Since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960 s the Catholic Church has focused less on sin and more on the love, mercy, and forgiveness of God. Although God may hate the sin, he loves the sinner. It is hard for many to accept that we are truly loved despite our sinfulness. Even though we may not speak as much of sin we do realize and accept that we are sinners. There is no way to deny that we have a tendency to sin. Our presentation looks at Sin and Grace, perhaps polar opposites. The Catechism defines sin as 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. 1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight." 122 Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods," 123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God." 124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the 125 (CCC 1850) obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation. 1852 There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." 127 Jesus seemed to focus on how we treated our fellow man. This best illustrated in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. (Matthew 25) 1854 Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture, 129 became part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience.
Mortal Sin 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. 1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent." 131 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. Mortal sin is a serious break in a relationship of love with God, neighbor, world and self. We can think of it as a radical No to God and to others. It happens when we refuse to live in a positive, life-giving way. Just as acts of heroism and extraordinary generosity are evidence of our capacity to say a radical Yes to God, so calculated acts permeated with malice are evidence of our capacity to say No to God. Mortal sin involves a moral evil done by a person who is supremely selfish and committed to making evil and not goodness the characteristic mark of his or her life. (Gula) Venial Sin Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it. 1862 One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent. 1863 Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection for created goods; it impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment. Deliberate and unrepented venial sin disposes us little by little to commit
mortal sin. However venial sin does not break the covenant with God. With God's grace it is humanly reparable. "Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal happiness." 134 Venial sin. These days people are not giving enough attention to immoral acts of less importance than mortal sin. If mortal sin radically reverses one's positive relationship to God, the habit of unloving acts can corrode that relationship. This is why we must take venial sins seriously. Venial sins can weigh us down with the anchor of bad habits. Venial sin often enters our lives when we fail to show care for others. People can easily become submerged in self-interest. Perhaps we speak sharply to another, revel in our piece of gossip or exercise a power play over another that keeps us secure and in control. While these acts of selfish arrogance do not radically turn us away from God, they are inconsistent with our basic commitment to be for life and for love. They are venial sins. (GULA) 1864 "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." 136 There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. 137 Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss. 1865 Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations, which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root. 1868 Sin is a personal act. This is also referred to as actual sin. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them. Some would say that there is no such thing as totally personal sin in that all sin has social dimensions. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity.
If you will recall our discussion of the Communion of Saints we noted that the good each of us does helps the whole Church just as the evil we do harms the whole Church. Sin is truly social. Social sin has been around as long as civilization, but it is a relatively new concept for Catholics. We have tended to focus exclusively on personal (actual) sin: lying, cheating, missing Mass. We have not paid sufficient attention to social structures and customs, which hold such sinful practices in place Social sin describes human-made structures when they offend human dignity by causing people to suffer oppression, exploitation or marginalization. These include educational systems, housing policies, tax structures, immigration policies, health-care systems, employment policies, a market economy. Through Jesus sacrifice on the cross death and sin are not the last word. God, became incarnate, took on flesh and became man to show us the way to be perfectly human according to His Will. Through his ultimate sacrifice we are forgiven of our sins. This forgiveness is a freely given gift from the unconditional love of God. It is Grace Grace has many definitions. 1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. 1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ 1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to
sanctify it. It is the sanctifying received in Baptism. 2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church. I think one of the best definitions of Grace was one offered by our former pastor, Father Michael Roverse: Grace is the living and loving presence of God in our lives. Living in that it is dynamic, growing it is transformative seeking to conform us more perfectly to a life in Christ Loving because it is from God who is all love. It is God who created us from love to be love. It is indwelling present in our lives to convert us totally in mind, heart and spirit, It sanctifies us and makes us holy. It does not cover up sins, but forgives and erases sins and changes us so that hopefully we are strengthened to sin no more.