Sin, faith and love

Sin has always been a dangerous word. It brings to mind depravity, wickedness and mischief.

Faith, also, has become dangerous- if I say (at least in Quebec) that I am religious and that I have faith, people raise their eyebrows.

Love- the most mysterious, beautiful and paradoxically misunderstood sentiment- is used by people on a daily basis.

Sin, faith and love. We use these words commonly, and yet seem to either embrace or reject them. In the Middle Ages, sin was a thing to eschew at all occasions. Nowadays, living in an "age of sin", (yes St Catherine is lined with prostitutes, but which city is not?), we have become perhaps more open-minded and less idealistic. Our age is one of realism and openness. We are learning to embrace people who do not share our values or our thoughts. At the same time, we have confounded realism with physical nakedness. To be radical, open and liberal, one has to shock. Take Lady Gaga's meat costume. Or Rihanna's sexy performances. For sure, this kind of performance has not just sprung up in the twenty-first century.

Nevertheless, something has to be said for the strangely new and "shocking" artistic ventures of our age.

In a way, sin, faith and love revolve around the human's desire to be cared for. It can be labelled as sin in a most perverted sense, as faith if diverted to God, and as love if given to another human being.

Sin, faith and love. Such paradoxal and yet, somehow, perhaps complimentary concepts?