Chapter VIII - Sin and Conversion

Question 1

Hamartia

Answer 1

the greek word for sin used in Pauline and Johannine writings

Question 2

Trent deals with sin in three principal moments:

Answer 2

a. Session V: Expounds on the doctrine of original sin
b. Session VI: Repeats some fundamental points of catholic doctrine on sin
Lack of faith
Every mortal sin deprives us of the grace of Christ
Maintains the distinction between mortal and venial sin
Sin does not completely destroy human liberty
c. Session XIV:
Proposing the sacrament of penitence, pronounces the necessity to confess each and every mortal sin

Question 3

Vatican II dealt with sin principally in

Answer 3

Gaudium et Spes nn. 13 & 37

Question 4

Augustinian definition of sin

Answer 4

“an act, a word, or a desire contrary to the eternal law”.
Two elements of this definition:
Sin is a human act
Sin is contrary to the law of God

Question 5

Definition of sin given by author

Answer 5

An act contrary to ethical virtue (natural or supernatural), that breaks the communion of men with God in Christ, and consequently, impedes the definitive fullness of divine filiation.

Question 6

Two elements of sin:

Answer 6

Aversio a Deo: separation from God = Formal element of sin

Conversio ad creaturas: disordered tendency toward terrestrial goods = Quasi-material element

Question 7

Analogical sense of sin

Answer 7

there exists a certain similitude between mortal and venial sins, but it is not reducible to a mere difference in “grade”. They are essentially different.

Question 8

3 conditions for a sin to be considered mortal:

Answer 8

a. Grave material
b. Full awareness/knowledge
c. Perfect consent

Question 9

By the gravity of their material, acts can be classed as:

Answer 9

Mortal ex toto genere suo:
Examples: Blasphemy, hatred against God, taking of innocent life.
Mortal ex genere suo:
Examples: Theft and injury
Mild (“lieve”) ex genere suo:
Example: a petty but not harmful lie.

Question 10

Those who hold fundamental option seem to accept two ideas:

Answer 10

i. Secularization - implies the weakening of the knowledge of God and of his love toward men and implies a smaller sense of sin. These authors understand God to be far away. They forget the fact that grace draws man into the intimacy of God.
ii. A false anthropology that weakens the sense of human freedom, forgetting that it is capable of modifying the most profound intentions of a person and changes them through certain particular acts.

Question 11

Responses to Fundamental Option:

Answer 11

he distinction between mortal and venial sins is not an invention of theologians, but rather has been proclaimed by the Church.

2. The teaching on mortal sin is not a rigorist understanding, but is taken from the Scriptures, which often lists the vices which exclude someone from heaven.
3. The Church teaches that even isolated sins and sins of weakness (“the falls in the years of puberty”) can be mortal
4. The Catholic understanding of mortal sin is profoundly realist. It understands well the weakness of human nature (“treasure in clay jars”), and therefore encourages frequent repentance and use of the Sacrament of Confession.

Question 12

Levels of sin according to fundamental option:

Answer 12

On the categorical level:
1. Venial
2. Grave
On the Transcendental level:
3. Mortal

Question 13

External sins/Internal sins

Answer 13

those committed with an action that can be observed from the exterior /those which remain in the interior of man

Question 14

Three types of interior sins:

Answer 14

1. Consented thought (delectatio morosa)
2. The desire (desiderium) for a completed act.
3. Satisfaction (gaudium) for a completed act.

Question 15

3 senses of “social sin”:

Answer 15

Every sin, even the most hidden, effects society as a whole;
There are sins which directly strike more directly at social life;
There sometimes exist “collective situations” which induce sin.

Question 16

Other divisions of sins

Answer 16

1Original and actual sin
2Formal and material sin
Formal - voluntary
Material - objectively disordered act, but not sufficiently willful
3Sinful act and the sinful state (habitual sin)
4Ignorance, fragility, and malice
5Carnal and spiritual sin
Carnal - from a disordered tendency for a sensible good (e.g. lust)
Spiritual - from a disordered tendency for a spiritual good (e.g. pride)
6From commission and from omission

Question 17

Specific Distinction of Sins/

Numerical Distinction of Sins

Answer 17

sins committed against different virtues or precepts / the quantity of sins of a certain type that have been committed

Question 18

Remote cause of sin / Proximate cause of sin

Answer 18

the natural “defectability” of man and the subsequent concupiscence to sin / malice of will

Question 19

Vices exist on:

Answer 19

the intellectual plane
the affective plane
the dispositional plane

Question 20

The Capital Sins/Vices are:

Answer 20

1. Vainglory: disordered love of one’s excellence.
2. Avarice: disordered love of exterior goods.
3. Lust
4. Gluttony: Disordered love of sensible pleasures.
5. Sloth (and laziness/acedia): The refusal and fleeing from necessary effort to obtain a moral or spiritual good.
6. Envy: Sadness for another’s good which is considered one’s own evil; also the desire and joy of evil brought upon another.
7. Hate: Violent intolerance before opposition.

Question 21

Pride

Avarice

Answer 21

is the root of all sin ex parte aversionis

is the root of all sin ex parte conversionis

Question 22

Types of temptation:

Answer 22

1. The world
2. The devil
3. The flesh

Question 23

Moral Principles regarding temptation:

Answer 23

1. Temptations cannot be conquered with our own strength alone.
2. Temptation can always be conquered with the grace of God.
3. One must react with promptness against temptation.
4. One can resist temptation in two different ways –
   a. With directly opposite acts and this is recommended for temptations against faith, hope, and charity.
   b. Occupying the mind in some other thing: recommended for temptations of sensuality (as focussing on the temptation makes it stronger in this case).
5. To feel temptation is not a sin, but only to consent to it.
6. One is not permitted to place oneself voluntarily in situations of temptation.

Question 24

Occasions of Sin

Answer 24

• those exterior circumstances that occur more or less voluntarily and that suppose a temptation to sin.

Question 25

Types of Occasion of Sin:

Answer 25

Proximate, when the danger is serious / Remote, when the danger is slight.
Absolute, when any normal person feels such danger / Relative, when it is dangerous for only certain people.
Continuous or discontinuous if it is habitually present or only in intervals.
Free, when placing oneself in the occasion depends upon personal will / Necessary, when it depends on a certain state of life.
Grave or slight, according to the theological species of sin to which the danger refers.

Question 26

The moral obligations concerning Occasion of Sin:

Answer 26

i. It is gravely obligatory to avoid grave occasions of sin.
ii. One must take every possibility so that the proximate and necessary occasion becomes remote.
iii. Continuous, free, and remote occasions are to be avoided because they corrode the spiritual life and predispose it to grave sin.

Question 27

Effects of sin:

Answer 27

1. The primary effect of mortal sin is the exclusion of oneself from the divine friendship “aversio a Deo”.
   a. loss of supernatural life
   b. loss of the indwelling of the Trinity in the soul
   c. loss of sanctifying grace
   d. loss of charity
   e. loss of the infused virtues
   f. loss of the gifts of the Holy Spirit
   g. loss of supernatural merits (are regained with returned friendship with God)
2. In mortal sin, man, created to live in communion with God, contradicts his most profound truth and his own truest good.
3. Personal sin not only damages the sinner, but has negative consequences in both the ecclesial and civil community.

Question 28

Cooperation with evil

Answer 28

he realisation of an act that in some way helps our neighbour to complete an immoral action of which they remain the principal author.
Scandal is the attitude or comportment that induces others to do evil/sin. (NB: scandal is not cooperation)
Cooperation is an action that actually facilitates the execution of an evil act.

Question 29

Formal/Material Cooperation:

Answer 29

Formal: the evil is directly and freely willed, and as such, implicit approval is given of the other’s actions.
Material: toleration of the evil action, without implying any endorsement of the behaviour of the other, where cooperation comes about as a result of an inevitable action that for some reason you cannot avoid.
immediate (direct) or mediated (indirect)
proximate or remote

Question 30

Moral principles of cooperation with evil:

Answer 30

Formal cooperation in evil is always illicit.
Material cooperation, in general terms, is also morally illicit. However, there are a few circumstances that legitimise certain actions that materially cooperate with evil. The principles of double effect are used in these situations.

Question 31

3 Convictions concerning conversion:

Answer 31

1. The mercy of God
2. The necessity of conversion (“metanoia”)
3. The sacraments of forgiveness

Question 32

Sin is something more than a negative moral action.

Answer 32

It is the negative response of man to the gift and call of the love of God. Only in the light of God can one understand the reality of sin.

Question 33

Old Testament

Answer 33

The notion of sin, as in all the moral thought of the OT, must be understood from the point of view of God’s free and gratuitous designs of salvation.
Recall that man was created in a state of original justice and divine friendship, lost however due to original sin.
God destined Israel to be the sign of his fidelity.
The Covenant became therefore the new mark of man’s fidelity or infidelity.
Therefore, infidelity to the pact that God had with Israel was not simply considered a legal shortcoming.
Sin is not only opposition to a rule, but to God himself.
Prophetic literature would point out that sin is an infidelity to divine love; an adultery.

Question 34

Synoptic Gospels

Answer 34

Jesus and his message are the point of reference for the New Covenant.
Jesus reveals that sin brings estrangement from God, and that the desire to seek one’s happiness elsewhere leads to the most abject misery.
The Incarnation is configured as the final stage of the salvation of men, as the essential part of Christ’s mission is to liberate from sin.
Christ asks man to have a “penitent” attitude and not one of “self-forgiveness”, presumption, or the delusion of self-sufficiency.
The Gospels also demonstrate that there is not only one type of sin.
Jesus denounces hypocrisy, vainglory, injustice, homicide, adultery, greed, haughtiness, etc.
He also emphasizes that sin is not only an external action, but a perverse interior attitude of will, which is the origin of sin.
There is a degree of gravity: sins pardonable through prayer are not as serious as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, or giving grave scandal for example.

Question 35

Pauline Corpus

Answer 35

Paul’s writings are permeated by the doctrine of sin, viewed in light of Christ the redeemer.
Characteristic of Saint Paul is the use of the term “sin” (hamartia) in the singular, as a personified power that can operate in man and through him.
Christ is victorious over sin by means of the cross and Resurrection. Thus, by means of Baptism, we are truly “new creatures”. As new creatures, we are not totally free from fomes peccati (inclination to sin). Hence the ongoing need for conversion.
Ultimately, for Paul, sin is the refusal of the salvific action of God in Christ, and the distancing of oneself from God so as to follow the works of the flesh.

Question 36

Johannine Writings

Answer 36

It is also characteristic for St. John to use the term “sin” in the singular.
There exists sin by definition: the refusal to receive Christ as light, as truth, etc.
It is this refusal that Christ continually tries to prevent; it is a sin that is seen as the very opposition of love.

Question 37

Remission of sins

Answer 37

Revelation concerning sin is not limited to merely demonstrating reality and malice, but at the same time reveals the superabundant mercy of God.

Rom 5:20-21: The law entered in so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This forgiveness forms an important part of the mission of the Church and the kerygma of the Apostles.

Question 38

The Fathers

Answer 38

Sacrament of penance: reveals the awareness that the Church has always had of sin being enmity with God and with the ecclesial community.
Apostolic Fathers: re-propose the biblical teachings on sin, underlining the existence of two ways (good and evil), composing the catalogues of virtue and vice, and also noting that sin is the summit of evil.
Apologist Fathers: insists on the religious peculiarity of sin, against the pagans who see it simply as an external action meriting castigation
Tertullian: records the sinfulness of internal acts, and considers every sin as idolatry and contempt against God.
St. Augustine: shows the psychology of guilt distinguishing between suggestion, pleasure, and consensus.
He also affirms that sin rises up from a disordered free will when it is devoid of the good and due moral rectitude.
Man is ordered to the absolute Good, that also comes through creatures.
Therefore, when prompted by self-seeking, man searches for satisfaction in finite goods, it contradicts the divine law, and is a separation from God.
He also emphasizes the possibility of forgiveness and the necessity of personal conversion.
Patristic inheritance: endured for the entire Early Medieval Ages. It was an epoch of conversion of barbaric peoples and great diffusion of private penitence.

Question 39

The apostolic exhortation, Reconciliatio et paenitentia, is centred around 3 fundamental points:

Answer 39

1. Conversion
2. Sin
3. Ministry of reconciliation
   We will deal here with sin only.
   Man must understand sin not in abstract, but concrete terms and evaluate the consequences with the eyes of faith.
   Sin is the temptation to be powerful without God.
   Sin’s essential character is disobedience against God and his law (even if not manifestly obvious), and necessarily a break in one’s relationship with his neighbour.
   One can, however, speak of social sin in 3 senses:
   Every sin negatively affects the entire ecclesial community and all of humanity
   There are some sins which directly affect neighbour, which in turn constitute a direct offense against God.
   One can speak in an analogical sense of social sin in certain situations or in collective behaviours, but we must also remember that they are the fruit of several personal sins.
   Reconciliatio et paenitentia records the division of sin into mortal and venial sin, and not a tripartite division of venial, grave, and mortal sins (which would infer a middle way between life and death).
   Lastly, one must avoid the reduction of mortal sin to an act of fundamental choice (a.k.a. the fundamental option for/against God) revolting directly against God

Question 40

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Answer 40

when speaking of sin, always does so in relation to the mercy of God, the redemption wrought in Christ, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit

a. Original sin: 385-421
b. Faith in Jesus our Redeemer: 422-682
c. Faith in the forgiveness of sins: 976-987
d. Sacrament of baptism: 1213-1284
e. Sacrament of penance: 1422-1498
f. Sin as obstacle to the vocation of man: 1846-1876
g. The Ten Commandments: 2083-2557
h. The last questions of “Our Father”: 2838-2854

Question 41

Veritatis Splendor

Answer 41

deals with sin, both original and actual.
Specifically, it recalls that only the Gospel can reveal the entire truth on sin: sin is an offense against God that obscures the human conscience.
Sin can be avoided with the grace of the Lord, but it is necessary for a sinner to remember to ask for divine help.

Question 42

Sin is the one true evil in the absolute sense

Answer 42

Every evil is a privation of a good
“Physical evils” (i.e. non-moral evils) which are privations of limited, finite goods (e.g. sickness, poverty etc.).
“Moral evils”: Sin, every mortal sin, deprives man of the infinite Good. Therefore, sin is the only evil in the absolute sense.
It offends God infinitely (because his dignity is infinite) so the debt to be paid is infinite.
Thus, the gravity of sin can be seen in the gravity of the punishment (Hell) and the seriousness of the Passion of Jesus as satisfaction for sin.

Question 43

Why is sin always departure from God?

Answer 43

Acts opposed to virtue are objectively incompatible with the tending of the will towards God.

We must remember that the Natural Moral Law is a Divine law and its guiding principle is the love of God.

In every case, sin is really opposition and resistance to the grace of the Holy Spirit

The law of Christ or “lex gratiae” is essentially the grace of the Holy Spirit that brings with itself new principles that finalise and elevate the natural principles of human reason, giving place to a new interior law in man, and accompanied by the moral teachings of the New Testament.

Question 44

What then about the faithful who don’t have good moral formation?

Answer 44

In the plan of positive theology, there does not exist a culpa (moral fault) that is not a sin, nor does there exist a so-called “philosophical sin” (i.e. that I realize that what I’m doing might be wrong, but the wrong action is not referred directly to the person of God – hence there is no offence to God).

Moral demands are charged with an absolute and unconditional character that would be nonsensical if they were not from God. They therefore seem to have a “divine character”. NB. They might not always be understood as “divine”, but certainly as absolute.

Man may not know he is estranging himself from God per se, but he does know, even if only dimly, that he is damaging something inside of himself that is of absolute or great importance for him.

Thus, his estrangement from the Absolute (especially as revealed at the end of his life) could never come as complete and unattested surprise.