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The Modern Problem of Sin
Rather than a review of Peter Kreeft’s Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensées, I’m writing this preview, having recently restarted my reading of the book. — Squirrel! — I’ve barely made it past the preface, but seeing as we’re in the season of Lent and fast approaching Holy Week, I wanted to share this paragraph and some thoughts.
There is enormous social and psychological pressure, inside the Church as well as outside her, to ignore, deny or minimize sin, as Molina and the Jesuits did in Pascal’s day. [. . .] It seems that the most important question in the world, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), is never asked; and if it is, the answer is not to be born again but just born; not otherworldly but this-worldly; not repentant but respectable; not self-denying but self-affirming (see Mt 16:24). Yet even if every voice in the world should preach the gospel of spiritual auto-eroticism, there are two voices that tell us we are sinners in need of a Savior: the voice of conscience within and the voice of God without: in Scripture, in all the prophets and saints and above all in the teaching of Jesus and his living Church. And these two voices, not society’s, are the only two we can never escape, in this world or the next. Better to make peace with them even it means war with the whole world, rather than vice versa. [emphasis mine}
This neglect of sin is an artifact of the progressive Left’s belief (or, at least, assertion) that people are basically good. And that’s when moderns aren’t redefining morality entirely to suit our “auto-erotic” narcissistic self-creation in contrast to the natural (God-created) order. But, what Pascal recognized, too, is how effective diversion (internet/media) and indifference are in the common lack of self-reflection in modern life, whatever one’s religious/irreligious or political persuasion. Even those of us who practice an examination of conscience on occasion.
Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day;
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play;
Lest we know where we are:
Lost in a haunted wood —
Children afraid of the dark
Who have never been happy or good.
— W.H. Auden, “September 1939”)
I’ve been contemplating the difference between regret and repentance this Lent. I find it’s more typical in my own life to experience regret and allow it to substitute for repentance. The difference, of course, is that regret doesn’t require you to change your behavior (metanoia). I’m pretty sure I’m not the only Catholic who goes into the confessional confessing the same sin repeatedly. This has been a revelation of my Lenten prayer — and a weight to bear.
But, that’s what faith — and self-reflection — does for us for which there is no substitute. It is the recognition that I can do nothing without God — and with Him, all things are possible. Even sainthood, let us pray.
Pascal understands and teaches this lesson well.
Published in General
I pulled those words out of the context of the passage quoted. If we just look at the big stuff we see every day everywhere we look, physical violence one human to another resulting in death and injuries, stealing, lying from positions of trust, damage resulting from greed or lust, etc., it makes one wonder where are those two voices that tell us we are sinners in need of a Savior: the voice of conscience within and the voice of God without.
Is it difficult to discern good from evil?
Is it difficult to choose the right?
I think it gets back to the first part of that sentence: There is enormous social and psychological pressure, inside the Church as well as outside her. . .
Moderns don’t wish to confront sin and are happy to facilitate others in ignoring their own. We’re all in this together in some sick, distorted way.
Satan is a clever bastard, too. He knows the temptation to avoid suffering (“you will not die”) is right up there at the top. And self-denial (of disordered desires, for example) is a cause of suffering. We’re not big on self-denial. . .
Yes, God is not calling us to feel lousy about ourselves, He is calling on us to change.
With my kids, sometimes I catch them doing the same thing over and over again. Sure, they say “sorry” but then I’ll say, “You’re not really sorry. You know you are just going to do the same thing tomorrow.” And when I say that I can sometimes imagine God looking straight at me saying, “Yeah, tell me about it.”
If the leaders can’t/won’t choose the right course what can we expect of the followers?
Repentance is how we translate metanoia, or “new mind.” It requires a transformation of thinking, feeling, etc.
probably won’t happen every day.
Shameless plug for a post on the subject.
Not ever without the grace of God.
Overcoming sin is the first stage of the spiritual life to holiness. Traditional spirituality speaks of the purgative stage (overcoming sin), the illuminative stage (enlightenment), and the unitive stage (union with God). There are those who start speaking about the higher stages while failing to realize that the general population hasn’t even made on the first step of the purgative way. Now I’m referring to people in the Church, not the general liberal culture.
At some point, if you’re going to grow in the stages, you realize that striving for holiness is the key even above being conscious of sin. In a recent post (the one about homosexual acts being damnable) I said that to be before God requires holiness. I think I said you can’t be holy if you have sinned, but holiness is more than just the absence of sin. Holiness requires configuring oneself to Christ, and that requires prayer, the sacraments. use of sacramentals, fasting, adoration, and so on. With holiness sin becomes abhorrent, miniscule, and more of an irritant, and while we still sin, it is less and less. I hope to reach that some day.
Anyway, I’m just rambling. My mind has been on the nature of holiness this Lent. I don’t know if you caught Scott Hahn’s video series on holiness which have been free for Lent. I don’t think I even addressed your OP. Take it for what it’s worth. My apologies if it doesn’t fit on this post.
You did fine, Manny. Part of that turning away from sin is supposed to be turning toward holiness (good point!)– repent for the kingdom of God is at hand; go and sin no more; follow me — and is why we need the model of (near-)saints in our lives. I’m blessed to have a few — people looking in the right direction toward Jesus and living self-sacrificial lives for the sake of others.
The weaponized ambiguity from our beloved Pope Francis doesn’t help us to distinguish the difference. He makes one ask “why even bother with the Sacrament of Penance then?”
Yes, and we’ve seen examples of this recently when one of the pope’s sycophants, Cardinal McElroy of San Diego used the Cupich-esque “primary role of conscience” in determining morality. But of course, conscience to the progressive Catholic is all about feelings, not truth. The progressives in the Church really have no idea what conscience is – (shameless plug) I wrote about that here.
Well said.
There are several questions that come up regarding sin.
One is the question of what qualifies as sin. For example, in Matthew 5:27-29 (New Revised Standard Version)
I watched a video featuring Dennis Prager today where Prager says that Judaism does not have any type of statement similar to the statement represented as given by Jesus in Matthew 5:27-29. So, while adultery is considered wrong, lust would not be.
So, first there is a debate over what is sinful behavior and what is not. Then there is a question of how serious the sinful behavior is.
Anger? [I suggest reading Matthew 5:21-22]
I dare say that nearly everyone gets angry at times. So, while we might want to keep our anger in check and reduce the number of times that we are angry at others, it doesn’t seem realistic to think of anger is a horrible sin.
In general, it seems that Jesus’s teaching were just not realistic given the nature of human beings. So, Jesus’s teachings seem to have the effect of making everyone a hypocrite since the standards have been set so high, no human being can reach that standard.
It becomes an orgy of condemning others for their bad behavior while pretending that one does not engage in such behavior oneself. Also, real significant offenses are conflated with minor offenses.
Full disclosure: I don’t think that Jesus actually said many of the sayings attributed to him in the gospels. But I do think it is likely that Jesus might have said something similar to what is attributed to him in Matthew chapter 5.
So @heavywater – you are an atheist, you don’t believe the words of Jesus in the Bible (except when it suits you) and you can’t imagine how we can know what sin is. Do you join these discussions to learn something or to just spout your nonsense?
You need to branch out a little bit and not restrict your comments exclusively to personal attacks.
Try it sometime.
Well, that’s just untrue for the Christians I know. Ever heard of “Catholic guilt?” For Pete’s sake, Christians tend to be the only ones holding a mirror up to their own bad behavior!
This made me literally LOL. Thank you for illustrating the point of this post! Since we can’t agree on what sin is and what it isn’t, and since no human can reach sanctity anyway, let’s call the whole “sin” thing off! A perfect modernist response.
Yeah, Dennis is wrong about that. It’s borne out in the terrible consequences of so many young men (and quite a few young women) being addicted to porn. Anytime anyone is exploited so you can get your rocks off, it’s a sin. But, the effect on the addict is just as bad, since most young men are incapable of relating to women in a healthy way these days.
And Dennis also has the disadvantage in his moral life of not having a savior. Or, so he believes. Christianity is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise of a worldwide blessing. Jesus calls us to “be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect” and he doesn’t ask anything of us for which he isn’t willing to provide the necessary graces. Have you never known a saint or a saintly person in your life? Someone blessed with the fruit of the Holy Spirit of self-control? I have, although I’m not one of them. Yet.
I don’t support getting rid of the whole concept of moral standards, only that those moral standards shouldn’t be used to make people feel guilty for simply being human.
For example, if someone punches another person in the face, that person who was punched in the face is likely to feel a sense of anger towards the person who punched him.
In that context, to call anger a sin is mistaken.
In many cases, Jesus seems to be handing out advice that is dumber than dirt.
Now, I can anticipate that many will say, “You need to interpret what Jesus said correctly.”
Sure. But to this very day, you get different Christians interpreting what Jesus supposedly said in very different ways.
You don’t read the Gospels in good faith (or in context), so it’s really kind of pointless engaging with you. Jesus is calling for reconciliation in Matthew. He’s known to use exaggeration (pluck out your eye) and to be provocative (is it acceptable to heal on the sabbath?) in challenging what has become the (pharisaical) social norms.
So, morality according to Heavy Water. I’m sure that will catch on and be passed down through the generations. . .
Human language is often ambiguous. How often has someone said something and the response is, “What do you mean by that? Can you clarify what you meant?”
So, it isn’t shocking at all that there are lots of places in the New Testament where biblical scholars earn PhDs discussing what Matthew or Paul actually meant by this or that phrase.
Let’s check out Matthew 5:21-22 [New Revised Standard Version] that says:
So, obviously there are multiple ways one can interpret this passage here. Also note that the translation I am presenting is the New Revised Standard Version. But when one translates Koine Greek into English, there are multiple ways one might translate various phrases in an attempt to convey the exact meaning to the reader.
Inevitably, there will be a multitude of translations and a multitude of interpretations.
Based on very reasonable interpretations of what Jesus is being presented as saying (not that Jesus necessarily said everything attributed to him in the gospels), one can draw conclusions that Jesus is giving bad advice or at least very impractical advice.
To the extent that Christianity tells people, “Don’t be human,” it is asking people to do the impossible and to then feel ashamed for not being able to do the impossible.
Christianity, in some forms at least, becomes a great tool of manipulation of people. Many Christians can see the manipulation in denominations of Christianity other than their own. When we watch those videos of people handling poisonous snakes to demonstrate their faith in Jesus because they have been told that if they have faith, those poisonous snakes will not harm them, we can see the brainwashing and manipulation that these people have been subjected to.
I have no expectation that my ideas about morality will be considered by anyone except Heavy Water. And Heavy Water listened and reads views regarding morality presented by other people, trying to figure out who has the better argument.
But someone who simply says, “God said” or “The Bible says,” is just trying to find a shortcut, a shortcut that leads to lots of moral error in my opinion.
Catholic Jimmy Akin debates Atheist Bart Ehrman on the historical reliability of the gospels.
We’re done here, HW.
The point of this post is modern man’s inability or unwillingness (or both) to confront sin, which is facilitated by all our diversions and indifference to evil, and even leads to the cancellation of those who speak truth into world. Ancients had trouble accepting the notion of God’s salvation. Moderns refuse to accept their own concupiscence. Many believe Satan’s lie — “you will be as gods” and act as if we’re self-created and get to decide for ourselves what is good and evil. What rubbish.
I’m not debating the historicity of scripture with you and, frankly, I’m not even reading your comments anymore. Go away.
You need a safe space where your ideas will non be subjected to any scrutiny. That’s fine.
You don’t seem to have the slightest clue about good-faith scrutiny. I was a brain-dead liberal/atheist up until my late 30’s when I began to reassess everything I believed. Beginning with the evidence of the good that Christianity has done for individuals and societies (even Germain Greer couldn’t help noticing and being moved by it in the PBS (!) Pope JPII documentary). My political and religious conversion occurred simultaneously, but over time as I explored “the other side” of the issues. You don’t seem persuadable by any amount of evidence. You’re your own
godman. Just too much smarter and learned for the rest of us.I often wonder if people who exhibit such a lack of intellectual meekness as you have ever changed their minds about anything. . .
And, btw, I’m conservative and Catholic. I definitely don’t live in a “safe space,” either from within or without my political and religious affiliations. And that’s what makes people like me a threat to the Left, which is the enemy of all that is good and holy.
There are some argument for which the adjective “sophomoric” would constitute an insult to educated fifteen-year-olds. The kind of thing that Wolfgang Pauli once termed “not even wrong.”
First, Jesus’ exhortations are to take you beyond your humanity. Our true nature was perfect before the fall in the garden. Perfection is the end goal, a return to our state in the garden, and that is in heaven. Of course we cannot live up to them. But that doesn’t mean we’re not to strive for them.
Second, it is always acknowledged that every human being sins. We all know that. It’s not hypocrisy to sin because everyone is a sinner. That’s why the Catholic Church has (a) distinguished between venial and mortal sins and (b) set up a process of repentance. Only mortal sins damn one to hell, not venial sins. And the sacrament of reconciliation absolves one from one’s past sins. But you have to be truly contrite. The real sin – and mark this with emphasis – is not being repentant of sin.
Third, that’s why the notion of purgatory exists. What we cannot perfect in this world, as long as we have not committed mortal sins, we will be purified by fire in the next life.
I have soured greatly on Denis Prager, for a number of reasons. But his biggest moral failing is his support of pornography, which you can read about here. I have known about this support for years, but he keeps doubling down on it.