Addiction and Grace, Addiction and no Grace. Which do you choose?

The Vocation of humanity

1877    The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed into the image of the Father’s only Son.  This vocation takes a personal form since each of us is called to enter into the divine beatitude; it also concerns the human community as a whole.  (p.459).
 The Communal Character of the Human Vocation

Conversion

Monday October 30, 2006

1848 (CCC) … Conversion requires convincing of sin; it inlcudes the interior judgment of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man’s inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Thus in this “convincing concerning sin” we discover a double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption.  The Spirit of truth is the Consoler. (Pope John Paul II. Dominum at Vivificanum, 31 S 2.)  p.453.

Virtue

Virtue: (definition) (CCC) A habitual and firm disposition to do the good. The moral virtues are acquired through human effort aided by God’s grace; the theological virtues are gifts of God (1803). The cardinal virtues are four pivotal human virtues that guide us in accordance with reason and faith.

1813 (CCC) The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity. (p. 446).

Sin

1873   The root of all sins lies in man’s heart.  The kinds and the gravity of sins are determined principally by their objects.

Hate, the holocaust of humanity, the kingdom of darkness.

Charity, Conversion and the Kingdom of God

Hell

Heaven

Venial Sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection for created goods. Mortal Sin results in loss of Charity and the State of grace. (Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), p. 456)

Sunday

October 29, 2006

Charity

1822 (CCC) Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. 1827 (CCC) … Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.

1829 (CCC) The fruits of charity are joy, peace and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:

Love is itself the fulfillment of all our work. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest. (St. Augustine)

The Definition of Sin

1849 (CCC) Sin is an offense against reason, truth and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as ” an utterance, a deed or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”

1850 (CCC) Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done that which is evil in your sight. (Psalm 51: 4) Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods,” (Genesis 3:5) knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.” In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus which achieves our salvation (Philippians 2: 6-9)
1865 (CCC) Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself…

1868 (CCC) Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
-by participating directly and voluntarily in them;

-by ordering, advising, praising or approving them;

– by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;

-by protecting evil-doers.

1869 (CCC) Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, violence and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness. “Structures of sin are the expression and effect of personal sins. They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a “social sin.”(John Paul II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, p. 16)