We greatly underestimate the severity of sin – even or venial sin. We alone among all of God’s creation have been gifted with free will. This means that only we humans can say “no” to God and His perfect will. This is serious. Our conscience (assuming it’s well-formed and informed) helps us know right from wrong. Therefore, we know when we choose to sin. And therefore, we are responsible – for sin creates a debt owed to God.

But (and here’s the key point) we have no way of paying it back. Not even the first penny. Why not? Because blatantly thumbing our collective nose at the one true God requires a perfect sacrifice of reparation – key word: perfect. And since not one* of us is perfect (we all sin – hence the debt), none of us is able to make a perfect sacrifice to God. A good sacrifice, maybe. But not a perfect sacrifice. None of us is capable of that.

So what is a loving God to do? Find the perfect sacrifice, of course. And the only Being capable of making the perfect sacrifice to God is . . . God. This prayer, recited silently by the priest at every Mass, sums it up well: “Lord Jesus Christ, by the will of the Father and the work of the Spirit, Your Death has brought life to the world. . . .” And Jesus is both fully God and fully man – like us in all but sin. (*Mary’s sinlessness is by G

So God Himself paid the price for all the world’s many sins – past, present, and future – with the one perfect sacrifice: Jesus’s Life, Death, and Resurrection. God the Father’s only-begotten Son is the only One who could pay our sin debt, because only He could offer the perfect sacrifice to His Father for our sins. Only Jesus. No other sacrifice would or could do. None.