The Problems of
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.{25}
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.{26}
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). Health is a condition which is complete in its many material virtues, down to the cellular level. Disease is a condition in which the virtue of health somehow is somehow lacking. Disease, famine, war are all evils, which in some way 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 to the degree that its underlying virtue is proactive.
A summary of all this might be as follows. Selfishness is a tendency, sin is an act, evil is the result {27}. 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.{28} An understanding of 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. {29}
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 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.{30}
To devote hours to learning piano or baseball is legitimate advancement in human fulfillment. These perfect the ontological and moral virtues in our body and soul.{31} It would be legitimate to perfect a million such skills if our life span would allow it.
Supernatural fulfillment has its ultimate end in full union with Christ.{32} It is the reason for our creation, and our highest possible attainment and joy. Virtue, prayer, faith, hope and 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.{33}
Human perfection pursues some sort of ideal beyond self. Artistic ideals, family, community, learning, justice are all human perfections.
Supernatural fulfillment cultivates our union with God, and ends with our divine union with the person of Christ. This is our highest possible fulfillment, and the goal of Catholic spiritual advancement.
Universal Effects of Original Sin
Let us not ask if we have a flawed moral will, let us ask how we should correct it. Every person is guaranteed a flawed will, by the effect of original sin. The human soul has both individual and communal aspects, and the virtue or sin that one has, is shared by all.
Even today, every person as created by God is without flaw.{34} Every person must also take on a burden of original sin. Spiritual advancement was intended to operate within the sinless world of Adam and Eve, but with the onset of sin, we are to conquer sin and then to make spiritual advancement to divine perfection.
The proper form of any action gives proper consideration to self, others and God. A selfish action gives undue consideration to self, at the expense of others and God. In example, the virtue of humility may be corrupted into arrogance by giving undue consideration to self. From this we see that there does not exist in the soul both the corrupted virtue of humility and the vice of arrogance. There exists only the damaged virtue of humility, now predominated by self. Corrupted virtue and sin are lacking in the fullness of their original design. Arrogance is respect which is lacking its proper component of ‘others’ and ‘God’, and is now weighted toward self, and therefore does not go beyond our own small self existence.{35}
We do not really purge arrogance from our will, we rebuild humility. The vice of arrogance does not really exist, only the damaged virtue of humility. The moral effort required seems like we are purging a vice, but this is actually the effort required to avoid selfishness in an act, and replace it with virtue.
Another example might be the virtue of prudence, which when corrupted toward self, becomes hoarding or greed. Properly formed virtues help us in participating in Christ; vices (damaged virtues), limit or prevent this participation.
A good act has all of its components and considerations in place and in proportion. God, others, and our own person, and even other things are all justly attended to, just as God intended.
Just as a virtue may be corrupted (made incomplete), by disregarding God or others, the effect of sin in our world is likewise incompleteness. This incompleteness is not just words, but has real and terrible effects. War, poverty, even illness and catastrophe are all the effects of sin. Selfishness causes sin, sin causes evil, evil causes harm.
Sin is often effected as proactive evil, but it has its beginning as deficiency. As created by Christ, every thing comes from him whole and perfect, even to this day. As anything enters into the realm of creation, it must take on a burden of original and subsequent sin.{36}
A textbook example which really lays out sin for examination, its causes, effects, and interchangeability occurs in 1Chronicles chapter 21. King David takes a census of Israel, which is an offense against God. The people of Israel belong to God (not David). When David counts them, he is implying that they are his to count. God offers him the choice of punishments: famine, war or plague. David chooses plague which kills 70,000.
In a related case, in 1Cor 5:5 a man suffers his own sin in his body rather than his virtues or soul, so that he may still attain salvation. Here the suffering is not taken on voluntarily; nevertheless the effect is the same. The book of Revelation speaks of this involuntary reformative suffering on a world wide scale. To take on suffering voluntarily like Jesus, would produce a better quality of virtue.
Even today, every thing created by Christ is perfect; as a creation enters into the realm of creation it takes on a share of the corruption of original sin.{37} This corruption or selfishness is not created by Christ, but it is assigned by Christ.
The divide between mortal and venial sin is the traditional division between allowable and non-allowable action as a member of the body of Christ. A person acting in a state of mortal sin, by definition acts apart from God and within the confines of self and self interest. A person existing outside of the state of mortal sin makes either venial (imperfect) or perfect acts, which in some way benefits all creation.
The soul has the characteristic of habit. The soul and its actions are not easily moved out of its habitual quality. The soul’s tendency to remain in its selfish state is termed ‘concupiscence’. If we are accustomed to make mediocre acts of virtue and vice, we do not easily move into the acts of a serial murderer or a saint. If we act with little or no moral effort, we are more likely to seek stimulation rather than fulfillment.
There are also many examples of the saints who made the moral effort required to attain their highest fulfillment which is divine union with Christ. Before these saints made a reform of will, they made a reformation of intellect. The will guides the virtues, but the intellect guides the will.
The will is a blind faculty which relies on the intellect to reveal identify goodness and guide the will, which in turn guides the virtues. Selfishness affects the intellect, which may see no higher purpose than self interest, or community interest. If by grace, the intellect clearly defines a fulfillment above itself in God, then the will and virtues are more likely to move out of themselves to this divine fulfillment.
Those making continual acts of selfishness, will find selfishness to be their norm. Those making spiritual advancement will arrive at the point where virtue is attractive, and selfishness and sin is repulsive {38}
Extraordinary circumstances may lead to a leaping or accelerated digression into sin, or progression into virtue, but for most of us, our spiritual journey occurs in small steps. There is no rule that we must progress slowly and the key to quicker spiritual advancement is to identify the greatest good, then make it our life goal, with everything else being secondary. If we see to our spiritual advancement, God will see to the rest.
Selfishness may cause a sin of omission. Failure to perform ones duty when demanded is a result of selfishness of soul (inordinate affection towards self, rather than God).
Unresolved selfishness causes sin of thought. In example, impure thoughts arise from selfishness in one’s soul. One gauge of selfishness if the examination of one’s idle thoughts. As one advances in soul, such thoughts occur less frequently and are more easily brought under control.
Like vs. Love
Like is a confirmation of ourselves. Love is advancement beyond and above current self. Christian theology has the individual advancing beyond self, into a participation in God.{39}
Like versus love has always been the front line of the battle for spiritual advancement. “Like” falsely confines and confirms itself as the highest morality. Love demands extension beyond self. Like takes little moral effort, and the gains are proportionately small.