Sin and Virtue
or
Where will I be by this time tomorrow?
The Seven Deadly Sins are those transgressions which are fatal to spiritual progress.
People have always been immoral, shiftless, and self-gratifying. For ages, humankind struggled to find a conceptual system to operationalize their spiritual shortcomings.
Prideis excessive belief in one's own abilities that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity. The inordinate love of self — a super-confidence and high esteem in your own abilities also known asvanity.Pride fools you into thinking that you’re the source of your own greatness. Liking yourself isn’t sinful. In fact, it’s healthy and necessary, but when the self-perception no longer conforms to reality, and you begin to think that you’re more important than you actually are, the sin of pride is rearing its ugly head. Pride is the key to all other sins, because after you believe that you’re more important than you actually are, you compensate for it when others don’t agree with your judgment. You rationalize your behavior and make excuses for lying, cheating, stealing, insulting, ignoring, and such, because no one understands you likeyoudo. In your mind, you’re underestimated by the world. Humility is the best remedy for pride. Catholicism regards humility as recognizing that talent is really a gift from God.
Envyis the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation. If youresent another person’s good fortune or joy, that is envy. Catholicism distinguishes between two kinds of envy:
· Material envyis when you resent others who have more money, talent, strength, beauty, friends, and so on, than you do.
· Spiritual envyis resenting others who progress in holiness, preferring that they stay at or below your level instead of being joyful and happy that they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Spiritual envy is far worse and more evil than material envy. The Church maintains that meekness or kindness can counter envy.
Gluttonyis an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Enjoying a delightful dinner isn’t sinful, but intentionally overeating to the point where you literally get sick to your stomach is. So, too, having an alcoholic beverage now and then (provided that you don’t suffer from alcoholism) is notsinful in the eyes of the Church. But drinking to the point of drunkenness is. Legitimate eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, aren’t gluttony. They’re medical conditions that require treatment and care. Gluttony is voluntary and merely requires self-control and moderation. Periodicfasting,restricting the amount of food you eat, andabstinence, avoiding meat or some favorite food, are the best defenses against gluttony.
Lustis an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body. Looking at, imagining, and treating others as mere sex objects to serve your own physical pleasures, rather than as individuals made in the image and likeness of God.
The Catholic Church believes that it’s normal and healthy to be attracted to and to appreciate the opposite sex. That’s not lust, and it’s not considered a sin. Chastity,the virtue that moderates sexual desire, is the best remedy for lust. Chastity falls under temperance and can help to keep physical pleasure in moderation.
Angeris manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath. The sudden outburst of emotion — namely hostility — and thoughts about the desire for revenge. You have no control over what angers you, but you do have control over what you do after you become angry. Even if someone does you wrong — robs you, for example — to avoid the sin of anger, you don’t go after the thief yourself, you desire for the police to catch the thief and for a court to sentence her to a fair punishment. Patience, the virtue that allows you to adapt and endure evil without harboring any destructive feelings, is the best countermeasure for anger.
Greedis the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness. Amassing a fortune and trying to accumulate the most stuff is greed, sometimes calledavarice.Next to anger, envy, and lust, more crimes have been committed due to greed than any other deadly sin. Generosityis the best weapon against greed. Freely giving some of your possessions away, especially to those less fortunate, is considered the perfect antithesis to greed and avarice.
Slothis the avoidance of physical or spiritual work. Sloth is always wanting to rest and relax, with no desire or intention of making a sacrifice or doing something for others. It’s an aversion to work — physical, mental, and spiritual. The Church says that the evil habit of being inattentive at religious worship services and being careless in fulfilling your religious duties is also a sin of sloth. Spiritual laziness can only be overcome by practicing the virtue of diligence,which is the habit of keeping focused and paying attention to the work at hand — be it the work of employment or the work of God.
Virtue
“We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat.”
- John Steinbeck
The Cardinal Virtues: prudence, temperance, courage, justice
Classical Greek philosophers considered the foremost virtues to be prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. Early Christian Church theologians adopted these virtues and considered them to be equally important to all people, whether they were Christian or not.
The Theological Virtues: love, hope, faith
St. Paul defined the three chief virtues as love, which was the essential nature of God, hope, and faith. Christian Church authorities called them the three theological virtues because they believed the virtues were not natural to man in his fallen state, but were conferred at Baptism.
The Seven Contrary Virtues: humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, diligence
The Contrary Virtues were derived from the Psychomachia ("Battle for the Soul"), an epic poem written by Prudentius (c. 410). Practicing these virtues is alleged to protect one against temptation toward the Seven Deadly Sins:humilityagainst pride,kindness against envy,abstinenceagainst gluttony,chastityagainst lust,patienceagainst anger,liberalityagainst greed, anddiligenceagainst sloth.
The Seven Heavenly Virtues: faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, prudence
The Heavenly Virtues combine the four Cardinal Virtues: prudence, temperance, fortitude -- or courage, and justice, with a variation of the theological virtues:faith, hope, and charity. I'm still researching the origins and popular usage of this formulation.
The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy: Continuing the numerological mysticism of seven, the Christian Church assembled a list of seven good works that was included in medieval catechisms (prayers). They are: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to strangers, clothe the naked, visit the sick, minister to prisoners, and bury the dead.
Your job is to come up with a way to organize and relate the Seven Deadly Sins and the Five Virtues to the general public, much as Chaucer put his stories out to the public to make clear how vice had overrun the Church and every individual.
Your project options are not limited to this list, but this list will get you started:
· Write a song, a dance, a poem, a play or a story that shows how vice and virtue interrelate.
· Make up your own characters (as a group) and have them go on a “pilgrimage”. Each person writes one of the tales and character descriptions in couplet. If you choose this, I’ll give you the length requirements.
· Create an artwork (there are some on line) as a group or individually (maybe a tryptic?) that illustrates how each vice and virtue are interrelated... or a sculpture…. or….
You will be given some time to work in class as a group, but you will have to complete projects outside of the classroom. I will expect to see a battle plan by our second class meeting (you will need to do research first) and will ask you to turn in progress reports every period we meet. You may rotate secretarial responsibilities. EVERY group member writes down information important to accomplishing the task. If you work alone, it’s all on you!
Due Date: ______
My group Members’ phone numbers:
THE BATTLE PLAN (We are going to…):
Statement of Purpose (How you will accomplish the plan above):
Group Members The role of each in accomplishing the plan