THE MORAL REALITY OF SIN Flashcards
All moral reality is made up of the objective nature of the act/attitude, the intention of the agent, and the circumstances.
______as a moral reality is an attitude, an action or failure to act, or power or force that leads us into evil.
Sin
T or F
There are some false ideas of sin.
Sin is often taken as: merely breaking some impersonal law in a book, or a guilt feeling, or as something we cannot avoid.
These simply avoid the evil of sin and the harm it does to the sinner and others
True
A common example of a false, legalistic, impersonal idea of sin is expressed by the question:
“How far can I go without falling into sin?”
The concept of sin is very closely related to that of______.
Sin and moral _____ designate the same reality, though under different aspects.
guilt
Sin always involves_____, and ______ always presupposes sin.
moral guilt
T or F
Sin and guilt always exist together.
True
_____expresses the truth that a wrongful act is morally evil and an offense against God.
Sin
denotes the fact that a person is liable for the evil he has done and that it is attributed to him as the responsible agent.
Guilt
______is different from guilt feeling for the latter merely psychological, that is false guilt, which therefore does not necessarily mean that sin is committed.
______, which is incurred by a merely offense against the existing legal order, is not the same with moral guilt also.
Moral guilt
Juridical guilt
• In Constitutional Law, the accused has the right to the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.
• This is because the court must certainly establish and determine the__________.
• But the_______ is indispensable for such an accused who has committed the offense.
guilt beyond reasonable doubt
moral guilt
Clearly sin is a product of man’s_____. But deep within its human reality there are factors at work which place it beyond the merely human, in the border-area where human (3) are in contact with the dark forces which, according to St. Paul, are active in the world, almost to the point of ruling it
freedom
conscience, will, and sensitivity
But we need to reflect deeply on sin:
1) to truly appreciate God’s everlasting merciful love, and
2) to correct common distorted ideas of God, the Church, conscience, law and the Sacrament of Reconciliation
According to ________ simply defines sin as the failure to bother to love.
James F. Keenan, S.J.,
James F. Keenan, S.J., simply defines sin as the failure to bother to love.
• This definition captures the many stories in the bible such as
Matthew’s goat
Lazarus’ rich man
the wounded man’s priest and the Levite
the publican’s Pharisee
•__________ defines sin as basically: a refusal of God’s love.
• It entails: refusing to follow our own_______;
• rejecting our true selves, others, and God by turning away from God, our true end;
• breaking God’s covenant of love with us (no. 784).
The Catechism for Filipino Catholics
conscience
Sin is “a word, an act, or a desire contrary to the eternal Law”
According to
Saint Augustine
TYPES OF SIN
Sin of Commission
Sin of Omission
- The sin of ______ is the performance of a forbidden act or a disobedience to a direct command.
Sin of Commission
The scriptural verses that describe this sin are the following:
“You shall have no other gods before Me”
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”
“You shall not kill”
“You shall not commit adultery”
“You shall not steal.”
Sin of commission
is a failure to do something one who is able to do and ought to do.
Sin of Omission
It is a failure to make an obligatory act accomplished.
Sin if omission
St. James, in his letter (4:17), said, “So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin.”
Sin of omission
Karl Peschke (p.308), on the other hand, identifies this sin as an offense against positive precept, such as “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”; “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Sin of omission
KINDS OF SIN ACCORDING TO STRUCTURE
Personal
Social
Structural
● It is never just “private,” with no effect on anyone else.
● Rather, just as all “persons” are relational, always affecting others and the community in everything they do, and likewise being affected by what others do, so personal sin is neither committed nor overcome in “private.”
● The grace of personal conversion and repentance always involves a community dimension.
Personal Sin
○ sin’s power to affect others by reason of human solidarity;
○ sins that directly attack human rights and basic freedoms, human dignity, justice, and the common good;
Social sin
• It is not a question of a particular person’s or a community’s moral knowledge, attitudes and responsibility.
• Rather, it refers to existing structures that condition society in a harmful and unjust way,
Structural Sin
• To negative moral attitudes and acts or failure to act that are common to a community or particular society.
• Its remedy is to change what is negative or lacking in the community’s moral acts or attitudes into what is positive and graced.
SIN
stresses complicity in evil by showing how members of the same group are mutually involved
• “Social sin,”
○ sins infecting relationships between various human communities such as class struggle, or obstinate confrontations between block of nations
Situations of sin, or sinful structures that are the consequences of sinful choices and acts, e.g., racial discrimination, and economic systems of exploitation
Social sin
longstanding racial or sexist prejudicial structures
unjust economic taxation systems
established military and political customs
unfair immigration legalities
• These need to be reformed by a long tedious process of concerted social moral effort.
Structural sin
Original sin, on the other hand, can refer to two things:
the first “_______” which brought evil and brokenness into the world;
or “_______,” or the actual sinful state into which we are born, the essence of which is the privation of sanctifying grace, and some of whose consequences are evident in the outside sinful situation (sin of the world), and inner effect of disordered desires (concupiscence) we all experience within us
originating sin
originated sin
KINDS OF SIN ACCORDING TO GRAVITY
Mortal
Venial
● Traditionally, sin is defined as “mortal” when
○ the nature of the act,
○ the intention of the sinner and
○ the circumstances involve:
grave matter, sufficient knowledge, and full consent of the will.
● Or sins which lead to death, the loss of true or “eternal life”
Mortal sins
● Exclude from the “Kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-10; Gal 5:19-21; Eph 5:5). They are mortal because they kill the over all LOVE pattern of our relation to God.
● By such sins, a person “freely rejects God, his Law, the covenant of love God offers, preferring to turn in on himself or to some created and finite reality, something contrary to the divine will.”
● Such sins must be confessed in the sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation
Mortal sin
meaning pardon or forgiveness
venia
○ these are “excusable” sins which do not involve the persons’ fundamental freedom nor lead to spiritual death.
○ “All wrong doing is sin, but not all sin is deadly” (1 Jn 5:17). _____ of charity, and can gradually lead to mortal sins.
Venial sin
○ Though_____ sins are by definition pardonable, they should not be taken lightly, for they offend God.
Some are clearly more serious than others because of the damage done to the persons involved or others.
Moreover, carelessness with regard to them, especially when a habit develops, can lead to mortal sin.
venial
Our Lord warned us against “_____,” saying to the church of Laodicea, “Because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth”
lukewarmness
●______ are the opposite of virtues. They are perverse habits which darken the conscience and incline one to evil.
● The _____ can be linked to the seven, so-called, capital sins
Vices
7 vices
PLAGECS
Pride
Lust
Anger
Gluttony
Envy
Covetousness
Sloth
Bisaya
Pride
Lust
Anger
Gluttony
Envy
Avarice/ Covetousness
Sloth
Pride - Garbo
Lust - Biga
Anger - Pagdumot
Gluttony - Kahakog
Envy - Kasina
Avarice/ Covetousness - Kaibog
Sloth - Katapol
- a desire for excessive independence which does not belong to us as creatures of God. It manifests itself in the inordinate love for our own proper excellence
Pride (Garbo)
“By the grace of God you have been saved through faith. This has not come from you: it is God’s gift. This was not the result of your works, so you are not to feel proud
“He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up those who are downtrodden
Pride
Remedies of pride
○ Knowledge of oneself
○ The exercise of humility, and
○ Meditation on the truth of the Scriptures.
It is a disordered desire for, or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. It is opposed to the virtue of chastity.
Lust
● “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.” (Mt 5:28)
● “The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world, because nothing the world has to offer the sensual body, the lustful eye, pride in possessions-could ever come from the Father but only from the world.” (1 John 2:16)
Lust
remedies against lust.
Purification of the heart and practicing temperance are the
It is a passion for revenge that goes beyond the control of reason
Anger
3 degrees of anger
○ Anger may consist in a mere impulse of impatience.
○ Anger may consist in uncontrolled gestures and words
○ Anger can degenerate into hatred, vengeance, going so far to desire the death of the adversary, etc.
Justifiable anger:
○ Jesus angered in the Temple
○ Battle for social justice
Remedy for anger
Forgiveness
An immoderate or unreasonable pleasure in food and drink.
Sins connected:
○ Drunkenness
○ Alcoholism
○ use of narcotics
Gluttony
● When one eats or drinks more than what is necessary.
● When he partakes of food too voraciously.
● When he eats or drinks too often.
● When he insists upon food that is too dainty.
● When he partakes of food or drinks that is unduly expensive.
Gluttony
Remedy for gluttony
○ Alms giving
○ Fasting
○ Detachment or mortification or asceticism
○ Works of mercy
● Envy is sadness caused in one because of the good of another, which good is looked upon as an obstacle to one’s own excellence.
● If a friend of mine succeeds something in me dies.
● If something bad happens especially to a friend of mine I rejoice on that.
Envy
Remedies for envy
Remedy:
○ Cultivate the virtues of humility and charity
○ Suffer with those who suffer
○ Rejoice with those who are honored by God.
○ Admiration
is immoderate love of riches.
Love of riches is immoderate when it is not ordained towards one’s own necessities, those of his family or of his neighbor.
Avarice
● “Be on your guard and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life.” (Lk 12:15)
● Once the demands of necessity and propriety are met in your life, everything else you have belongs to the poor. (Pope Leo, Rerum Novarum)
Avarice
Remedies for greed
○ Contemplation of the vanity of earthly goods
○ The inestimable value of spiritual things and
○ The meditation on the life of Christ
● It is a turning away from religious and spiritual duty because of the effort that they require.
● It opposes the love of God and the virtue of piety.
● It is indifferent to the friendship of God The _____ man dislikes things spiritual.
Sloth
Remedies for sloth
○ Meditation on the last things,
○ Mortification and
○ Prayer
REMEDIAL VIRTUES
● HUMILITY
● CHASTITY
● FORGIVENESS
● ASCETICISM
● ADMIRATION
● GENEROSITY
● ZEAL FOR MISSION
SPIRITUAL RICHES OF THE CHURCH
- Sacrament of Reconciliation
- Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
