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Religion

2006-10-01 12:27:00

How can something be a sin for some and not for others?

QUESTION: My question is about sin. Some religions believe a certain action is a sin. Some do not. Some religions believe a certain action is a serious sin, some do not. Quite often, even clerics within a particular religion disagree about whether or not something is a sin, or a serious sin. How will one be judged when there are so many different interpretations?

ANSWER: Sin is present in human history. Any attempt to ignore it, or to give this dark reality other names, would be futile. To understand what sin is, we must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity: as a rejection of God and opposition to God, even as sin continues to weigh heavy on human life. Only in the light of the Bible and the Church’s Tradition can we recognize sin clearly. Without God’s revelation we are tempted to explain sin as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God’s plan for mankind can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the free-will that God gives to every human person: so that he/she is capable to loving God and loving one another. Sin is 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 things. Sin is any thought or word or action against God, and which turns our heart away from God. God loves each one of us, and He created us to love him in return. Sin is a rejection of that divine love, a revolt against God: through the human will to prefer oneself in pride even to contempt of God. There a many kinds of sins. The Bible provides several lists of them. In his Epistle to the Galatians (5:19-21) St. Paul lists “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you . . . that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of Jesus: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Mt 15:19-20). Sins are evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal (serious, grave) sin and venial (lesser) sin is taught by St. John in his first epistle (5:16-17): “ There is such a thing as deadly sin. . . . True, all wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin is deadly.” This is corroborated by human experience. Mortal (serious, grave) sin is sin whose object is grave matter, and which is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent. Serious or Grave Matter is spelled out by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: “Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother” (Mk 10:19). The gravity (seriousness) of sins is more or less great: e.g. murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: to steal from a poor person is graver than theft from a rich person. In order that a sin be serious (mortal, grave): it is necessary that the sinner have full knowledge of what she/he is doing, and that they are doing it with their complete consent. To pretend ignorance or habit does not diminish, but rather increases the willful character of a sin. God is not deceived by pretense. The gravity of a sin can be diminished by unintentional ignorance, and sometimes by external pressures, or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is most serious (grave, mortal). When a sinner dies unrepentant for a serious (mortal, grave) sin, he/she is excluded from God’s kingdom and goes to hell for all eternity. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a serious sin, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God. A person commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the moral law, or when he violates the moral law in a grave matter, but is lacking full knowledge or complete consent. Venial sin weakens the will and impedes the individual soul’s progress towards God; it deserves temporary punishment. Whoever sins in small matters is not deprived of friendship with God, and consequently can obtain eternal happiness. "While in this life, a person cannot help but have at least some light sins" (St. Augustine). But even these should be repented every day. Small sins, which a person takes-for-granted, can lead easily to repetition, and then hardening the conscience: so that gradually it becomes easier to commit greater sins. Eventually, the repetition of small sins can lead to mortal (serious, grave) sins, which separate a person from union with God. Every human person is endowed with conscience as part of reason, whereby he/she can recognize the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, or has already completed. In everything he says and does man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. To act against one’s conscience is sinful. By ignoring the good inclinations of one’s conscience, it is possible to deaden one’s sensitivity to sin, and think of the evil, to which a person is inclined, as being perfectly natural. A sinner, who has “killed” his conscience, is unlikely to repent before he dies, and therefore will suffer the consequences throughout eternity. After death, each person will be judged immediately by God, who knows all things and sees clearly the virtues and the sins in each soul. God’s judgment is objective, true and final!