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Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

Title:Discussions from a Christian Perspective
Notice:Prostitutes and tax collectors welcome!
Moderator:CSC32::J_CHRISTIE
Created:Mon Sep 17 1990
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1362
Total number of notes:61362

611.0. "Sin and Forgiveness, by Fr. Roy Pettway" by COVERT::COVERT (John R. Covert) Sat Feb 27 1993 01:43

Over the next several days I will be entering the eight chapters of
Fr. Roy Pettway's book "The Christian Life" which discuss Sin and
Forgiveness.

The titles of these chapters are:

	Our Spiritual Enemies
	Temptation
	Sin
	Kinds of Sin
	The Roots of Sin
	Repentance
	Contrition
	Forgiveness

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611.1Our Spiritual EnemiesCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertSat Feb 27 1993 01:44112
In our struggle against sin, we are opposed by three enemies, three sources from
which all temptation can be traced.  At Holy Baptism, we are signed as Christ's
faithful soldiers unto our life's end, that we may steadfastly fight against
these enemies.  Our three enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Our enemy the "world" is not God's created universe, which is good; but the term
refers to the men of the world, those who are opposed to God.  It refers to the
efforts of a fallen, sinful race to defend and preserve its fallen, sinful way
of life against the moral demands of Christ.  The world opposes Christ, because
it knows that to accept Christ will require a revolution in its way of life: a
giving up of its old standards, and a following of the Will of God.

Much of this opposition is in the form of indifference.  Worldly people regard
the pleasures of this world as the only real pleasures: they think anything
spiritual is merely imaginary.  They are indifferent to anything that doesn't
contribute to their immediate interests and pleasures.  If it doesn't bring them
money, or popularity, or fun, they ignore it, or ridicule it.  Worldly people
just don't take God seriously.  Their ideas on religion are gathered from the
daily newspapers, or from their friends who are as worldly as themselves.

They may be members of the Church, but they refuse to hear anything that doesn't
conform to their worldly opinions.  They regard the Church as a kind of
business, and demand that it imitate the procedures of business.  They shrug off
as mere "parson talk" any demand for repentance or real conversion to Christ. 
They brand as "fanatical" any demand that they make Confession, pledge a Tithe,
or attend daily Mass.

The men of this world may regard the Church as a sort of fire insurance agency,
and pay their premiums in the form of their contributions, for their own benefit
and protection.  They may come to Church because they like the priest, or
because they like the social contacts they have at Church, or because they want
a priest to baptise their babies, marry their daughters, and put away their dead
decently.  But in all this, they are serving themselves, rather than God.

Worldliness is dangerous.  Its pomps are alluring.  The example of the
successful worldly man is very infectious.  Its slogans sound so sensible, such
as "All roads lead to the same place," "God helps them that help themselves,"
"We must be practical, not idealistic," and "It's what a man does that really
counts."  Worldliness is a popular and fashionable sin; and one that must be
resisted continually.

Our second enemy, the flesh, is not our physical bodies, which are good and to
be rejoiced in thankfully.  It is the weakness and inconstancy of our wills, the
very disunity of our souls, that we refer to.  The world and the devil tempt us
in vain, unless we give in.

The flesh attacks us through three forms of concupiscence.  Concupiscence is an
inordinate desire and longing and eagerness for personal satisfaction.  The
first is the concupiscence of the flesh, an inordinate desire for the pleasures
of the flesh.  Bodily pleasure held within proper limits is good.  The pleasure
connected with food, drink, rest, sex, and play are great blessings which God
has given us.  But they are not to be sought as ends in themselves.  The
concupiscence of the flesh tempts us to seek these pleasures without limit, and
for their own sakes.  This imprisons the soul, separates us from God, and makes
us captives to the sins of the flesh.  This concupiscence is also shown in petty
selfishness, love of ease and comfort, daintiness or extravagance in food and
drink, and other forms of bodily self-indulgence.

The concupiscence of the eyes leads the soul to take delight in worldly
pleasures, and to desire them inordinately; and this is more subtle than the
concupiscence of the flesh.  The concupiscence of the eyes may take the form of
curiosity.  It is, of course, good to know things, for knowledge can help us
understand God's will better, and do it more perfectly.  But curiosity is an
inordinate desire to know things, simply in order to know things: to know for no
purpose other than merely to be a living compendium of facts.  This leads to the
sin of intellecutal pride.  We pride ourselves on our knowledge, and think that
our own mind is capable of deciding and judging all things.  We believe
ourselves to be practically infallible.  We reject the wisdom of the past, for
we think that we are sufficient unto ourselves and do not need the wisdom and
experience of the past.  The man who is intelluctually proud refuses to believe
anything other than that which his own little mind can comprehend.  He rejects
the Church's teachings, because he did not invent them himself.

Curiosity can lead us into tittle-tattle and gossip, into attempts to predict
the future, and into a frantic scrutiny of the newspapers for the latest news
about things that do not particularly concern us.  Our preoccupation with
superficial, meaningless, unrelated facts keeps us so busy that we have no time
for reflection, and the great things of the spirit pass over our heads, as it
were.

The concupiscence of the eyes leads also to covetousness, an inordinate desire
for worldly goods.  We come to regard money, advancement, and possessions as
ends in themselves.  We give up many of the better things of life, and get into
a frantic contest for more and more of these things.  This covetousness is
responsible for much of the misery of our modern civilization.

The third form of concupiscence is the pride of life.  This leads us to put up a
false front, and to try to build up our self importance.  We come to think that
good comes from ourselves.  We become satisfied with ourselves, and desire
things that appeal to ourselves, regardless of God's will.  This puts us into
enmity with God, antagonism to Him.

In our other enemy, the devil, we find the principle of deliberate evil: evil
for its own sake.  The devil is real, and he has the brilliant powers of an
archangel.  He aims to separate the soul from God, through the senses, through
the imagination, and through an inordinate fear of the unknown.  But his
temptation is in vain, and founded on emptiness.  It produces pride,
presumption, and despair.  It throws the soul off balance, and troubles and
distresses the soul.  But the devil is only a creature, and he cannot force our
wills.  Each sinner is responsible for his own sin.  If he falls into the
devil's clutches, it is his own fault.

So these are the three enemies we must constantly battle agains: the world, the
flesh, and the devil.  We must continue this fight until we win, for our enemies
never give up the battle.  We can not have peace until we have vanquished these
enemies.  Peace without victory is slavery, the peace of the defeated.

Our defence is a humble spirit that puts its trust in God.  In our fight, we
must persevere, making our confessions, coming to Communion, saying our prayers,
working for God, constantly mindful of God's Presence.  And by God's grace, we
shall overcome our three enemies, and then be able to say, as Elisha did: "Fear
not, for they that be with us are more than they that be (against us)."
611.2TemptationCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertSat Feb 27 1993 21:58124
God is never the cause of anybody's sin.  Sin is caused by our own willful
consent to sin, as a result of temptation.  God is never the cause of
temptation, for temptation is a danger that can lead us into sin.  Since sin
is a violation of the will of God, God can not be the Cause either of sin or
temptation, since that would amount to His willingness that His will not be
done.

God does, however, permit us to sin, and permit us to be tempted; and the reason
for this is that He has given freedom to His rational creatures.  Thus He leaves
Satan free to tempt us, and He leaves us free to meet temptation and to sin; for
if we were not free to be tempted, we would not be free to choose voluntarily to
reject the temptation and obey God.  But God does two things for us in our fight
against temptation: He gives us grace which enables us to reject any temptation
we meet; and He helps us to use temptation as a means of spiritual growth.

Temptation continues throughout our lives.  As we become victorious over one
temptation, we are confronted by other temptations which are more subtle and
more difficult to attack.  The more saintly we become, the stronger are our
temptations for Satan uses his strongest weapons against those whose defences
are strongest; while he doesn't bother much with those who fall easily for
simple temptations.  We should never have a feeling of guilt because we are
tempted, for we know that our Saviour Himself was continually confronted with
the most powerful temptations.

Temptation appeals first to our intellect.  We become aware of the temptation:
somehow or other, the idea of doing something sinful comes into our minds.

Next, our desires fix upon the temptation, so that we take delight in the
suggested evil action; and in spite of ourselves, we have a strong desire to do
the sinful thing.  The sinful thing appears to be good and desirable, so that we
want to do it.  This causes guilt feelings in many people.  They feel guilty,
and are shocked themselves, that they would desire to do the sinful thing.  They
think that the desire to do evil indicates a sinful condition of their souls. 
Such a person may confess: "I have done such-and-such, and I am very sorry and
will try not to do it again.  But I do want to do it, and I wish I could do it,
even though I know that it is wrong.  I want to do it so badly that I can hardly
stand not doing it, and I ought not to feel this wapy."  But this desire to do
evil is an involuntary thing; and therefore it is not a sin, and one should not
feel guilty for it.

Sin is committed, and guilt is incurred, only when one reaches the third state
of temptation, in which the temptation is presented to the will, and the will
consents to the sin.  A sin is always a matter of the will.  It is voluntary. 
After temptation is met in the intellect and the desires, the will must act upon
it.  And the will may act in four ways, three of which are sinful.  The choice
we should make is to reject the temptation, and then, no matter how much we have
desired to do the thing, we have not committed a sin.

We may consent to the temptation, and thus commit sin.  Or we may sin by giving
partial consent to the temptation, and do just a part of what we have been
tempted to do; or hold the idea and play with it rather than reject it promptly;
or reject it only half-heartedly.  We give partial consent, when we needlessly
and willfully put ourselves in danger of falling into the sin, because of
idleness, evil imaginings, day-dreaming, frivolous amusements, or a reluctance
to be thought different or unusual, or for any other reason.  It is our
Christian duty to avoid, insofar as we can, all circumstances which may
increase the probability of our sinning.

Our fourth choice is to consent, not to the sin to which we are tempted, but to
some other sin in place of it.  We do this when we reject the act of sin, but
consent to a sin of thought or word, rather than of deed.  We may consent to the
sin of presumption, thinking ourselves stronger than we actually are, or
challenging God's grace; or of indifference to God's Will, by going needlessly
and willfully into the occasions of sin: getting into conditions in which we
have previously fallen into sin, running with evil companions or company that
may lead us into sin.

Avoiding the occasions of sin is one of the most important measures we can take
to reject temptation.  This is a result of watchfulness: we foresee that we will
meet temptation under certain circumstances, and so we avoid circumstances and
reject the temptation before it is presented to us.  Watchfulness is strongly
commended by Our Saviour.  "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." 
Temptation often comes upon us by surprise, too, often sudden and unexpected. 
The habit of watchfulness is a constant guard against consenting to temptation.

Humility is a weapon against temptation.  We should realize that though our
spirit be willing to resist temptation, the flesh is weak; and so we should put
our whole trust in God, recognizing our own weakness, and His almightiness.  We
should bear clearly in mind that we cannot resist temptation by our own
strength; but that with God's help, there is no temptation that we can not
reject.  God "will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able."

Now, there are no "besetting sins," but there are besetting temptations; and
these are our weak points.  We should take especial care to cultivate the
virtues in which we are especially weak, and be careful to avoid the occasions
of temptation which attack these weak points.

Victory over temptation is possible, however, only by God's grace.  Therefore we
should go about receiving all the grace we can, being faithful and diligent in
prayer, and in the reception of all the sacramental and non-sacramental means of
grace.  Spending more time in prayer, or making Holy Communion every day, will
give us grace to overcome many of our temptations.

Above all, we must give more attention to Christ.  Looking at our Lord, the
mind is diverted from the thought of sin, and we receive help to reject the
temptation.  St. Francis de Sales tells us: "Do not look temptation in the face;
but look only at Our Lord; for if you look at the temptation, especially when it
is strong, it might shake your courage."

After we have come to a decision about a temptation, we should not dwell on it
too much; but we should make an act of thanksgiving, remembering that it was
by God's strength alone that we have overcome the temptation; or if we have
unfortunately consented to sin, we should immediately make an act of contrition,
get up and continue our life with deepened humility, and put more confidence in
God.

Remember that sin is committed by the consent of the will, whether or not the
sin is actually committed.  Our Blessed Lord taught that the man who consents to
the sin of lust is a sinner, even as the man who consents to the sin of adultery
is a sinner.  The same is true of other sins.  To consent to steal something, if
you have the opportunity, and can avoid getting caught, is a sin, even if you
never steal it.  To give voluntary consent to commit any sin is sinful, even if
you never commit the sin, because of lack of opportunity or fear of getting
caught.

But while temptation is a danger, it can be used, by God's help, for our
spiritual growth.  It is a test of character: we do not know where our character
needs to be strengthened, until we have met the test of temptation.  The
resisting of temptation is an excellent way of strengthening our soul in
virtues.  Temptation often purifies the soul, by stimulating renewed acts of
contrition for past sins.  It can arouse the soul to watchfulness and energy,
for it makes us see that we can not drift into holiness.  It teaches us
humility, for it makes us realize our own weakness, and thus we learn to
throw ourselves completely upon the power of God.
611.3SinCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertSun Feb 28 1993 10:54108
A human being is a unique creature, in that he is both physical and spiritual. 
The animals have a physical nature, and the angels have a spiritual nature, but
a human being has a nature which is both physical and spiritual.  He is, in
other words, a living sacrament.  Good human living, then, is sacramental living
-- living both physically and spiritually at the same time.

Much of our troubles come from the fact that the two sides of our nature pull us
in opposite directions.  We misuse our abilities to think, to make decisions,
and to love.  The fallen angels committed sins of the spirit; we are subject to
such sins also, but, in addition, we are tempted by sins of the flesh.  Sins of
the spirit are usually more grave than sins of the flesh, but the sins of the
flesh are a danger which we have to face, which the angels do not have to face.

Sin is any action or inaction which hampers our growth toward perfection in God.
Sin is like cancerous growth in the soul.  Every sin is a practice of atheism,
for it would eliminate God from our lives.  Sin erects a barrier between God and
man, works against the best interests of the sinner, and bars him from true
happiness and his attainment of the greatest Good.  It brings great suffering,
both to the sinner and to other people, and disorder and destruction into the
human community and into the holy community of God's people.  It is offensive to
God, and detracts from His honor and majesty.  It dissipates human energy into
random impulses.  It is contrary to reason, sets a man at war with himself, with
others, and with God, corrupts human nature, stains the soul, and lessens our
inclination toward good.  No disease is a serious as sin, for sin can forever
destroy our life in God.  It enslaves us in this world to conflicting desires,
and can bring us eternal suffering in the hereafter.

Man was created to live in a state of original justice, in unhampered
communication with God; but due to sin, man now has a fallen nature, with a lack
of harmony with God.  This condition which man has been in since the first sin
is called original sin.  We have lost grace; we have lost the supernatural
powers God created us with; and we have acquired a depravity, a bias toward
evil, so that we are fascinated by evil and attracted toward it.

Our condition can be righted only by God's grace coming into our souls, freeing
us, and nurturing us in growth in supernatural powers.  This is begun in Holy
Baptism; but we must grow continually in grace, to bring our disorderly natural
tendencies under control of the supernatural, in willing obedience to God.  By
God's grace, and our response to His grace, we grow from a condition of
alienation from God toward complete and eternal life in union with God and in
love with God.

Our guilt for a sin depends upon the freedom and voluntariness of the action or
inaction of which we are guilty.  If a man runs over someone with his automobile
and kills him, the man is not guilty if the accident was completely unavoidable.
But if it was due to negligence or lack of foresight, the man is guilty of
manslaughter; and if it was deliberate and voluntary, the man is guilty of
murder.  A person acting under compulsion, such as a slave, a soldier acting
under orders against his own will, or a person compelled by violence to do a
thing, is not guilty of what he does involuntarily.

If a man commits a sin without knowing it is a sin, then he is not guilty of any
deliberate rebellion against God.  But if his ignorance is deliberate, the man
having deliberately refused to learn, then the man's ignorance is itself a sin,
for he has voluntarily chosen to be ignorant, and the man is guilty of the
things he does as a result of his ignorance.

If a man commits a sin inadvertently, without thinking; if he commits a sin by
accident; if he commits a sin when suddenly confronted by some unforseen
temptation, or when he is in a surge of passion which overcomes his reason, he
is not guilty of rebellion against God.  But if he could and should have
foreseen the danger, and deliberately refused to do so, then he is guilty of
sin, and guilty of the sins he committed due to his voluntary lack of
forethought.  A man is not guilty of the sin he commits when he is drunk, but if
he voluntarily gets drunk, then he is guilty of getting drunk, and must bear
some guilt for the things he does when he is drunk.

When a man honestly and conscientiously makes an error of judgment; when he is
not fully awake, when he is in a state of hysteria, when he is under the
influence of phobias, fears, or fixed ideas for which he is not to blame, and
commits sin under these circumstances, he has not deliberately rebelled against
God.  And if a man does not even know that God exists, he does not deliberately
rebel against God when he commits a sin.  There are many circumstances, then, in
which we may commit what is called a material sin, when we have not deliberately
and voluntarily rebelled against God.

But a deliberate and voluntary violation of God's will is a rebellion against
God.  It is an act of the will, a putting of oneself in the place of God.  And
we must bear the full guilt of such a sin.  We may be tempted by the devil, or
by other human beings, but the cause of the sin is within ourselves, and our
intellect, our desires, and our will have all been used in sinning against God. 
We are guilty, for we have deliberately chosen to disobey God.  This is called
"formal" sin.

All sin is offensive to God, but some sins are worse than others.  It is a
greater sin to murder a man than to steal his automobile, for life is a greater
good than property is.  A sin which does great damage is worse than one which
does less damage.  It is worse to offend God than it is to offend a human being.
It is worse to offend many people than it is to offend only one person.  It is
worse for a person in high position to commit a sin than it is for a person of
lower estate to commit a sin.  It is worse to offend someone very close to you
than it is to offend someone else.  It is worse to kill one's father or mother
than it is to kill someone else.  All sin is offensive to God, but some sins are
more offensive than others.

Certain sets of circumstances are occasions of sin.  If we have committed sin
when we were in certain circumstances, then we must change the circumstances,
and avoid the occasions of sin.  Sometimes this may involve drastic changes in
our way of life, such as changing jobs or moving to another place.  But
voluntarily to put ourselves in curcumstances in which we have committed sin
in the past is to put our souls in deadly peril.  To go voluntarily into an
occasion of sin is in itself sinful, and we are guilty of the sins we commit
when we do so.

Sin against God is a serious matter, so serious that it required nothing less
than the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary to make possible a reconciliation
between God and man.  The Cross is the demonstration of the suffering that
results from sin.
611.4Kinds of SinCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertMon Mar 01 1993 00:35114
The General Confession at Evensong includes these words: "We have offended
against thy holy laws.  We have left undone those things which we ought to have
done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done."  The
confession in the Communion of the Sick says, "We have sinned...in thought,
word, and deed".  These are confessions of the four ways in which we sin
voluntarily against God: we sin by omission, by thought, by word, and by deed.

The sins of omission are often caused by sloth, and they are certainly caused by
the self-centeredness of pride.  They are sins against God's positive will, such
as by failing to attend Mass every Sunday, or failure to tithe, or failure to
love God, or a failure to love our fellow-man as we love ourselves, or a failure
to have honor and respect for our parents, our Church, or the civil authority, a
failure to pray every day, or to read the Bible.  The things which we ought to
do are our duty; and perhaps the most grievous sins many of us commit are our
sins of omission, our failure to do our duty.  When we were confirmed, we
promised to follow Jesus Christ as our Lord; and we can't follow Jesus Christ by
sitting still and doing nothing.  At Baptism, we are signed with the Cross, that
we may manfully fight under Christ's banner against sin, the world, and the
devil; and that we may continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants unto our
life's end on earth.  If we do not do our duty, do those things which we ought
to do, we are not faithful soldiers and servants; but we are sinners, guilty of
the sins of omission.

The sins of thought, word, and deed are sins against God's negative will, doing
that which is contrary to His will, that which He has commanded us not to do. 
Sins of thought are just as truly violations of God's will as are sins of word
or deed.  We are to think no evil, as well as to say no evil and do no evil.

Not all evil thoughts, however, are sinful, for suggestions, temptations, and
imaginations are not always voluntary.  But our thoughts can be controlled by
our will, to a great extent, and if we knowingly and willfully choose to think
evil, we are guilty of sin.  We sin if we knowingly and voluntarily take
pleasure in some evil presented to us by our imagination; or if we approve or
take pride in some sin we have already committed; or if we regret that we did
not commit some sin when we had the opportunity to do so; or if we voluntarily
desire to do something evil.

Voluntary mental consent to the doing of an evil thing is just as great a danger
to the soul as the actual doing of the evil thing, and makes us guilty of sin. 
Temptation is not a sin; and it is not a sin if the thought of stealing
something is presented to us by our imagination; but we are guilty of sin if we
take pleasure in the thought of stealing, or if we regret that we did not steal
something when we had an opportunity to do so, or if we voluntarily desire to
steal something; or if we mentally consent to steal something when we have a
chance to steal it without danger of getting caught.

Sins of word and sins of deed are knowingly and voluntarily saying or doing
something which is contrary to God's will.

Sins are either venial sins or mortal sins.  Venial sins are truly sins, and we
are guilty if we commit venial sins; but they are not a turning away from God:
they might be described as slipping or falling on the road to God.  They are
sins which are not completely deliberate and voluntary, but only partly so; and
come from lack of attention to God rather than rebellion against God.  They are
sometimes sins in relatively unimportant matters, or sins which involve only a
slight disorder.  They are our greatest problem, for we commit them repeatedly. 
They lessen our love for God, and hinder us in delighting in Him.  They dispose
us toward mortal sin, and may themselves become mortal sins if we persist in
them.

To fight venial sins, we must concentrate more fully on God, and be more aware
of God's presence and of the help which He is constantly offering us.  We should
resort to daily prayer, and increased faithfulness in our religious observances.
We should stimulate our normal spiritual life, and perseveringly follow some
rule of life.  We should pray for those we dislike, and give thanks to God when
we are in a depressed mood.  We should make continual acts of recollection of
God's presence, thus fighting our tendency to forget Him.  We should apologize
for wrongs we have done to others, make additional offerings to the Church and
to the poor, deliberately deny ourselves certain pleasures at certain times, and
develop self-discipline.  Our venial sins should be confessed to God every day,
and God's pardon asked.  And regular self-examination and sacramental confession
are great weapons in fighting against venial sins.

Mortal sins are drastic matters, grave calamities to the soul.  A Christian can,
and should, avoid all mortal sins at all times, by God's grace.  A mortal sin is
a deliberate and knowing and voluntary repudiation of God, with full attention
to what we are doing.  It is a deliberate and willful rebellion against God's
sovereignty, about some matter of importance.  There can never be any doubt as
to whether a sin is a venial sin or a mortal sin, for whenever we commit a
mortal sin, we are fully aware of it, and we know that we have committed a
mortal sin.  Mortal sin cuts us off from God's grace, and produces a state of
incompatibility with God, and leads the soul to spiritual death.  Mortal sin
causes grave injury to the soul, to others, and to God.  We do it with full
awareness, full attention, full consent, full deliberation, and with full
intention of doing it.

There is no division of sinful thoughts, words, deeds, and omissions into
mortal sins and venial sins.  What makes a sin a mortal sin is that it is done
with full awareness, attention, consent, deliberation, and intention, as a
repudiation of God and rebellion against Him.  If we commit mortal sin, we
must be converted, turned back to God.  We should come and make sacramental
confession, do penance, and receive absolution, and give renewed attention to
the things which stimulate spiritual growth.

Our Lord mentions an unforgivable sin, called blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
This is a knowing, willful, and deliberate contempt of the grace offered us by
God the Holy Ghost, a refusal to admit our sinfulness or our need of His Grace.
A result of it is that we come to think that good is evil, and that evil is
good.  The unforgivable sin involves a refusal to admit our sinfulness and ask
God's forgiveness.  It is persistence in impenitence to the end, so that we
reject His grace finally, and refuse to be forgiven, and refuse to be united
with God.

All sin must be continually resisted by the Christian.  To this end, we should
make regular and thorough examinations of conscience, make special preparation
for the Holy Communion, and complete confession of sins.  We should make special
efforts to break sinful habits, and correct any false ideas we have, by which we
have rationalized our actions and persuaded ourselves that our sins are not
really sinful.

Most of all, we must grow in our love for God; for the more fervently we love
God, the more we will center our lives on Him, and harmonize our wills with His
will; and so by growth of love, we grow into perfect sainthood, in which we
think God's thoughts after Him, and what we freely choose is what God's will is.
611.5The Roots of SinCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertMon Mar 01 1993 11:24137
The root from which all our sins come is the seven capital sins, and the root of
all the capital sins is the sin of pride.  The capital sins are perversions of
desires which God has given us.  They are wrong uses of what would be good if
used according to God's will and purposes.  We commit sin when we seek after
good, but seek it from wrong sources, seeking after good in the way of the
world, the flesh, and the devil, rather than seeking good in God and according
to His will.

God gave us a desire for divinity.  We are to live not simply as animals, but
as sons of God, in perfect love and harmony with God, in union with Him, and
reigning in Him throughout eternity, in perfect joy, and in completeness of
life.  Adam was tempted to do what was forbidden, the devil tempting him by
saying that he would be as God.  The sin of pride is a seeking after divinity
in the wrong way: we try to put ourselves in the place of God, and thus become
competitors to God, enemies of God, instead of sharers of God's life.  Pride
leads to every kind of sin.  To overcome pride, we must grow in humility,
getting true knowledge of ourselves and our place in God's plan.  To do this,
we must accept humiliation, and we should meditate on Christ's humility: learn
of Him who was meek and lowly in heart.

God gave us a desire for good and appreciation of good, which is to lead us to
Him, who is the supreme Good.  Pride has made us enemies and competitors, not
only of God, but also of other people; and we resent the good that comes to
other people, because we look on it as giving them an advantage over us.  A
perversion of our desire for good, then, leads us to regret the good of another,
rather than rejoice in the good we have.  This is the sin of envy; and it leads
to hatred, falsehood, contempt, enmity, and many violations of love for our
fellow man.  To overcome envy, we need to grow in meekness, and give things
to other people, and do good to them.

God gave us an aversion to evil, and a sense of indignation against injustice
and wickedness.  This is to lead us to burn with indignation when confronted
with vileness or cruelty, and to refuse to tolerate evil things.  But when pride
distorts our sense of values, we come to think of evil as anything that injures
us or detracts from our importance.  Pride, then, perverts our aversion to evil,
so that it becomes the sin of anger, a desire for revenge against those whom we
think have offended us in some way.  Anger is the root of uncharitableness,
impatience, ingratitude, resentment, quarrelling, and even murder.  To overcome
anger, we must grow in patience, and meditate upon the scriptural passages:
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and "Forgive us our
tresspasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us."  And we should
offer intercession for those we are angry with.

God has given us a desire for possessions, so that we may have what is needed to
live a good life, and support our families, and do good to others.  The created
world and all its resources are given to support the physical lives of God's
children on earth.  Pride leads us to think that we are more important than
others, and so we come to have an inordinate, excessive desire for worldly goods
and possessions, seeking them as ends in themselves; wanting more than our
share, more than we need or rightly use.  This sin of covetousness, avarice,
or greed is the root of anxiety, all types of dishonesty, violence, deceit,
callousness, and tremendous injustices.  To overcome covetousness, we must grow
in generosity.  We should consider the vanity of worldly goods; we should pledge
our tithes to the Church and the poor; and we should meditate on Christ, who
"had nowhere to lay His head."

God has given us appetites of hunger and thirst, and He has attached pleasure to
the satisfying of these appetites.  He has done this so that we will nourish our
bodies and preserve our physical life, so that we can serve Him in this world. 
Pride develops in us a self-centeredness that produces the sin of gluttony: an
inordinate, excessive desire for food and drink, not for the nourishment they
give, but as ends in themselves.  Gluttony is the root of overeating, which
impairs our health and vigor by making us too fat.  It leads also to mental
dullness, uncleanness, repulsive manners, and also to drunkenness and all the
evils that result from that.  To overcome gluttony, we must grow in temperance;
meditate on the evil consequences of overeating and drunkenness; and follow the
Church's practice of fasting and abstinence.

God gave us an appetite for sex, and attached pleasure to the satisfaction of
this appetite; so that we would have the privilege of sharing in the work of
creation with Him, and of perpetuating and increasing our race.  Pride leads us
to seek the pleasure as an end in itself, and so we fall into the sin of lust,
which is an inordinate, excessive desire for sexual pleasure.  Lust leads to all
the sexual sins and perversions, and the great evils resulting from them.  To
fight lust, we must grow in purity, modesty, and temperance.  We should practice
forms of self-denial, such as by a devout observance of Lent; and we should
meditate upon the stainless character of our Lord, the purity of the blessed
virgin Mary, and upon the fact that family life is a symbol of the all-embracing
love of the Holy Trinity.

God gave us a desire to rest and relax when we are tired, so that our bodies,
minds and spirits might be refreshed, in order that we might begin anew to serve
Him and our fellow men.  Rest is refreshment, in order to be of additional
usefulness.  And He has made it pleasant for us to rest, so that we will not
wear ourselves out all at once.  Pride leads us to seek this pleasure as an
end in itself, and produces the sin of sloth, laziness, or acedia, which is
an inordinate, excessive desire for rest and comfort, perverting rest from
refreshment into selfish idleness.  Sloth brings physical, mental, and spiritual
heaviness, weakness, and dullness, moral cowardice and despair, and a hatred of
all work and of all spiritual things.  To fight sloth, we must grow in
diligence, temperance, fortitude, engage in active work for God and others,
and meditate upon the purpose of life.

The capital sins, then, are distortions or perversions of desires and appetites
which God has given us, and they all stem from pride, the basic perversion of
our nature.  All our sins come from one or more of these seven.  We should trace
our sinful acts to their roots and work, by God's grace, to uproot these capital
sins.

What can I, as a sinner, do to overcome my sin, and to use my desires,
appetites, and powers, as God intends?  There are twelve steps:

1. I realize my weakness: I am not able to overcome sin, therefore I call upon
God, turn to Him for help, and receive His grace.

2. I have genuine sorrow for my sins, not just because they have harmed myself
and others, but most of all, because they are insults and offences against God. 

3. I make a thorough examination of my past life, and trace my sins to their
roots, and list all my sins I can remember, and how often I have committed them.

4. I forgive others all the injuries they have done, and I pray for them.

5. I make a firm resolution that by God's grace, I will try to avoid all sin in
the future, especially the sins I have committed in the past.

6. I make whatever restitution I can for any harm I have done others; and I make
a token restitution to God for my offences against His love and majesty.

7.  I make a thorough and complete confession of my sins to God, and receive
absolution and forgiveness for my sins.

8. I receive Holy Communion regularly, and the other sacraments as needed, and
make a continuous and earnest effort to grow in all the virtues.

9. I tithe and follow the Church's practice of fasting and abstinence, as
antidotes to my sins of covetousness, lust, and gluttony.

10. Every day, I pray to God, confessing my sins of the day, resolving to obey
God and asking His grace and guidance for another 24 hours.

11. I have fellowship with other repentant sinners, in the Church, and in
various parish groups; and with them, try to participate in the life of God's
kingdom.

12. I work continually for God and my fellow-man, in the Church, in witnessing
to my faith, and in helping others in any way I can.
611.6RepentanceCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertTue Mar 02 1993 02:04115
We were created to know, love, and serve God, but we have rebelled against the
purpose of our creation, and thus have fallen into sin.  We deserve to be cast
out from God and destroyed; but God loves us, and offers us a way by which we
can be healed of our sins, and by which our lives can be repaired and adjusted,
so that we can function in the way God intended.

Since we can not ourselves repair the damage done to our nature, God has
provided the means of repair; and this He has done through the suffering and
death of Christ, from which grace comes to us in the sacraments of Baptism and
Penance, and in many other ways.  Apart from Christ, there is no forgiveness,
no means of repair; but the power of Christ's Passion can lift us out of our
fallen, sin-ruined lives and enable us to live as God intends us to live.

But we are not inanimate objects: God has given us free wills, and God will
never violate the freedom of our wills.  And so the work of forgiveness, repair,
and adjustment is not done to us against our wills.  Therefore, we must make our
human response to the love and help that He offers.  The response we must make
is the response of repentance.  Repentance is indispensible in the cure of sin,
and without it, Christian life is impossible.  Holy Scripture consistently
teaches that repentance is always necessary for forgiveness; that God can not
pardon us until we are penitent; so that the one thing that is unpardonable is
the refusal to repent.

Repentance rouses in us the right emotions, so that our desires are purified,
and we have a distaste for all that offends God, and a desire for all that
comes from God.  Repentance is not simply a sorrow for the past: it is also a
purification of our emotions, so that God is actively desired.  Our love for
God moves us to repentance, for love shows us how grievous it is to violate
the will of God.

When we love God, and think of our past life, we have a feeling of shame, of
confusion.  We come to hate ourselves and to have a sense of uncleanness.  We
feel remorse for our wasted lives and for our follies of the past.  We have a
feeling of burden, weariness, bondage, and loneliness.  We have a feeling of
self-abasement, guilt and fear, and we have a desire for help and deliverance. 
We feel that some impediment holds us away from God, and that we are unable to
face the trials that we must meet.

Then it is necessary that we realize that our trouble is ourself: that the
only impediment is within us.  We must find in ourself the cause of our lack of
happiness.  This leads us to repentance, and repentance is the gateway to a new
life; for it is a turning, or returning to God, a conversion.  Repentance is not
just a matter of the emotions, for it involves a change of mind, a redirection
of our intellect, so that it is devoted to God rather than to sin.

We come to see that repentance is the key which unlocks for us the treasures of
God's grace.  St. John Baptist preached: "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand."  Our Lord said, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel."  St. Peter
said, "Repent and be baptised."  Sometimes a person thinks that he is too
unclean, too sinful, to come to Church or to make Holy Communion.  But what
is required of us in not holiness, but repentance.  Repentance opens to us
God's grace.

If we are unwilling, however, to make reparation, or to avoid temptation, if we
despair of the possibility of amending our lives; if we vacillate between hope
and despair, exaltation and depression, our penitence is defective.  Repentance
is demonstrated in a decline in sinfulness; a growth in humility; a willingness
to accept reproof and advice; a hopefulness of God's pardon.

While repentance often involves deep feelings and emotions, this is not always
necessary; for the reality of repentance lies in the will.  There is no personal
sin except by the consent of the will, and there is no repentance, except by the
action of the will, cooperating with God's grace.

Repentance must be internal, supernatural, supreme, and universal.  It must,
that is, be of the will and not just of the lips or the feelings.  It must be
motivated by our love of God.  We must be willing to do anything to escape sin
and lead a godly life.  And we must be penitent for all our sins, not just for
one or two.

Different people are penitent in different ways.  For some, there is one great
moment of conversion, a turning point in their whole lives.  For others, it is a
gradual process.  Those who are brought up in the faith, and who have progressed
normally through Baptism, Confirmation, and Church School classes and have had
the habit of regular attendance at Church services will usually not have a
violent emotional upheaval.  They may make their first Confession, as a matter
of course, during their Confirmation preparation, and are spared the agony that
a person sometimes has to go through if he makes his first Confession after he
has become an adult.  Their lives are converted and changed -- but their
conversion is so steady and gradual that it may be seen only in retrospect.

A man of twenty-five can look back over twenty years, and see that he has grown
physically during this time, although at no time was he aware of growing, or
felt himself growing.  A person can likewise look back and see that he has been
converted, although at no particular time was he aware of his conversion taking
place.  Repentance can be a good habit, just as sin can be a bad habit; and the
good habit of repentance can be begun during childhood.  Habitual repentance
keeps us in God's grace, just as habitual sin deprives us of God's grace.

Some people are unemotional.  Repentance for them involves little feeling or
emotion.  It is largely a change of mind and of will.  In most people, however,
feelings will accompany repentance.  These feelings, though important, are not
necessary.  Therefore, one should not worry if repentance, to him, does not
involve the great heights of passion which it involves in some other people.

Other people are excessively emotional or sentimental, so that it is hard for
them to have a real conversion of the will, because their emotions keep them
whirling around in a wild frenzy.  They swing violently between sweet, gushy
sentimentalism and black morbid despair.  A feeling of guilt brings them many
tears, but perhaps little amendment in life.  If feeling is the only outcome,
the result is disastrous.  By God's grace, they must use their intellect and
develop strength of will.  They can begin by disciplining themselves in such
matters as abstinence from meat on Fridays.

While repentance must lead to amendment of life, God does not expect us
to become perfect overnight.  Thus, amendment does not mean that we shall
immediately cease all sin.  It means that we do better, that we make
improvement, that our sins become fewer or less grave.  We grow in penitence
as we grow in grace, and as we grow in penitence, we grow in holiness. 
Repentant souls may still fall into sin, as a result of weakness or surprise;
but they do not want to fall into sin.  They feel the attraction of sin, but
they do not love sin.  And so repentant souls are like St. Paul, who confessed
that he committed sins he didn't want to commit, and failed to do the good
deeds he wanted to do.  Repentance helps us find our happiness in God, for it
takes the fun out of sinning.
611.7ContritionCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertTue Mar 02 1993 11:34108
When we do an injury to someone we love, we are sorry, we beg the injured
person's pardon, and we try to make up for the injury in some way.  These
are the three elements of repentance.  They are included in our repentance
when we have injured God's love by our sins.

Contrition is the first element of repentance.  We may be sorry for our sins
because they have brought us suffering, or imprisonment, or bad health, or the
loss of our job, or a broken family.  We may be sorry because we fear the loss
of heaven and the pains of hell.  This is contrition, and if it leads us to
confess and amend our lives, it has served well.  But is is imperfect
contrition.

Perfect contrition is sorrow that we have offended God, Whom we love.  If we
love God, and realize how greatly He loves us, the knowledge that we have
injured and betrayed His love brings us real contrition, real sorrow and grief.

Contrition leads us to confession, else we are not really sorry for our sins. 
We refuse to believe that a person is sorry for his misdoings if he steadfastly
refuses to acknowledge that he is in the wrong.  Confession is necessary for
forgiveness, for until a person has made this offering of humility and honesty,
his contrition is not complete.

When we confess our sins, our confession should be straightforward and clear,
without a lot of irrelevant "beating-around-the-bush."  It should be humble and
reverent, without ostentation or show.  It should be voluntary, and motivated
by our love for God.  It should be remorseful, and done without delay.  Our
confession should be faithful, true to fact, not including things we don't
remember doing, in order to make ourselves seem to be really important sinners;
on the other hand, it should be candid, not concealing things we do remember
having done; and it would be without reservations.

In making our confession, we should not try to excuse ourselves for our sins,
but we should accuse ourselves of them.  And we should confess only our own
sins, and not the sins other people have committed.

Confession of our sins should be made frequently.  No matter how often we commit
sin, we can repent and confess and be forgiven.  The Christian Life is a life of
repentance, a life in which we are continually converted every time we violate
God's love, a life of constant renewal.  Repentance, which regulates our desires
and dedicates our wills to God, grows wider and deeper, as life is deepened by
experience.  The habit of repentance makes a genuine and permanent contribution
to our spiritual growth.

Confession of sins, therefore, should be a continual practice in our Christian
living.  Every day, we should examine ourselves as to our behaviour during the
day, and make our humble confession of sins to our God we love.

Furthermore, we are part of sinful humanity.  Whenever any person sins, humanity
sins.  Whenever any person sins, all of us are, to some extent, guilty, for we
have contributed toward his sin.  It is partly because of us that he has sinned.

This truth is most commonly expressed in the statement that the sins of young
people are the fault of the parents who have failed to provide the proper
environment, the proper training, or the proper example.  This does not,
however, relieve the young people of guilt, for they are the ones primarily
guilty: they are the ones who have willfully consented to commit their sins. 
But the young people are not the only guilty ones, and their parents are not
the only ones who share in their guilt.

All of us are to some extent guilty, for we have helped to develop the sinful
environment in which parents have to rear their children.  We help to set the
standards.

A parent can not completely isolate his children from the sinful examples of
the rest of mankind.  We all share the guilt for the greed and the low moral
standards which surround us.  And so whenever any person commits a sin, while
he is primarily responsible, all of us are to some extent guilty.  Thus we
should always be penitent, and identify ourselves with the sinful world in
which we live, and confess our share in the sins of others.

True contrition leads not only to confession, but also to restitution.  If
we have injured someone we love, not only are we sorry, not only do we beg
his pardon, but also we do whatever we can to make up for the injury.

Many of our sins bring injury to other people.  Contrition leads us, therefore,
to make such restitution as we can.  If we have told a lie about a person, we
must go out and tell the truth.  If we have stolen something, we must give it
back.  If we have offended someone, we offer humble apologies.  For many of the
injuries we cause, restitution is impossible, but we must do whatever we can. 
Else we are not really contrite for our sins.

Making restitution for the evil we have done, however, is not so important as
the conversion of our heart and the offering of love.  So if we can not make
actual restitution, we can offer love and converted hearts as a form of
restitution.  If a friend has spoken ill of me, his penitence will lead him
to go out and speak well of me, but what I will prize most is his love.

No just restitution is possible for our offences against God.  Anything we do
to honor Him is merely what we owe to Him anyway.  To live a sinless life from
this moment on is only what we are supposed to do, anyway; and it can not make
up for the sins we have already committed against Him.  But what we can offer
to Him is renewed love and converted hearts and wills; and this offering of
love and this conversion is pleasing to Him.

Furthermore, any sin we commit brings injury to all humanity, for we set a bad
example and help to create an evil environment which makes it harder for other
people to be good.  Restitution for our sins, then, is due to all the human
race.  And again, we can not make up for our evil deeds by good deeds, and call
the account squared.  But we can grow in love and sympathy for others; and can,
by living Christian lives, do what we can to create a wholesome environment for
others and thus help them along the road to God.

Sorrow for sin, without confession and whatever restitution possible, is just
a matter of emotions, without any conversion of our wills, and no real results. 
Confession of sins without contrition, on the other hand, is mere formalism. 
Complete repentance, then, involves all three elements: contrition, confession,
and restitution.  We are sorry, we ask pardon, and we try to make up for injury
we have done -- to God and to our fellow man.
611.8ForgivenessCOVERT::COVERTJohn R. CovertWed Mar 03 1993 11:29111
"If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  (I John 1:9)

God will always forgive our sins when we truly and earnestly repent, for
repentance includes true contrition, real confession, whatever restitution is
possible, and a firm resolution to do better with God's help.  When we sin,
we violate out love for God and God's love for us.  Love moves us to repentance,
and repentance removes the barrier by which we have shut our God's love from
our soul.  Love then answers to love, and God's love moves in, bringing us
forgiveness.  And the restored interaction of love heals the wounds which
our sins had inflicted on our loving relationship with God.

Only love can bring us to real repentance, and penitence brings forgiveness, and
a firm knowledge that God loves us, and our experience of His love assures us
that our sins are forgiven.  Forgiveness is an experience of love.

But God's loving response to our repentance is more than just a forgiveness of
the sins of the past.  It looks also to the future, and He gives us additional
grace, so that we enter into a new life and endowed with the power of God, to
meet new demands upon us.  For with a re-established and deepened relationship
of love, we have fresh sources of grace empowering our soul.  So the sense of
forgiveness, the experience of restoration to God's love and His grace, bring
us strength to sustain us through every check, every discouragement, and every
temptation.  Thus forgiveness is a great help in building up our Christian
character.

The sense of forgiveness comes from the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, and
it is because of this sacrifice that God can forgive us.  On the Cross, Christ
suffered the pain that our sins inflict upon God's love.  In the Old Testament,
before the Cross, we find little certainty of forgiveness.  The prophets spoke
of forgiveness, if one repented and confessed, but this forgiveness was not
guaranteed: God might or might not forgive a penitent.  Fear was the motive
of repentance, rather than love; and penitents were reminded of divine wrath,
rather than of divine love and compassion.

But after the atonement made by Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, the New
Testament seems almost at a loss for words to describe the joy of forgiveness;
and uses a host of words and vivid metaphors to express the greatness of the
experience of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is described as freedom, ransom, and
purchase -- release from bondage to the powers of evil.  The penitent is
justified -- released from the sense of guilt.  He finds peace -- release from
misery and remorse.  He is reconciled and adopted as a child of God -- released
from the loneliness and isolation into which his sin had plunged him.  He is
saved -- released from spiritual danger and the threat of hell.

The forgiven Christian is also conscious that he faces the future with better
prospects.  He takes up his pilgrimage to God anew, and with new gifts of grace.
He lives a new life, a life of grace.  He has been sanctified, and unlimited
spiritual progress and purification are open before him.  He has an unfailing
supply of superhuman joy, a new zeal for good works, and a new knowledge of
God's love and mercy.  He therefore has new motives for a grateful, humble,
tender, and enthusiastic service of God.  His sense of forgiveness exerts a
most powerful influence on the development of his Christian character.

But forgiveness does not exempt us from the temporal consequences of our sins. 
No matter how deep a man's repentance may be, he will still have to meet the
temporal consequences of sin.  If he has ruined his health by evil living,
forgiveness will not restore him to good health, though the cessation of his
evil habits will help him gradually improve in health.  If he has become
overweight because of the sin of gluttony, he can not lose weight simply by
confessing his gluttony -- but the avoidance of gluttony in the future may
gradually bring him down to proper weight.

If we have lost a job, we must find another, if we can not persuade our
employer to give us the old one back.  If we have lost friends, we must regain
friendships.  If we have violated the civil law, we may have to undergo the
punishment meted out by the civil courts, no matter how fervently we may
confess, and no matter how much we know that God has forgiven us.

But a sense of forgiveness helps us to meet temporal consequences in a different
spirit.  Temporal consequences give the Christian new opportunities of proving
his devotion; and a sense of forgiveness changes the temporal consequences into
occasions of virtue, and a means by which we reach a higher place than we were
before.  We can not bargain with God and repent in order to avoid temporal
consequences.  Our repentance must be sincere, and we must be content with the
great spiritual joys which come with forgiveness.

And forgiveness does not exempt us from future temptation.  Forgiveness may
be followed by a period of intence joy, peace, and spiritual exaltation; but
temptation soon recurs.  The forgiven Christian, however, looks forward to
renewed temptation as a means of proving his newly-won confidence and power
and of leading him on to higher things.  An outcome of forgiveness, then, is
that we are ready for punishment, temptation, and trial, and that we welcome
them.  The forgiven Christian actively resists temptation, and meets trials
heroically.  He meets them, not as making the best of a bad business, but as
one who intends, by God's grace, to be more than a conqueror.

We must understand that for some people, forgiveness does not always bring
joyful and delightful feelings.  A person may be truly penitent, have a lively
faith, readily confess his sins, and accept the temrporal consequences of his
sins, and is truly forgiven by God.  But the joys associated with forgiveness
are not always experienced, even after forgiveness has been assured by a
priest, in the most solemn way.  We must remember, though, that feelings are
not necessary to forgiveness.  It is well and good, if we can have the happy
feelings of being cleansed, restored, and the like -- but the absence of such
feelings does not in any way throw doubt upon the reality of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is assured by the love of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and our
repentance.  If we have made a good confession, and not deliberately omitted
confessing certain of our sins, the absolution pronounced by the priest is an
assurance that our repentance has been adequate.  We are therefore not to waste
time and spiritual energy in a vain quest for a feeling which others have; but
we are to trust in God and in the reality of forgiveness.  And so, again, we can
not bargain with God and make our confession in order to experience delightful
feelings.

Forgiveness, then, does not always bring us temporal benefits, nor exemption
from temptation, nor happy feelings.  But by the power of the sacrifice of
Christ, it does heal the wounds inflicted by sin on our loving relationship
with God, and it restores this relationship, brings us release, and renewed
life, and fresh opportunities to grow in the love and service of God.