○ Comes from Khaw-taw - to miss, to err from the

OBSTACLE TO FOLLOWING CHRIST: MAN AS DISFIGURED BY SIN mark, to sin, to stumble.

SIMONE WEIL: Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it

WHAT IS SIN?
HOW SHOULD WE UNDERSTAND SIN?
- Our failure to live the Great Commandment to love God,
others and self.
SIN IN THE SACRED SCRIPTURES

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS : SIN AS THE MISSING MARK

● AVEIRAH
○ derived from the verb avar means pass over.
● JUDAISM - Sin is defined as the turning aways from the immutable
○ describes 3 levels of sin. There are three levels of a good by breaking the moral standards set by God.
person who commits an aveirah.
ACCORDING TO ST. AUGUSTINE
THREE LEVELS OF SIN
- Sin is an action that deliberately went against God.
● Be-mezid
○ someone who does an aveirah intentionally. ACCORDING TO CCC
Most senior category
● Be-shogeg - - Offense against truth and certain and correct conscience.
○ someone who did aveirah by accident. Person is - Can be an utterance, deed, or desire contrary to the
still responsible but action is considered less eternal law.
serious.
● Tinok-Shenishba
○ a person who was raised in an non-Jewish
DEVIATION
environment, and is not aware of proper Jewish
Law or halacha. Not held accountable for his or
● Voluntary turning away from the right order
her action.

CONTRADICTION
SIN IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

● Internal conflict between the true nature of man as

● BEIN ADAM LAMAKOM
oriented to God and his earthly pre-occupations and
○ Between Man and God.
tendencies.
○ Those that involve acts of defiance of God,
whether they are not following the
commandments that God has defined.
DIMENSIONS OF SIN
● BEIN ADAM LECHAVEIRO
○ Between Man and his fellow. PERSONAL
○ Harming another person, shaming them,
misleading them ● Destroys one’s inner wholeness

SIN IN THE NEW TESTAMENT SOCIAL

● PESHA ● Affects and causes harm to one’s neighbor

○ transgression, rebellion, trespass.
○ A deliberate sin RELIGIOUS
○ Hebrew: Mered which is literally a rebellion.
○ An intentional sin. Committed in deliberate ● Rejects and ignores the structures established by God
defiance of God.
● AVON
○ Iniquity
DEGREES OF SIN
○ Sin of lust or uncontrollable emotion
○ Done knowingly but not done to defy God
● KHATA / CHEIT MORTAL SIN
 ● From Latin word mors = death - Listed by St. Gregory the Great
● Morally wrong decision which is so intense that gives
wrong orientation to man’s life. PRIDE OF VAINGLORY
● Causes total break in our relationship with God.
● Inordinate desire for honor, distinction, and
ONE COMMITS MORTAL SIN WHEN: independence.
- There is a full knowledge or awareness of the wrong ● Opposed to the virtue of humility
choice
- Gravity or seriousness of matter
ENVY
- Has a full consent of the free will that presupposes the
actual doing of the wrong option.
● Discontent over the good of one’s neighbor considered
detrimental to one’s own person
VENIAL SIN ● Opposed to brotherliness and magnanimity

● Causes weakening or a strain in our relationship with God

LUST

DIVISION OF SIN ● Inordinate craving for sexual gratification

● Opposed to the virtue of chastity
INTERNAL SINS
GLUTTONY
- Occur in the mind. Found in thought and desire
● Excessive enjoyment of food and drink
KINDS OF INTERNAL SINS ● Opposed to temperance and sobriety

● Mental complacency in sinful imagination ANGER

○ Takes pleasure in sinful thoughts or desires
without intentions of bringing these into action. ● Intemperate outburst of dislike with the inordinate desire
● Sinful joy in an evil deed for another’s punishment
○ Takes pleasure in an evil deed done to another ● Opposed to patience and meekness
whether it be one’s own or another’s action.
● Sinful Regret SLOTH
○ Disappointment in not having performed an evil
deed ● Laziness in wider scene
● Evil desire ● RELIGIOUS SLOTH- turning away from spiritual things
○ Desire to perform sinful action because of the effort required
● Prejudice or bias ● Opposed to piety and loved of God
○ Preconceived judgement or opinion that causes
injury to another person’s rights
GREED
○ Individual or group’s irrational attitude of
hostility directed against an individual, a group,
● Inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one
a race, or their supposed characteristics.
needs with respect to material wealth
○ Ex: racism, imperialism, sexism
● Opposed to love of neighbor and generosity

EXTERNAL SINS
SOCIAL SIN

SIN OF COMMISION
- Structure of sin also called as institutionalized sin
- Unjust political and economic laws that favor one segment
● Performance of forbidden act of the population over another

SIN OF OMISSION SOURCES OF SIN

● Failure to perform an obligatory act

TEMPTATION

CAPITAL SINS
● Incitement acting upon a person to do evil
● Attraction by a good which in the larger context
- They easily become vices and sources of many other sins constitutes evil
 ● Sent to see whether a human soul is a fertile ground for
SEDUCTION the breeding of evil thoughts.
● Finds the soul lax and neglectful it informs the front line
● Deliberate effort to lead others to sin demons to prepare for harvesting
● Led to an action which stands in contradiction to the
seduced person's original and personal intention in mind. DEJECTOR (DEMON OF DEFEAT)

IMPACT OF A SINFULLY DISTORTED WORLD ● Snaps out all the desire to succeed in virtue, to resist and
triumph over worldly concerns, temptations, and sins
● Man is turned away from doing good and urged to evil by ● Symbol: Viper
social environment
FRONTLINE DEMONS
EFFECTS OF SIN
BEELZEBUB (GLUTTONY)
- Injures human solidarity
- Wounds the nature of a man ● Drives a monk to eat before the appointed time
- Man is deprived of the glory of image of God ● Incite to over eat
● Demon which leads him to be on a lookout for dainties
ACCORDING TO ST. AUGUSTINE: and delicacies

- It is our duty to do the will of God because His will is our ASMODEUS (LUST)
deepest will too
● Demon of unchastity and the desire of flesh attacks us
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND form the time of our youth
● Attacks two fold - in the body and in the soul

WITH ALL YOUR SOUL and

MAMMON (AVARICE)

● To combat CHASTITY - Desire of flesh

● Inflicts us with the feeling of insecurity
● Creates misers, thieves, and murderers
WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH and
● Symbol : Wolf

● To combat POVERTY - Desire for wealth or possessions

LYPE (MELANCHOLY / DISCONTENT)

WITH ALL YOU MIND

● Result of frustration of the fulfillment of a desire which
was induced by their gluttony, fornication, or greed.
● To combat OBEDIENCE - Desire for power of Authority ● Can come from ager when desire of revenge is not fulfilled
● Deprivation of sensible pleasure
WHAT DOES GOD DESIRE THE MOST?

UT UNUM SINT GAAP (ANGER)

● Jesus invites us to be one with him through agape like the ● Employs tactics resembling those of unchastity
love he shared during the last supper ● Making us say or do something vicious to those who
appear in our minds
ST. EVAGRIUS PONTICUS
BELPHEGOR (SLOTH0
- A monastic theologian, was one of the most talented
intellects of the fourth century. ● Demon of spiritual despondency
- He served in Constantinople through a stormy tenure that ● Obscures the soul’s capacity for spiritual contemplation
culminated in the Second Ecumenical Council and keeps it from all good works

DEMONS OF THE WATCH KENODOXIA (VAIN GLORY)

DELUDER (SPY DEMON)

 ● Give rise in turn to pride, which cast down from heaven to PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN
earth the highest of the angels, the seat of God’s likeness
and the crown of all beauty “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are
spiritual beings having a human experience”
LUCIFER (PRIDE)
MERCY OF GOD
● “If the Lord does not build the house and keep the city,
unavailingly does the builder labor and the watchman
- It is greater than our capacity to sin
stand his guard” - instill humility and root out that long
- We must first sincerely repent sin to receive God’s mercy
standing evil which caused lucifer to be cast down

EXTRA-ORDINARY DIABOLIC ACTIVITY

DEMONIC OPPRESSION

- Also called as diabolical vexation

- Physical aggressions of demons against a person which
may manifest in burns, scratches, bites, beatings, and
blows that leave bruises, swelling, bloody sores, or bone
fracture
- Persist for a time and then disappear

DEMONIC OBSESSION

- Cases of devil’s aggression in which he is able to

communicate obsessive thoughts or images that are at
times rationally absurd to the victim’s mind
- Person feels tormented by a fixed idea or an image that
seems to really be his own

DEMONIC INFESTATION

- Diabolic infestation of a place

DEMONIC SUBJUGATION

- Individual or group of people voluntarily submit

themselves to satan
- Volunteering to make a blood pact with the devil or to
consecrate themselves to satan

DEMONIC POSSESSION

- Attacks man’s body from without (obsession), or assume

control of it from within (possession)

POSSESSION MARKERS

● Superhuman strength and unnatural physical contortions;

whites of eyes showing
● Knowledge of language the person has never studied
● Knowledge of secrets the person could not obtained by
normal means
● Strong aversion to the sacred