Jesus became sin. If I wrote those words on my own authority, I'd be thrown far from the pages of this newspaper. It sounds like heresy. It couldn't possibly be true. But there the words are. Right in the Bible. Check out the close of next Sunday's second reading (2 Corinthians 5:17-21): The one who did not know sin became sin.

The most obvious problem with St. Paul's statement is that Jesus was sinless. We didn't just make up this belief. The New Testament repeats it again and again. The First Letter of John 3:5 says plainly "in him there is no sin." Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus is no ordinary high priest because he was tested like we are "yet without sin." 1 Peter 2:22 paraphrases Isaiah 53:9 and applies it to Jesus as a model for believers: "He committed no sin." Jesus himself asks the rhetorical question, to which there is no reply, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46).

Nobody. No fool would say Jesus sinned. Not even Paul. Look again at those words from next week's reading. Paul did not say Jesus sinned. He said Jesus became sin.

Paul does not intend to make Jesus look bad. He wants to make us look bad. He says Jesus became like us, and if you are human, sin is part of your life. To become human is to partake in sin. Paul's statement means nothing more than "the Word became flesh," but he states it more alarmingly than John did: Jesus became sin.

Even so, the problems are not resolved. Now the statement sounds like a harsh judgment on human beings. At creation, God made humanity and then said it was good. So we must be blessed in God's sight. Yes, but Paul knows humanity well. He knows that as marvelous as we are, we still fail.

Perhaps the most problematic aspect of Paul's statement is its implications for us. Sinners are losers. If we are sinful by nature, how in the world can we carry out the incredible mission that the second reading assigns us?

The answer lies within the reading itself. The reason we hear this passage during Lent is not its puzzling statement about Jesus, which tends to derail a proper reflection on the full text. Rather, we hear this passage because of its overall theme: reconciliation. Reconciliation appears as a motif in all three readings next Sunday, most classically in the much loved Gospel story of the prodigal son. In the second reading, reconciliation pertains to the mission of God that has been entrusted to us.

In Paul's view, God sent Jesus into the world precisely for reconciliation. That mission is accomplished whenever someone joins the Christian community, for we are the body of Christ. But the complete mission reaches out to the entire world. Paul says God made us ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors, not club members. As ambassadors we shoulder the mission that God had first given to Jesus. As his body, we carry on that mission and advance it into the world.

How in the world can we do this if we are sin? The answer appears at the beginning of next week's passage. "Whoever is in Christ is a new creation." We are not the same sinful, wayward people we were before. Christ has come into the world, into our lives, into our hearts. There he makes us a whole new creation, empowered to overcome the sin that threatened to bring us down. Christ became like us, so that we could become like him. Christ became sin, so that we could become righteousness.

During the season of Lent, Catho- lics receive a special invitation to cel- ebrate the sacrament of reconciliation. By examining our consciences, we come face to face with our sin, which we confess before God. Through that sacrament, God reconciles the world again through Christ.

But our mission is broader. The lenten mission of reconciliation reaches beyond our introspective confession of sins and into our action outside the church building and its confessional. Christ has given us a model. He became like us to help us achieve reconciliation.

To accomplish the mission of reconciliation, we turn our attention to all the ways the world needs healing. When we care for our natural resources, when we give to the poor, when we lobby to set free those unjustly oppressed, when we reconcile with those who have offended us, we carry on the mission of Christ.

Father Paul Turner is pastor of St. John Francis Regis Parish, Kansas City.