Deadly Sins

Who made me? God made me. Why did He make me? To know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.

Some of you who went through adult conformation and all of us who went through CCE classes may remember these questions. They are, in my humble opinion, two of the most profound and important questions that a person can ask himself. Every Catholic should have to know the answers to these two questions, because they teach us the most fundamental truths of our faith.

The reason these two questions are so important, and the reason why they are the first things that a child learned about the faith, is that they teach us everything we need to know about life: they tell us where we came from, where we will go, and what to do along the way.

God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven. So where did we come from? We came from God. He made us, which means that He knows best how we work.

If we pick up a mechanism that we've never seen before and we want to know how it works, where do we go to find the answer? We go back to the creator, to the one who made it. He, of all people, should know best how it works; what it's supposed to do; what it's not supposed to do; what's good for it; and what's bad for it.

Well, God made us. He is our Creator, so He knows best how we work. He knows best what we're supposed to do, and what we're not supposed to do. He knows best what's good for us and what's bad for us.

So often we see God's commandments as restrictions upon our freedom, restrictions upon our fun. But a mechanic is not restricting our freedom when he tells us not to put water in the gas tank. Tech support is not restricting our freedom when they tell us not to spill coke on the keyboard. The repair man is not restricting our freedom when he tells us not to put metal in the microwave. A gas tank full of water is not fun. A keyboard soaking in coke is not fun. An exploding microwave is not fun. We do not lose freedom from following those rules; we gain true freedom from observing them because they conform to the design of those objects.

So when the Creator teaches us that pride and greediness, envy and anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth are deadly sins, sins that kill our soul, He does not do so to restrict our freedom or take away our fun. He does so because He made us and He knows best what will bring us the eternal fulfillment after which we seek.

Sin is a failure to love ourselves, others, and God.  It is a breakdown in the covenant of love.  We have learned that there are two basic categories of sin: original sin (which is inherited from birth thanks to Adam) and personal sin (which is any free and deliberate action, word, thought or desire which turns us away from God’s love. We have also learned that there are two kinds of personal sin: venial sin (which weakens our relationship with God and could be forgiven without the need for the sacrament of Confession) and mortal sin (which immediately kills our relationship with God and can only be forgiven with the sacrament of Confession).

But pride, greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony and sloth or called Deadly Sins. Why? What makes them so deadly? Here is a quick history lesson.  A Greek monastic theologian Evagrius of Pontus first drew up a list of eight offenses and wicked human passions:. They were, in order of increasing seriousness: gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory, and pride.

In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great reduced the list to seven items, folding vainglory into pride, acedia into sadness, and adding envy. His ranking of the Sins' seriousness was based on the degree from which they offended against love. It was, from most serious to least: pride, envy, anger, sadness, avarice, gluttony, and lust and he called them Capital Sins which is what the church teaches today.  The term "covetousness" has historically been used interchangeably with "avarice" and “greed” in accounts of the Deadly Sins. In the seventeenth century, the Church replaced the vague sin of "sadness" with sloth.

Pride is an inordinate love of one’s own excellence, either of body or mind or the unlawful pleasure we derive from thinking we have no superiors. This is a sin in that it causes you to fail to give adequate credit to God and God's powers - God made you and God created the world.  We are fooled by the world with other names of pride you must have strong Self-Esteem, Independence or Maturity.  Pride will manifest in many forms: atheism- you deny God’s existence, intellectual vanity- no one can tell you anything because you know it all, superficiality- judges others by their clothes, accents, or bank accounts, snobbery- they are not in my social class.

Envy is sadness at another’s good and joy at another’s evil. It is an unacceptable desire to possess what others possess - this can include material objects (like cars) but it can also include character traits, like a positive outlook on life or patience. It is rejoicing when something bad happens to someone: like saying they got what they deserve, they should have know better.

Anger is tricky because not all anger is sinful.  Even Jesus flipped over a few tables.  We are never angry unless someone has injured us in some way – or we think he has.  Anger becomes sinful when it turns into wrath.  Wrath loves the high of anger. We see it in spouses who love to get mad at each other, who look for reasons to fight, who get a sad little thrill from blowing their top when the husband is late for dinner or the wife loses the checkbook. Wrath is a choice, not a mere reaction of anger. It is there before somebody steps on the wrathful person's toes, and the Wrath which comes forth has the quality of indulgence, not reaction. Wrath, in a curious way, is almost glad at the hurt toe since it gives the wrathful person a chance to "vent".

Sloth is often regarded simply as laziness, but it is much more.  It can be physical or spiritual.  If it is physical then it manifests itself in laziness, procrastination, idleness, softness, and indifference.  When it is spiritual it is more accurately translated as apathy. When a person is apathetic, they no longer really care about doing their duty to others or to God, causing them to ignore their spiritual well-being they develop a lukewarmness and fail to cultivate new virtue.

Greed, Avarice, covetousness is an inordinate love of the things of this world. It places the desire to gain more on the Throne of God. Its practitioners call it Productivity and Industriousness.  Material things are lawful and necessary because they enable us to live according to our station in life, to mitigate suffering, to advance the Kingdom of God and to save our souls. It is the pursuit of wealth as an end instead of as means to the end that makes greed a sin.

Gluttony is an inordinate indulgence in food or drink and there is real wisdom in that association, particularly when we contemplate the sad soul who eats and boozes "for comfort" and seeks love from that last bit of sirloin. But, as C.S. Lewis' Uncle Screwtape points out, a picky glutton who goes through life complaining "All I want is the teensy-weeniest piece of really crisp toast!" is just as much a slave to gluttony as the excessive consumer, since he also has placed everything at the mercy of his demand for a sensory experience. This is also true of the TV Hog who will never sacrifice Monday Night Football for a night with the family or the soap opera addict who won't stop channel surfing to talk with a child about her day at school.

Lust is an inordinate love of the pleasures of the flesh. It is a choice! Its essence is not sexuality, but the choice to treat human beings like things. It is selfishness and perverted love. It looks not so much to the good of the other, as to the pleasure of self. It is not the animal response to our psychosexual hardwiring, but the will to treat other people as "stimuli" at the service of our demand to be thrilled.

Those are our Seven Capital or Deadly Sins.  But how do we combat these sins?  With The Seven Heavenly Virtues:  Faith, hope, justice, fortitude, charity, temperance, and prudence.  What are virtues?  Virtues are God-given powers which enable us to live the Christian life and to become more like God.

Faith is our personal commitment and trust in the Lord; and belief in word.  See with the sin pride we fail to give adequate credit to God and God's powers because we focus on our own abilities what we did by ourselves.  But having faith and living a faithful life you realize that all that we are comes from God the creator of all.

Hope is the trust in God’s salvation and that he will bless us with the means necessary to attain it.  With the Sin Envy we wanted what God blessed others with.  Remember the thieves that were crucified with Christ.  One thief told Jesus “if you are who you say are then save yourself and us as well.”  What he was really saying is “if I had the power you claim you have then that’s what I would do” because he was envious of Jesus’ power.  The other thief turned to Jesus and said in rebuking the first “have you no fear of God.  We are justly being punished but this man has done nothing wrong.  Lord have mercy on me when you come into your Kingdom.”  Hope in that Jesus would still save a sinner.

Charity is the self-sacrificing love of God and others; compassion to server those in need.  With the sin greed we are all about amassing more for ourselves. It was about the pursuit of wealth as an end while charity is sacrificing what one has because of love of God to give to others without.

Prudence is choosing to make the correct spiritual judgment.  It is abstinence and self-control.  Where the sin lust is all about indulging in the pleasures of the flesh prudence is all about placing restrictions on your indulgences. Put away the pornography, talk to your spouses and realize that people are not objects for your own selfish pleasures.

Temperance is moderation and self-restraint.  The glutton indulgences in food or drink seeking comfort in those areas. Temperance tells us it is ok to eat and drink but do it in moderation.  Do not seek comfort in these things seek comfort in God who will not leave us or forsake us.

Justice is rendering others their due and respecting others’ rights and fulfilling obligations.  As we learned anger becomes sin when it becomes wrath.  We only get angry when someone injures us.  So what justice tells us is let the punishment fit the crime.  There is no need to pull out a gun and shoot someone because the accidentally step on your toe.

The last virtue, Fortitude is the courage and ability to overcome fear in order to work to build up God’s kingdom. With the sin sloth a person no longer really care about doing their duty to others or to God, causing them to ignore their spiritual well-being.  Fortitude says that with God’s help I will with calmness and confidence persevere for the Kingdom of God.

So what is that eternal fulfillment? Where are we going? Well, God made us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven. So our ultimate destination is Heaven. Our ultimate happiness exists in Heaven, not here on earth.

We may get a foretaste of supernatural joy in this life, but that foretaste is merely meant to whet our appetites, to draw us closer to God. It is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The way that Satan tricks us is to convince us that the joys of this life are our ultimate goal. So he tricks us into worshipping idols: worshipping money; worshipping physical beauty; worshipping athletic prowess; worshipping carnal pleasures. Instead of using these gifts as a means to our ultimate end, instead of using them according to God's design, instead of using them for His greater glory and not our own, we are tempted by Satan into seeing them as an end in themselves. He tempts us into using them according to our own disordered passions for our own praise and glory. But we are not made for the pleasures of the flesh, as St. Paul would put it, but rather for the eternal pleasures of the spirit. God made us to be happy with Him forever in Heaven. Once we know that, then we can ask ourselves before every conscious choice, before every human act, "Will this bring me closer to Heaven?"

"Will eating this dessert bring me closer to Heaven? Or will it be an act of gluttony?"

"Will buying this dress bring me closer to Heaven? Or is it too revealing, too immodest?"

"Will watching this movie bring me closer to Heaven? Or will it fill my mind with impure thoughts?"

"Will marrying this man bring me closer to Heaven? Or will he test my faith?"

"Will dating this girl bring me closer to Heaven? Or will she lead me into temptation?"

These are the questions we ask ourselves once we realize that God made us to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.

So, then, how do we get to Heaven? That is, how do we come to know God? What does it truly mean to love God? And how does He ask us to serve Him?

Keep coming to our meeting and keeping going to church and H.A.L.T. your sins!