Posted on by Msgr. Charles Pope

Sin on Sale – 50% off. But Beware of the Side effects

I usually like to keep things light on Friday evening when I post. And the video at the bottom of the page is something of a spoof on drug commercials, treating sin like a drug. Wait till you hear the side-effects disclaimer at the end. 🙂

I also thought today of doing a little post on the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance since I was talking to a parishioner today, who is suffering because his employer has not paid him for three weeks. The employer, a government agency says this is  due to “administrative difficulties” in the bureaucracy where he works. He was angry (rightfully so) and getting desperate. I reminded him that withholding wages was a sin that cried to heaven and that God was angry with him. The rest of our conversation I’ll keep private.

With that painful situation in mind and how the negligent sin of one affects another, it occurs to me offer a few lists of sins, that may prove as helpful reminders to all of us in our struggle against it. Sometimes it helps to see sin in categories and to be able to “name the demons,” as a help to combat them. These are just a few helpful lists. There are others and I invite you to add to them. For the sake of brevity, I do not fully develop them all.

In keeping with the video below, consider these lists a kind of “Sin on Sale” a clearance sale if you will. The lists below can be purchased separately or together in packages. But do beware of the potential and likely side-effects!

The sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: (CCC 1867)

  1. Murder (Gn 4:10),
  2. Sodomy (Gn 17:20-21),
  3. Oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23),
  4. Defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4).

Seven Deadly Sins

  1. Pride
  2. Greed
  3. Lust
  4. Anger
  5. Gluttony
  6. Envy
  7. Sloth

Sins against the Holy Spirit:

  1. Despair,
  2. Presumption,
  3. Envy,
  4. Obstinacy in sin,
  5. Final impenitence,
  6. Deliberate resistance to the known truth.

Sins against faith: (CCC 2088-2089)

  1. Hesitating doubt – delaying the overcoming of doubts, difficulties, or objections due to indifference or laziness
  2. Voluntary doubt – disregarding of the truth or on-going resistance to overcoming doubt.
  3. Incredulity – willful refusal to assent to revealed truths of the faith.
  4. Heresy – the choosing and over-emphasizing of certain truths of the faith to the exclusion of others.
  5. Schism – Refusal of submission to the Pope or Catholic communion.
  6. Apostasy – Total repudiation of the Christian faith.

Sins against God’s love: (CCC 2094)

  1. Indifference
  2. Ingratitude
  3. Lukewarmness
  4. Sloth – sorrow or aversion at the good things offers to the soul
  5. Hatred of God – usually rooted in prideful notion that refuses to be second to God.

Sins against the Honor that is Due to God – (CCC 2111-2117)

  1. Superstition – the elevation of certain practices such that they are regarded as more important or powerful than prayer or trust in God.
  2. Idolatry – divinizing what is not God, false worship, holding creatures more precious than the one Creator who is God.
  3. Divination – undertaking practices meant to disclose the future, e.g. horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, recourse to mediums etc.
  4. Magic and spiritism – attempts to tame occult powers and place them at our service, or to have power over others in this way.

Sins of Irreligion: (CCC 2118-2128)

  1. Tempting God – Putting God to the test
  2. Sacrilege – stealing sacred things, profaning sacraments or liturgical actions, desecration or speaking irreverently of sacred persons, places or things that are blessed or consecrated to God.
  3. Simony – Buying or selling spiritual things, seeking to profit on them merely because they are blessed.
  4. Atheism – Denying the existence of God, to include the practical atheism of materialism and utopian notions that man can save himself.
  5. Agnosticism – an indifference toward God that refrains form formally denying his existence.

Sins against the name of God: (CCC 2142-2155)

  1. Promises – infidelity to promises or oaths made with God’s name
  2. Profanity – using God’s name in vain ways that do not respect its sacred character, (e.g. empty expressions like “Oh my God!”
  3. Blasphemy – to speak ill of God, trivialize, curse or ridicule him. By extension, to ridicule sacred things or the Saints.
  4. Swearing – calling God to witness in matters that are trivial. Also swearing a false oath, committing perjury when under oath.
  5. Cursing – using God’s name to curse or call down evil on others.

Sins against the Lord’s Day: (CCC 2185)

  1. Refusing the worship owed God
  2. Refusing the joy proper to the Lord’s day
  3. Refusing the relaxation of mind and body commanded on the Lord’s day.
  4. Refusing reasonable works of mercy proper to the Lord’s day.

Sins Against life: (CCC 2268-2283)

  1. Intentional homicide – all unjust killing
  2. Abortion
  3. Euthanasia
  4. Suicide
  5. Acting with reckless disregard for the safety and life of our self or others

Sins against Chastity: (CCC 2351-2357)

  1. Lust – willfully entertaining inordinate or disordered desires for sexual pleasure
  2. Masturbation
  3. Fornication
  4. Adultery
  5. Pornography
  6. Prostitution
  7. Rape
  8. Homosexual Activity

Sins of Injustice and theft: (CCC 2409ff)

  1. Theft
  2. Deliberately keeping lent things
  3. Damaging the goods of others without restitution
  4. Fraud
  5. Paying unjust wages
  6. Forcing up prices
  7. Refusing to pay debts
  8. Work poorly done
  9. Tax evasion
  10. Forgery
  11. Excessive and wasteful practices
  12. Hoarding
  13. Excessive and unnecessary exploitation of natural resources
  14. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the community
  15. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the poor

Just a few helpful lists drawn from the Catechism with reference also to the Catholic Source Book and other places.

So there it is a clearance sale on sin. Now here’s a word from our sponsor!

24 Replies to “Sin on Sale – 50% off. But Beware of the Side effects”

    1. Sorry Matt, I’m piggy back riding on you!
      Thank you Father, for listing this, in today’s world, people don’t believe in sin anymore, especially with liberal catholics.

  2. Kind of off topic, I guess, but I really need a straight answer on this: Speaking of tax evasion, what are we to make of the fact that our tax dollars have apparently been going towards contraception and abortion for the past two decades, and the fact that this is set to increase under Obamacare? At what point is it required that we stop paying taxes? Or what else would be the proper response, especially considering the young children in our care? At what point do I as a mom risk going to jail for civil disobedience, and possibly leaving my daughter in custody of the state? Sorry for turning a light topic into a heavy one, but this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night.

    1. Kim —

      You might think that this is avoiding the question, but at this point under our current system, it could be seriously argued that we do not “pay taxes.” Rather, the government takes the money from us, and that is a crucial distinction. Our present-day tax system, while claiming to be voluntary, is far from it. It is completely involuntary from beginning to end.

      First, through wage withholding, government takes a portion of the fruits of your labors before you ever see it. Usually the amount withheld is enough to cover the income tax imposed upon you.

      Second, if you owe a balance on income tax or property tax, should you not pay, then government will simply assess a lien on your wages, bank accounts, and property, and thereafter seize the money that it wants. Accordingly, because government will take it by force if you do not pay, your going ahead and paying the balance due yourself is not a voluntary act, but is one done under duress.

      Either way, it is not a matter of you paying taxes, but of the government taking your money from you. Seen that way, to the extent that tax dollars go toward immoral things like abortion and contraception, rather than for legitimate services for which we are rightly obligated to contribute toward, then that would constitute theft by the government, such that you are a victim here, not a perpetrator.

      It seems to me that this particular moral dilemma is more academic than real. There is no real choice involved when it comes to taxation, no real action taken or required on our part. You are not a free person under our system, rather, the government owns a portion of your labors, for a certain number of hours in the day, the government owns you as if you were chattel property. Taxes cannot be avoided, they will take whatever they want and you are powerless to stop them.

      1. To my mind the only “legitimate services for which we are rightly obligated to contribute” are garbage pick-up and securing the nation’s borders. Fifty percent of that is done correctly most of the time; the other half……

      2. So, are you saying that in the circumstances where they are going to come after you anyways to pay the taxes, but don’t pay when they aren’t going to come after you? For example when you own your own business and just don’t report the income? This is what someone told me it sounded like you were saying.

        1. It is pretty obvious to me that it sounds like I was speaking of employees subject to wage withholding and that I thus completely overlooked and did not discuss the self-employed. In that instance, yes, it is the person himself who has to send a check into the government, but with that, he is also obligated by law to send in tax returns. And, of course, to send in a false return by not reporting all income would constitute lying before you ever got to the issue of not paying taxes. Either way, even with the self-employed, it is a system of coerced payment to government, not voluntary, and for the government to take any more than is required for legitimate governmental functions is unjust theft.

  5. Tu es sacérdos in ætérnum, secúndum órdinem Melchísedech.

    Pax tecum!
    D.v.

  6. For examination of conscience, one of my favorite little booklets on confession is Encounters with Mercy by Cardinal Justin Rigali. It includes many of the lists contained here but I don’t remember it being this complete (I gave it away). I’m sure it would be expensive, but wouldn’t it be great if the Archdiocese of Washington in conjunction with the the lights are on program published a similar booklet on confession?

    http://www.catholicword.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=614&idcategory=0#details

  7. What is lighter than the four sins that cry out to God for Judgement and the Sins Against the Holy Spirit? It is the gnashing of the teeth part that always got to me.

  8. I just saw a picture that hangs in a college in Boston, it depicts Obama as a crucified Jesus and I would wonder if this is an act of Blasphemy? Will the leaders of the Catholic church in Boston take a stand? When does the injustice become intolerable and are we to sit back like defensless sheep when this attack on our Faith continues, and we know it has the potential to escalate. I for one will defend my faith in it’s time of need, if this gets to be like the persecution of the Jews in Germany and they start to round us up I will not go willingly. I have sent a link to the article of the crucified obama, it was on the Blaze. The islamists stormed the streets in the middleeast over a trailer dipicting Muhamad in a bad light, will obama defend us in our time of ridicule, I think not.

    Go with GOD.

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/controversial-painting-at-boston-community-college-depicts-obama-as-christ-with-crown-of-thorns-outstretched-arms/

  9. EXCELLENT! Sad… thankful and grateful some men are still willing to explain, … excellent!
    Heaven help us all!

  13. Regarding the sin of simony, does that apply to Catholic organizations, bookstores and websites that sell things like medals that are blessed by a priest? Unless they give all proceeds to charity, they profit from these sales. I’m confused.

    1. It is lawful to sell an object of this sort for a minor profit. But what is NOT permitted is that one would sell it at a higher price becuase it has been blessed. For this reason, objects of this sort should only be blessed after the sale of them.

      1. I recall an episode of Pawn Stars in which one person brought in a relic of St. Elizabeth Seton that he wanted to pawn for cash. It came accompanied by a letter from the Church in Latin. Rick wanted it checked out, so he brought in a translator and the letter was a warning about selling it for profit, etc. To his credit Rick refused to buy it. It is also somewhat interesting that sometimes a native American will bring in a totem of sell and while selling it, pointing out all the spiritual energy and blessing it brings and yet willing to pimp all that for the cold cash.

  14. Clever! A spoof such as this could well run on April 1.
    Note that sins against the 6th commandment often lead to STDs in the disease category.
    Teapot562

  15. The description of heresy (‘the choosing and over-emphasizing of certain truths of the faith to the exclusion of others’) does not seem to be correct in this article, and the referred to Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I believe is supposed to be a sure norm for the teaching of the Catholic Faith for the whole of the Church in our current era, seems to validate my opinion. In the article, verses 2088-2089 of the Catechism are referred to – see ‘http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P7C.HTM#3.2.1.1.1.2088’ for these verses. These verses do not seem to back up the description of heresy given in this article.

    Please correct me if I am wrong.

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