IDEA OF SIN AND CONVERSION AS RELATED TO THE CHRISTIAN MORAL LIFE

IDEA OF SIN AND CONVERSION AS RELATED TO THE CHRISTIAN MORAL LIFE

The concept of “sin”

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “sin is an offense against reason, truth and right conscience. It is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbors caused by perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity” (CCC, 1849). Sin is thus above all, and essentially, the rejection of God and his divine plan. It dehumanizes the person.

For Augustine, sin is “an utterance, a deed or a desire contrary to the eternal law”. An act is not wrong simply because it disobeys a rule but also because it has imputed our true happiness, and thus destabilizes ourselves and others, and offends God.

Peter Abelard states that sin consists exclusively in a free interior consent in what the person knows to be evil in God’s sight. Consequently, sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons in order to be capable of loving him and loving one another.

The rejection of God and his will, through sin, disturbs and breaks a fundamental relationship: through sin, man refuses to accept his dependence on God which implies an unwavering conformation to the divine goals. By committing sin, man denies the obedience which he owes God as the supreme Lord to whom he completely belongs. Man’s turning away from the divine will must naturally result in separation from the love and communion with God.

Types of sin

1. Personal sin: sin committed by a person out of his own decision. By committing sin, the person falls short of his ultimate end or refuses it by turning to other goals of his preference. Thus man misses his proper aim, and this failure must inevitably result in disharmony and frustration (Cf. GS 13).

2. Social sin: sin that destruct institutions, social order, structures in society. By inner sin, therefore, man offends hisneighbour and the society inasmuch as he permits dispositions that have detrimental effects to the society to develop. Another reason for the social dimension of sin is revealed by the teaching of Saint Paul on the mystical body of Christ. According to Paul, Christians are members of the body of Christ (1Cor 12, 27); and all the members of a body depend on each other, such that, if one member has a problem, all the others suffer from it (1Cor 12, 26). Therefore, no one lives for himself alone.

3. Original sin: this is the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. This sin distorted the good nature humanity had at the beginning. It affects the whole human race (all those who have died, the living, and those who will come after) for all, through birth, have received that wounded nature. In order words, the original sin is the one we have committed by propagation, not by action.

4. Venial sin: is an offense against God but it does not break the relationship with God.  

5. Mortal sin: this is a sin that break the relationship between us and God. They cause the loss of sanctifying grace. They are acts of fundamental option; they only exist in rejection of God (Cf. VS, 69).

6. Deadly sins or capital sins: these sins are seven in number (pride, envy, anger, greed, gluttony, sloth, and lust). They are so called because they are roots for other sins. These sins are venial in themselves but they become easily capital sins. They are really deadly sins when three conditions are fulfilled: grave matter, full knowledge and free consent.

Sin is the betrayal of, and a life outside, the relationship of love and communion with God and neighbours. It is the refusal of God’s love and life of selfishness and pride. A life of sin is a life of enslavement of the will. It is the hardness of heart and darkness of human intellect. Thus, we talk about sin as contra naturam (which refers to our nature made of goodness, love, justice, generosity, hospitality, etc. by which it is fulfilled) and contra rationem (because it is unreasonable to live a life without freedom. It diminishes our integrity and brings chaos in our life. Therefore sin is against reason. The fundamental actions are those options that follow from our ultimate choices. Those options defines us, reveal our disposition.

However, Conversion is breaking the routine of sins through repentance and contrition. It is a return to wholeness after a life of sins. Conversion means to pass from the realm of darkness, lie and sin to the realm of light, truth and holiness. By conversion one “is born again of God” (Jn 1, 11-13; 3, 5). It is a new birth “of the Spirit, an entrance into the state of a child of God (Rm 8, 14-17). Conversion entails a re-orientation, re-thinking, re-assessment and transformation of one’s moral life from sin to virtue. Paul Barth seizes conversion as the rising or awaking of a person’s spiritual and moral life by God. Hence, conversion is different from repentance for conversion is not about one act but the whole life that turns towards God. It is an ongoing process of renewal in Christ. Conversion goes beyond repentance re-orienting the life of the person not to respect what has been done. So it is on-going.

Therefore, catholic moral theology is rooted in Scriptures in order to achieve holiness as prescribed by Christ. Holiness is a call to living virtuous lives. The best means to make the fruit of virtue, love and holiness grow is to pray, to work and to struggle for the coming of the kingdom of God. The foundation of the new life with Christ is first of all laid by a transformation of the heart and by a spiritual renewal of the convert. As Haring states, “Conversion is not a totally private act, a purely isolated happening; it is a Catholic event and has an absolutely universal meaning”.

There is a shift from act centred in person, to person centred in morality. The very culmination and crown of conversion is the rebirth to a new love. All the moral and religious efforts must more and more find their centre in devoted, selfless charity for God and one’s neighbour, which is the mature fruit of conversion. As the CIC (no 1878) says “Love of neighbour is inseparable from love for God”.