Pope Francis: One of the evils of our day is the loss of a sense of sin

Pope reflects on how holy King David could have fallen into the atrocities he committed

How could the great King David, the holy king who had done so many good things, and had been so united to God fall into the horrendous sins he committed? Pope Francis considered this question in his morning homily at Casa Santa Marta.

David, he said, slipped into sin slowly, little by little.

Francis noted how there are sins that happen almost impulsively, such as the sin of anger or of an insult — sins of the moment, when there was a lack of self control. But there are also sins that one slides into little by little, allowing the spirit of the world to progressively increase within.

“We are all sinners,” said Francis, “but sometimes we sin in a moment. I get angry, and I insult someone. Then I repent.”

But sometimes, he continued, “we allow ourselves to be taken into a state of life” where evils begin to appear normal. For example, that it’s normal “to not pay an employee how he or she should be paid.”

It seems that the people who do this are good people, they go to Mass every Sunday, they call themselves Christians. Then why do you do this? And other sins? I think it’s because you’ve fallen into a place where you’ve lost the sense of sin. And this is one of the evils of our time. Pius XII said it: to lose the sense of sin.

Sometimes, Pope Francis said, we need life to “slap us.” We need someone like Nathan, sent by God to David, to show him his error.

Let us think a bit. What is the spiritual atmosphere of my life? Am I careful? I always need someone to tell me the truth, [but] I don’t believe it? Do I listen to the reproaches of a friend, my confessor, my husband or wife, the children, who help me a bit? Let us look at the story of David — holy King David — and ask ourselves: If a saint was able to fall like that, let us be careful, brothers and sisters, because it can happen to us too. And let us ask ourselves: What atmosphere do I live in? May the Lord grant us the grace of always sending us a prophet — it can be a neighbor, a son or daughter, our mother or father — to slap us a bit when we’ve slid into an atmosphere where everything seems legitimate.