“Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness. ”
― Simone Weil
Webster's defines sin as "a transgression against God."
While I think that's certainly accurate, I love Simone Weil's take on the subject.
Weil's simple statement of "an attempt to fly from emptiness" at once summarizes what sin is, but also captures its cause.
In my experience, the primary reason that temptation is tempting is because of loneliness. Especially in the sense of lack of. Temptation captures my interest because it's appealing and it's appealing because I'm lacking something.
A person with a full stomach probably isn't going to be tempted to over eat.
Webster's defines lonely as "being without company, cut off from others."
If we are planted solidly in community, surrounded by caring people, we'll be much less likely to feel lonely. (By the way, feeling lonely is different than being alone.) Because we humans are social by nature, there's a lot of fear that can come from feeling like we're cut off from others.
Being part of a community gives us lots of opportunity to interact with others, to share joy and love along with mercy and grace. All of this counteracts fear.
Dorothy Day wrote in The Long Loneliness that the only cure for loneliness was community. I agree with her. And community really can't thrive without love.
There's a scripture that makes the observation "perfect love casts out fear." It makes sense that love, in it's purest form, would wash away fear. In fact, love and fear can't co-exist.
So, at the end of the day, what Simone Weil is saying is that if we're feeling emotionally empty inside, it's a wake-up call from our soul to get connected, to re-establish friendship, to get outside of our selves. The cure is being willing to let go of whatever is blocking honest, intimate communication.
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