Flee From Sin / Occasion to Sin

"Have you sinned, my child? Do so no more,
but ask forgiveness for your past sins.
Flee from sin as from a snake;
for if you approach sin, it will bite you.
Its teeth are lion’s teeth,
and can destroy human lives." - Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 21:1-2

I came across an interesting theory/theology the other day. Fr. Vincent McNabb, an English Dominican, who lived at the time of Chesterton, argued that the Christian life is about avoiding sin, and for those who have not the heroic virtue to resist sin, then the Christian life is about avoiding the occasion to sin. Occasion to Sin is a very Catholic phrase that means putting yourself in a place to fall - actually I looked up the etymology and it comes from occidere which means 'to fall down'. So Fr. McNabb called Catholics to leave the city where more temptation was at hand.

This is reminiscent of the call in the New Testament out of Babylon:

"Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
‘Come out of her, my people,
so that you do not take part in her sins,
and so that you do not share in her plagues" - Revelation (Apocalypse) 18:4

Dom Vincent actually called London: Babylondon. Clever. I was struck by this theology because it is much akin to my desire to run away to a monastery. I was thinking about how it applies to what the philosopher sayeth (Aristotle), that moral character/virtue is based on habit. For most post-enlightenment ethicists -especially of the Protestant Moralist tradition (I'm looking at you Richard Baxter and your 18th century Anglican Brethren) - ethics has been seen as the attempt of the sturdy individual to overcome temptation personally and thus triumph over evil and suceed in Christian living. St. Thomas and Aristotle would argue that actually allowing yourself to be placed in the occasion to sin and then failing, makes you weaker morally. Thus every time you try to face the same temptations you're actually getting weaker.

SO, the argument is that such 'weak' Christians should live in an environment that provides the least occasions to sin. I, being one such weak Christian, think such an impoverished, celibate, and obedient life might be a good opportunity to build my moral muscles in order to face the world.

Thus, while many would consider such an option cowardly and 'running away' from the world, I'm reminded of the words of our Lord:

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell." - Matthew 5:29-30

This passage beautifully echoes the teleological ethics of the Catholic system. Whereas many would say it is no virtue to run away because you aren't 'beating' the enemy vices, in Catholicism, what you do matters - not what you 'feel' like doing. If you're locked in a padded room and you feel like killing yourself (presumably after reading too much Nietzsche) but can't, then you will die without the mortal sin of murder/suicide on your soul. You will be saved. If you are given the option and fail, you will enter grave sin and be able to hope only in God's extra gratuitous mercy.

So there's my argument. It's the one Joseph used when he ran out of the house of Potiphar (semi)naked: run away, or in the King James: "flee from sin"

(I have a feeling the exact opposite argument could also be made so I'm ready for disagreement)

Frank Peretti & The Examination of Conscience

Frank Peretti is a Protestant writer I read alot as a teen. He writes allegorical fiction which pertains to Christian living, conversion, spiritual warfare, etc (in which he is Always very generous to Roman Catholicism - at least in his novels that I've read. Some of the Charismatics are very friendly to Rome, relatively speaking, compared to say, the Southern Baptists).

He wrote a book called "The Oath" about sin and how it destroys peoples lives. One of the signs of sin in the book is that characters get a dark discoloration over their heart that begins to ooze slime slowly at the beginning and the more they hide it and ignore it the bigger it becomes, only to find out that it is a mark which sets them aside to be the prey of a deadly beast in the novel - Satan personified.

That to me is a great image of sin. Aquinas and the Catholic Tradition calls sin a stain on the soul after all, and Peretti seems to draw on this.

In the preface to The Oath, Peretti writes:

"Sin is the monster we love to deny. It can stalk us, bite a slice out of our lives, return again and bite again, and even as we bled and hobble, we prefer to believe nothing has happened...a man-eater that blinds and numbs its victims, convincng them that nothing is wrong and there is no need to flee, and then consumes them at its leisure. We've all been assailed by this beast...and it's only in recognizing the beast for what it is that we can have hope to escape at all. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven and empowered to overcome sin, but opening the door and tossing the beast kitchen scraps of our character is no way to drive it off. Toying with an animal that is actually toying with us is a sure way to lose part of ourselves."

I love that description because it fits my own experience very well. He goes on to describe why he wrote the book the way he did saying:

"I chose an obscure, remote setting because sin shies from examination just as vermin flee from the light...Denial is easy, and sin is protected... [it] is a story we've all had a part in, to one degree or another. And years later, it still cries out the same warning God gave Cain: "Sin is crouching at the door, and it wants you, but you must overcome it" (Gen. 4.7)" - Frank Peretti

I was out with a friend yesterday, who is a Catholic chaplain at our university and had mentioned that I haven't been to Mass since Christmas. I told him I knew I had a moral obligation to attend, but I had excuses for each case. Anyway, I said straightaway that I was wrong and I knew it, but that I didn't like going to mass if I couldn't receive the sacrament, because Catholic preaching is usually worse than silence (from liberal and/or protestant priests Lord deliver us). Even though I wasn't using my excuses to justify myself before others, I realized in my own mind, that's exactly what I was doing.

St. Ignatius of Loyola says that an important first step in thinking and spiritual life is to discern the voice of Satan from that of God within oneself. It's extremely important I think, because I have 2 tendencies I notice. 1. To completely despair and bewail my own total depravity and want to give up fighting sin and become a Calvinist, 2. To make excuses for myself and even live planning excuses. Ex. taking a 9-5 shift at work so that I have an excuse for not wanting to go to mass.

St. Robert Bellarmine of the Ignatian brand of Catholicism writes:

""nothing can be imagined more useful than for those who value their salvation, twice every day, morning and night, diligently to examine their conscience; what they have done during the night, or the preceding day; what they have said, desired, or thought of, in which sin may have entered; and if they shall discover anything mortal, let them not defer seeking the remedy of true contrition, with a resolution to approach the sacrament of penance on the very first opportunity. Wherefore, let them ask of God the gift of contrition, let them ponder on the enormity of sin, let them detest their sins from their heart, and seriously ask themselves who is the "offended and the offenders." Man, a worm, offends God the Almighty; a base slave, the Lord of heaven and earth! Spare not then your tears, nor cease to strike your breast: in fine, make a firm resolution never more to offend God, never more to irritate the best of Fathers. If this examination be continued morning and night, or at least once in the day, it can scarcely happen that we shall die in sin, or mad, or delirious. Thus it will be, that every preparation being made for a good death, neither its uncertainty will trouble us, nor the happiness of eternal life fail us." - "The Art of Dying Well" Ch. VI

Over and over I read that the Examination of Conscience is an imperative, it is the one of, if not THE most important extra-ecclesial salvic practice one can partake in. Examination of our souls and our sins is so important, and I always shy away, sometimes not even examining my conscience before confession, knowing just the number of my mortal sins without bothering to go through venial ones.

It is my birthday tomorrow, and we're celebrating today. The present I wish I had most this year, would be for daily confession (only one parish 30 min away has it, and its at 6:30 AM... I rest my case- though that's just another excuse), or at least, the grace and help of God to go through an examination of conscience every day. ... ya right. (despair), (doubt), (frustration), (desire to run away from the beast to a monastery!)

Maybe I should go through Ignatius' spiritual exercises? If anyone has who has read this, let me know what you thought of them.

Mastering Sin (2)

It's almost 5 pm meaning that I have another empty Friday night ahead of me. What possibly will I venture to do. There's homework (3 essays, a response paper, and a chapter of Latin), but nothing terribly immediate or pressing. There's indulgence, potentially pizza, chips, and an internet & satellite connection. There's virtue: a walk around my neighbourhood and a Rosary to pray, and then some Thomistic theology I could read. There's introversion, analyzing the way I've failed to enjoy life this week or self-actualize, etc and listen to some Chopin and cry alone in my room. And then there's all of the above.

The last 2 Fridays I've chosen homework and indulgence. Tonight I think I'm going to try virtue and then homework and then introspection. As long as I can avoid indulgence, that's the main goal. To lay in bed for 7 hours till sleep doing nothing would still be better than adding more fat and mortal sin to myself, but if I could do something positive, it'd be even better.

So that's the plan: virtue.

I'm predicting in my cynicism: 1/2 hour of virtue, 1/2 hour of homework, pride over my success, followed by a rapid descent into indulgence and depression.

Then I get to go to work tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out, I'm going for a rosary walk right now.

Our Lady watch over me.

(I stole this picture from googleimages)

Mastering Sin

I always wondered why I constantly failed as a Christian and then even as a Deist/Nominal Protestant and then as a Catholic. It never made sense to me if things were just as simple as: Satan and the Holy Spirit fighting it out for my soul. Certainly I believe that's part of it, but so many decisions seemed completely arbitrary or worse, completely up to me.

I've since studied Aquinas' view of the Fall (through that lovely website Called To Communion) and have entertained the notion that sin is a disease that goes against the natural order of your body and the subordination of the will to Reason. Thus all sin is basically failing to use reason to act in accordance with Virtue and the Spirit instead of simply gratifying desires.

All theories are just theories until you start applying them, and in my constant losing battle with lust and excess of all kind, I'm going to try to reason with myself when I enter temptation. Free Will is much bigger than I'd previously thought and it somehow survives the influence of concupiscence and of grace.

St. Augustine prays:
"O Lord, grant me the power to overcome sin. For this is what you gave to us when you granted us free choice of will. If I choose wrongly, then I shall be justly punished for it. Is that not true, my Lord, of whom I indebted for my temporal existence? Thank you, Lord, for granting me the power to will my self not to sin."

Obviously Scripture is infinitely above even holy Augustine, and so I hope to memorize this verse I've needed to make a way of life:

"If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? but if ill, shall not sin forthwith be present at the door? but the lust thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it." - Genesis 4:7 Douay-Rheims

"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it." - Genesis 4:7 RSV

It was interesting looking at the Rheims translation here: http://www.latinvulgate.com/verse.aspx?t=0&b=1&c=4 because I could understand much of the Latin. The Vulgate says "et tu dominaberis illius" - lit. and you will have dominion of it (sin).

In one translation it's a moral imperative (RSV), and in the others it's a rhetorical question and promise / result clause. You will master it if you do well, if not it will be at your door, etc.

This I will have to combine with verses I found in studying the Sacrifice of the Mass, and the passage in 1 Pet 2:5 "offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.". May my struggle against sin be a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

... knowing me, I'm going to give in right away next time as I've created this big dramatic statement hah.