For those who don’t know, “Through a Glass Darkly” is the title of a Ingmar Bergman film about a woman with schizophrenia...........
We not only sin,
We Are Sin.
.
I see that.
“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
Paul is not alone in this! One of his most insightful passages.
In the Catholic Tradition, St Paul's words point to what is called "concupiscence." It is not exactly a "sin nature" (which as Father correctly points out cannot be inherent in human nature) but more of a disordered condition existing within man which is a result of the Fall. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines and explains it as follows:
CONCUPISCENCE: Human appetites or desires which remain disordered due to the temporal consequences of original sin, which remain even after Baptism, and which produce an inclination to sin (1264, 1426, 2515).
CCC 1264 Yet certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence, or metaphorically, "the tinder for sin" (fomes peccati); since concupiscence "is left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ."67 Indeed, "an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules."68
67 Council of Trent (1546): DS 1515.
68 2 Tim 2:5.
CCC 1426 Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy and without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy and without blemish."13 Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life.14 This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.15
13 Eph 1:4; 5:27.
14 Cf. Council of Trent (1546): DS 1515.
15 Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1545; LG 40.
CCC 2515 Etymologically, "concupiscence" can refer to any intense form of human desire. Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the "flesh" against the "spirit."302 Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to commit sins.303
302 Cf. Gal 5:16,17,24; Eph 2:3.
303 Cf. Gen 3:11; Council of Trent: DS 1515
Under this line of thought, I would tend to see Father's identification of "toxic shame" as a result or consequence of concupiscence-- one of many, in fact.
Again, thanks for sharing. Have a peaceful and blessed day.
You forget that with the first sin human nature was changed and became something unnatural. I believe even Fr. Seraphim Rose said as much.
And btw, for all you Calvinists out there, if this rejection of "sin nature" is the position of true, authentic, historic Xianity (not that anyone can get you to believe that), why was a new religion needed in the first place?
Great blog. The human will is what was severed or damaged at the Fall, severed from the Divine Will. This resulted in everything that is not Love (sin). Jesus paid the price for our sins. We strive to reunite our will to the Divine, which will be the experience of heaven. It is difficult for us to imagine the dignity and glory in which mankind was created. I think this makes it difficult for us to understand why it is so hard to just live in God’s will, to love. Or at least, this is my current attempt to understand it all.