Msgr. Charles Pope: Sin on Sale – 50 Percent Off – But Beware of the Side Effects

By Msgr. Charles Pope, July 19, 2019

I usually like to keep things light on Friday evening when I post. And the video at the bottom of the page is something of a spoof on drug commercials, treating sin like a drug. Wait till you hear the side-effects disclaimer at the end. 🙂

I also thought today of doing a little post on the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance since I was talking to a parishioner today, who is suffering because his employer has not paid him for three weeks. The employer, a government agency says this is due to “administrative difficulties” in the bureaucracy where he works. He was angry (rightfully so) and getting desperate. I reminded him that withholding wages was a sin that cried to heaven and that God was angry with him. The rest of our conversation I’ll keep private.

With that painful situation in mind and how the negligent sin of one affects another, it occurs to me offer a few lists of sins, that may prove as helpful reminders to all of us in our struggle against it. Sometimes it helps to see sin in categories and to be able to “name the demons,” as a help to combat them. These are just a few helpful lists. There are others and I invite you to add to them. For the sake of brevity, I do not fully develop them all.

In keeping with the video below, consider these lists a kind of “Sin on Sale” a clearance sale if you will. The lists below can be purchased separately or together in packages. But do beware of the potential and likely side-effects!

The sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: (CCC 1867)

1. Murder (Gn 4:10),

2. Sodomy (Gn 17:20-21),

3. Oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23),

4. Defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4).

Seven Deadly Sins

1. Pride

2. Greed

3. Lust

4. Anger

5. Gluttony

6. Envy

7. Sloth

Sins against the Holy Spirit:

1. Despair,

2. Presumption,

3. Envy,

4. Obstinacy in sin,

5. Final impenitence,

6. Deliberate resistance to the known truth.

Sins against faith: (CCC 2088-2089)

1. Hesitating doubt – delaying the overcoming of doubts, difficulties, or objections due to indifference or laziness

2. Voluntary doubt – disregarding of the truth or on-going resistance to overcoming doubt.

3. Incredulity – willful refusal to assent to revealed truths of the faith.

4. Heresy – the choosing and over-emphasizing of certain truths of the faith to the exclusion of others.

5. Schism – Refusal of submission to the Pope or Catholic communion.

6. Apostasy – Total repudiation of the Christian faith.

Sins against God’s love: (CCC 2094)

1. Indifference

2. Ingratitude

3. Lukewarmness

4. Sloth – sorrow or aversion at the good things offers to the soul

5. Hatred of God – usually rooted in prideful notion that refuses to be second to God.

Sins against the Honor that is Due to God – (CCC 2111-2117)

1. Superstition – the elevation of certain practices such that they are regarded as more important or powerful than prayer or trust in God.

2. Idolatry – divinizing what is not God, false worship, holding creatures more precious than the one Creator who is God.

3. Divination – undertaking practices meant to disclose the future, e.g. horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, recourse to mediums etc.

4. Magic and spiritism – attempts to tame occult powers and place them at our service, or to have power over others in this way.

Sins of Irreligion: (CCC 2118-2128)

1. Tempting God – Putting God to the test

2. Sacrilege – stealing sacred things, profaning sacraments or liturgical actions, desecration or speaking irreverently of sacred persons, places or things that are blessed or consecrated to God.

3. Simony – Buying or selling spiritual things, seeking to profit on them merely because they are blessed.

4. Atheism – Denying the existence of God, to include the practical atheism of materialism and utopian notions that man can save himself.

5. Agnosticism – an indifference toward God that refrains from formally denying his existence.

Sins against the name of God: (CCC 2142-2155)

1. Promises – infidelity to promises or oaths made with God’s name

2. Profanity – using God’s name in vain ways that do not respect its sacred character, (e.g. empty expressions like “Oh my God!”

3. Blasphemy – to speak ill of God, trivialize, curse or ridicule him. By extension, to ridicule sacred things or the Saints.

4. Swearing – calling God to witness in matters that are trivial. Also swearing a false oath, committing perjury when under oath.

5. Cursing – using God’s name to curse or call down evil on others.

Sins against the Lord’s Day: (CCC 2185)

1. Refusing the worship owed God

2. Refusing the joy proper to the Lord’s day

3. Refusing the relaxation of mind and body commanded on the Lord’s day.

4. Refusing reasonable works of mercy proper to the Lord’s day.

Sins Against life: (CCC 2268-2283)

1. Intentional homicide – all unjust killing

2. Abortion

3. Euthanasia

4. Suicide

5. Acting with reckless disregard for the safety and life of our self or others

Sins against Chastity: (CCC 2351-2357)

1. Lust – willfully entertaining inordinate or disordered desires for sexual pleasure

2. Masturbation

3. Fornication

4. Adultery

5. Pornography

6. Prostitution

7. Rape

8. Homosexual Activity

Sins of Injustice and theft: (CCC 2409ff)

1. Theft

2. Deliberately keeping lent things

3. Damaging the goods of others without restitution

4. Fraud

5. Paying unjust wages

6. Forcing up prices

7. Refusing to pay debts

8. Work poorly done

9. Tax evasion

10. Forgery

11. Excessive and wasteful practices

12. Hoarding

13. Excessive and unnecessary exploitation of natural resources

14. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the community

15. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the poor

Just a few helpful lists drawn from the Catechism with reference also to the Catholic Source Book and other places.

So there it is a clearance sale on sin. Now here’s a word from our sponsor!

Cross-posted at the Catholic Standard: Sin on Sale – 50 Percent Off – But Beware of the Side Effects

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