Continuing the discussion on Garrigou-Lagrange, one can see the definitions of sin clearly in his book. Some readers have asked me to define some of these sins, so I shall continue to do so. The opposing virtue which combats the sin is extremely important. Before that, I want to give some reasons why we must intellectually understand sin and virtue.
Father Ripperger gave a great series of talks years ago, which may be online. He was in the Midwest at the time and some of my seminarian friends have heard him as well. One of the things he stressed over and over was that only the perfect see God and that we all must cooperate with God in our intellect, wills, appetites and all our faculties. I remember years ago a young person telling me that it was "too hard" to be a Catholic. He had a good point. But, one can chose the narrow way or the wide way.
We have to perfect our faculties. We cannot change our human nature. Father Ripperger pointed this out. Who we are, he stated, are adopted children of God and heirs of heaven. We can only be just in Christ. This is a paraphrase from one of his talks:
If God see Himself in you, He sees our Love for Him. He love us in and as our Nature, But...to please God is more..
Ripperger said that all the saints go through the same spiritual stages of the spiritual life. We cannot skip any stages.
Now, I am going to share one of the biggest points he made which is why I am using Garrigou-Lagrange. Ripperger notes that many theologians lost their faith when spirituality dissolved into feelings.
I cannot stress this enough. In order to participate in the Indwelling of the Holy Trinity, Who comes to us in Baptism and Confirmation, we must be aware that grace builds on what God has given us in nature. We must use our faith and our reason, allowing grace to infuse our minds.
This is why I write this blog. This is why I started writing in 2007.
Now back to the Great Garrigou-Lagrange.
I could write on pride for a year and a day and not finish all the ins and outs of this sin. It is the primal sin.
For us, it could mean thinking we are better and smarter than anyone else. It could mean that we want to micro-manage our lives and those of others. It would mean that we speak down to others, or think evil of them when there is no evil there.
In another post, I mentioned that pride leads to other sins: vainglory, lying, curiosity, arrogance, presumption, rebellion, and failure to recognize one's faults.
This last one is why we need to be in community and why we need to be in relationship with others.
In slang, some of us say "Oh, she is full of herself". That is the person who has given in to the list of sins above. One of the sins under pride according to St. Bernard, to whom we owe the above list, is singularity.
Singularity is the sin of wanting to be the odd person out all the time. This sin is like purposeful eccentricity. We may even think we are unusual, and not like others. This is distinctly pride.
That we are like all our brothers and sisters is true and that we are unique is true. But to purposefully try and be different for the sake of difference is pride. Garrigou-Lagrange says that pride perverts judgement, as it colors the way we see things.
To be continued...
