Catalog of Sin – All Items are in Stock, Free Shipping and Handling from the Supplier

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 11-17-14 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Salvation]

Catalog of Sin – All Items are in Stock, Free Shipping and Handling from the Supplier

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

The video at the bottom of the page is something of a spoof on drug commercials, treating sin like a drug. Wait till you hear the side-effects disclaimer at the end.

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

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

In keeping with the video below, consider these lists a kind of “Sin on Sale” a clearance sale if you will. The lists below can be purchased separately or together in packages. All items are ALWAYS in stock; shipping and handling are free from the supplier. But do beware of the potential and likely side-effects!

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

1. Murder (Gn 4:10),
2. Sodomy (Gn 17:20-21),
3. Oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23),
4. Defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4).

Seven Deadly Sins (more on these HERE)

1. Pride – The sinful drive that distorts proper self love so that we esteem ourself more than is proper.
2. Greed – the excessive and insatiable desire for more than is reasonable or proper.
3. Lust – The sinful drive that leads to an excessive or inappropriate desires or thoughts of a sexual nature.
4. Anger – The sinful drive that leads to inordinate and unrestrained feelings of hatred and wrath.
5. Gluttony – The sinful drive to over-indulge in,  or over consume anything (esp. food and drink to the point of waste.
6. Envy – sorrow or sadness at the goodness or excellence of another person because I take it to make me look bad or less excellent.
7. Sloth – The sinful drive that leads to sorrow or sadness at the good things God wants to do for me.

Sins against the Holy Spirit:

1. Despair,
2. Presumption,
3. Envy,
4. Obstinacy in sin,
5. Final impenitence,
6. Deliberate resistance to the known truth.

Sins against faith: (CCC 2088-2089)

1. Hesitating doubt – delaying the overcoming of doubts, difficulties, or objections due to indifference or laziness
2. Voluntary doubt – disregarding of the truth or on-going resistance to overcoming doubt.
3. Incredulity – willful refusal to assent to revealed truths of the faith.
4. Heresy – the choosing and over-emphasizing of certain truths of the faith to the exclusion of others.
5. Schism – Refusal of submission to the Pope or Catholic communion.
6. Apostasy – Total repudiation of the Christian faith.

Sins against God’s love: (CCC 2094)

1. Indifference
2. Ingratitude
3. Lukewarmness
4. Sloth – sorrow or aversion at the good things offers to the soul
5. Hatred of God – usually rooted in prideful notion that refuses to be second to God.

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

1. Superstition – the elevation of certain practices such that they are regarded as more important or powerful than prayer or trust in God.
2. Idolatry – divinizing what is not God, false worship, holding creatures more precious than the one Creator who is God.
3. Divination – undertaking practices meant to disclose the future, e.g. horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, recourse to mediums etc.
4. Magic and spiritism – attempts to tame occult powers and place them at our service, or to have power over others in this way.

Sins of Irreligion: (CCC 2118-2128)

1. Tempting God – Putting God to the test
2. Sacrilege – stealing sacred things, profaning sacraments or liturgical actions, desecration or speaking irreverently of sacred persons, places or things that are blessed or consecrated to God.
3. Simony – Buying or selling spiritual things, seeking to profit on them merely because they are blessed.
4. Atheism – Denying the existence of God, to include the practical atheism of materialism and utopian notions that man can save himself.
5. Agnosticism – an indifference toward God that refrains form formally denying his existence.

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

1. Promises – infidelity to promises or oaths made with God’s name
2. Profanity – using God’s name in vain ways that do not respect its sacred character, (e.g. empty expressions like “Oh my God!”
3. Blasphemy – to speak ill of God, trivialize, curse or ridicule him. By extension, to ridicule sacred things or the Saints.
4. Swearing – calling God to witness in matters that are trivial. Also swearing a false oath, committing perjury when under oath.
5. Cursing – using God’s name to curse or call down evil on others.

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

1. Refusing the worship owed God
2. Refusing the joy proper to the Lord’s day
3. Refusing the relaxation of mind and body commanded on the Lord’s day.
4. Refusing reasonable works of mercy proper to the Lord’s day.

Sins Against life: (CCC 2268-2283)

1. Intentional homicide – all unjust killing
2. Abortion
3. Euthanasia
4. Suicide
5. Acting with reckless disregard for the safety and life of our self or others

Sins against Chastity: (CCC 2351-2357)

1. Lust – willfully entertaining inordinate or disordered desires for sexual pleasure
2. Masturbation
3. Fornication
4. Adultery
5. Pornography
6. Prostitution
7. Rape
8. Homosexual Activity

Sins of Injustice and theft: (CCC 2409ff)

1. Theft
2. Deliberately keeping lent things
3. Damaging the goods of others without restitution
4. Fraud
5. Paying unjust wages
6. Forcing up prices
7. Refusing to pay debts
8. Work poorly done
9. Tax evasion
10. Forgery
11. Excessive and wasteful practices
12. Hoarding
13. Excessive and unnecessary exploitation of natural resources
14. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the community
15. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the poor

20 Works of the Flesh

1. Divisions (quarreling) (1 Cor 3:3)
2. Adultery (Gal 5:19)
3. Fornication (Gal 5:19)
4. Uncleanness (impurity or sexual defilement) (Gal 5:19)
5. Licentiousness (abuse of freedom) (Gal 5:19)
6. Idolatry (Gal 5:19)
7. Sorcery (öáñìáêåßá pharmakeia; to administer drugs) for spells or contraceptive and abortifacient effects) (Gal 5:20)
8. Hatred (Gal 5:20)
9. Discord (Gal 5:20)
10. Jealousy (Gal 5:20)
11. Wrath (Gal 5:20)
12. Selfishness (Gal 5:20)
13. Dissension (Gal 5:20)
14. Heresy (Gal 5:20)
15. Envy (Gal 5:21)
16. Murder (Gal 5:21)
17. Drunkenness (Gal 5:21)
18. Reveling (Carousing) (Gal 5:21)
19. Lust (Col 3:5)
20. Concupiscence (evil desires) (Col 3:5)

40 Characteristics of the Ungodly, especially in the last days: (2 Tim 3:2-9; Romans 1:28-29) 

1. Lovers of themselves
2. Covetous
3. Boasters
4. Proud
5. Blasphemers
6. Disobedient to parents
7. Unthankful
8. Unholy
9. Without natural affection
10. Truce-breakers
11. False accusers
12. Without self control
13. Fierce (brutal)
14. Despisers of those who do good
15. Traitors
16. Rash
17. Lovers of pleasure more than God
18. Having the form of Godliness but deny the power of it.
19. Seducers
20. Unteachable
21. Resistant to the truth
22. Suppressing the truth
23. Corrupt minds
24. Foolish concerning the faith
25. Without progress
26. A base mind
27. Futile in their thinking
28. Possessed of darkened and senseless minds
29. Celebratory of and practicing unnatural sexual relations
30. Claiming to be wise but being fools
31. Dishonoring their bodies
32. Haters of God
33. Insolent
34. Inventors of evil,
35. Heartless,
36. Ruthless
37. Faithless
38. Approving sin and those who practice it.
39. Under Strong Delusion (2 Thess 2:11)
40. Blinded by the god of this age (2 Cor 4:4)

Need more Items? Try here: Litany of Penance and Reparation

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

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

[southernmann]

So the priest determines the level of sin?

[NorthMountain]

The author is referencing, among other things, the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”. I have occasionally looked at it, to see what the Roman Church actually teaches on one or another topic ... it contains some detailed discussion of the various sins the author lists.

A useful discussion might follow if you were to pick one sin that interests you (for any reason, or no reason at all), and post the entire passage along with your comments on the matter.

In general, I believe that terms like improper, inordinate, or excessive mean something like “doing it to the point of causing damage”. Willful means knowing what you’re doing. And I think you’ll find, in general, that border between “excessive” and “not excessive” is fuzzy. I also think that, in general, if the average person would be worried about “is this excessive”, it probably is.

[southernmann]

‘1.Pride – The sinful drive that distorts proper self love so that we esteem ourself more than is proper.’

just a start, who determines what is proper in this case?

[NorthMountain]

The author thoughtfully provided you with a link to an earlier article about "The Seven Deadly Sins". Have you bothered to follow that link?

Here is his full paragraph on the topic:

Pride - The sinful drive that distorts proper self love so that we esteem ourself more than is proper and at the same time denigrate the goodness of others. There is such a thing as well ordered self love and self esteem but Pride is love of self which is perverted causes us unjustly to think of others as beneath us or less worthy. Pride also stirs us to reject lawful authority of others over us including God and refuses appropriate submission. Pride is at the root of every sin for through it we pridefully think we have a way better than what God has set forth or that we alone can be the judge of right and wrong. Adam and Eve wanted to “be like Gods” and wanted themselves to determine what was right and wrong. Hence they demanded to eat of the tree of the “Knowledge of good and evil.” This is Pride.

Jesus commands us "Love your neighbor as yourself". The self-love Jesus commands would seem to involve understanding the truth about oneself. The sin of Pride would seem to involve falsely elevating oneself.

[defconw]

Hardly. When Catholics discuss things it is a given that we have a shared body of knowledge. I may be taking you wrong, but you seem to want to argue over a small point. I really don’t want to argue over it. Take it or leave it.

[defconw]

Wow! Really? Of course not, but he can help you work through it so that you know what it is you are doing that is a sin. Whatever you want to believe, believe.

[defconw]

I have one for you. Does it bother you when people say they adore this or that? It bothers me because adoration is reserved for The Holy Trinity.

I have had various thoughts about it. Perhaps I am being too scrupulous. Maybe people who use this are unaware of it having the meaning that I ascribe to it.

[southernmann]

Who determines whether we have thought unjustly of another? There has always been, and always will be, people that are less worthy, who determines that?

Who determines whether the authority of others over us, should be rejected or not?

[southernmann]

Those that are not Catholic and do not have a shared body of knowledge...what about them?

[southernmann]

I do, thanks.

My point is, this list of sins to use as a reference, really doesn’t mean anything to someone that doesn’t believe the same.

[defconw]

Well this was a thread from a blog by a Catholic priest. I am quite certain that you could find people whom you share a body of knowledge with to discuss it. We on this thread are Catholics and we are trying to discuss it.

I don't have any problems answering sincere questions, but I tire easily of debating my religion with people who just want to argue. I see no point in it. I will not stop being Catholic and you will most likely not become Catholic, so what is your motivation? Is is knowledge? There are plenty of links to read. If it's just to bait and parse words, I think we all have better ways to spend our time.

[defconw]

I think of it more as a starting point. Unlike the movies etc, they have someone go into a dark box and say bless me father for I have sinned... and then they list silly superfluous things.

I keep an inventory of things that I can do better. I do what is called an "Examination of Conscience". Think of it as a state of yourself report. I go over in my head ways in which I have fallen either short or completely.

For example were I to physically kill someone, that is a mortal sin, very grave, it separates me from God, not on his behalf so much, but on mine. Think Adam and Eve hiding from God after they ate the apple. They knew they messed up. But that is an easy to see sin. A no brainer.

Now this list that the good Father compiled, is a tool to find out the venial sins that I am guilty of, but probably much less aware of. By meditating on a list such as this I can see where I have fallen and sinned.

Confession is a way to examine yourself and tell God you are sorry in the most simple terms, but it really is more about spiritual maturity and growth. Some people choose to stay in a safe world and they confess little things either in a Confessional or in the case of Non-Catholics in prayer or maybe with their pastor in a form of counseling.

Faith is a journey, at least for me. Some decide they need only know a bit and they are happy with that. I like to go deeper and richer.

[southernmann]

So, essentially, what one persons deems to be a sincere question, isn’t necessarily a sincere question to another?

How do people of different religious beliefs, supposed to discuss things then? What you call debate, others call questions.

The motivation, is to hear what people think and have to say, not what is already written down.

Why do you consider some of my questions as baiting and parsing?

[southernmann]

That’s too bad, thanks

[defconw]

I was not sure. That's why I asked. I am unfamiliar with you so I am willing to explain. I will say that I do not spend much time checking out what other non-catholics believe or the difference in their opinions with each other. I can only proclaim and try to explain my own faith.

That being said. At some point a whole bunch or parsers will be here. Generally they come late in the evening. I am trying to work on my patience. As you can see, I am still working on it. So in short I meant no offense to you, personally. The Catholic faith is pretty much out there for the world to see. The other churches, I am sure have their beliefs written down, but it would be much harder to track them all down. I need to leave off for now. See you later.

[jimmyo57]

“Who gets to determine what is excessive, or improper or just or unjust?”

The Liberal Democrats!

[NorthMountain]

Who determines whether we have thought unjustly of another? Etc.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

Do you think maybe that objective truth has something to do with it?

[NorthMountain]

Does it bother you when people say they adore this or that?

I, personally, use the word only in the context of God. I know it's quite common for folks to us "adorable" as a synonym for "cute". I think it's sloppy language; I don't think they're actually committing idolatry of their "Precious Moments" figurine ...

[defconw]

I am so glad I am not the only one. LOL. I know they don’t actually mean what they are saying but it bugs me.

[defconw]

I just read through that Litany of Penance and Reparation. Wow, cool!