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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,
“No—and Yes. Because there is sin and there is sin, and there is
woundedness
and there is woundedness.” Anyway, we should forget about being
clever—the 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
§§386–412.
Original
Sin
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—the 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 us—as in Scripture, through the prophets,
and, ultimately, through Christ.
Original Sin, therefore, is the
state of human nature into which we all are born, a kind of
spiritual blindness. This state of separation
from God affects all of us, no matter how
“nice” we might think we are.
But notice also that none of
us is personally responsible for this state.
As §405 of the Catechism 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;
. . .” I’ll 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.”
Concupiscence:
The Inclination to Evil
But the text continues,
“. . . and inclined to sin—an inclination to evil
that is called concupiscence. Baptism,
by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns
a person 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 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
lives—and this IS a cause for true
sorrow.
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Often an adult
will scold a child, saying, “You’re bad!” But that’s
a big psychological mistake. A child may do something bad, but that does
not make the child bad. So to hear someone say, “You’re
bad!” only makes the child feel deep humiliation and shame.
And the same principle applies to sin. The fact that you commit sin—that
is, do bad things—does 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 behavior—that
is, when we see it as a true offense against God’s 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? That’s what I
meant earlier about the “No—and Yes”: original sin causes
our woundedness, and this woundedness leads to personal sin. So woundedness
is caught in the middle.
And there’s the connection
to psychology.
Catholic
Psychology
Catholic
psychology can look at the ways in which we cope with our
woundedness—our 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 pain—i.e., healing our wounds through real
love which binds us together in Christ—or we
hide from it,
seducing the despair with impiety, creating more and
more woundedness, and more and more
guilt.
The Deception
of “Knowing”
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 don’t 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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It’s Your
choice
So it’s very simple: You
can’t commit sin and love God at the same time—you have to choose
one or the other because, in essence, sin is anything and everything that
offends love.
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“I just
want to have fun,” they say. “I’m not a bad person.”
Oh, how we deceive ourselves! As if it were possible to commit sin “just
for fun” and say it really doesn’t matter. Can you lie “just
for fun” and not be a liar? Can you steal “just for fun”and
not be a thief? Can you commit adultery “just for fun” and not
be an adulterer? |
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Therefore, it’s very sad
that some persons, despite all they “know”—even knowing that
God is love—will spend their entire lives avoiding that fundamental
choice: sin or God.
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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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What the
Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
1855 Mortal
sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s
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 God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s
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.
No
advertising—no sponsor—just the simple truth . . .
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Read
an excerpt from a letter about repentance