OUTLINE

• Definition of Sin
• Distinction Between Sin and Temptation
• Personal, Interpersonal and Societal Sins
• Kinds of Sin
• Conditions of Mortal Sin
• Seven Capital Sins
- is “any deliberate
thought, word, or deed
contrary to God’s law”.
- The principal obstacle to
human freedom thus, to
the realization of the
human person.
Consequently, sin blocks human fulfillment on every level of
existence (GS 13),
- disintegrating the self,
- disrupting personal life,
- dismembering community,
thus, - distorting relationships with self, others, and God.
• St. Augustine – defined Sin as
Aversion from God, Conversion to
Creatures.

• Sin is an offense against reason,

truth and right conscience

• It is failure in genuine love of God

and neighbor caused by a perverse
attachment to certain goods.

• It wounds the nature of man and

injures human solidarity.
 Temptation and
SIN

• Temptation is an
occasion for sin but it’s
not a sin.

• The positive act of man

towards temptation is
what constitutes sin.
 Personal Sin
• Sin is a personal act because
it is a personal choice. The
root of all sins lies in man’s
heart.
• In committing sin one does not choose its sinfulness but one chooses a certain
good, a wrongly desired good. E.g. A student who cheats in order to pass the
exam.
• In every free choice, one makes oneself be what one is choosing. E.g. If I
choose to cheat in quizzes or in my dealing with others, I make myself a
cheater.
 Personal, Interpersonal, Societal Sins

• Personal sins of
individuals (such as
thoughts and
desires of lust and
jealousy),
• Interpersonal sins
corrupting relationships
(e.g., gossip, adultery)

• Societal sins located in

social structures,
– situations and groups
which oppress persons,
violate their human
dignity, stifle freedom, and
foster unjust inequality.
 Structures of sin
• There are situations or “structures” of sin,
– in which certain social groups institutions
– or organizations cause or support evil,
– or when are in a position to eliminate
– or limit the evils, fail to do so,
– and through secret complicity or indifference side step the
effort and sacrifice required.
 Structures of sin, therefore,
are “rooted in personal sins
and thus always linked to the
concrete acts of individuals
who introduce these structures,
consolidate them,
and make them difficult to remove.
 Kinds of Sin
Sins are evaluated according to their
gravity.

1. 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.

2. Venial sin – allows charity to subsist,

even though it offends and wounds
it.
Venial sin wounds man’s relationship
with God, while mortal sin
destroys it.
Venial sin is like a quarrel of husband
and wife.
Mortal sin is like divorce.

To die in mortal sin, “one is deprived of

heaven (For no time of repentance
and conversation after death).

To die with venial sins, “the soul needs

purgatory to be purified before
heaven”.
Scripture on venial and mortal sins
“If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not
deadly, he should pray to God and He will give
him life.
This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There
is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not
say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin,
but there is sin that is not deadly”. (1 Jn.5:16-17)
 Three Conditions of Mortal Sin:

1. Grave matter - an act itself is seriously sinful

(e.g. murder, blasphemy etc.)
2. Full Knowledge - know through and through the
gravity of the act.
3. Full consent - the will gives its full permission
in the performance of the act.
The Seven
(7)
Deadly
Sins
 The seven (7) deadly sins:
Tradition highlights these as the seven ‘capital’ (from Lt.
‘caput’ which means ‘head’) sins from which all other
sins originate.

1. PRIDE - Self-assertion and selfishness. The ‘mother’

of all sins. It comes not from the world or the flesh
but from the Devil.
Pride
– Lucifer, in Tradition, once exclaimed, “I
will not obey!”.
– It is the violation of the first and greatest
commandment, “You shall have no other
gods before Me”.
– Pride puts self before God. “The beginning
of the pride of man is to fall off from God”
(Ecclus.10:14).
– Pride leads to boasting, vainglory,
hypocrisy, disobedience, strife.
2. AVARICE
The selfish reach to grab
things and keep for
oneself;
- an inordinate craving for
riches.
- the immoderate desire
for temporal possessions
which can be estimated in
money”.
Avarice
– Its old name is covetousness; its new name is greed. It is natural for
man to desire external things as means, but avarice makes them into
an ends, into gods.
– “The covetous is a worshipper of idols” (Eph.5:5).
Avarice leads to
• hardness of heart
• disordered anxiety regarding the things of
this world
• the use of violence in acquiring
possessions,
• lying
• and deceit.
3. ENVY - It is the
resentment to other’s
happiness. “sorrow at
another’s good”.

• Envy removes joy

because it is the opposite
of gratitude, and
gratitude is the seedbed
of joy.
Envy
• A man without gratitude is an
ex-man; a protodemon.
• Envy is demonic.
• The Book of Wisdom says, “By
the envy of the Devil, death
came into world” (2:24).
• Envy is horrible because it
comes straight from hell.
• Envy leads to hatred,
murmuring, resentment at
neighbor’s prosperity and joy
in his adversity.
 4. ANGER
- It wills harm and destruction to
others beyond forgiveness.
• It is derived from Lt. ‘ira’
(wrath).
• This is different from the
‘emotion of anger’ but such
emotion could lead to the sin of
anger.
– First, there is the involvement of
the will;
– second, the anger is inordinate i.e.,
irrational, too strong for the
occasion of the person we are angry
at.
St. John Chrysostom said, “He that is angry without cause shall be
in danger, but he that is angry with cause, but proportionate and
rational, shall not” (Homily 10).

The Bible says, “Anger rests in the bosom of a fool” (Eccles.7:10).

Anger leads to indignation, mental disturbance, noisy speech,

blasphemy, abuse, quarrels.
5. SLOTH
- Shunning everything that conduces
either to our temporal or eternal
well-being.

• It is the refusal to exert the will

towards the good even when it is
present.
• It is the most depressing thing in
the world.
• It finds our highest joy – God
Himself – joyless.
• It is a cold sin, not a hot one; but
that makes it even deadlier.
• It is a sin of omission, not commission.
6. LUST
- Inordinate desire for pleasure
or sex. More exactly, it is the
desire for the sins of
fornication or adultery.

Jesus said the desire for

adultery is adultery,
“Whoever looks at a woman to
lust for her has already
committed adultery with her in
his heart” (Mt.5:28).
Lust leads to
- mental blindness,
- self-love and hatred of God,
- affection for the present life and fear of
the future,
- rash in action.
7. GLUTTONY
- The inordinate consummation of worldly
goods.

Gluttony leads to what medievals listed as

five “daughters of gluttony”:
1. Unseemly joy (reason is fast asleep
at the helm),
2. Scurrility (foolish talk and
behavior),
3. uncleanness (vomiting),
4. loquaciousness (immoderate
speech)
5. and dullness of mind.
 The seven (7) deadly sins:
Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and
particularly of the sin committed at mankind’s origin.

Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot

recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a
developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or
the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure.

Only in the knowledge of God’s plan for man can we grasp that sin
is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so
that they are capable of loving him and loving one another
(CCC 387).