Gilberto B.

Bea
 
1. From the Reading 3 material (Theology of Sin), outline the main points in the author’s
discussion. Use only short sentences to highlight the most important points of every
heading/section.
- The importance of the distinction between theology and doctrine: doctrine is the official
teaching of the Church while theology is systematic reflection not just on doctrine but
more fundamentally on scripture and tradition.
- Sin as Offense against God
o Sin as an offence against God disrupts our friendship with him.
o All sin is disobedience because it violates the commandments of God and of
Jesus.
o Not all sin disrupts our friendship to God but only those serious offense will have
this effect but lesser offenses may harm our friendship with God.
- The Distinction of Sins
o Not all sins are the same and not all sins have the same effect.
 The sin of nature and the Personal Sin
 The first and most fundamental way is to distinguish between the
sin of a person (personal sin) and the sin of nature (original sin)
 For personal sin, the sinner bears personal responsibility that was
committed after baptism which is the concern of the sacrament of
penance for the forgiveness of personal sins.
 Original sin is overcome in each person through baptism itself but
even though this is sin is forgiven already (in baptism) but its
effect remains. One of these effects, concupiscence which is a
desire or an inclination toward sin that is experience by all of us.
- Social sin and sin of the individual person
o Social sin as distinct from the sin of the individual person.
 o Men frequently join together to commit injustice and thus only fitting that they
should help each other in doing penance so that freed from sin by the grace of
Christ they may work with all men of good will for justice and peace in the world.
o Social sins are the result of the accumulation and concentration of many personal
sins.
o The sacrament of reconciliation exists for the forgiveness of personal sins rather
than social sin.
o Social sin becomes the subject matter of reconciliation only to the extent that
individual persons judge themselves guilty of participating in it.
- Sin distinguished according to the virtue violated
o All sin is disobedience since it is also against the love of God, against charity and
a refusal to love God as we ought and that we love him above all else.
o Any offenses against a moral virtue or one of the remaining theological virtues
will be a sin against charity.
o Grace and charity are inseparable.
o Those who by grave sin have withdrawn from the communion of love with God
are called back in the sacrament of penance to the life they have lost.
o The inseparable connection on the one hand between sin as an offense to God and
against the whole human community and on the other hand between a positive
relationship to God (holiness, which resides in charity) and an act of beneficence
(work of charity) toward the same human community.
- Mortal and Venial Sin
o the other way of distinguishing sins is according to their gravity, the theological
distinction of sins. (Grave and Venial sin)
o From Aquinas, mortal means irreparable and venial means reparable. According
to him it is mortal sin because it is deadly sense it kills the divine life in us (death
itself) from which no one can recover while venial sin does not kill the divine life
in us like sickness from which one can recover.
 o Venial, latin “venia”, meaning pardon or forgiveness, denotes forgivable sin but
mortal sin denotes unforgivable sin. This way of thinking about sin has to do with
the presence or absence of charity that links to God, our ultimate end.
o Mortal sin requires a more profound effort on the sinner’s part.
o Grave or serious is correctly called mortal in the sense that by it grace and charity,
the spiritual life of the person derived from God and establishing union with him,
are lost. (As long as the person continues in this condition, the man cannot be
saved).
o Grave is certainly an apt term for the personal sin that destroys grace and charity
in the sinner.
o For a sin to be grave must be both objectively and subjectively.
o To distinguish sins must be according to gravity is as follows. Sins are divided
into grave and non-grave; and non-grave sins in turn are divined into mitigated
and light. The suggested terms do not contradict the traditional terminology of
mortal and venial rather affirming the same content in a way that is theologically
more precise and pastorally helpful.
- Transcendental Factors affecting sin
o The charity operates within the covenant between God and human beings, the
covenant between Christ and the Church.
o Sin is in the first instance a refusal to obey God, to honor and above all to love
God.
o Karl Rahner key terms, categorical and transcendental
 Categorical if an act fits into the constitutive categories of the world. For
example, if justice means to give their neighbor their due, then clearly an
act of justice is to be characterized as a categorical act. It means that the
agent engaged in the act only in regard to those categories and not with
their entire being unlike the transcendental act will be directed toward God
and indeed God as he is in himself.
 Transcendental is like a disposition of human person toward God made
possible only by the spiritual nature of man in relation to God who is
spirit.
 o Charity is the most important transcendental factor in the question of sin.
- Rahner’s Negative General Factor: Imposed Necessity
o For Rahner, the transcendental factors mitigating the gravity of sins is term as
imposed necessity
 Original Freedom and imposed necessity are synthesized in the person’s
action and because are both transcendental and a priori, the person cannot
by reflection analysis get behind or underneath them to be able to judge
with certainty in the case of any given action to what extent it is free or to
what extend necessitated.
o According to Rahner, we can never know with ultimate certainty whether we are
sinner since only God can see directly into the human heart.
- Rahner’s Positive Factor: Original Freedom
o Original Freedom is transcendental and this is more than freedom of choice that is
nothing other than charity: love of God and love of neighbor.
- Charity
o First thesis: Love of God and Love of Neighbor
 It is founded not just on scriptures that the two loves belong inseparably
together but on the insight that only loving fellow human can activate
one’s transcendental orientation to God.
o Second thesis: the relation of the moral virtues to charity
 The moral virtues must be understood as a partial realization of neighbor
love.
 Moral virtues are based on moral values which recognized as residing in
the person as such and that ultimately the only adequate and therefore an
appropriate response to the person is love.
o Third thesis: Categorical and Specific Acts of Charity
 Any good act in which the good of the neighbor is intended is a
categorical act of neighbor love but not suffice to make it a specific act of
neighbor love.
 Every exercise of moral virtue is a categorical act of neighbor love.
  Thus, specific acts of justice and mercy being motivated by and
participating in charity are categorical but not specific acts of charity.
o Fourth thesis: Charity has no specific act
 The charity has no specific act because it is a transcendental virtue that is
pure and simple. It consists of the self-gift of the entire person to God and
God as the ultimate and transcendent end of their life. Therefore, as love
both of God and neighbor, charity is correctly characterized as the
transcendental virtue.
o Fifth Thesis: Fundamental Option
 There is true reciprocity between fundamental options and particular
actions that distinguish a human being from the animal from the capability
of choices.
 The fundamental option determines the moral condition of man.
 Charity is a virtue infused by God, poured into our hearts by the Holy
Spirit and exercise by human beings but it is not a measurable quantity
which after infusion human beings cannot touch (except to expel
altogether). Rather it is a quality and a relationship of the love of God and
the love of neighbor.

2. In not more than 500 words, write your own theology of sin as a future confessor. How are
you going to formulate a theology of sin which can serve as your guide in handling various cases
in the actual conduct of the sacrament of confession? Make sure that your theology of sin is
faithful to the Catholic moral and doctrinal teachings.
We know that the basic requirement for a good confession is to have the intention or
desire of returning to God like the prodigal son in the gospel and to acknowledge our sins with
sincerity and honesty. As we know that our modern world has lost a sense of sin, as a Catholic
believer and follower of Christ, we must make more effort to recognize sin in our daily lives in
words and inactions. The Gospel helps us understand and show us how important it is to be
forgiven in our sins. As a future confessor, it is good to remind me that in giving confession there
must be always the presence of charity. I need to understand that a repentant sinner is a wounded
soul due to his personal sins. I must look at him with the eyes of God by not judging him of what
he had done but to help him to renew himself. But by helping him I will not also ignore the sins
he committed but give him the proper penance and guidance. I have to explain to him the
importance of confession and the things he had to practice to grow in his spiritual life. Likewise,
as a confessor, I must be knowledgeable also of what are the different types of sins and how
grave or light it was. Since there are people who committed grave sins but they are not aware of
it due to lack of catechesis. Even though they are not fully aware of how grave their sins were, I
do still have to give them the proper penance and explain to them about their sins. Not in the way
of judging them but in the way of enlightening them. It is also important to me as a future
confessor to understand the foundation of Christian morality. I must know the elements of it to
give a proper penance to the penitent. Since to understand the moral acts and the sins committed,
we may be able to understand the reasons behind the action. Likewise, I cannot speak about life
in Christ or the moral life without acknowledging the reality of sin and our need for God’s
mercy. Since, if we denied the existence of sin it can result in spiritual and psychological damage
because of the denial of truth on ourselves and to our penitent. It is by admitting the reality of sin
helps us to be truthful and opens us to the healing that comes from Christ’s redemptive act
through confession. Lastly, the very foundation of guiding the penitent and as a confessor in the
future, it must be always rooted in charity by loving God and loving thy neighbor. Since the
fundamental option of a true Christian is grounded in the love of God and the love of neighbor
for the penitent not to tumble in and out of the state of grace.