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Kinds of Sin
In both the Old and the New Testaments there are lists of different kinds of sin. For example, we find a confession of sin in Isaiah which describes various kinds of sin. "And indeed our faults are present to our minds, and we know our iniquities; rebellion and denial of Yahweh, turning our back on our God, talking treachery and revolt, murmuring lies in our heart. Justice is withheld and integrity stands aloof; in the public square sincerity is brought to its knees and uprightness is forbidden to enter. Sincerity is missing and he who avoids evil is robbed" (Isa. 59:12 ff.). The friendship with God is broken in many different ways: violence, robbery, unjust judgments, Iying, adultery, perjury, murder, usury, the mocking of the rights of others.
St. Paul enumerates the various abuses which men fall into who do not acknowledge God: "And so they are steeped in all sorts of depravity, rottenness, greed and malice, and addicted to envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite. Libellers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in sin, rebellious to parents, without brains, honor, love or pity. They know what God's verdict is: that those who behave like this deserve to die-and yet they do it; and what is worse, encourge others to do the same" (Rom. 1:29-32).
ORIGINAL SIN
The expression "original sin" is not found in Scripture but it is used to describe the sin committed by our first parents and passed on to all of his descendants. Every sin has three movements-a movement toward self, away from the community of man, and away from the source of life, God. There is no sin that does not reach in these three directions. This means practically speaking that it brings death to the life of grace in a person, extends the reign of spiritual death in the community, and is in some way related to the death of Christ. In fact it could be said that a person's power to inflict this death, on himself, and others, depends on the power he has to love, or the power that he has to give himself to another freely. The father or mother of a family, for example, can cause more spiritual harm to the whole family than one of the children because they have a greater power to love, as the source of the life of the family, which the children do not have.
This helps us understand to some extent how our first parents could commit a sin which had such disastrous consequences. Just as the love of children can be weakened or strengthened by the degree of love of the parents, so the children of Adam come into this world with a radical weakness in their power to love God and their fellow men. This radical weakness has two aspects. It is first of all a state of estrangement from God, which we call a privation of grace or of friendship; and secondly, it is a weakness experienced in our efforts at centering ourselves on God and a certain proneness to whatever can de-center us from God. This weakness is called concupiscence. But concupiscence is not something which is simply a weakness of the flesh. It is a weakness of the whole man. There is a certain inertia, even antagonism, which one feels toward centering one's life on God.
How often we hear the objection, "Why should I be responsible for what someone else did?" Today perhaps we are beginning to realize (what the people of Israel always knew) that we share very intimately, for good or evil, in what other men before us have done, and are doing now. It comes home to us in a sobering way when we realize that one man, here and now, through the power for unlimited destruction could destroy the whole human race. We ourselves might not want the consequences of his act, but we share with him in the community of men for good and for evil.
But when all is said and done the various comparisons which are used to show how the sin of our first parents is passed on to us, though they help somewhat, are not completely satisfying. Ultimately there is a mystery here of union, of oneness. The mystery of our oneness with the first man Adam in his sin and in the consequences of his sin is paralleled by the mystery of our oneness with Christ, Whom St. Paul calls the Second Adam, in the union of grace. 'Well then, sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned . . . Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man's fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to many as an abundant free gift. The results of the gift also outweigh the results of one man's sin: for after one single fall came judgment with a verdict of condemnation, now after many falls comes grace with its verdict of acquittal. If it is certain that death reigned over everyone as the consequence of one man's fall, it is even more certain that one man, Jesus Christ, will cause everyone to reign in life who receives the free gift that he does not deserve, of being made righteous. Again, as one man's fall brought condemnation on everyone, so the good act of one man brings everyone life and makes them justified. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rom. 5:12-19).
DEGREES OF DEFECTION
If sin is by its very nature a breach of friendship, it is easy to see that there can be serious disorders and those that are less serious. There can be a friendship which is simply broken off completely. The common bond which unites them dies. When this happens we say that the break is a mortal one. This is what is meant by a mortal sin. When the offense injures the friendship but does not dissolve it, then this is called a lesser violation, a venial sin. Sometimes one does not do everything which he could do for a friend even though he is not actually offending him. He is not violating any code or any law which governs friendship, still he is not doing all that he could to deepen the friendship and solidify it. For this reason we are told by our Lord not only to avoid sin but to do all that we can to deepen our friendship with God: "You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). He tells us that we should not only avoid injuring our neighbor but that we should not place limits on our charity, where it is possible to show greater friendship without of course an excess which would render even charity imperfect.
We see examples in the Scripture of breaches of friendship of greater and less gravity. The sin of Judas, of course, comes to mind as a serious sin (though we do not know whether Judas repented or not, something which only God knows) because it separated him from Christ and from the community of the Apostles. The recurrent pettiness of the Apostles were lesser sins, though they also grieved our Lord. Their quarreling over the question of who would have the first places, the imprudence of Peter when he took our Lord aside to admonish Him for ever thinking about such a thing as suffering and death-these were all less serious sins. "But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan. You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God's way but man's"' (Matt. 16:23). Perhaps the failure of the disciples to watch with our Lord in His agony is an example of a lesser fault also, though we are always on risky ground here when we try to point out particular failures as serious or light. This is something which God and the individual know.
A serious violation of any friendship would have three characteristics: 1) it would have to be about something which would be of some moment; 2) a person would have to do it knowingly; 3) he would have to do it deliberately with full realization of what he was doing. These characteristics are usually put in a succinct way: serious matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will. But they are characteristics of an act which would sever any friendship. I could not for example break a friendship over a toothpick; nor could I do it just by forge/fullness, or by accident. It has to be an act which is a personal one, proceeding from my free choice.
Some may believe that it is not possible to have any difference between a lesser violation of friendship with God and a greater one. Yet our Lord Himself used the expression "greater" in regard to sin. In speaking to Pilate, He said of the Jewish leaders, especially of Caiphas, " 'That is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater guilt' " (John 19:11). A Catholic believes that just as there are degrees of love, or degrees of dedication to God, so there are also degrees of defection, of withdrawal from Him.
Courtesy of
Catholic Information Network (CIN)