Quotes of the Day for February 27, 2026 – Thoughts on sin as sickness not a legal problem
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“Leviticus, indeed the entire Torah, envision sin and uncleanness not merely as legal infractions or ceremonial status, respectively, but as ontological realities among the people, in particular within the tabernacle, the center of their life…[The Torah considers and treats] sin as a contaminant, at least at a ritual level. This idea challenges an understanding of sin as the transgression of a commandment or similar views that hold sin to be a primarily legal category. Sin in the Torah is not only a deadly disease but a contagious one that, unless it or the perpetrator is cut off from the people, will infect not only the sanctuary but the entire community. These two understandings of sin, the legal and the epidemiological, are not mutually exclusive. The violation of the laws and commandments of God, though requiring legal punishment, are remedied by rituals of purification and cleansing.” (Fr. Stephen De Young)
“Although David himself confesses that his sins, adultery and murder, were primarily sins against God, “Against You only have I sinned and done that which is evil in Your sight” (Psalm 50/51: 4), the problem the sins manifest are not primarily legal or covenantal. This double sin does not create a legal problem before God so much as it manifests a medical emergency of the soul. David had been pierced by the arrow of adultery and the spear of murder. David had been wounded–and wounded people wound others. A wounded soul contemplates sin, and what we contemplate eventually determines what we do. The remedy for David, and for all wounded sinners, lies in his confession and repentance, not so that God can forgive him in some legal sense of the word; but so that David can see reality as it is, so that he can agree with God (confess/ homolegeo/say the same thing as), and so he can begin to ask God for mercy and thus begin to be healed.” (Archpriest Michael Gillis)
“Imagine that you’ve been brought into a hospital from a terrible wreck. You’re in the ER and there are a team of doctors and nurses standing by with their amazing array of medical equipment. Also standing nearby is a team of lawyers, specialists in accident litigation. Whom do you want to talk to first? I use this illustration to emphasize the nature of the human problem: we are sick and injured. We do not have a legal problem. There is nothing that a team of lawyers can do to make you well or make you recover from your injuries. A hospital is a place for healing. It is not a courtroom. The Church is a hospital for sinners. It is a thought with various attributions – but it speaks definitively and correctly about the nature of salvation.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“As long as we think of sin and righteousness legalistically, we run the risk of thinking we are not sinning because we are following “the rules.” However, we actually are sinning in that we have developed an unconscious pride in following the rules so well that we are sinning through an attitude self-righteousness. This is a subtle form of the sickness of sin, like an undetected illness. We may not feel burdened by it, just like we may not feel sick when we actually are. This will keep us from attaining true peace through the virtue of Christ which He offers us through Himself. One day we may realize just how burdened we are because God, out of love for us and a desire for our healing, will permit burdens in our life until we wake up.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
“St. Cyril [of Jerusalem] describes sin as illness, but he reminds us that humans’ “wounds are not beyond the healing of the great Physician.” (Fr. Joseph Lucas)