Monday, February 9, 2009

Tit 3, 3 We were once foolish, disobedient, deluded

(Tit 3, 3) We were once foolish, disobedient, deluded
[3] For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.
(CCC 403) Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of the soul" (Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1512). Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin (Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1514). (CCC 1871) Sin is an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law (St. Augustine, Faust 22: PL 42, 418). It is an offense against God. It rises up against God in a disobedience contrary to the obedience of Christ. (CCC 1872) Sin is an act contrary to reason. It wounds man's nature and injures human solidarity. (CCC 1873) The root of all sins lies in man's heart. The kinds and the gravity of sins are determined principally by their objects. (CCC 1874) To choose deliberately - that is, both knowing it and willing it - something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death. (CCC 1875) Venial sin constitutes a moral disorder that is reparable by charity, which it allows to subsist in us. (CCC 1876) The repetition of sins - even venial ones - engenders vices, among which are the capital sins.

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