Between my grad school work and my various jobs, I have had little time for blogging in the last few months. So I decided to kill a few birds with one stone and let my fourth grade catechism class ask me some questions. I gave them a box to put them in so they could do it anonymously. The results so far have been surprising. Some of their questions are very metaphysically profound. Some of them are very off-topic. But it’s good to know that these kids are thinking.
GTFO! (via Argyle Empire)
On Sin
- Am I Mortal or am I Venial?
(Sigh) Cole, I know this is you. . . are you a sin? You drive me nuts sometimes, but neither of those terms in this context apply to humans. Mortal in reference to people just means you will die someday. So in that case, yes. You are mortal.
However, in the context of this material, these words refer to types of sins. A Mortal Sin is a sin so bad that it removes you automatically from God’s grace. When you commit a mortal sin, you have to go to confession for it as soon as possible. Otherwise, you cannot receive the Eucharist because this can only be done with a clear conscience. You are effectively cutting yourself off from God’s love.
To be a mortal sin, an action has to have three components. First, it has to be very, very wrong, causing serious harm to you, another person, or your relationship with God. Second, you have to know it’s wrong. If, somehow, you were unaware that breaking into someone’s house and stealing their computer was a sin, and you only found out it was a sin afterwards, it wouldn’t be a mortal sin (but you’d still have to submit yourself to the law). Third, you have to do the sin anyway, even knowing it was wrong. This shows a blatant lack of respect for God and for the laws of the universe.
Venial sins are not as serious. They are the little sins we commit every day, like road rage, calling the new kid at school ugly behind her back, “borrowing” Timmy’s favorite eraser, or threatening to stab someone with a pencil (even if you don’t do it). These sins are washed away every time you receive the Eucharist. But they do add up, and if you do a lot of venial sins and don’t receive graces to wash them away by receiving the sacraments, they can add up to mortal sins. That’s why venial sins are also dangerous, and why skipping Mass is a bad idea (and a mortal sin, by the way, kiddos).
- How are we born with a sin?
Original sin is a difficult concept for some of my students because it doesn’t seem fair. Why should we be punished for things we didn’t even do? Why aren’t we born with a clean slate? The important thing to remember about original sin is that it is not something we chose. It is a state we are born into, because since sin came into the world, all creation is tainted with it. If this were not so, Jesus would not have had to die for us. By our nature, we are bound to this sin and are slaves to it, predisposed towards doing evil. Because of the fall, there is something broken in us that craves things which are not good for us. We call this concupiscence.
I explained this to my class thus: imagine that there is a room split in half by a thick brick wall. On one side there are all bad things (sin, death, hell, chaos). This is what we are born into through our fallen natures. On the other side are all the good things God desires for us (virtue, eternal life, heaven, order). That brick wall is called original sin. When the Fall happened, that wall came down, trapping us on the bad side. By our own power, we cannot go through that wall. We are stuck.
But Jesus came, and his cross forms a bridge of grace that pierces the wall and allows us to cross to the good side, if we choose. But the sacrifice of the Son does not make us automatically teleport to the good side. What his death and resurrection does is that it allows us the ability to truly use our Free Will and decide which side we want to serve. Before, we could only choose evil. Christ gives us the option to choose good as well.
But in the end, it is how we use our Free Will that determines whether we end up with the inheritance of our earthly parents (death and eternal darkness), or the inheritance of our Heavenly Father who adopted us (eternal life with Him in Heaven). This is the choice at the core of every choice we make. We can either be agents of light or agents of darkness. Every little decision impacts which side of the scale we slide towards.
- Were Adam and Eve born with original sin?
No. They were created pure, but used their Free Will to choose sin. Even though God knew what would happen from the beginning (as he is omnipotent), he loves humans so much that he could not limit our Free Will. Man has to be able to make the decision to love God. If we were unable to choose to love him or not, it would not really be love, but slavery. So God, knowing that Adam and Eve would make the wrong choice, still gave them the option to do so. It was the most loving thing he could do, and as God is Love, he fulfilled his nature by giving them (as he gives us) the ability to choose.
It is after the decision they made to disobey God that sin entered the world and tainted all of creation. But God had a plan, and sent his Son to unwrite this darkness. He created a New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, born without sin so she could be as pure as the first Eve. He brought out of her womb the New Adam, who is Jesus — just as he fashioned Eve from Adam’s flesh — born without sin as well. They undid Adam and Eve’s disobedience with perfect obedience. They made the opposite choice, conforming themselves to God’s will. And when Jesus died on the cross, his blood washed all of humanity clean and gave us the freedom to make the same choice.
- Adam and Eve were jerks! Why did they do that?
Temptation is a powerful thing. Have you ever been tempted to do something that you knew wasn’t right? Of course you have. We all have. Satan is very, very good at getting his way, because he knows where to hit us. He only has a few tricks to get us, but he only needs a few because they are so effective at playing off of our desires. Let’s look at the Fall and see what tools Satan used on Adam and Eve:
Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? [2] And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: [3] But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die. [4] And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. [5] For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.
[6] And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. (Gen. 3:1-6)
The first tactic Satan uses is to create a desire for something that was not already desired. Adam and Eve were perfectly content eating from the vast bounty God had allotted them. Satan is careful not to mention this. He instead points out only the one tree God told them not to eat from. His question isn’t “why only some trees?” It’s “why not EVERY tree?” He implies that God is holding something back, that Adam and Eve should not have boundaries, but should be able to do whatever they want.
We see this tactic at work all the time in our society today. We are given so many good things, but our culture tells us constantly that we should want more. “Why can’t you have sex with anybody? Those moral codes are outdated!” “Why not do those drugs? You know you want to feel good!” “Do whatever you like. It’s a free country!” Sound familiar?
The second tactic he uses is blatant lying about God’s intentions. “Naw, man. He’s just lying to you. All those bad things he warned you about won’t happen.” This implication that God is not only holding something back, but is just trying to scare them into not doing something is very powerful. It put great doubt in Eve’s mind that God really is as good as he says he is.
Once again, let’s bring this into our world. How often do we hear things like this: “I just can’t believe that God would be so hateful as to deny me what I want!” “You Christians are so bigoted!” “Only God can judge me, so stop imposing your morality on me!” There is a distinct difference between judging people (ie. deciding whether they can be saved or not) and telling them that maybe they shouldn’t be doing that bad thing that will lead them to be condemned. It’s not judgement to tell someone that what they are doing is wrong. It’s being a loving friend. But Satan is very good at convincing us that judgement and warning are the same thing. Furthermore, it is in our nature to desire whatever we want without consequences, and Satan is an expert at telling us that the consequences will just go away.
The third tactic we see in this passage is the offer of a carrot. Satan tells Eve that not only is God lying about his intentions, but that the thing she now wants is even better and more shiny than she thought. In fact, it will empower her and give her the ability to know good and evil (ie. to decide what is right and what is wrong). Oooh. Jackpot. Enter moral relativism.
The root of all our evil desires is power of one sort or another. We all want to be in control of our little universe. We all, in a sense, want to be God. And Satan knows this better than anyone. It was this same desire that got him thrown out of heaven. Because it is his sin, he knows how to hit us with it. The promise of power, of control over one aspect of our lives or another, is very alluring. We want power over when we die, when we get pregnant, what our environment does. . . we want control over everything. And some things simply were not designed for human control.
So, you see, Adam and Eve didn’t go out of their way to condemn humanity. They were played by a master player, and they made the wrong choice, just as our culture tries to get us to do every day. It is hard to stand up to temptation. But now you get to make that choice: will you trust God to do what is best for you, or will you fight him all the way? Will you surrender control, or demand it? Will you accept the consequences of your actions, or will you pretend they don’t exist while your sin consumes you?
It’s your choice. It has always been your choice. Are you ready to make the right one?
-E.G. Norton
Next time, we’ll tackle some questions about demons and the end of the world.
The Trenchcoat Introspective 