Ezekiel 18:21-28 / Matthew 5:20-26
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ― Albert Einstein
That seems to be the tagline of inventors and people who makes discoveries. Because it is usually from a mistake that an invention or a discovery is made and that opens the way for something new.
But there is a big big difference between a mistake and a sin. A mistake is an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgement caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, or to understand, interpret, or evaluate wrongly.
A sin is to do something that is considered wrong according to religious or moral law, or an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.
As the 1st reading puts it, when an upright man renounces his integrity, he wasn't making a mistake. He knows it is wrong and he deliberately goes on to do it.
He is not trying out anything new, because sin, as a matter of fact, is as old as the hills and the mountains and we all know what are its consequences.
In the gospel, Jesus raised the standards of virtue to a new and a higher level. He goes beyond the usual understanding of the precepts of the Commandments and gives a new teaching about even minor transgressions like anger and cursing.
As far as it goes, there are no new ways to commit sin and there are no new discoveries to be made from it. The result is always a tragedy and causes pain.
But with virtues, we cannot say that we have reached perfection. In fact we will always struggle to be virtuous.
We pray for the grace of God to keep living virtuous lives so that we will discover the power of God's love that will keep us away from sin and to grow in holiness