going against the demands of our authentic good.
In other words, it indicates that it introduces evil germs or disruptors into our life.

3. The observance of God’s law is entirely and exclusively in favor of man.
If you want to prosper in affections, in activities, in the relationship with God and with your neighbor, there is no more friendly light than that which comes from God, who loves us and wants our temporal and eternal good like no other.
4. After giving the children of Israel the ten words of God (the ten commandments), Moses said: “Therefore take care to do as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. Do not deviate either to the right or to the left; walk in everything and for everything along the way that the Lord, your God, has prescribed for you, so that you may live and be happy and remain long in the land that you will possess” (Dt 5: 32-33).
5. These words of Sacred Scripture acquire greater light when they are read in the light of the New Testament and of the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Walking according to the ways of God and keeping oneself in grace is the same thing as walking in the ways that ensure life, floridity, prosperity, although the crosses and setbacks do not completely disappear, which nevertheless are endured in a different way because one is convinced that if they are lived well they are always extraordinarily fruitful.
This is followed by happiness, satisfaction, contentment, a sense of satiety in the depths of the heart.
And there is also and above all living for a long time which should not be understood as a duration of years, but as the enjoyment of the conservation of goods (including affections) that are dear to us.
6. To depart from the law of God is the same as letting oneself be robbed of life, happiness and the preservation of many goods.
In this sense St. Thomas commenting on the verse of Psalm 6 which in Latin sounds like this: “Inveteravi inter inimicos meos“, which in Italian sounds like this: “I have grown old in the midst of all my enemies” he says: “that is, in the midst of demons, or in the midst of all sins to which I have given consent. … I got old because I imitated the old man, submitting to all vices”.
The old man is the man who “corrupts himself by following deceptive passions” (Eph 4:22).
This is why sin generates death: because it retains nothing. On the contrary, it puts seeds of corruption where it is introduced.
7. How many, unfortunately, precisely because they did not trust God and did their own thing, had to suffer the ruin of many things on which they were aiming for their own happiness and for their own fulfillment.8. Adam and Eve, with sin, began to age also biologically.
Before, they always lived in that perennial youth which in the earthly Paradise was the anticipation and image of the perennial youth of the celestial Paradise.
Now we all inexorably grow old physically.
But if we walk in the ways of God we are moving inwardly towards a spiritual youth that only those who are in grace can experience.
With the hope that you will never again experience the disintegration and corruption generated by sin on your skin, I gladly remember you in prayer and I bless you.
Father Angelo

Translated by Germana Casaccia