Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From
The Catechism Of The Catholic Church
ARTICLE 8
SIN
I. MERCY AND SIN
1846 The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to sinners.
113
The angel
announced to Joseph: "You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from
their sins."
114
The same is true of the Eucharist, the sacrament of redemption: "This is my
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
115
1847 "God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us."
116
To receive
his mercy, we must admit our faults. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
117
1848 As St. Paul affirms, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."
118
But to do
its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts and bestow on us
"righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
119
Like a physician who
probes the wound before treating it, God, by his Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light
on sin: Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgment of
conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man's inmost
being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love: "Receive the
Holy Spirit." Thus in this "convincing concerning sin" we discover a double gift: the gift of
the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption. The Spirit of truth is the
Consoler.
120
II. THE DEFINITION OF SIN
1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine
love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds
the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a
deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."
121
1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that
which is evil in your sight."
122
Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts
away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to
become "like gods,"
123
knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself
even to contempt of God."
124
In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to
the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.
125
1851 It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it, that
sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred,
shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate's cowardice and the cruelty
of the soldiers, Judas' betrayal - so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples' flight.
However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world,
126
the sacrifice
of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour
forth inexhaustibly.
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