Judas and the Killing of God

A commenter says, "It is impossible to come up with a worse sin than the one Judas commits. Killing God. There is nothing worse."

In reading the Passion account from the Gospel in the Good Friday liturgy in Catholic churches, often instead of just one person reading it, many people take various parts. One part that the faithful in the pews take is to yell out, "Crucify him, crucify him!"

The fact is that we all betray the Lord, we all call for his death, we all hammer the nails into his hands and feet. How? By the sins we commit, that is, by what we think and do and fail to think and do that separates us from God. It is only because of our own infidelities and transgressions that Jesus is on the Cross in the first place. We are all Judas -- and the whole reason the Lord became man was to save people like Judas.

Yes, there ARE worse sins than betraying the Lord and killing God. There are far worse sins. After all, even killing God in the flesh can be forgiven.

What can possibly be worse?? The worse sin, the ONLY "unforgivable" sin is what Judas did afterward. And what was that? Despite his feelings of guilt, Judas did not turn back to the Lord. He did not seek reconciliation, the prodigal son never came home. By not seeking the forgiveness that was there waiting for him, by not opening up his heart to God's mercy, by continuing to turn his back on God by instead hanging himself, Judas could not be forgiven.

It was the gift never opened. It was the delivery returned to sender. He was impervious to redemption. THAT is the greatest sin. And, sadly, it too is a sin that others commit.

Reflection on Betrayal and Denial, Repentance and Non-Repentance

The Mass readings for Holy Week set the stage for the Paschal Triduum as the holy anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany is set in contrast to his betrayal and denial.

Judas shared a table with Jesus, accepted his hospitality, but is duplicitous (see Psalms 41, 55). Even the act of handing Jesus over to the soldiers is done with a kiss of friendship. But although he knew of Judas’ duplicity, Jesus still welcomed him at table and even got down on his knees to wash his feet.

Jesus does not judge or condemn Judas. Judas asks, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” and Jesus responds, “You have said so.” Jesus is not judgmental. In the mystery of Jesus’ human living in time and his divinity in eternity, he gives Judas the opportunity to alter his course, to change his mind. The Lord gives him an out.

Why did Judas do it? Was it because he had lost faith in Jesus, because he falsely believed that Jesus would be a military revolutionary and was not? Perhaps he did have that false belief of what a messiah should be -- but didn't Judas see the works Jesus performed? Didn't he just see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead?? Surely that would have disabused him of the whole revolutionary thing?

Was it malice born of some other reason? To knowingly destroy Jesus? Or was it foolishness? Did he not fully realize what he was doing and merely thought that he would force an answer to the Messiah question?

In any event, whether it is malicious pride or foolish pride, Judas thought he knew better than Jesus. He wanted to do things his way. But then, so did many of the other Apostles. And so do we, we think we know better than God. Certainly Simon Peter did at times. At the arrest, he pulls out his sword. And afterward, he is afraid to trust in the Lord, to simply put his life in God’s hands and instead seeks to save his life by denying God.

Reliving and participating in this drama, we encounter the reality of our human condition, and the reality of God meeting infidelity and sin with love. In each case, Peter and Judas, the Lord is willing to forgive. For us too, there is no sin so great that God will not forgive, will not welcome the opportunity to embrace the wayward child that comes home and to repair the severed relationship. As Isaiah the Prophet tells us, our sins, though they be like scarlet, shall be made white as snow by his divine love (Isaiah 1:18). Even mass murder.

Peter and Judas both feel enormous guilt at what they have done. But while Peter subsequently repents and seeks forgiveness, Judas does not, despite his regret. The repentant denier obtains eternal life, while the unrepentant betrayer takes his life.

“Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born,” said Jesus.

And that is the real tragedy, the real and greatest sin – failing to repent, to convert and turn back from the darkness and seek the light. All of us at times are Peter, all of us at times are Judas. It is important not to sin in the first place, to act against the love and truth that is God and thereby separate ourselves from Him who is live itself. Having done so in our human weakness, however, the most important thing is to turn back to the Lord of life and repent and seek reconciliation. Because in failing to do so, in failing to seek forgiveness, whether out of despair or whatever, we commit the greatest sin which Jesus says is “unforgiveable.” It is unforgiveable because the person never opens himself up to God’s mercy and it is like the gift that is never opened and, thus, never received.

Judas goes his own way. He thinks he knows better than the Lord Jesus in handing him over. And even worse for him, he goes his own way when Jesus is condemned. Despite his feelings of guilt, he never turns back to the Lord and, thus, meets his end. Instead of seeking and getting forgiveness, like Peter did, he still keeps apart from the Lord and hangs himself.

The Lord teaches us that though we may sin against him and may deny him, he will remain faithful to us, and to be forgiven we need only repent as Peter did. And in that ultimate judgment after we die and stand before him, as with Judas, we mostly condemn ourselves by how we have lived our lives, with Christ the Judge simply acknowledging the truth. In our lives today, there is still time to return to the Lord.

Mortal and Venial Sin

In leading up to our discussion on the necessity of making a good confession of sins, we previously turned to Blessed Pope John Paul II to answer the fundamental question of "What is sin?" We also noted that the Catechism (CCC 1849-69) states that sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor, that is, the nature of sin is a privation or distortion or perversion of love and/or truth.

Now, in order to make a good confession, we need to not only know what sin per se is, it is proper to also understand distinctions between different sins. Theologians in the Church and the Magisterium have recognized that some sins are more serious than others with respect to the consequences they incur. Some sin is so grave, so contrary to love and/or truth that it essentially severs the person's relationship with God, while other sin, while a deviation from love and/or truth, weakens the person's relationship with God. We call these mortal sins and venial sins.

Reconciliatio et Paenitentia
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on Reconciliation and Penance
Blessed Pope John Paul II
December 2, 1984

17. Why and to what degree is sin a serious matter in the offense it commits against God and in its effects on man?

The Church has a teaching on this matter which she reaffirms in its essential elements, while recognizing that it is not always easy in concrete situations to define clear and exact limits.

Already in the Old Testament, individuals guilty of several kinds of sins - sins committed deliberately,(75) the various forms of impurity,(76) idolatry,(77) the worship of false gods (78) - were ordered to be "taken away from the people," which could also mean to be condemned to death.(79) Contrasted with these, were other sins especially sins committed through ignorance, that were forgiven by means of a sacrificial offering.(80)

In reference also to these texts, the Church has for centuries spoken of mortal sin and venial sin. But it is above all the New Testament that sheds light on this distinction and these terms. Here there are many passages which enumerate and strongly reprove sins that are particularly deserving of condemnation.(81) There is also the confirmation of the Decalogue by Jesus Himself.(82) Here I wish to give special attention to two passages that are significant and impressive.

In a text of his First Letter, St. John speaks of a sin which leads to death (pros thanaton), as opposed to a sin which does not lead to death (me pros thanaton).(83)

Obviously, the concept of death here is a spiritual death. It is a question of the loss of the true life or "eternal life," which for John is knowledge of the Father and the Son,(84) and communion and intimacy with them. In that passage the sin that leads to death seems to be the denial of the Son(85) or the worship of false gods.(86) At any rate, by this distinction of concepts, John seems to wish to emphasize the incalculable seriousness of what constitutes the very essence of sin, namely the rejection of God. This is manifested above all in apostasy and idolatry: repudiating faith in revealed truth and making certain created realities equal to God, raising them to the status of idols or false gods.(87) But in this passage, the apostle's intention is also to underline the certainty that comes to the Christian from the fact of having been "born of God" through the coming of the Son: The Christian possesses a power that preserves him from falling into sin; God protects him, and "the evil one does not touch him." If he should sin through weakness or ignorance, he has confidence in being forgiven, also because he is supported by the joint prayer of the community.

In another passage of the New Testament, namely in St. Matthew's Gospel,(88) Jesus Himself speaks of a "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" that "will not be forgiven" by reason of the fact that in its manifestation, it is an obstinate refusal to be converted to the love of the Father of mercies.

Here, of course, it is a question of external radical manifestations: rejection of God, rejection of His grace and therefore opposition to the very source of salvation(89) - these are manifestations whereby a person seems to exclude himself voluntarily from the path of forgiveness. It is to be hoped that very few persist to the end in this attitude of rebellion or even defiance of God. Moreover, God in His merciful love is greater than our hearts, as St. John further teaches us,(90) and can overcome all our psychological and spiritual resistance. So that, as St. Thomas writes, "considering the omnipotence and mercy of God, no one should despair of the salvation of anyone in this life."(91)

But when we ponder the problem of a rebellious will meeting the infinitely just God, we cannot but experience feelings of salutary "fear and trembling," as St. Paul suggests.(92) Moreover, Jesus' warning about the sin "that will not be forgiven" confirms the existence of sins which can bring down on the sinner the punishment of "eternal death."

In the light of these and other passages of sacred Scripture, doctors and theologians, spiritual teachers and pastors have divided sins into mortal and venial. St. Augustine, among others, speaks of letalia or mortifera crimina, contrasting them with venialia, levia or quotidiana.(93) The meaning which he gives to these adjectives was to influence the successive Magisterium of the Church. After him, it was St. Thomas who was to formulate in the clearest possible terms the doctrine which became a constant in the Church.

In defining and distinguishing between mortal and venial sins, St. Thomas and the theology of sin that has its source in him could not be unaware of the biblical reference and therefore of the concept of spiritual death. According to St. Thomas, in order to live spiritually, man must remain in communion with the supreme principle of life, which is God, since God is the ultimate end of man's being and acting.

Now, sin is a disorder perpetrated by the human being against this life-principle. And when through sin, the soul commits a disorder that reaches the point of turning away from its ultimate end God, to which it is bound by charity, then the sin is mortal; on the other hand, whenever the disorder does not reach the point of a turning away from God, the sin is venial.(94) For this reason, venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and therefore eternal happiness, whereas just such a deprivation is precisely the consequence of mortal sin.

Furthermore, when sin is considered from the point of view of the punishment it merits, for St. Thomas and other doctors, mortal sin is the sin which, if unforgiven, leads to eternal punishment; whereas venial sin is the sin that merits merely temporal punishment (that is, a partial punishment which can be expiated on earth or in purgatory).

Considering sin from the point of view of its matter, the ideas of death, of radical rupture with God, the supreme good, of deviation from the path that leads to God or interruption of the journey toward Him (which are all ways of defining mortal sin) are linked with the idea of the gravity of sin's objective content. Hence, in the church's doctrine and pastoral action, grave sin is in practice identified with mortal sin.

Here we have the core of the church's traditional teaching, which was reiterated frequently and vigorously during the recent synod. The synod in fact not only reaffirmed the teaching of the Council of Trent concerning the existence and nature of mortal and venial sins,(95) but it also recalled that mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent. It must be added - as was likewise done at the synod - that some sins are intrinsically grave and mortal by reason of their matter. That is, there exist acts which, per se and in themselves, independently of circumstances, are always seriously wrong by reason of their object. These acts, if carried out with sufficient awareness and freedom, are always gravely sinful.(96)

This doctrine, based on the Decalogue and on the preaching of the Old Testament, and assimilated into the kerygma of the Apostles and belonging to the earliest teaching of the Church, and constantly reaffirmed by her to this day, is exactly verified in the experience of the men and women of all times. Man knows well by experience that along the road of faith and justice which leads to the knowledge and love of God in this life, and toward perfect union with Him in eternity, he can cease to go forward or can go astray without abandoning the way of God; and in this case there occurs venial sin. This, however, must never be underestimated, as though it were automatically something that can be ignored or regarded as "a sin of little importance."

For man also knows, through painful experience, that by a conscious and free act of his will, he can change course and go in a direction opposed to God's will, separating himself from God (aversio a Deo), rejecting loving communion with Him, detaching himself from the life principle which God is and consequently choosing death.

With the whole tradition of the church, we call mortal sin the act by which man freely and consciously rejects God, His law, the covenant of love that God offers, preferring to turn in on himself or to some created and finite reality, something contrary to the divine will (conversio ad creaturam). This can occur in a direct and formal way in the sins of idolatry, apostasy and atheism; or in an equivalent way, as in every act of disobedience to God's commandments in a grave matter. Man perceives that this disobedience to God destroys the bond that unites him with his life principle: It is a mortal sin, that is, an act which gravely offends God and ends in turning against man himself with a dark and powerful force of destruction. . . .

[The] essential and decisive distinction is between sin which destroys charity and sin which does not kill the supernatural life: There is no middle way between life and death.

Care will have to be taken not to reduce mortal sin to an act of "fundamental option" - as is commonly said today - against God, intending thereby an explicit and formal contempt for God or neighbor. For mortal sin exists also when a person knowingly and willingly, for whatever reason, chooses something gravely disordered. In fact, such a choice already includes contempt for the divine law, a rejection of God's love for humanity and the whole of creation; the person turns away from God and loses charity.

Thus, the fundamental orientation can be radically changed by individual acts. Clearly there can occur situations which are very complex and obscure from a psychological viewpoint and which have an influence on the sinner's subjective culpability. But from a consideration of the psychological sphere, one cannot proceed to the construction of a theological category, which is what the "fundamental option" precisely is, understanding it in such a way that it objectively changes or casts doubt upon the traditional concept of mortal sin.

While every sincere and prudent attempt to clarify the psychological and theological mystery of sin is to be valued, the Church nevertheless has a duty to remind all scholars in this field of the need to be faithful to the word of God that teaches us also about sin. She likewise has to remind them of the risk of contributing to a further weakening of the sense of sin in the modern world.
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Footnotes:
75. Cf Nm 15:30.
76. Cf Lv 18:26-30.
77. Cf ibid., 19:4.
78. Cf ibid., 20:1-7.
79. Cf Ex 21:17.
80. Cf Lv 4:2ff; 5:1ff; Nm 15:22-29.
81. Cf Mt 5:28; 6:23; 12:31f; 15:19; Mk 3:28-30; Rom 1:29-31; 13:13; Jas 4.
82. Cf Mt 5:17; 15:1-10; Mk 10:19; Lk 18:20.
83. Cf 1 Jn 5:16f.
84. Cf 1 Jn 17:3.
85. Cf 1 Jn 2:22.
86. Cf 1 Jn 5:21.
87. Cf 1 Jn 5:16-21.
88. Cf Mt 12:31f.
89. Cf St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 14, aa. 1-8.
90. Cf 1 Jn 3:20.
91. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 14, a. 3, ad primum.
92. Cf Phil 2:12.
93. Cf St. Augustine, De Spintu et Littera, XXVIII: CSEL 60, 202f; Enarrat. in ps. 39, 22: CCL 38, 441; Enchiridion ad Laurentium de Fide et Spe et Cantate, XIX, 71: CCL 46, 88; In Ioannis Evangelium Tractatus, 12, 3,14: CCL 36, 129.
94. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 72, a. 5.
95. Cf Council of Trent, Session VI, De Iustificatione, Chap. 2 and Canons 23, 25, 27: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, Bologna 1973, 671 and 680f (DS 1573, 1575,1577).
96. Cf Council of Trent, Session IV De Iustificatione, Chapt. 15: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, ed. dt. 677 (DS 1544).

The Mystery of Sin, the Mystery of Christ

Previously, we discussed the necessity of making of sacramental confession of one's sins, and soon we will take up the matter of the necessity of making a good confession of sins. But both of these beg the question -- "What is sin?" I recently came across this teaching by Blessed Pope John Paul II and it should help to answer that fundamental question.

Reconciliatio et Paenitentia
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on Reconciliation and Penance
December 2, 1984

13. In the words of St. John the apostle, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins." (1 Jn 1:8-9) Written at the very dawn of the church, these inspired words introduce better than any other human expression the theme of sin, which is intimately connected with that of reconciliation. . . .

To acknowledge one's sin, indeed - penetrating still more deeply into the consideration of one's own personhood - to recognize oneself as being a sinner, capable of sin and inclined to commit sin, is the essential first step in returning to God. . . .

[The] consequences of sin are the reasons for division and rupture not only within each person, but also within the various circles of a person's life: in relation to the family, to the professional and social environment, as can often be seen from experience; it is confirmed by the passage in the Bible about the city of Babel and its tower. (cf. Gn 11:1-9) Intent on building what was to be at once a symbol and a source of unity, those people found themselves more scattered than before, divided in speech, divided among themselves, incapable of consensus and agreement.

Why did the ambitious project fail? Why did "the builders labor in vain?" (cf. Ps 127 (126):1) They failed because they had set up, as a sign and guarantee of the unity they desired, a work of their own hands alone and had forgotten the action of the Lord. They had attended only to the horizontal dimension of work and social life, forgetting the vertical dimension by which they would have been rooted in God, their creator and Lord, and would have been directed toward Him as the ultimate goal of their progress.

Now it can be said that the tragedy of humanity today, as indeed of every period in history, consists precisely in its similarity to the experience of Babel. . . .

14. A first point which helps us to understand sin emerges from the biblical narrative on the building of the tower of Babel: The people sought to build a city, organize themselves into a society and to be strong and powerful without God, if not precisely against God. (The terminology used in the Septuagint Greek translation and in the New Testament for sin is significant. The most common term for sin is hamartia, with its various derivatives. It expresses the concept of offending more or less gravely against a norm or law, or against a person or even a divinity. But sin is also called adikia, and the concept here is of acting unjustly. The Bible also speaks of parabasis (transgression), asebeis (impiety) and other concepts. They all convey the image of sin.)

In this sense, the story of the first sin in Eden and the story of Babel, in spite of notable differences in content and form, have one thing in common: In both there is an exclusion of God through direct opposition to one of His commandments, through an act of rivalry, through the mistaken pretension of being "like Him." (Gn 3:5, cf. 3:22) In the story of Babel, the exclusion of God is presented not so much under the aspect of opposition to Him, as of forgetfulness and indifference toward Him, as if God were of no relevance in the sphere of man's joint projects. But in both cases, the relationship to God is severed with violence. In the case of Eden there appears in all its seriousness and tragic reality that which constitutes the ultimate essence and darkness of sin: disobedience to God, to His law, to the mural norm that He has given man, inscribing it in his heart and confirming and perfecting it through revelation.

Exclusion of God, rupture with God, disobedience to God: Throughout the history of mankind this has been and is, in various forms, sin. It can go as far as a very denial of God and his existence: This is the phenomenon called atheism.

It is the disobedience of a person who, by a free act, does not acknowledge God's sovereignty over his or her life, at least at that particular moment in which he or she transgresses God's law. . . .

15. According to the Babel story, the result of sin is the shattering of the human family, already begun with the first sin and now reaching its most extreme form on the social level.

No one wishing to investigate the mystery of sin can ignore this link between cause and effect. As a rupture with God, sin is an act of disobedience by a creature who rejects, at least implicitly, the very one from whom he came and who sustains him in life. It is therefore a suicidal act.

Since by sinning, man refuses to submit to God, his internal balance is also destroyed and it is precisely within himself that contradictions and conflicts arise. Wounded in this way, man almost inevitably causes damage to the fabric of his relationship with others and with the created world. This is an objective law and an objective reality, verified in so many ways in the human psyche and in the spiritual life as well as in society, where it is easy to see the signs and effects of internal disorder. . . .

18. It happens not infrequently in history, for more or less lengthy periods and under the influence of many different factors, that the moral conscience of many people becomes seriously clouded. . . . It is inevitable therefore that in this situation there is an obscuring also of the sense of sin, which is closely connected with the moral conscience, the search for truth and the desire to make a responsible use of freedom. When the conscience is weakened, the sense of God is also obscured, and as a result, with the loss of this decisive inner point of reference, the sense of sin is lost. . . .

The loss of the sense of sin is thus a form or consequence of the denial of God: not only in the form of atheism but also in the form of secularism. If sin is the breaking off of one's filial relationship to God in order to situate one's life outside of obedience to Him, then to sin is not merely to deny God. To sin is also to live as if He did not exist, to eliminate Him from one's daily life. . . .

19. In order to understand sin, we have had to direct our attention to its nature as made known to us by the revelation of the economy of salvation: This is the mysterium iniquitatis. But in this economy, sin is not the main principle, still less the victor. Sin fights against another active principle which - to use a beautiful and evocative expression of St. Paul - we can call the mysterium or sacramentum pietatis. Man's sin would be the winner and in the end destructive, God's salvific plan would remain incomplete or even totally defeated, if this mysterium pietatis were not made part of the dynamism of history in order to conquer man's sin. . . .

The mystery or sacrament of pietas, therefore, is the very mystery of Christ. It is, in a striking summary, the mystery of the incarnation and redemption, of the full Passover of Jesus, the Son of God and son of Mary: the mystery of His passion and death, of His resurrection and glorification. . . . this same mystery of God's infinite loving kindness toward us is capable of penetrating to the hidden roots of our iniquity! in order to evoke in the soul a movement of conversion, in order to redeem it and set it on course toward reconciliation.
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The Conscience at Pentecost

Lord, you insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom. Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow.

Create a pure heart in me, God, put a steadfast spirit into me. Do not send me away from your presence, or withdraw your Holy Spirit from me; give me again the joy of your salvation, and be ready to strengthen me with your Spirit. (Ps. 51:8-9, 12-14)

Our discussion on Sophie Scholl over at Cinema Catechism has led us to take up the matter of the conscience, and how one cannot, in all good conscience, acquiesce or do nothing in the face of evil, much less give into and cooperate with it, but must instead oppose it. And one cannot justify doing that which is objectively evil by insisting that such conduct does not violate his “conscience,” as if he could choose or create his own conscience. That is not the conscience, that is the will.

It is true that sometimes discerning right from wrong, good from evil, can be difficult, and even when it is clear, sometimes listening to the voice of conscience and resisting evil can be difficult because it might bring with it adverse consequences. But God does not leave us alone to fend for ourselves. Rather, as His Holiness Pope John Paul II teaches us, He has sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to be a light for our conscience and the grace of fortitude to follow it.

Encyclical Letter Dominum et Vivificantem
Blessed Pope John Paul II

27. When Jesus during the discourse in the Upper Room foretells the coming of the Holy Spirit "at the price of" His own departure, and promises "I will send Him to you," in the very same context He adds: "And when He comes, He will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment." (Jn 16:7f) . . .

30. Christ's prophecies in the farewell discourse found their most exact and direct confirmation on the day of Pentecost, in particular the prediction which we are dealing with: "The Counselor...will convince the world concerning sin." On that day, the promised Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles gathered in prayer together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, in the same Upper Room, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. . . .

33. According to the witness concerning the beginning, sin in its original reality takes place in man's will -- and conscience -- first of all as "disobedience," that is, as opposition of the will of man to the will of God. This original disobedience presupposes a rejection, or at least a turning away from the truth contained in the Word of God, who creates the world. . . .

36. According to the Book of Genesis, "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" was to express and constantly remind man of the "limit" impassable for a created being. God's prohibition is to be understood in this sense: the Creator forbids man and woman to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The words of the enticement, that is to say the temptation, as formulated in the sacred text, are an inducement to transgress this prohibition -- that is to say, to go beyond that "limit": "When you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God ["like gods"], knowing good and evil." (Gen 2:9, 17)

"Disobedience" means precisely going beyond that limit, which remains impassable to the will and the freedom of man as a created being. For God the Creator is the one definitive source of the moral order in the world created by Him. Man cannot decide by himself what is good and what is evil -- cannot "know good and evil, like God." In the created world God indeed remains the first and sovereign source for deciding about good and evil, through the intimate truth of being, which is the reflection of the Word, the eternal Son, consubstantial with the Father. To man, created to the image of God, the Holy Spirit gives the gift of conscience, so that in this conscience the image may faithfully reflect its model, which is both Wisdom and eternal Law, the source of the moral order in man and in the world.

"Disobedience," as the original dimension of sin, means the rejection of this source, through man's claim to become an independent and exclusive source for deciding about good and evil. The Spirit who "searches the depths of God," and who at the same time is for man the light of conscience and the source of the moral order, knows in all its fullness this dimension of the sin inscribed in the mystery of man's beginning. . . .

37. According to the witness of the beginning, God in creation has revealed Himself as omnipotence, which is love. At the same time He has revealed to man that, as the "image and likeness" of his Creator, he is called to participate in truth and love. . . .

42. The words of the Risen Christ on the "first day of the week" give particular emphasis to the presence of the Paraclete-Counselor as the one who "convinces the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment." . . . By becoming "the light of hearts," that is to say the light of consciences, the Holy Spirit "convinces concerning sin," which is to say, He makes man realize his own evil and at the same time directs him toward what is good. . . .

The Holy Spirit undertakes [this "convincing concerning sin"] by virtue of the Redemption accomplished by the Blood of the Son of Man. Hence the Letter to the Hebrews says that this "blood purifies the conscience." It therefore, so to speak, opens to the Holy Spirit the door into man's inmost being, namely into the sanctuary of human consciences. (Heb 9:14)

43. The Second Vatican Council mentioned the Catholic teaching on conscience when it spoke about man's vocation and in particular about the dignity of the human person. It is precisely the conscience in particular which determines this dignity. For the conscience is "the most secret core and sanctuary of a man, where he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths." It "can ...speak to his heart more specifically: do this, shun that." (Gaudium et Spes 16)

This capacity to command what is good and to forbid evil, placed in man by the Creator, is the main characteristic of the personal subject. But at the same time, "in the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience." (GS 16)

The conscience therefore is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide what is good and what is evil. Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a principle of obedience vis-a-vis the objective norm which establishes and conditions the correspondence of its decisions with the commands and prohibitions which are at the basis of human behavior, as from the passage of the Book of Genesis which we have already considered.

Precisely in this sense the conscience is the "secret sanctuary" in which "God's voice echoes." The conscience is "the voice of God," even when man recognizes in it nothing more than the principle of the moral order which it is not humanly possible to doubt, even without any direct reference to the Creator. It is precisely in reference to this that the conscience always finds its foundation and justification.

The Gospel's "convincing concerning sin" under the influence of the Spirit of truth can be accomplished in man in no other way except through the conscience. If the conscience is upright, it serves "to resolve according to truth the moral problems which arise both in the life of individuals and from social relationships"; then "persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by the objective standards of moral conduct." (GS 16)

A result of an upright conscience is, first of all, to call good and evil by their proper name, as we read in the same Pastoral Constitution:

"whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons" (GS 27);

and having called by name the many different sins that are so frequent and widespread in our time, the Constitution adds:

"All these things and others of their kind are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator." (GS 27)

By calling by their proper name the sins that most dishonor man, and by showing that they are a moral evil that weighs negatively on any balance-sheet of human progress, the Council also describes all this as a stage in "a dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness," which characterizes "all of human life, whether individual or collective." (GS 13) . . .

44. "Convincing the world concerning sin" does not end with the fact that sin is called by its right name and identified for what it is throughout its entire range. In convincing the world concerning sin the Spirit of truth comes into contact with the voice of human consciences. . . .

As the Council teaches: "A monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested." (GS 37) "But the Lord Himself came to free and strengthen man." (GS 13) Man, therefore, far from allowing himself to be "ensnared" in his sinful condition, by relying upon the voice of his own conscience, "is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to cling to what is good. Nor can he achieve his own interior integrity without valiant efforts and the help of God's grace." (GS 37)

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Mankind: Creation, Fall, and the Long Process of Salvation History

Adult Catechism Class Two
Saturday, May 7, 2011

I. The Existence and Nature of Man and the Meaning of Life (CCC 355-384)

If questions about God are unavoidable, so too are the questions: Where does mankind come from and why do we exist?

Just as observation and reason allow us to come to the conclusion that the universe was made by a Creator, so also do observation and reason allow us to conclude that life on earth, especially human beings, were also the fruits of a Creator's thoughts and actions. But, as with the universe generally, written revelation and faith enlightens our reason to an even greater degree, so that we can know not only where man came from, but why he exists in the first place. For those who have no use for God, the meaning of man's existence has only confounded and confused, leaving them all too often in existential angst and nihilistic despair. For those who accept revelation and faith -- the truth has set them free.

Revelation informs us that, in Love and in Truth, God created “man,” male and female, in His image. Man is a created being; he is not self-actualizing, he did not create himself. He is not accidental, and he is not the product of spontaneous animation of matter. We were and are created by a thought of God; each of us is willed by Him as an act of love. Man exists, man lives, only because God the Ultimate Life has breathed into the body of man (Genesis 2:7), thereby giving him life by His own Holy Spirit. This also shows also that man was created not merely as a physical entity, like a stone, and not merely as a spiritual being, like the angels; rather, God created us with a unified soul-infused body, which comprises one nature of spirit and matter, transcendent and temporal. To be made in the image of God also means that we are persons with an inherent dignity, not things, and that we are possessed with sentience and free will, as well as the capacity for reason and for love.

Man is naturally drawn toward God -- even if he does not realize it or argues against it -- because man is naturally drawn toward love and truth, and this love and truth that man seeks has a name, they are a person -- God. Now, although love is naturally fruitful, God did not have to create the universe or human beings. He was not forced or compelled to do so out of some narcissistic need to be worshiped. Rather, He chose to create the universe and humanity. God is complete in and of Himself, in need of nothing outside Himself. As the “I am,” the Logos, God is the only necessary being – we humans are entirely contingent upon Him.

Our bodies (male and female) reveal that God made us, like Him, to be social and relational beings who are equal and complementary, beings who are meant to need each other and exist both in general society and in a specific loving communion of persons. That is, “man” as an individual, is incomplete. We are in need of an “other” to complete and fulfill us.

This truth is further explained by scripture, which presents us with a “theology of the body.” Genesis (1:26-28) informs us that “God created Man in his image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.” To be made in God’s image means to be made in the image of truth and love. As demonstrated in the Trinity, this love is not merely relational, but spousal in nature, that is, a love that draws the individual toward a communion of persons. By the words, “He created him; male and female He created them,” we see that there was an original unity of male and female, man and woman; that they are designed to be complementary and intended for each other in equal dignity.

In another account of the same truth, (Gen. 2:18-25) describes how God said "It is not good for the man to be alone.” To demonstrate this, God first had the man exist in an original solitude, so that we could see how much we are in need of other persons. Although the man had the company of plenty of animals, he saw that none of them were like him, he was alone. Having demonstrated by experience that it is not good for him to be alone, God then took a rib from the side of Adam and, from that rib, made Eve, leading Adam to exclaim joy¬fully, "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” This describes how, as individuals, there is something missing in our very being. For both men and women, there is a gaping hole in our side, and we desperately need an “other” to fill that hole. Without that other, there is a void, an emptiness. We need to have that rib returned to our side to be whole again, to be fulfilled. We need the “other” to be one and complete, to be true to ourselves, and the other can fill the void only with and by love.

We cannot be fulfilled if we are left to ourselves in solitude. We can fill part of that hole with a spouse, as with the first spouses, Adam and Eve, but even then God needs to be part of the relationship to bind them together and to fill the remaining void. Indeed, we see that “man” manifests an image of the Trinity, a communion of three persons in one, when man (male) and woman (female) are joined together with God, as husband and wife, by the Love that is the Holy Spirit. Moreover, love in its fullest sense being not only unitive but naturally fruitful, we have the ability to share and participate in God’s procreative power of creating new life and have been explicitly commanded by Him to “be fruitful and multiply.”

For those who are permanently single, God is the only one who can fill the entirety of that void because He is the One who is Love, the One who is Completeness. Unless and until the heart is thusly filled, there is a restlessness and a hunger.

Indeed, we exist to love and to be loved in truth. That was, and is, God’s plan for humanity; that is the meaning and purpose of life -- to live in the truth and love and be loved. (Mt. 22:37-40; Jn 13:34)

After creating mankind, God did not simply withdraw into heaven, sit back, and do nothing. That would not be love. Rather, in Divine Providence, He continues to interact with His creation, sustaining and caring for it by His Love and Truth.

Man and Freedom

Man, male and female, was created in the image of God, who is Love and Truth. God loves each of us and seeks our love in return. Accordingly, as individual human persons, we are meant to exist in love and truth, that is, the meaning of human life is to love and be loved in truth.

At the same time, love is not truly love if it is not freely given and freely received, and love does not force itself or impose itself upon the other. That would not be love, but an act of falsehood and an act of violence. As such, God does not force Him¬self or His Love upon anyone. God is not a puppet master. Thus, we are also created with a capacity for free choice of the will. This free will, an ability to choose, includes the ability to freely choose to return God’s love, or the freedom to reject Him and live our lives apart from Him.

Now, because humans do have free will, and their thoughts and actions are the result of their own willful choices, they can justly be held morally responsible for them. That is, it is right and just that we should experience the consequences of our choices.

II. The Fall of Man (Gen. 3:1-24) (CCC 385-421)

Free will, an ability to choose, includes the ability to freely choose to return God’s love, or the freedom to reject Him and live our lives apart from Him. Thus, the man and the woman of Creation were free to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, even though God had warned them not to: "the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."

The man and the woman thought that they could be like gods themselves, that they could then choose their own truth, their own reality, their own concepts of right and wrong. They thought that they could be self-fulfilling and self-sufficient, not needing God or other people. Even today, there are many people who still believe this. Indeed, we could easily say that we are, ourselves, both Adam and Eve, that the story of the Fall of Man is one that repeats itself on a daily basis.

However, the man and woman were wrong. In eating the fruit, in freely choosing to oppose God, believing that they did not need the one true God, but could be gods themselves, Adam and Eve did not become gods, but instead fell from truth into error. And error necessarily leads to more error, until ultimately you are so removed from Truth and Love, i.e. Life, that you are "doomed to die," and not merely bodily death, but eternal death, that is, Hell.

By opposing God, by turning against love and truth in this way, man necessarily severed the relationship between mankind and God, who is Love and Truth, and so corrupted human nature that our ability to love and to reason and discern good from evil is impaired. Before the loss of his “original innocence,” man could see – truly see. He could see God, truth, and love.

But after sin, which is an offense against truth and genuine love for God and neighbor, man’s sight is impaired, his hearing is distorted. While hiding in the bushes, vainly seeking to hide from God, instead of being able to see Him clearly, the man now saw only leaves and branches. His ability to see God, to know God, to know love and truth, was grievously impaired. Loss of original innocence necessarily means that man can no longer live in the Garden of innocence and truth.

Thus, we see that, as with this first “original sin,” our own individual sin, which is done by our own free choice of the will, carries its own intrinsic “punishment” -- error leads to more error, until, in your ignorance of the truth, you are in slavery to error and sin and death. By choosing to sin, choosing to set aside the Light and Truth of God, you are necessarily left to fend for yourself in ignorance and darkness, and you will find yourself inadequate to the challenge. And it is that first, original sin that is the root of every other sin.

By sin entering into the world, our entire human nature is wounded, corrupted, and compromised, our souls are tainted. Our judgment is clouded, our ability to reason is impaired, and the influences and temptations of the world overwhelm us, plunging us into darkness and error and slavery to further sin.

Some sin is so grave and deliberate that it destroys love in the heart and turns one away from God, thereby resulting in eternal death if forgiveness is not sought. We call these “mortal sins.” But what is such a serious and grave sin may not be so apparent to us, especially in our fallen state. For example, we might not think that merely eating a piece of fruit after being told not to is all that bad, but that seemingly innocuous act was the most mortal of all sins because by it, eternal death resulted. There are also those sins that wound love in the heart and weaken grace, but are not so serious as to break the covenant with God, thereby still allowing for eternal life after the stain of such sin is purged from us. We call these “venial sins.” While such venial offenses may not result in eternal death, they do warrant temporal punishment, and they also impede us in the exercise of virtue and the pursuit of moral good, as well as the in the ability to fully love and discern truth. Ultimately, Jesus Christ is the judge who determines whether we are in a state of grace or whether the sins we may commit are mortal or merely venial.

The account of the Fall in Genesis not only shows how sin affects the sinner, it demonstrates how sin is intensely social. Indeed, this Original Sin did not affect merely Adam and Eve, but has affected and infected us all, it has left a stain on our being. All sin, both original and individual, affects and injures not only the sinner, but all of us. Sin severs and poisons all relations. After eating the fruit of the Tree, Adam not only foolishly tries to hide from God, but the first thing he does when confronted is to blame Eve. What directly follows is Cain’s murder of Abel.

III. Salvation History (CCC 50-73)

The book of Genesis informs us that man used his freedom, not to embrace love and truth, but to turn away from love and truth, thereby corrupting our human nature. As a result of this sin of believing that you are equal to or above God, of believing that you can create your own truth, your own idea of right and wrong, good and evil, the proper relationship between mankind and God was and is severed. In opposing God, who is Life, man necessarily brings death upon himself.

The result of Original Sin is that a wide gulf of separation between God and humanity was created, a separation between man and love, truth, and life. The gulf of separation between God and humanity is so great that man is incapable of crossing it on his own. To be sure, following the Fall and expulsion of man from the Garden, mankind even began to lose knowledge of God. And not only are proper relationships between mankind and God severed, but, as we see with Adam turning against Eve, and Cain killing Abel, proper relationships between human beings themselves are estranged, so that, instead of living a life of love and truth toward others, mankind has lived a life of selfish self-gratification and exploitation of others; instead of harmony, there is discord.

Now God, who is Divine Mercy, knew this rupture would happen. God knew that His covenant of love with Adam would be broken, and He already had a plan for reconciliation. This process of God calling humanity back to Himself is called “salvation history.”

God did not abandon His creation, but sustains it and has even physically entered into its history. This history of salvation, which recounts the words and marvels of God, what He has done, continues to do and will do in the future, is organized in reference to and converges upon Jesus Christ. The structure of salvation history, of which creation and eschatology are its beginning and its end, includes the events in the Old Testament, by which God progressively prepared mankind for the Gospel, the life of Jesus, who brings Revelation to completion, and the history of the Church. As such, Christ and His Church were prefigured in many ways throughout salvation history.

The first process of God calling humanity to Himself is, of course, creation itself, with God breathing his Holy Spirit into us to give us life, and man, male and female, being made in the Triune God’s image and likeness, thereby imprinting upon our very being a desire for God. Upon the Fall, in Genesis 3:15, in a passage known as the proto-evangelium, God tells the serpent who had tempted Eve in the Garden that her offspring would strike at his head, thereby foreshadowing the deliverance of mankind by Jesus Christ, who would demonstrate the serious nature of sin, and the high cost of redemption, by taking man’s sins upon Himself and dying on the Cross.

After man had forgotten God, the plan of redemption was to establish a relationship with a specific people and develop them so that they could learn to know God and live according to His will of love and truth. In progressive fashion over time, God revealed Himself to a greater and greater degree while also forming covenants with certain people.

God first established a covenant with Noah. (Gen. 6-9) During a time of great evil, the righteous Noah and his family were granted salvation by obeying God’s instruction to build an ark before the waters of the Flood came to wash away sin. Thus, as with Christ and His Church, through one man and the ark, the whole family of the faithful were saved from death and destruction at the end of the world.

God next established the great covenant with Abraham to set apart a people to be His own. (Gen. 12, 17) To show that He was not merely the god of a particular place, as was believed to be the case by the polytheists of the time, but that He is the One God who is Lord everywhere, God told Abraham (then called Abram) to leave his home in Ur (present day southern Iraq) and go to a far land, Canaan (present day Israel), which would be given to him and his descendents. To demonstrate this covenant with Abraham and his descendents, the sign of the covenant, circumcision, was made on the instrument of procreation. Through these chosen people, God would bring salvation to all mankind.

At this time in human history, not only was polytheism widely practiced, but human sacrifice was a part of some of those religions. In order for Abraham (and we) to fully understand the gravity of the situation, and so that he could demonstrate and prove (to himself) that he had total faith in the Lord, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, God followed the expectations of the times and told Abraham to offer to him in sacrifice, which Abraham dutifully prepared to do. (Gen. 22) God did not test Abraham in order for God to know the extent of his fidelity, the omniscient God already knew. Rather, God tested Abraham so that Abraham would know that he was so faithful that he was willing to sacrifice his own son, whom he loved. However, God does not, in fact, desire human sacrifice; He desires mercy and a loving heart (Hos. 6:6). And in order to graphically demonstrate that as well, God had Abraham proceed to the brink of sacrificing Isaac only so that He could then stop him. Neither Abraham nor any other member of mankind would be asked for such a sacrifice. Instead, as Abraham told Isaac, God Himself would provide for the sacrifice, as He also did in providing Himself as the Lamb of God.

The covenant was renewed with Jacob, also called Israel. (Gen. 28, 35) When Jacob’s son Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, and Joseph was then unjustly thrown into prison, God demonstrated His providence by bringing good out of evil. Joseph was later freed from prison and given a powerful position in Egypt, where he was able to save his family from famine. (Gen. 37-46) Thus, as with Christ, one innocent man suffered to bring life to God’s people.

In time, though, the people of Israel fell into slavery, so God revealed Himself to Moses, who would lead them out of bondage in Egypt, and they were saved from death by the blood of the Passover lamb, just as we are led out of the bondage of sin and death by the Paschal Lamb, who is Jesus Christ. And to help them know what He had already written on their hearts, God gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law, reduced to physical written form and kept within the Ark of the Covenant. But still, the people chose to wander in the desert, and that has been the history of man throughout the ages. Nevertheless, God continued to protect His people, even providing them manna and water by which to survive.

Eventually, the people settled in Canaan, to be ruled for a period by military leaders known as “judges.” When they desired a king, God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul, who was succeeded by David. God established a covenant with David, saying that his descendent (the Messiah) would reign as King forever. David’s son Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem, but the kingdom was soon thereafter divided in two.

Meanwhile, various enemies and invaders threatened Israel, just as the Canaanites and Philistines had done previously. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Macedonians all imposed their military might upon Israel, which was a major trade route. The land was conquered, many people were carried off into slavery and exile, and outsiders moved in, resulting in intermarriage amongst those who stayed behind. Eventually, however, the people would be restored.

This cycle of events occurred over and over in the history of the people of Israel – The people would rebel by falling into sin and God would allow them to suffer the consequences, such as by being conquered by their enemies. The people then cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness, so the Lord has compassion and forgives. Despite their repeated infidelities, God did not abandon them, but remained ever faithful to His people, so as to continue to prepare them for salvation.

During the unfaithful times, prophets arose, and God in various ways called the people to return to Him. During exile in Babylon, the messianic prophecies of Isaiah told of the Spirit of the Lord resting upon a descendent of David, a suffering servant who would endure pain, hardship, and even death for the sake of the people. In the book of Daniel, it is revealed that one would come like a “son of man” on the clouds of heaven to defeat the beasts of evil, and he would receive everlasting dominion and glory in a kingdom of salvation.

The prophets Jeremiah and Joel also told of God establishing a New Covenant, which would fulfill and exceed the old covenant, and would include the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit upon all mankind. Unlike the old covenants, He would write His law of love and truth on the hearts of the people. They would know Him and, from the least to the greatest, He would forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.

Upon the return from the Babylonian exile, the people of Israel found their land heavily influenced by Greeks and other foreigners. In time, those foreigners included the Romans, who conquered the area they called Palestine and installed Herod to rule as king.

It was then that God chose to bring salvation history to its culmination. A simple and humble girl was conceived immaculately, in the fullness of grace, without the stain of that Original Sin. In effect, in an image of God’s intended relationship with mankind, God proposed marriage to the human race. This young girl, Mary, was like a new Eve, and she accepted that proposal, saying “yes, let it be done” to her as God willed, when an angel announced to her that she would bear the Savior (Lk.1:26-45). Thus, we proclaim that Mary is the Theotókos, the Mother of God. Just as the first Eve was formed out of the first Adam, so Jesus, Son of God and the new Adam, was formed out of the new Eve, flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone.

In Jesus, God literally merged into mankind, becoming small, defenseless, and vulnerable while dwelling within the Virgin Mary’s womb, in the most intimate of relationships. To be sure, to show that such an intimate relationship was not meant to be Mary's alone, to show that all the faithful are called to intimately receive Him into our own bodies, the newborn Jesus was placed in a manger. As with the straw that was food for the animals, so too Jesus is shown to be food for us in the Eucharist. And by becoming small in this way, the all-powerful God who needs nothing chose to need us, chose to need our help in bringing about the salvation of man.

Mary, the handmaid of the Lord, by becoming His mother, became our mother too, and the Mother of the Church. As our Mother, like at Cana when the wine ran out, Mary is sensitive and attentive to our needs, and she intercedes and asks her Son to provide for us. (Jn. 2:1-5)

The preparation of mankind for the coming of the Redeemer was completed by John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the prophets, who leapt for joy and was filled with the Holy Spirit when Mary visited his mother Elizabeth. The Baptist proclaimed to the world that the long period of expectancy was over. The Christ (Messiah) was at hand.

But the One anointed by God would not be as men expected, a military ruler, but the lowly suffering servant and Lamb of God, who would be the sacrifice provided by God to atone for man’s sins and, thus, redeem mankind.
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Miserere Mei

Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to your great mercy
and according to the abundance
of your compassion blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my offense
and my sin is ever before me.

Against you only have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight
That you may be justified in your sentence
and vindicated when you judge.

Behold, in guilt was I born
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in sincerity of heart,
and in my inmost being, you teach me wisdom.

Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be purified:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness;
and the bones which you have crushed shall rejoice.
Avert your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew in me a righteous spirit.
Cast me not out from thy presence;
and take not your holy spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your salvation;
and sustain me in a willing spirit.
I shall teach transgressors your ways;
and sinners shall return to you.

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness,
O God, God of my salvation,
and my tongue shall exalt your justice.
O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices,
else would I give them to you;
neither do you delight in burnt offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a contrite heart:
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

Be favorable and gracious
unto Zion O Lord,
build again the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness,
oblations and burnt offerings;
they shall offer young bulls upon your altar.
--Psalm 51

Allegri, Miserere
Tallis Scholars
Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome
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The Abused and the Healing Power of Christ

Pastoral Letter of Pope Benedict XVI
to the Catholics of Ireland
Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19, 2010

4. In recent decades, [the Church] has had to confront new and serious challenges to the faith arising from the rapid transformation and secularization of [society]. Fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people’s traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values. All too often, the sacramental and devotional practices that sustain faith and enable it to grow, such as frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats, were neglected. Significant too was the tendency during this period, also on the part of priests and religious, to adopt ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel. The programme of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. . . .

6. [To those who have suffered injustice and abuse] -- I ask you not to lose hope. It is in the communion of the Church that we encounter the person of Jesus Christ, who was himself a victim of injustice and sin. Like you, he still bears the wounds of his own unjust suffering. He understands the depths of your pain and its enduring effect upon your lives and your relationships . . . Christ’s own wounds, transformed by his redemptive sufferings, are the very means by which the power of evil is broken and we are reborn to life and hope. I believe deeply in the healing power of his self-sacrificing love – even in the darkest and most hopeless situations – to bring liberation and the promise of a new beginning. . . .

7. [To those who have committed injustice and abuse] -- I urge you to examine your conscience, take responsibility for the sins you have committed, and humbly express your sorrow. Sincere repentance opens the door to God’s forgiveness and the grace of true amendment. By offering prayers and penances for those you have wronged, you should seek to atone personally for your actions. Christ’s redeeming sacrifice has the power to forgive even the gravest of sins, and to bring forth good from even the most terrible evil. At the same time, God’s justice summons us to give an account of our actions and to conceal nothing. Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God’s mercy. . . .

8. [To parents of children who have been abused] -- In today’s world it is not easy to build a home and to bring up children. They deserve to grow up in security, loved and cherished, with a strong sense of their identity and worth. They have a right to be educated in authentic moral values rooted in the dignity of the human person, to be inspired by the truth of our Catholic faith and to learn ways of behaving and acting that lead to healthy self-esteem and lasting happiness. This noble but demanding task is entrusted in the first place to you, their parents. . . .

9. [To young people] -- It is in the Church that you will find Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and for ever (cf. Heb 13:8). He loves you and he has offered himself on the cross for you. Seek a personal relationship with him within the communion of his Church, for he will never betray your trust! He alone can satisfy your deepest longings and give your lives their fullest meaning by directing them to the service of others. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and his goodness, and shelter the flame of faith in your heart. . . .

12. A young person’s experience of the Church should always bear fruit in a personal and life-giving encounter with Jesus Christ within a loving, nourishing community. In this environment, young people should be encouraged to grow to their full human and spiritual stature, to aspire to high ideals of holiness, charity and truth, and to draw inspiration from the riches of a great religious and cultural tradition. In our increasingly secularized society, where even we Christians often find it difficult to speak of the transcendent dimension of our existence, we need to find new ways to pass on to young people the beauty and richness of friendship with Jesus Christ in the communion of his Church. In confronting the present crisis, measures to deal justly with individual crimes are essential, yet on their own they are not enough: a new vision is needed, to inspire present and future generations to treasure the gift of our common faith. By treading the path marked out by the Gospel, by observing the commandments and by conforming your lives ever more closely to the figure of Jesus Christ, you will surely experience the profound renewal that is so urgently needed at this time. I invite you all to persevere along this path.
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Why Did God Become Man? (part two)

The name Jesus (Joshua or Yeshua in Hebrew) means "God saves."

We have need of a savior, of course, because of mankind rejecting God. Early on, Adam and Eve, not satisfied with being mere creatures, ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge because they wanted to be like gods themselves. It was this Original Sin that ushered in death -- real death, eternal death -- because the very nature of sin is to separate us from God, who is Life itself. Consequently, because He loves us, God sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, who is the salvation of the world.

The irony of Adam and Eve sinning by wanting to be like gods (which ultimately is the root of every sin that we commit) is that it didn't have to be that way. It did not have to be a sin. The irony is that God Himself wants us to be like gods!

As St. Athanasius wrote, "The Son of God became man so that we might become God." (De Incarnatione Verbi Dei 54, 3: PG 25, 192B) Likewise, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that He, made man, might make men gods." (Opusc. 57, 1-4)

The problem is that we (mankind) wanted and want to be gods on our own terms. We want to be gods by our own will, by our own doing. We want our divinity to be self-actualized, without the involvement of He who is already God.

God does want us to be "gods," but He wants us to be gods on His terms, He wants us to be gods by His doing. Not because He is a "jealous God" who can't bear to have competition, but because He is Truth. He is the One and only God, thus, only He can make us like "gods."

For us to be gods on our own, by our own doing (or for us to be our own saviors, to attain salvation all by our own merits) would not be consistent with truth, it would be a lie, it would be contrary to the very idea of God. No, to be true, man can become gods only by the action of the God who is Truth.

We can become gods only by God joining us to Himself, by Him taking us unto Himself in the entirety of our being -- our soul joined to His Spirit, our body joined to His Body -- so that we are in Him and He is in us to such a degree that we truly are a loving communion of persons, no longer separate and apart, but two become one, not merely in a symbolic or poetic sense, but in a very real, authentic and true sense.

"Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect," Jesus said. Only God is perfect, but by joining fully in communion with Him, in allowing ourselves to be truly sanctified by the Spirit of Sanctification, we can be made perfect as commanded by Jesus. The Lord does not demand the impossible of us, He makes the "impossible" possible. He makes us imperfect humans perfect, He -- and only He -- makes us like gods.

Why did God become man? "The Son of God became man so that we might become God."

(coming soon -- Part three)
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Creation and the Fall of Mankind

Seventh Grade CCD
Class Three Outline

A. Creation

1. “I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen”

(a) creation of universe ex nihilo (out of nothing) and ab initio temporis (at the beginning of time)
(b) creation of angels
(c) creation of mankind
(d) the universe, angels, and human beings are not accidental or arbitrary products of chance, but willed by God
(e) Divine Providence – God sustaining what He has created

B. The Creation and Nature of Man (CCC 355-421, 1846-1876)

1. Who and What is “Man”?

(a) created by God in Love and Truth, contingent and dependent upon Him
(b) Man – male and female, equal and complementary – is made in the image of the Triune God
(c) “not good for the man to be alone” – emptiness of individual solitude
-- (i) social-relational beings, incomplete in ourselves, in need of an other and Other in order to be true to ourselves
-- (ii) meant to exist both in general society and in a specific loving communion of persons
(d) body and soul, having one nature of matter and spirit, which is temporal and transcendent
(e) a human being is a person – a free subject with an inherent dignity, not an object or thing, possessed with sentience and free will, as well as the capacity for reason and for love
(f) God does not force His love or truth on us against our will – God does not even save us without our consent, we are free to choose to return His love or to reject Him and live our lives apart from Him
(g) the existence of free will means that we are morally responsible for our own willful choices

2. What is the Meaning of Life?

(a) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself”
(b) love one another, as Jesus loves us, so too should we love one another
(c) God reveals meaning of life in scripture and in our very bodies, male and female
(d) we are made to love and be loved in truth
-- (i) made in the image of the Triune God, who is Love and Truth, this love is not merely relational, but spousal in nature, a love which is unitive and fruitful (procreative)

C. The Fall of Mankind

1. Original Sin

(a) sin – Original and personal – necessarily is in opposition to God, who is Truth and Love
(b) More than merely disobeying God, Adam and Eve erroneously believed that they did not need God, but could be gods themselves with the power to choose their own truth, their own concepts of right and wrong. Mankind effectively rejected God.
-- (i) this Original Sin has affected and infected us all, leaving a stain on our very being
-- (ii) the stain of Original Sin cannot be removed by our own efforts, but requires the transformative power of God, which we receive in Baptism

2. The Consequences of Original (and Personal) Sin

(a) a wide gulf of separation between humanity and God was created, so great that human beings are incapable of crossing it on his own
(b) death – ultimately, sin so removes us from Truth and Love, that is, Life, that we are “doomed to die”
(c) corruption of human nature, including ability to love and discern truth
(d) weakened will and impairment of reason, judgment, and ability to see and know God, rejection of Light has thrown us into darkness
(e) intrinsic punishment of being a slave to error and further sin, and temptations overwhelm us
(f) poisons relations not only with God, but other humans as well – instead of living a life of love and truth toward others, mankind has lived a life of selfish self-gratification and exploitation of others; instead of harmony, there is discord
-- (i) Adam and Eve – each blames the other
-- (ii) Cain and Abel – Cain murders his brother
-- (iii) Tower of Babel – the sin of mankind led to social disunity and division – (compare this with sanctification by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost leading to social unity)

3. Mankind forgets knowledge of God

(a) Humanity fell so far away from God that eventually we forgot all about the truth of God. Instead of knowing the truth of who and what God is, mankind embraced all sorts of false ideas and religious practices, including –
-- (i) polytheism – belief in multiple gods and goddesses, often limited to places, actions, etc.
-- (ii) animism – belief in animal gods/spirits, etc.
-- (iii) idol worship
-- (iv) appeasement (including human sacrifice)
-- (v) divinity of worldly rulers

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Sin - Original and Mortal

Original Sin consisted of more, much more, than merely eating the fruit. And that Original Sin of Adam and Eve is the original sin of the individual as well, that is, the preference of self over God, wanting to be a god and able to choose your own morality, your own concept of truth, of right and wrong, really is echoed in, and the origin of, every other individual sin that we commit.

On the other hand, there is the danger of going to the other extreme in the matter of “mortal sin.” All too often it seems that what constitutes a mortal sin is defined in narrower and narrower terms, giving one the impression that it is in only the most extreme of cases, the most serious of serious and grave of grave acts, deeds, etc., such as murder, etc. In so relegating mortal sin to the most extreme of cases, we forget that the most mortal sin of all (death for all mankind) really was not, on the surface, all that serious at all, but consisted of the seemingly innocuous act of eating a piece of fruit. We need to keep that in mind when we try to “justify” so many of our own sins as being “merely” venial sins because we subjectively believe them to not be all that serious.

In any event, it is good that, together with the revelation of God’s Name, the revelation of the Logos in the Gospel of John, and the revelation of God in and about the human body in the Creation accounts, that the fullness of the truth of the Fall is being discovered (or rediscovered) in the modern Church.

(cross-posted at "What is Original Sin?" at the Archdiocese of Washington Blog)
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They Paid Him Thirty Pieces of Silver

Jesus said to His disciples, "You know that in two days' time it will be Passover, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they consulted together to arrest Jesus by treachery and put Him to death. But they said, "Not during the festival, that there may not be a riot among the people."

Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that moment, he began to look out for an opportunity to betray Him.

-- Matthew 26:1-5; 14-16.

Judas and his motivations have always fascinated me -- perhaps that was the influence in my youth of Jesus Christ Superstar (original concept album), which focuses on him a lot (I hated the movie, with it's Manson family style hippies, not the story/music, even if I can see now the theological errors and perhaps impiety of the JCS story).

I tend to be somewhat sympathetic towards him, but in the end cannot complain too much about his fate because that is the fate he chose of his own free will.

I tend to shy away from the view that he was always an evil villain and scoundrel to the core -- after all, Jesus chose him, and Jesus would not choose someone merely to use him, to be a pawn, He chose him to a follower, not a betrayer. I tend to think away from the view that Judas betrayed Jesus knowing and believing Him to be the Son of God.

But I do think that Judas enjoyed an excess of pride, probably stemming from the fact that he was the scholar of the group, the "smartest" and most educated. As such, he thought he knew better than Jesus did what a proper Messiah should be like. (In many ways, it is a repeat of the sin of Adam and Eve.) In all his learning, Judas has learned to be ignorant, to blind himself to true knowledge. He put himself and his own ideas before the Truth who lived beside him everyday and, thus, began to confuse error for truth and truth for error, no longing believing that Jesus was Lord, before compounding his freely chosen evil by using an act of love to commit treachery. It is the same with our pointy-headed intelligensia today - the smartest folks in the room are often the most stupid.

Of course, we all have to guard against that temptation of thinking that you know it all, especially thinking that you know better than God how things ought to be. AND ESPECIALLY continuing to think you know better, continuing to take charge and impose your own will, even after you see that you were wrong, refusing to seek forgiveness and, instead, tying a rope around your neck and jumping from a tree. If you do that, if that is "your final answer," you will have to live, or not-live rather, with that choice.

Perhaps, in that millisecond before his neck snapped or before he took his last gasp of breath and the synapses stopped firing in his brain, perhaps in that flash of an instant Judas fully repented and sought forgiveness -- but that is not what is suggested in the Gospels. The implication of scripture, and hence the natural inference to be drawn, is that, unlike Peter, in his arrogant pride and refusal to be humble, rejecting God's gift of life and engaging in the sin of despair, Judas sadly chose the darkness.

Let us be like Peter and not Judas while there is still time.

In his talks at the Wednesday General Audiences, Pope Benedict has had occastion to consider Judas and his choice of self over God:

Jesus treated [Judas] as a friend (cf. Mt 26:50); however, in His invitations to follow Him along the way of the beatitudes, He does not force His will or protect it from the temptations of Satan, respecting human freedom.

In effect, the possibilities to pervert the human heart are truly many. The only way to prevent it consists in not cultivating an individualistic, autonomous vision of things, but on the contrary, by putting oneself always on the side of Jesus, assuming His point of view. We must daily seek to build full communion with Him.

Let us remember that Peter also wanted to oppose Him and what awaited Him at Jerusalem, but he received a very strong reproval: "You are not on the side of God, but of men" (Mk 8:33)!

After his fall, Peter repented and found pardon and grace. Judas also repented, but his repentance degenerated into desperation and thus became self-destructive.

For us, it is an invitation to always remember what St. Benedict says at the end of the fundamental Chapter Five of his "Rule": "Never despair of God's mercy." In fact, God "is greater than our hearts," as St. John says (I Jn 3:20).

Let us remember two things. The first: Jesus respects our freedom. The second: Jesus awaits our openness to repentance and conversion; He is rich in mercy and forgiveness.

--Pope Benedict, General Audience of October 18, 2006

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Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return

Gen. 3:6-13, 16-19

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

And the LORD said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

The man said, "The woman you put here with me —- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." . . .

To the woman, the LORD said,

"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

To the man, He said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'

"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for you are dust
and to dust you shall return."

Psalm 51 - Miserere

Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to your great mercy
and according to the abundance
of your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my offense
and my sin is ever before me.

Against you only have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight
That you may be justified in your sentence
and vindicated when you judge.
Behold, in guilt was I born
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in sincerity of heart,
and in my inmost being, you teach me wisdom.
Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be purified:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness;
and the bones which you have crushed shall rejoice.
Avert your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew in me a righteous spirit.
Cast me not out from thy presence;
and take not your holy spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your salvation;
and sustain me in a willing spirit.
I shall teach transgressors your ways;
and sinners shall return to you.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness,
O God, God of my salvation,
and my tongue shall exalt your justice.
O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices,
else would I give them to you;
neither do you delight in burnt offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a contrite heart:
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
Be favorable and gracious
unto Zion O Lord,
build again the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness,
oblations and burnt offerings;
they shall offer young bulls upon your altar.

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In His Passion, Jesus Became Like a Leper, Made Impure by Our Sins

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address of February 15, 2009

On these Sundays, the Evangelist Mark offers a sequence of various miraculous healings for our reflection. Today he presents a very special one -- that of a healed leper (cf. Mark 1:40-45) -- who, coming to Jesus, gets on his knees and says: “If you wish, you can make me clean!” Jesus, moved, stretches out His hand, touches him and says: “I do wish it. Be made clean!”

The man is healed instantly and Jesus asks him not to tell anyone and present himself to the priests to offer the sacrifice prescribed by the Mosaic law. The healed leper is unable to be quiet and proclaims to everyone what happened to him so that, the evangelist reports, still more sick people ran to Jesus from every part to the point of forcing Him to stay out of the cities so as not to be besieged by the crowds.

Jesus says to the leper: “Be made clean!” According to the ancient Jewish law (Lev. 13-14), leprosy was not only considered a sickness but the gravest form of “impurity.” It was the duty of the priests to diagnose it and declare the person afflicted with leprosy unclean. This person then had to keep his distance from the community and stay away from towns until he was certified to be healed.

Leprosy thus constituted a kind of religious and civil death, and its healing was a kind of resurrection. We might see in leprosy a symbol of sin, which is the true impurity of heart, distancing us from God. It is not, in effect, physical malady that distances us from Him, as the ancient norms supposed, but sin, the spiritual and moral evil.

This is way the Psalmist exclaims:

Blessed is he whose fault is taken away
and whose sin is covered.

And then, turning to God:

Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said: "I shall confess my faults to the Lord,"
and you took away my guilt and my sin

(Ps. 31:1, 5 [32:1, 5]).

The sins we commit distance us from God, and, if they are not humbly confessed, trusting in the divine mercy, they will finally bring about the death of the soul. This miracle thus has powerful symbolic value. Jesus, as Isaiah prophesied, is the servant of the Lord who “bore our infirmities, endured our sufferings” (Isaiah 53:4). In His passion, Jesus will become like a leper, made impure by our sins, separated from God: He will do all this for love, with the aim of obtaining reconciliation, forgiveness and salvation for us.

In the Sacrament of Penance, Christ crucified and risen, through His ministers, purifies us with His infinite mercy, restores us to communion with the heavenly Father and our brothers, and makes a gift of His love, joy and peace to us.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us invoke the Virgin Mary, whom God preserved from every stain of sin, that she help us to avoid sin and to have frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Confession, the Sacrament of Forgiveness, whose value and importance for our Christian life needs to be rediscovered today.
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