04/01/2021
7Sins; Christianity and Modernity.
By Shaloom Sardar
Sin has remained a key player in almost every theology of the World. It in different religions has been portrayed in different ways, appeared in different shapes and forms and had different attitudes remained attached to it. In Christianity also sin has remained the most addressed problem. Sin was the reason man was doomed to this suffering of the material World and here also he has to deal with the sin. In Bible it is described that God’s eye is too pure to look at evil, he cannot tolerate wrongdoing (Hab 1:13). Great theologian St. Augustine described Sin as absence of God; the more we go away from God the more we are indulged in sin.
It is the sin only which can condemn us to the never ending suffering and despair.
In modern times where the apparent standard of living is increasing the spiritual standard of living is decreasing. We are unknowingly are getting indulged in the unchristian attitudes and sins are being normalize. Commercialism, consumerism, materialism and will to get best of everything for ourselves are developing potential in us to cultivate 7 cardinal sins in us. In this writing I will be discussing the situation which does not seem alarming but it is. We are gradually normalizing some sins which we consider minor but these sins are the foundational ground to develop a sinful character. These minor sins at a point were considered by Church as cardinal sins.
In 6th century Pope Gregory 1 formally talked about 7 Cardinal sins in Christianity. He mentioned that Pride, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth and Greed. These sins which maybe are considered minor by us were considered as deadly sins by the Church at time which can cause us to be condemned in hell. Later in 13 century Theologian Thomas Aquinas discussed about the 7 sins, describing them as capital sins which means that these sins are at the tip of all other sins.
In these times all these 7 sins have evolved into different normal habits of this time. By most of us these sins are considered as normal human flaw but these can develop habits in us which can lead us to other sins. As there are 7 cardinal sins there are counterparts of these sins, 7 heavenly virtues which can help us deal with these sins or can help us make other’s deal with them. We will one by one discuss how these sins cultivate in us some normal habits in these modern times and how we can struggle with these sins with the help of its counterparts.
1) Pride:
We indeed in current times consider pride to be a virtue. We consider it to be a good thing to be proud of something we are or we possess. But the Pride here is discussed as developing a vainglorious nature in us. It is discussed as taking pride in every small thing you do, considering yourself better than anyone else and thinking others as mere inferior beings which don’t hold any equal human status as you hold. Pride makes us become highly self-obsessed and with that it also brings a burden to maintain our superiority. To maintain this sense of superiority over others we also tend to immoral and unjust acts. Pride develops in us habit not to evaluate ourselves or put ourselves to accountability which not only hinder our spiritual growth but pushes us to grow evil.
The sin of pride can be gradually cured with the virtue of Humility. Humility helps us to imitate the Character of Jesus. HE who is deserves all the praise in the World, He who rules all the realms was humble enough to be born in the most humble surrounding and came on Earth to suffer as humans. We should gradually develop humility in us which later will give rise to the habits which counters the habits developed by the pride.
2) Envy:
Envy is the feeling of discontentment which arises in us by seeing someone else possesses something. It can also be described as the corrupted sense of ambition which arises not because we believe in something nor need something but because of the fact that someone else is having that thing or talent. In modern times use of social media is developing envious nature in us. We on social media see other people enjoying things which we are not enjoying at that time. This makes us want to have what others have and we become ungrateful for the things which we are blessed with. We question the wisdom of the God for not giving us something which was given to someone else.
This sin of envy can be neutralized by the virtue of kindness. We should develop tolerance and patience in ourselves. We should be kind enough to others after seeing them enjoying something they own in their lives instead of being envious. Being happy for other’s enjoying goodness of life is a gesture of kindness and it helps us to be happy, contended and thankful in our lives.
3)Wrath:
Wrath or anger is the issue which is faced by most of us in this modern times. Most of us are occupied by the social, individual, emotional and economical problem which develops anger in us. Most of us consider it normal part of our personality trait. In our wrath and anger we end up saying mean things to others which most of the time we don’t meant. We end up doing horrible things which we maybe don’t want to do otherwise. Wrath at times makes us lose our moral grounds and makes us do nasty things.
But this sin of wrath can be cured with the habit of developing patience in us. In times when we are full of rage we should take a while to cool ourselves and look at things more rationally and understand the circumstances of others and situations. It can stop us from doing other mean and nasty things which our wrath makes us do.
4) Gluttony:
Gluttony is something which we mostly don’t even consider as sin. It is the habit of developing greed in eating; to eat and drink more. It means not to fulfill the requirement of our body but for the greed of our stomach. Indulging in the habit of drinking is also derived by the sin of gluttony. Apart, from excessive eating gluttony develops the habit of excessive drinking. Gluttony is associated with the desire of stomach. Consuming alcohol because we like the taste or the sensation caused by it makes us loose our conscious which makes us do many other sins.
Developing temperance in us can eradicate the gluttony. We should develop control over ourselves that we can say no to the desires of our body.
5)Lust:
Desire of flesh is indeed one of the most faced problems by youngsters and middle aged people in our current society. We constantly want to have different sexual partners with us to fulfil the void in us by gaining sanctury in the sexual intimacy with other people. In current era differnt social media platfroms and media indjustry is playing role in using nudity and sexuality as a marketing technique and normalising it for the currenyt generation. We all at some point of our lives fall prey to our lustful desires of flesh and end up committing graver sins.
Developing in us virtue of chastity can help us in struggling with the sin of lust. Chastity means developing in us temperence and control when it comes to the matters of lust. When indulged in a lustful situation we should hold ourselves and develop temprence in us.
6) Sloth:
Sloth which in easy words can be define as utter laziness. This may look something negligeble but it can have bigger consequences. Work, according to some theologians like Jhon Calvin is define as “ call of God” and a way to salvation. Which means if we work with full dedication, focus and hardwork it is also a kind of worship and we can also earn salvation by remaining loyal to our work considering it is assigned to us by the God. Whatever work we do is not just connected to us but is also connected to number of other people and we are just a part of it. If we be lazy in our work the affects of the parameter of our sloth will be greater than we can imagine.
We can develop in us the heavenly virtue of diligence to against the habits caused by sloth in us. Diligence means, whatever work we do we should do it carefully and presistently. Whatever work we do we should do it knowing, we are doing it for God thus we should invest our complete selves in that work.
7) Greed:
Greed is the sin which gives rise to more other sins and develops in us sinful character. When indulged in greed we want toaquire everything for ourselves, we tend to aquire more than we actually require to live a good prosperous life. Habit of aquiring everything for yourself makes us selfish and narrcisit, we usually overlook the miseries of people around us. We are not willing to give extra we have to the people who dont have anything at all. Christ teaches us to love others as we love ourselves, if we want good for ouyrselves we should also desire equal good for others. Greed drives us away from this teaching of God. In the current Capitalist era when almost everything is associated to the market, we feel everyone is our competitor and we shopuld aquire more and more for oursleves to mantain our status. Greed develops in us love for material and we go further from the love of spirit.
Developing the habit of charity helps us to neutralise the sin of Greed. It helps us to shift our heart from the love of material to the love of spirit. It helps us to seek gratification not in gathering more and more for us but to seek it in giving out and helping to our bretheren who need it.
The purpose of discussing these sins is not to look down on others as sinners but to understand the sins which are normalized in our social and personal spheres. The sins which are not even considered as sins, but develop in us the unchristian attitudes. These are the sins which drive us further from God and indulge us into more sins.
It is the ripe time to discuss about these sins and the effects they are causing on our lives as these has become the normal part of our lives in modern days. It is the most difficult time to practice the fundamental values of Christianity. The nature of this modern age does not resonate with the spirit and teaching of Christ. Call towards the revival of Christian values is need of this time. We cannot become Christians just because we are born in a family which considers itself as a Christian family. To become a Christian we have to replicate to imitate the behavior of Christ. May a grave sinner like me get a chance to review himself under the grace of God. May we all get chance to revive the true Christian values in us.
