1. Every one has favorites. That is human nature. To have a favorite is the result of an act of the INTELLECT and the FREE WILL. It is a perfect human act.
The intellect and the free will are the spiritual faculties of the soul. Though they can be influenced by both external and internal factors, like by the environment and the passions, these spiritual faculties cannot be forced by external and internal factors.
So sin is essentially an act of the intellect and the free will.
2. The truth and the good.
The intellect is always in search of the truth; while the free will always desires the good for itself. Because the intellect and the free will are faculties of the same soul they co-ordinate in making a decision. The intellect searches for the truth, since it is the faculty that sees; and then it informs the free will, which is a blind faculty, that it is confronted by a truth that is good for the will.
The free will, in turn, approves that the truth is indeed good and gives the intellect the ‘go’ signal to ACT. There, we have a human act that contains a truth, called dogma; and it contains a good, called morals. Dogma and morals are completely united in that one is founded on the other. They cannot be different from one another even in the slightest degree and, definitely, they cannot contradict each other. But this is not the state of Dogma and Morals today. They do not depend on each other and often contradicts each other. So we have here a case of schizophrenia. The classical case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where the truth and the good often contradict each other.
3. St. Thomas and ‘the predominant sin.’
Sin is like a star fish. There is a body and many legs. Cut off the legs and it grows back; unless the main body is killed. Sins, like the star fish legs, come from the main body. Unless the main body is killed the legs will continue to grow.
So St. Thomas wrote that if a penitent would like to stop sinning, he must look for his ‘predominant sin,’ from which the other sins are mere branches, and repent for that one sin and all the rest will just disappear.
It is useless repenting for the ‘legs’ without destroying the main body because it will just re-grow and, often times, with a vengeance. The main body of the star fish is PRIDE. All sins come from pride; this is one of the predominant sins. Remove pride and be humble, which is the opposite virtue, and there will be no problem with sins. So Christ said; “Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart.” Christ did not give any other solution for man’s fallen condition except ‘humility.’
4. All the saints described Humility and the Magisterium of the Church had kept their writings as her treasure for our use.
From St. Augustine to Pope Gregory, from St. Benedict to St. Alphonsus Liguori, from St. Bernard to St. Ignatius of Loyola…..all of them wrote brilliantly on Humility. St. Ignatius of Loyola??? It seems Pope Francis have not read him because he does not have any of the degrees of humility described by the saint, which, by the way, is just a repetition of the degrees of humility enumerated by St. Benedict. Pope Francis’ ‘humility’ are mostly humanly contrived public relation gimmicks common to politicians and rock stars (considering the Vatican has hired a very expensive top public relation office for that purpose). The office was hired during the time of Pope Benedict but he hardly used them. But now it is being fully used by Pope Francis in every step he makes. Well, might as well since they are highly paid.
5. Pride was the sin of the fallen angels. ‘I will not obey God. I will only obey myself.’ It was the only sin of the fallen angels; it was the only sin of Adam and Eve. And they were punished as if they have committed all the sins in the world. Well, yes, sort of; because all sins come from that predominant sin. When a soul commits the predominant sin, that is equivalent to committing all the sins that come from it….because the legs of the star fish is part of the body.
6. My favorite sin
Those in hell are there just because of two favorite sins; ignorance and love of self. Unfortunately these two sins are, also, Satan’s favorite. But these are not exactly the works of Satan though Satan makes them attractive. These two favorite sins are the works of man’s two spiritual faculties. So man can commit these sins even without the help of Satan.
7. The sin of Ignorance.
Almost all the souls in hell are there because of the sin of ignorance.
There is a good kind of ignorance; like to be ignorant of sex is a blessing. Sex education is actually the destruction of the primal innocence of man that makes children cute. Here, the knowledge of sex education is a sin; while the ignorance of sex is a blessing.
Sometimes, ignorance diminishes the guilt of a sin. So when is ignorance a sin?
The ignorance that is sinful is ignorance of the complete plan of salvation taught by Christ in the New Testament. It is ignorance of the articles of Faith. It is ignorance of the way to heaven. To know only a part of the plan of salvation is, still, considered ignorance.
If a soul is in a continuous state of learning the way to holiness, like those supposedly in monasteries, while they have not yet learned the complete way, that is no longer considered as ignorance. So when is ignorance considered a sin? When a soul still know the complete plan of salvation and is not progressing in his learning when he has the opportunity to learn……..then it becomes a sin.
The sin is that when he is ignorant and he has the occasion to progress in his learning but he does not progress. His ignorance becomes an impediment in his knowing the way to salvation. Having that impediment with knowledge and consent is a serious mortal sin called ignorance.
8. It is an obligation to know the complete plan of salvation. To be ignorant knowingly of this plan is a violation of the command of God that obliges us to know what He came to teach mankind.
This whole plan is presented to the world in the Liturgy of the Mass. So this plan can easily be known. Because to know the complete plan, even in its smallest iota is God’s command, ignorance even of the smallest iota of this plan is still considered ignorance and sinful.
Anyone who does not know the way to heaven will not go to heaven. And from this punishment can be seen the seriousness of this sin. It is a mortal sin to be ignorant of the way to salvation. And the punishment is eternal damnation. Nobody goes to heaven by luck or by accident. One goes to heaven by following Christ in His every step.
9. Why, though threaten, man chose to be ignorant.
The unbeliever is not moved by promises of a reward or a threat of punishments. Because he is ignorant, in some way he is really dumb. Several factors contributes to his being ignorant.
First, by his very fallen nature, man is ignorant of everything. He is born ignorant of the way to heaven; but the way to heaven is imprinted in his soul by God. He just have to enter into himself and find out how to go to heaven. But the way to heaven, though partly natural, is mostly in the supernatural way. Man can easily know the natural way but he will not know the way to heaven because the way to heaven is supernatural and contrary to the natural desires of man. But he will always chose the way he likes which is always contrary to the way to heaven.
When it comes to the supernatural part on how to go to heaven, man has to win the grace to learn it. But attaining that grace requires a lot of giving up of one’s desires. He ends up always choosing what he desires rather than what will bring him to heaven. It has become a battle between one’s desire and what will bring man to heaven.
Man is born ignorant of the way to heaven. As he grows up he discovers that the way to heaven is so contrary to what his passions and body wants. So he continuously chose his own will rather than God’s Will. In doing so, he becomes more and more ignorant of the way to heaven. Until his ignorance becomes so serious that he goes, instead, straight to hell.
Notice the reason why he increases in his ignorance instead of growing in knowledge. Because he keeps on doing his will in complete disobedience to God’s Will. Doing his own will is the second favorite sin, according to St. Thomas of Aquinas. It is called ‘love of self.’ Man has become near to complete ignorant of the way to salvation because of his great love for himself over and above everything else, including God. Not much different from the sin of Lucifer and Eve.
10. The ignorance of the catholic church.
The ignorance of the bishops, priests and laymen is staggering, considering the sources of knowledge available from books to the internet. This ignorance can be seen from Pope Francis down to most of the cardinals, bishops and priests. And as a consequence the laity is an ocean of ignorance. Talk about the true Catholic Religion with any of the above and they think you are from Jupiter.
This near total ignorance within the Catholic Church had already been noticed from the 11th century. All attempts to correct it, like the Council of Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II, were failures. The Bishop’s Synod made things worse. All seminaries produce faithless priests while schools of theology, like Bologna, Leuven, Gregorianum are producing heretics. Everybody is talkative but their talks are empty. The last time the way to salvation was heard was from St. Bonaventure, Blessed John Newman, Pope Benedict…….then total silence. Amidst silence is the sound of ignorance and love of self. The two favorite sins that bring souls to the depths of hell.
The love of self, according to St. Thomas, will be in our next post.
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