Sin Chapter Six The Nature of Sin Sin

Sin Chapter Six

The Nature of Sin • Sin is: • An offense against reason, truth, and right conscience • Against Reason: We act contrary to good judgment • Against Truth: We act contrary to what is meaningful • Against Conscience: We act contrary to what is good for us • Sin detaches us from any good in our life—love, fellowship, and God

The Nature of Sin • Sin’s origin, the fall of humanity, the disharmony created within us, and the battle we face everyday between making a good choice or bad is rooted in pride: • Reading: C. S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”

The Nature of Sin Main point’s from C. S. Lewis’ chapter on sin • All of us commit the sin of pride • The most evil of all vices is pride —this is how the devil became the devil • Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind • Pride is the chief cause of misery • Pride always produces animosity between people and God • If you are proud you cannot know God

The Nature of Sin • Your book, the Catechism, and C. S. Lewis all describe sin as creation lacking something • Sin (evil) is essentially the absence of what ought to be • Example: Sin removes our happiness, our peace of mind, our relationships, our own self-respect etc.

Nature of Sin • Now depending on the kind of sin will determine how detached you become from God, neighbor, and yourself • There are sins that “cry to heaven” • • • Blood of Abel The sin o Sodomites Oppression in Egypt The cry of foreigners, widows, and orphans Injustice to the wage earner • There are sins of the flesh • Impurity • Hatred • There is Original Sin and personal sin

Nature of Sin Original Sin • Why is our life so full of conflict: conflict between the soul, which is immortal, and the body, a prey to sickness and to death; between the reason and the passions, which draw us in opposite directions; between man and the universe—man, who struggles daily to wrest a living from the earth, which responds with famines and catastrophes? What is the reason for all the affliction? And, above all, why should little children suffer and die?

Nature of Sin Original Sin • Created as a compound of flesh and spirit, we are a meeting place of the world of visible things and the invisible world • “We are a boundary line between two worlds” • St. Thomas • We are a bundle of contradictions said John Cardinal Newman. He said that our humanity is a strange composite of heaven and earth, cloaking corruption yet weakness mastering power

• “What sort of freak then is man…how novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe” Pascal

Nature of Sin Original Sin • This is the balance that we are to manage in our lives • Being divided, this is a great challenge for all of us because we are of the earth but meant for heaven • This opens another point: Earthly reality and heavenly reality • The Transfiguration of Jesus for example reveals to us the glory that we are called too • We are meant to become holy as Christ was in His Transfiguration

Nature of Sin Original Sin • Another question we can ask is did God create us to receive these struggles? • We ultimately cannot understand the Mind of God but we do know that God created us in His image and likeness • We were created to be in harmony with God, neighbor, and ourselves • Graced by God we shared peace, love, and justice unlike we experience today

Nature of Sin Original Sin • Adam chose just as we continue to choose today to break from God. The Fall and our falls are revolts against God’s love • We wish to be no longer in God but against God • Today the Church recognizes two forms in which we turn away from this love

The Nature of Sin Particular Sin • There are two categories of particular sin which is a turning from God’s love • Mortal • Venial • As it has been said before the moral principle for making a moral decision is the object. This also applies to the gravity of a sin and if it is mortal or venial

Mortal Vs. Venial Mortal • • • Grave violation Destroys charity Full rejection of charity Contrary to God’s love Contrary to loving neighbor Venial • Less serious • Weakens charity • Partial rejection of charity • Love to God is not fully jeopardized • Love of neighbor is not fully jeopardized

Mortal Sin in Detail • What makes a sin mortal? • Grave matter • Full knowledge • Complete consent • If any of these are absent, it does not become a mortal sin

Mortal Sin in Detail • Grave matter: What we do (the object) must be serious enough to destroy the love of God • The Ten Commandments are God’s Law that reveal to us what causes us to be cut off from God’s love • • • Murder adultery, Apostasy Abortion Blasphemy Defrauding the poor

Mortal Sin in Detail • Full knowledge: To commit mortal sin we must know that we are doing is seriously wrong • If we are ignorant of an act being serious we cannot be held accountable and in the eyes of God punishment can be withheld or diminished • The questions we would ask someone here is how do they not know something to be wrong when it hurts them or others • Pretending however to be ignorant or choosing not to know the truth does make you blameworthy

Mortal Sin in Detail • Complete Consent: A deliberate and personal choice • Full consent means that we make that free choice knowing full right that it is wrong but do it anyway regardless of the consequences

Venial Sin in Detail • Venial means “easily forgiven” • Committing a venial sin causes you to fall but does destroy nor tear you away from the love of God • Under the three requirements for an act to be a mortal sin it becomes a venial because one of the requirements were not met • Full knowledge: Ignorance • Full consent: Coerced

• A good analogy to understand the difference between mortal and venial sin is this: • Think of a light bulb • The light (God’s love/grace) will be destroyed if you were to destroy the light bulb (mortal sin) • If the light bulb was covered with dirt, you do not take away the light, it still exists but it is harder to see (venial sin)