Selfishness, Sin and Evil
Selfishness, sin, evil and death were never part of God’s
plan of creation, but they are here now and our understanding of sin and its effects can only help us in mastering it.
With the onset of original sin, it is no longer just a matter of avoiding sin; now each person must reform that burden of sin assigned to him.27
First, some definitions:
Selfishness is decreased participation in God and others, leading to a misproportion of self interest in one’s actions. The effect of selfishness is a tendency to make sinful or imperfect acts. Selfishness must be reformed, and sin forgiven before we may make union with Christ.28
27 Sin is not created by God, but God does assign to each person a burden of the sin of humanity. Evil must have its effect within creation. If God were to take on evil, he would immediately restore it into virtue, and this is just what Jesus Christ did, he makes our sin into his own virtue. Why doesn’t God do this with al sin? Because human persons retain willful ownership of it.
28 Selfishness usually involves emotions, and it is usually wil ed, but not always; everyone takes on a share of the selfishness caused by original sin. Selfishness is illegitimate tendency away from God, and toward one’s own person. One symptom of selfishness (remoteness from God), is lack of faith. St. Pio is quoted as saying “Christianity is a battle against self.”
Not a pointless battle, but one that ends in union with God, (specifically 21
Sin is willed evil. Sin is a lacking in the wholeness of an act. Sin creates evil. Sin is the cause, evil is the effect.
Evil is a virtue which is lacking wholeness. Virtues may be willed (moral) or unwilled (ontological). Disease
for instance, is a condition in which the virtue of health is somehow lacking. Disease, famine, war are all evils, which result from willed evil (sin) either directly or indirectly, and even by remote persons. Evil is not just a static condition of lacking, it is proactive in that all created virtue affects all of creation. In the most direct propagation of evil, a person’s will is corrupted to the point of making direct evil acts against others.
A summary of all this might be as follows . Selfishness is
a tendency, sin is an act, evil is the result. 29. None of these three elements may attain union with Christ, and anyone owning them is likewise unable to make full union with Christ, or any union in extreme cases.30 An understanding of Christ), but we cannot become Christ if we remain self.
29 The words self and selfishness will be used extensively in this book, and they are simply cause and effect. Selfishness is tendency towards our created person, self is the compounded effect. Every person has his origin in the very substance and person of God. God did not take pre-existing spirit or matter (there was none) and form it into human persons, (or angels for that matter). In order to create, God first had to create something to create from.
God “donates” or “detaches” selected virtues on his own person to create a free creation apart from himself. In the case of a human, God thinks of all the necessary virtues, (thereby bringing them into being), then gives them freedom apart from himself…this is creation.
This free creation has a core “self” apart from God. We are not intended to cultivate this self, or departure from God, but to freely and lovingly reunite with God. In our reunion with God, we bring our hard earned virtues in this world. God who cannot advance in virtue has found a way to do just that.
30 The perhaps usual path to divine union, is an incomplete union with Jesus Christ in this life. We become real members of Christ, but not to the 22
selfishness and its domino effects helps us in our spiritual advancement. We will now examine in detail all these elements and their effects.
What is the moral difference between watching
pornography, spending hours perfecting one’s chess game, or spending time in prayer? Are these activities morally equal; if not, then why not? We now observe the difference between selfish stimulation, human fulfillment and supernatural fulfillment. 31
Selfish stimulation is: horror movies, fornication, overeating, pursuing luxury, bullying others, arrogance, envy, cursing, vengeance, impatience and more. These all reinforce and advance some vice of the soul rather than a virtue. All point of divine union. We participate in the human nature of Christ, but not yet in his divine nature. This requires an afterlife Purgatory. Recall that sin and death were never intended and we were to have made divine union in this life, when Jesus Christ made his first coming. Those who had attained perfection at his first coming, would have made the jump to divine union via the Eucharist. This could only have occurred in our original sinless world. Now we attain forgiveness of sin and are offered divine inclusion in baptism, but everyone has a non optional burden of original sin that first must be purged and remediated into virtue, then divine union may occur.
31 Persons (angelic or human) usually attempt to replace fulfillment with stimulation, but stimulation ends in one’s self, rather than in God; while fulfillment goes beyond oneself, even to a sharing in God. Because of original sin, our intended seeking of fulfillment, is now directed toward the closest substitute which is stimulation: alcohol, status, food, limited or false righteousness, etc. True fulfillment (as a member of God), is offered to everyone, but it demands that a person enlarge beyond self.
By God given nature, every person seeks that which he identifies as the highest good, or at least an immediate good. Since (by effect of original sin), God no longer shines forth as a highest good, we seek some sort of immediate satisfaction. This immediate satisfaction is less than God, and is a stimulation in place of our highest fulfillment. Dependence upon God is not a fault (expect every type of emotion in this life), but dependence upon stimulation is addiction.
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these acts in some way give illegitimate satisfaction to an already damaged soul. The more practice the soul has in virtue or vice the easier it is to move in that particular direction.
Selfishness ends only in itself. Selflessness prepares us to become the person of Christ, which is the highest goal in any life.32
To devote hours to learning piano or baseball is legitimate advancement (not completion) in human fulfillment. These perfect the ontological (unwilled), and moral virtues in our body and soul.33 It would be legitimate and fulfilling to perfect a million such skills if our life span would allow it.
Supernatural fulfillment has its ultimate end in full union with Christ.34 It is the reason for our creation, and our highest possible attainment and joy. Virtue, prayer, faith, hope and 33 A moral virtue is one that we have willful control over such as patience.
Ontological virtues are those that have no moral significance, such as reaction time, hair color or muscularity. Even if we will to increase muscularity or reaction time, they remain ontological virtues because in themselves they lack moral quality. Muscle power in itself has no moral meaning, it may be used for good or bad purposes. The ontological virtues may be used or misused by the moral virtues.
34 Supernatural existence is our existence as Christ, who is now the entire body of Christ. We start as a member of the human nature of Jesus Christ (which explains why we do not walk about divine), then once we perfect our will, free of self interest and self, we fully participate in the divine nature of Christ, (2Pet 1:4). The Catechism of the Catholic Church states explicitly that we become Christ in at least two paragraphs: (1) CCC 1213,
“Through baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ.”; (2) CCC 795, “…Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself…he and we together are the whole man.” The idea and term “Whole Christ”, occurs at least six times: CCC 795, 796, 797, 1136, 1187, 1188. Christ is now all who constitute the body of Christ: Jesus, Eucharist, humans, angels. For an explanation of God, Trinity, Christ and Jesus Christ, see appendix, ‘Christology.’
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love are its development. Supernatural fulfillment begins with basic belief in God, and has unlimited growth as we increase our participation in Christ, ending in full divine fulfillment or union.
Selfish acts of every type reinforce an existence limited to one’s own self. A person truly limited to selfish existence cannot include others or God into one’s life.35