It's Not About Sin

one

Too many people think Catholicism is a religion of what you can’t do, rather than what you can. There is no sense in talking about Temperance, which is about avoiding sins like Pride or the Seven Deadly Sins, if you think God just forbids sins and inflicts punishments, which can lead people to hate God. I think we all fall into the trap of thinking sin is the pleasurable stuff while virtue is what you want other people to have so they don’t anger you.  But we don’t want virtue because while it might make you good, it will also make you boring.

-      That’s the problem - plenty of people see the major goal of the Christian life as the avoidance of sin. If you were to ask the question “What’s a good Christian?” you’d get a lot of people who’d answer in purely negative terms: “A good Christian is someone who doesn’t fornicate, or murder, or get drunk, or do drugs, or tell dirty jokes, or steal.”  Someone isn’t a good Christian, or even a good person, because he doesn’t do certain things, but because he does certain things, because he pursues the goods of life, because he strives to promote truth, and goodness and beauty, health, holiness, friendship, truth, etc…  We have to make sure our focus is more on doing good than on avoiding evil.

two

It may be helpful to sum up the four cardinal virtues using the analogy of learning to drive a car. If you want to learn to drive, the first thing you need to learn is how to steer the car; this corresponds to the virtue of prudence. Next, you’ll have to learn to be aware of surrounding traffic, to be able to relate to other cars on the road; this skill corresponds to the virtue of justice. Thirdly, you’ll have to learn how to use the accelerator with sufficient (but not excessive) force for propelling you to your destination; that’s fortitude. Lastly, you have to learn how to avoid crashes and mechanical failures; this ability corresponds to the virtue of temperance.

-      Obviously nobody buys a car to “avoid crashes”, you buy a car to help you get places. So too, the main purpose of life isn’t just avoiding sin, but rather attaining perfect happiness.

three

The purpose of life is not avoiding sin. The purpose is doing things and becoming something great - a son of God.

So Why do we do what we do? I’ll tell you. Every desire, every choice, every action is to attain or secure some good thing we need to be happy. In general there are eight things that every person needs to be happy. We need

Physical goods, food shelter, safety, security, exercise…

Psychological – stability and variety

Family and friends

Knowledge,

Achievement,

Beauty

We need to attain them in our own way which forms our uniqueness

However, Not a single one of these nor all of them together can satisfy us perfectly or permanently. How do we know? B/C As soon as we’ve attained any one of them, we think, “What do I do now?” As soon as I finish a meal, I think, “What’s next?” As soon as I finish my work, a good movie, a game, I think, “What do I do now?” Whenever we say, “What’s next?” We have not reached our purpose in life. St. Augustine says, “You have made us for yourself oh God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” We were made for union with God. We were made to share in the very life of God who is the perfect, permanent and infinite source of all that is good. We were not made to think, “What’s next?” We were made to say “This is it” once we reach union with God.

four

We just discussed 7 of the 8 goods.

-      They are like cups.

-      However, God is the Living Water that needs to fill the cups of our life

-      We need the cups

-      But without out God, the cups are empty

-      Then we are unsatisfied with our

-      Spouse

-      House

-      Job

-      Health

-      Wealth

-      And everything else

-      But to the degree that we possess God

-      All our cups are filled,

-      And we can be satisfied and at peace with everything.

-      See, God is the Living Water that is meant to fill up every area of life so that we can be satisfied.

-      If God is the living water, then He must be the primary good we pursue at all times and we organize the other goods around the pursuit of Him.

-      Therefore, the most important thing we pursue each day is a deep friendship with Him in prayer, to seek him often in the Eucharist, and to seek union with Him by doing His will in all things.

-      At every moment we ask, will the pursuit of this good thing lead me closer to God or away from him: This use of time, this conversation, this purchase, this commitment. And if it wont lead me to Him, why would I want to pursue it?

five

The human goods are the cups and God is the living water. We don’t abandon human and earthly things to pursue God. We seek Him through them and the primary way to connect the good things of this world to God is through gratitude.

-      Gratitude is the movement of the mind from the created good to its source. 

-      In all that we do we need to slow down and say “This is good. It comes from you oh God. Thank you.

-      In this way Gratitude allows us to appreciate the good things of life,

-      Gratitude enables us to extend those goods because we rest in them and delight in them

-      Gratitude slows down the urgency for what’s next.

-      It raises the mind and the heart from the good things of this world to the good God who alone can satisfy.