CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (CCC)
What is sin? The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us a concise definition. “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. (CCC #1849).
COMMENTARY
In today’s culture, hardly anything is called a sin except maybe during a Church Service. God has been set aside and replaced by one’s own authority to decide right and wrong. (Moral Relativism) Sin is just not something people like to talk about because they too may be guilty and in need of repentance and change of behavior. But sin actually exists today as well as in days of old.
In the Old Testament God gave us the guidelines for our wellbeing on Mount Sinai when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the promises that all will be well if Moses and the Israelites followed these guidelines. Of course they didn’t, any more than Adam and Eve obeyed God in the Garden of Eden.
ORGINAL SIN.
In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve in His image and likeness, He endowed them with intelligence, love, free will, and conscience. He gave them the grace of “original holiness.” God also gave them preternatural gifts. Man and the world began in grace, not sin. The inner harmony between man and woman, and all of creation comprised the state of “original justice.”
The preternatural gifts received by Adam and Eve include infused knowledge, absence of concupiscence, and immortality of the body. Adam and Eve received these free gifts not just for themselves but to be passed on to the whole and entire human race. After Adam and Eve committed “original sin,” they lost “original justice” and the preternatural gifts for the entire human race. Now they could only pass on a fallen human nature. Their descendants are now subject to ignorance, concupiscence (disordered desires), suffering and death.
God “tested” our first parents by forbidding them to eat of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The tree is a symbol of the limits that humans have as creatures. Our freedom to choose means we are free to choose good. We are not free to choose evil. To step outside God’s moral laws is to assume a freedom never granted to man. To choose evil has bad consequences for mankind.
We did not commit “original sin.” But we are born with its effects, a wounded human nature in body and soul and estrangement from God’s divine life. Man’s passions are no longer ruled by right reason. The union of man and woman became subject to tensions, lust, and domination. The rest of creation became hostile and alien to man. Death entered into human history. Because of man’s act of disobedience, all of creation is now subject to death and decay.
CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TODAY
We are told by Jesus not to judge lest we be judged in like fashion and rightfully so. Matthew 7:1 Only God can judge a human heart. This does not mean we can’t judge objectively sinful behavior and its consequences.
As examples, I will use the seven deadly sins as described in Scriptures and Catholic Church teaching. Why, deadly, because in grave matters they can lead to the death of the soul and eternal damnation. These are sometimes described as cardinal or capital sins because all sin flows from these vices.
Lust, (disordered desire) is just one of the seven deadly sins mentioned in Scripture. The others are: Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. Because of the sin of Lust, we have broken marriages, dysfunctional families, increase in venereal diseases, domestic violence, pornography, child abuse, and sex trafficking.
Gluttony really includes any overindulgence of food, drink, addictions. Consequences may be drunkenness, drunk driving, abuse of drugs, overdoses, suicide. Health problems that are related to food products.
Greed results in stealing from others, fraud, cheating, lying about financial affairs, taking from someone else which is rightly theirs, opposing what is in the interest of the common good but may cut into your profits ie..solar energy which is safer and cheaper for households but threatens profits of fossil fuel industry.
Most people barely examine themselves on the deadly sin of Sloth. They just think it means being lazy but also sins of omission should be considered.. Consequences of the deadly sin of sloth may not be witnessing to your faith when it is attacked; not voting to make a difference in the world; ignoring those in need the least of our brethren; and not helping others when you could and should.
Consequences of WRATH are wars, broken relationships, hate, physical harm to others, discrimination, using God’s name in vain, abuse of spouse and/or children,
Those who nurture ENVY may covet their neighbor’s wife or property to the point of taking what is not rightfully theirs. Envy also results in dissatisfaction with one’s own blessings and gifts from God, takes away our inner Peace and undercuts our call to choose God’s will over our own.
Pride, I save for last because all sin can be traced back to the sin of Pride. Our first parents passed on our fallen nature because they listened to the lies of the devil that they would be just like God if they ate of the tree of good and evil. While in fact all they discovered was evil and slavery to sin. We, today, become slaves of sin every time we choose our will over God’s will.
CONCLUSION
Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Confession (Penance, Reconciliation). The Church has always understood the Scriptural reference for theSacrament of Confession to be John 20: 22-23: “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”
We experience God’s mercy through this Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is there that we acknowledge who we are: limited, weak and sinful creatures in need of redemption. It is in this Sacrament that God forgives us of any and all of our sins. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3: 16-17).
God knows we are sentient creatures and need visible signs of absolution. The Sacrament of Confession is an The priest raises his hand, and then with a blessing pronounces those amazing words, “I absolve you from your sins.” At that moment, we know that God has heard our cry for forgiveness, and we have been pardoned of our sins.
REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL!
ACT OF CONTRITION
Oh my God I am sorry for all my sins because they offend you who are all good. Be merciful to me a sinner. I am deeply sorry for my sins, for having broken or weakened my communion with you and my neighbor. I pray that your loving mercy will heal what I have hurt, strengthen what I have weakened. Help me to amend my life and sin no more and in your mercy bring me to everlasting life. Amen
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