Sins Against
In writing about faith, Father Walter
Farrell remarks, "Faith can be hated for the hard things it demands,
and the acid of distortion may be thrown in its face in a vain
attempt to destroy the power of its beauty. Faith can be the victim
of mockery by men in love with their own willful blindness. It can
be denied, rejected, and lightly tossed aside. But then again, it
can be lived up to, cherished, jealously guarded, and proudly
defended at whatever cost. In the latter case, the world looks on,
blind to the beauty of actions that are robed in the splendor that
comes from an object so high that it properly belongs to God, the
vision of the face of God." Gilbert Keith Chesterton once observed,
"It is a thousand times easier to criticize the creed of another
than to formulate and express one’s own."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says,
"When we say the word "God", we confess a constant, unchangeable
Being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It
follows that we must necessarily accept His words and have complete
faith in Him and acknowledge His authority. He is almighty,
merciful, and infinitely beneficent." Saint Paul points out that
"ignorance of God" is the principle and explanation of all moral
deviations (Romans 1:18-32). The Catechism teaches us, therefore,
"Our duty toward God is to believe in Him and bear witness to Him.
The first commandment of the Decalogue requires us to nourish and
protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject
everything that is opposed to it."
Among the sins against faith which the
Catechism lists is voluntary doubt, that is, deliberately
disregarding or refusing to hold as true what God has revealed and
what the Magisterium of the Catholic Church proposes for belief.
This is not the same as involuntary doubt which sometimes refers to
hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming obstacles
connected with the faith, or anxiety aroused by the faith’s
obscurity. Voluntary doubt is a mortal sin. Involuntary doubt
usually could be a venial sin or no sin, but if cultivated and not
confronted and struggled against, it could be a mortal sin and lead
to serious spiritual blindness.
Other Sins
The Catechism speaks of the sin of
incredulity, which is the neglect of revealed truth or the refusal
to assent to it. It talks of the grave sin of heresy, "which is the
obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truths which must be
believed with divine and Catholic faith, or heresy likewise can be
an obstinate doubt concerning the same." Apostasy is the mortal sin
of a total repudiation of the Catholic Faith, which is the
completeness and fullness of Christianity. Schism is the mortal sin
of refusing to acknowledge the primacy of the Roman Pontiff in
ecclesiastical and religious matters, and thus the refusal of
submission and obedience to the Bishop of Rome or else a refusal of
communion with the members of the Catholic Church who live their
religious lives subject to him. The Pope, of course, as the
Successor of Saint Peter, is the visible head of the Church founded
by Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18-19), while Christ Himself remains
forever the Catholic Church’s invisible Head (Ephesians 1:19-23).
Saint Ambrose said, "Where Peter is, there is the Church..."
It is sinful, and sometimes mortally so,
to place one’s faith unnecessarily in danger. This means that
"occasions of sins" against faith must be avoided. These are
persons, places, or things that may endanger our faith. In the
contemporary American media especially, there are regular attacks
against the faith, some overt and clearly seen, but many others very
subtle, often enclosed in sneers and ridicule. Some reading
material, some situations marked by anti-Catholic or non-Catholic
activities or words, in such things as films. DVD’s , stage plays,
university discussions or classes, etc. can turn out to be serious
occasions of sins against faith. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that
in his experience, most people who lose their faith, however, come
to that tragedy only after committing mortal sins against other
commandments, and then try to escape from what they realize will be
the consequences of their immorality by denying their faith
altogether.
In Hell
It is an axiom of moral theology that
unless one commits a mortal sin directly against faith, one’s faith
still is retained, even though there is a loss of supernatural love
(charity) and a loss of sanctifying grace. However, that faith will
not prevent the consequences of a deliberate ending of one’s
friendship and intimacy with God. Every mortal sin violates the
supernatural love we must possess in order to please God, but even
mortal sins which do not directly attack our faith do have a
weakening effect upon it. Nevertheless, it is the retained faith in
a sinful soul that can inspire and assist a sinner to return to God
and to be reconciled with Him in the Sacrament of Penance. In the
New Testament, Saint James startles us by reminding us that even
some of the fallen angels who are burning in the torments of hell
forever, actually have kept some semblance of faith: "You believe
that there is one God. You do well, but the devils also believe and
tremble!" (James 2:19)
The temptation of the people of Babel
(Genesis 11:4) to attempt to reach heaven by their own activity and
to forget that the supernatural order is utterly gratuitous, and
that, therefore, heaven is above the capacity of all human nature
(and certainly fallen human nature) to attain on its own, is
perennially present in our world. We are saved by faith, Saint Paul
reminded his Jewish converts, and not by simply following the
instructions of the Old Testament laws (Romans 3:29; Galatians
2:16-17). Saint Paul emphasized that "all is grace". This is why
Jesus told us, "Even do you also, when you have done everything that
was commanded you, say, We are merely unprofitable servants for we
have done only what it was our duty to do" (Luke 17:10).
Merit
If we cannot be saved by our own doing, if
faith, hope, and love are supernatural gifts, and salvation is
ultimately a freely bestowed gift from God, how do we account for
the words "merit", "reward", etc. in the New Testament? Saint Paul,
for instance, says, "God will render to every man according to his
works" (Romans 2:6) The Catechism of the Catholic Church treats this
matter extensively and deserves our attention (numbers 2006-2011).
Our free will and cooperation are deeply involved. However, we must
remember God never really owes or could owe us anything, but, on the
other hand, all that is good we owe to God. Even our good works are
ours but also His. The Council of Trent teaches, "God allows His
gifts to be called our merits." The Catechism says, "With regard to
God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man.
Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality. The merit of
man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God
has freely chosen to associate man with the work of His grace."
Saint Augustine of Hippo often preached, "Our merits are God’s
gifts." "The charity of Christ in us is the source of all our merits
before God."