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Does
not all sin come from woundedness? It seems that each time I self-examine
for sin, what I find is tied to my own woundedness. So, is it really to be
guilty over or simply to be healed?
ell, to be clever I could say,
Noand Yes. Because there is sin and there is sin, and there is
woundedness and there is woundedness. Anyway, we should forget about
being cleverthe point is to recognize that the whole issue can be very
confusing.
A good place to begin
is with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, especially with
§§386412.
Notice that everything begins
with the concept of Original Sin. To keep it simple, Original Sin
refers to the fact that we live essentially blind to the presence of God.
How and why this is so is anybodys guessthe Bible tells the story
of Adam and Eve and the Fall to explain it. But you can just feel it with
your heart: we are separated from the direct vision and knowledge of God.
Any knowledge we have of God comes from revelation, when God reveals himself
to usas in Scripture, through the prophets, and, ultimately, through
Christ.
OK. Original Sin is the state
of human nature into which we all are born, a kind of spiritual blindness.
But notice that none of us is personally responsible for this state. As
§405 says, it is a deprivation of original holiness and justice,
but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural
powers proper to it; subject to ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of
death; . . . Ill break off from the text here to point
out that at this point we could say that our woundedness is the result of
sin and that it is nothing to be guilty
over.
But the text continues,
. . . and inclined to sinan inclination to evil
that is called concupiscence. Baptism, by imparting the life of
Christs grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God,
but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in
man and summon him to spiritual battle. This
means that because of the concupiscence we tend to do things with our lives
that are personally corrupt. This is how we constantly injure others by our
self-centered behaviors and how we, in our hearts, defile, mock, and execute
divine love in every moment of our livesand
this IS a cause for true sorrow.
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Often an adult
will scold a child, saying, Youre bad! But thats
a big psychological mistake. A child may do something bad, but that does
not make the child bad. So to hear someone say, Youre
bad! only makes the child feel deep humiliation and shame.
And the same principle applies to sin. The fact that you commit sinthat
is, do bad thingsdoes not make you a bad person. Catholic theology
teaches that human nature is essentially good, and that the proclivity to
sin can be overcome by divine grace when we repent our bad behaviorthat
is, see it as a true offense against Gods love, feel sorrow for it,
and turn to God for mercy. |
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This personal sin, therefore,
is the result of woundedness. So do you get it? Thats what I meant
earlier about the Noand Yes: original sin causes our
woundedness, and this woundedness leads to personal sin. So woundedness is
caught in the middle.
And theres the connection
to psychology.
Psychology can look at the ways
in which we cope with our woundednessour essential
brokenness, fragmentation, and vulnerability
that lead us to dwell in self-pity and to neglect the good of others. Either
we accept the woundedness by recognizing our
blindness, embracing our
weakness, and listening to
its paini.e., healing our wounds through real
love which binds us together in Christor we
hide from it,
seducing the despair with impiety, creating more and
more woundedness, and more and more
guilt.
Sadly, in spite of all that
psychology has to offer within the Church, many persons today prefer to believe
that because God created me the way I am they dont have
to scrutinize and change their personal behavior. Instead, they concern
themselves with what they know. Some take up the
Protestant idea that salvation comes from
knowing that Christ is your personal savior. Some take
up non-Christian religious practices in which
spirituality depends, for example, on knowing
how to meditate properly.
But none of this
knowing, in itself, is sufficient to motivate you to accept the
suffering, sacrifice, and prayer which the Bible,
the Church fathers, and the Catholic mystics have consistently said are
absolutely necessary to purge you of the imperfections of sin.
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When I beheld that vision in which I saw the magnitude of the
stain of even one least sin against God, I know not why I did not die. I
said, I no longer marvel that Hell is so horrible . . . . since I have
beheld the terrible stain caused by but one venial sin. And what, in comparison
to that, would be a mortal sin? And then so many mortal
sins? |
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Saint Catherine of Genoa
The Life and Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa, First Part, Chapter
XXII |
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So its very simple: You
cant commit sin and love God at the same timeyou have to choose
one or the other because, in essence, sin is anything and everything that
offends love.
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Whoever says,
I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and
the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, the love of God is truly
perfected in him. |
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1 John 2:4-5 |
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And its very sad that some
persons, despite all they know,even knowing that God
is lovewill spend their entire lives avoiding that fundamental
choice: sin or God.
What the
Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
1855 Mortal
sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of Gods
law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude,
by preferring an inferior good to him.
1861 Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom,
as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of
sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed
by repentance and Gods forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christs
kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make
choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that
an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons
to the justice and mercy of God.
   
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