For most of us, this divine adoption began when we were mere infants. Baptism began to effect our soul, and as we reached the age of reason, it enlightened our consciences and strengthened our wills. This is not pious platitude, nor literary double talk - it is the fundamental belief of the Church, revealed to the Church by God himself. It seems that the baptized sin as much, if not more that the non baptized. Priests, who are to be given special graces upon receiving the sacrament of orders, rock the entire church with scandalous behavior.
Sacramental marriages go sour and fail.
This sober and disturbing question has challenged theologians since the earliest days of the Church. Sacraments that both convey and signify, tangible signs of intangible realties, is far too complex a subject for this poor soul to try to explain away on a Sunday morning. And, perhaps it is equally presumptuous for me to offer a theory of why those in the full sacramental life seem to be such miserable flops as Christians. Perhaps the key is that people, like sacraments, are not want they seem. They are deeper that surface appearances, or our own interpretation of others' motivation and actions.