All Other Sins

I have said that God doesn’t care about ALL other sins.  Jesus died for ALL of them EXCEPT for the sins of murder and suicide.  So, what are all the other sins, one might ask.   I need to give Wikipedia credit for the following:   This classification originated with the desert fathers, especially Evagrius Ponticus, who identified seven or eight evil thoughts or spirits that one needed to overcome.^[3] Evagrius’ pupil John Cassian, with his book The Institutes, brought the classification to Europe,^[4] where it became fundamental to Catholic confessional practices as evident in penitential manuals, sermons like “The Parson’s Tale” from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and artworks like Dante’s Purgatory (where the penitents of Mount Purgatory are depicted as being grouped and penanced according to the worst capital sin they committed).  The seven deadly sins as they have been called are:  Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.  It seems that all sins can be categorized under one or more of these headings.  But the fact is that there is a myriad number of sins if one takes into consideration that breaking the laws of any society constitutes a sin.  No one becomes perfect.  Not one, as the New Testament tells us.

So, where does this leave us now?  Well, there are according to the teachings of Christianity four virtues that one can strive to attain.  They are:  Prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.  But it seems to me that there is a mixture of life and living if one tries to attain the virtues of purity and shed all the other sins.  I am saying that it can’t be done.  And it would be the sin of pride if one says one has achieved a perfect sinless state of being.  I have said that like the Apostle Paul, I can call myself the chief of sinners, however, I am sure there are those who have and can outsin me.  The point I am making in all of this, is that if salvation is a perfect state of sinlessness, then in fact, one would have to boast about having achieved such a state.  Even the lack of knowledge can be a sin if we equate knowledge and understanding as a  part of a sinless state.  And I say I have knowledge, but even with that, if I don’t have love, then as the Apostle Paul says, I am nothing more than a gong.  So, really, no matter how we strive for such a state, it’s impossible to get there.  And it would be a matter of pride to boast about it; and that if we don’t do that, how would anyone know?

So, my point is that Jesus died for ALL these sins and all sub categories of these sins.  And really, Grace is not something we earn.  I say we are born with it and we lose it by intentionally taking a Human Life, which is why I am so tough on murderers and those who commit suicide.  But when it comes to ALL other sins, I am saying that God doesn’t really care what they are.  No one is perfect.  And the fact is, that while some are less perfect than others, the fact is that there is no such thing as a state of sinless perfectionism.  Unless you want to boast about having arrived there, it won’t happen.  Peace.  I am Brother Ralphie writing for my Angels from The Angels of Life Institute.  Brother Ralphie works from his study for the promotion of Peaceful living and inner Peace with God. He calls this the “Sanctity of Human Life Movement.”