From the Pastor's Desk for Nov. 10, 2024

The Lord be with you! As Catholics we often speak about sin and the need for God's mercy. In fact, it is quite possible for us to think too much about sin and for guilt to become a hindrance to lasting change. If we understand sin - both personal and original - we will find changing our behavior much easier.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines sin in the following way: "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. It has been defined as 'an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.' (CCC 1849). The first way that the Church defines sin is to note that it is unreasonable. At the time sin seems to be a good idea, but in retrospect we all notice that our judgement erred. The famous Greek philosopher Socrates went so far as to define human virtue as action in accord with reason, and the Church would agree!

Why do we sin if we know it is wrong? We are usually too attached to some good. In other words, we value something out of proportion and that desire creates a misunderstanding. Sometimes that attachment is to an exterior good - like my Mom's chocolate chip cookies. It should come as no surprise that my siblings and I often ate too many of those and at the wrong time. Often, the good that we desire too much, however, is not something tangible - fame and affection, for example. We all want to be loved and appreciated, but that interior need does not justify doing harm to others or ourselves. Lastly, we sin because our very selves can become compromised. When we talk about vice, we are referring to a disposition - usually emotional and mental - to do evil. These dispositions are sometimes not our faults. When a person has been traumatized, his emotions can become so disordered and so strong that he struggles to resist them.
Here we must pause and emphasize that sin always involves a choice. The less an action is a choice, the less it is a sin. Nevertheless, almost every action we do has some choice in it - we will get into semi-voluntary venial sins in another article.

The more we sin, the easier it becomes to sin in that way because we disorder ourselves. Our intellects, our wills, and our memories can all become a little warped. When the Catechism mentions, "human solidarity," it is subtly implying that we need help from others to correct some of our sins. Accepting that we need help is often the first and most important step to removing sin in our lives. May we always remember that God desires to wipe our sins away with His Love.

In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. John