Vice And VirtueSample

Pope Gregory I (540-604 AD), took early theologians’ ideas on the Seven Deadly Sins and further developed them. He reasoned that all the sin stemmed from the greatest of evils: Pride. In other words, Pride acts as the root of the tree which then feeds the branches of Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust. 

In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) asserted that the chief vices were sins against love; they all originated in Pride toward God (internal behavior) and formed into actions of sin toward others (external behavior).¹ He also created a progression of sins. Aquinas’ scale started with spiritual sin (Pride) and moved through the spectrum to carnal sin (Lust). 

Aquinas also created another distinction; he categorized sin as either venial or mortal. Mortal sins threatened to completely sever spiritual life; venial sins wounded love, but did not kill it. This began to blur the fact that all sin misses the mark and causes separation from God. However, it did help demonstrate that though all sin is equal, the consequences can differ.

At its root (remember the Pride root?), sin is a declaration that something is more worthy of worship and more desirable than God. In that sense, every sin is an equal offense, and at its core is a violation of correct worship. Pride convinces us that we know better than the Creator of the universe and can worship whatever seems attractive.

For Day Four meditate on the assigned Scriptures. They help consider sin’s weightiness, but also rejoice in the greater magnitude of Christ’s victory through the Cross. Included today is also an ancient prayer from The Book of Common Prayer that can help us to confess our sins to God as individuals and collectively as fallen members of the worldwide Church:

Most merciful God,

We confess that we have sinned against You

In thought, word, and deed,

By what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved thee with our whole heart;

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

For the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ,

Have mercy on us and forgive us;

That we may delight in Your will,

And walk in Your ways,

To the glory of Your Name. Amen.

¹ Aquinas, Summa Theologica.