CC#5--Little Sins

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.


Hello, I'm David and welcome back to the theory to action podcast and this special segment we call the Catholic corner. Now, why is it called the Catholic corner? Well, because the this is a segment where we attempt to pull faith in the supernatural life, from the corner of the room back to the center. And we do that to help all of us live a flourishing life and integrated life, a life of virtue, we simply can't put religion and our faith in the corner, and only check the box on Sunday. And then forget about it until the following Sunday. It needs to be the center of our life. It needs to be layered and integrated with our life, if we are going to sanctify our life, on our way to becoming saints. So in today's Catholic corner segment, I wanted to share I'm three quarters of the way through a very practical and very short little book titled little sins that mean a lot kicking our bad habits before they kick us by Elizabeth Scalia. 

Now she's no relation to the former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who passed away back in night 2016. And her book, little sins, mean a lot. Elizabeth helps us to discover that those little sins that ultimately all of us commit, and perhaps some of us guilty here, commit on an everyday basis, she helps us to identify those little sins that are constantly nagging to us, that we really don't take a lot of interest in, because we think they're just little. But then in the back of our mind, we're thinking are they are we at death by 1000 cuts, type of situation where these, these little things could come back to haunt us. So in her book, when she opens it up, she identifies 13, quote, little sins. And then she goes on to jokingly say, 12 would have been more biblical, but I just could not help myself. 

So you can see in her writing, she's very clever. And she offers a lot of self deprecating humor, which is refreshing throughout this book I found. Now the structure of the book is this. After identifying the sin, she offers some practical, practical experiences from our own common culture and experiences where this sin usually surfaces. She then explores what Scripture says about this little sin, then what the saints have said about it. And sometimes she'll include what the Catholic Catechism, or what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about it. And finally, she offers some practical ways and means to begin to break out of this or that bad habit. And then she'll offer a short little prayer, asking for God and God's grace to see it through to a practical resolution. 

So again, I found this book quite refreshing. Because as you go through life and and try, of course, to eliminate those mortal sins in your life, those grave sins, those very big sins, it seems that as you progress along your journey, these smaller, lower sins, they become quite apparent to us. And to tackle these little ones takes seems to be more effort, and more skill, and eventually, perhaps more of God's grace. So now to take a step back and not make this a theology class. For Catholics, the church distinguishes based on Biblical studies that there are two types of sin. And this comes to us from First John 516 and 17. And I'm quoting here, if anyone sees his brother committing what is not a deadly sin, He will ask, and God will give him life. For those who sins is not deadly. There is a sin which is deadly And I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin. But there is a sin which is not deadly, unquote. 

And let me read the dedicate Bible Commentary, which is a very good Bible from Ignatius Press. They offer great insight, especially with a combination of the Scripture and the Catechism. And the commentary from the Bible goes is this. The church distinguishes between mortal sin which severs one's relationship with God and venial sin, a lesser offense that damages but does not destroy that relationship. While both can be forgiven with proper contrition, mortal sin is far more serious and requires recourse to the sacrament of penance, or confession. intercessory prayer for forgiveness, and conversion of sinners is a pious practice. And we can be sure that our prayers and sacrifices and that regard are always fruitful. And then it notes the Catechism points of 1749 through 1761 1854, through 1864, and 2827. So that's all very good teaching and a great explanation there. And so the key takeaway for this Catholic corner, as we move along is that as Catholics, we should get to confession regularly. And we should confess the mortal and it's a good practice to begin confessing the venial sins as well. Because if we want to stop the death by 1000 cuts, a good confessor can help us to do that. And plus confession always helps us to have more humility, and to have more self awareness. And it helps us spiritually, especially if we have a good series of confessors, who offer good spiritual advice.

 Now I know that many of us do not have access to great confessors. But if you can in your neck of the world, if you can seek out good confessors in repeatedly gear to them. It's it's always very fruitful. I know here in Columbus, Ohio, we have our great Dominican friars at St. Patrick's Church downtown, who offer confession every week from 12pm to 1pm, and 30 minutes before every Sunday mass. So that is all extremely, very good stuff there. And they're all very good confessors I can attest because I've been going for 20 years. And after all, most of us all of us are sinners. So let's get back to the book, little sins, that little sins mean a lot kicking our bad habits before they kick us by Elizabeth Scalia. 

And let's go to the title of this chapter is treat yo self when small indulgences take over, and I'm gonna throw myself under the bus here. Because this little venial sin is certainly in my wheelhouse. She goes on to describe how we all quote, have little ways we quote, treat ourselves. And then we rationalize in our mind, so we deserve this splurge. And certainly some of us, including me. We say something like this. You only live life once, after all. It's not a big thing. And why not? I mean, if it's not hurting anybody, why is this indulgence? So bad? Haven't you said that to yourself? I know I have. When I was reading this paragraph, I was certainly raising my hand very proudly, calling myself to account and I call this Forrest Gump theology. 

Because I'm certainly guilty of it too. You remember when Forrest Gump said Mama said it was just a little white lie and ain't never going to hurt anybody. So these are all good examples, and we can certainly relate to them. But Scalia helps us unpack this thinking even more by offering us some great examples. Here's some of them. I'm stopping off for a drink with the girls before I head home because my manager is a jerk and I deserve it. Or, I know my smartphone is perfectly fine but The new one is out and I want it. And I can give the old one to my kid if she'll accept it, or even better my mother, who will never buy one for herself. And the final example, the scale shows, I'm down four pounds, so I can have ice cream because I'm sad today.

Now, like I said, these are great examples, because all of us can relate to them. But, and I'm gonna throw myself under the bus here. I've always said to myself, Hey, I've had a brutal day of work. My customers have been yelling at me all day. And I'm going to get a pizza because I deserve it. And I need an hour of peace and quiet. Yep. I've said that too many times to myself, that I can't even think how many times I've said it. 1000s Probably. And Scalia correctly identifies how this type of thinking can lead us down a path. We really don't want to go down. Let's go back to the book. Quote, we can make excuses for ourselves ad nauseam. And when we do, we're not only affecting our world and our families, our jobs and our health. We are impacting our spirits too. And not in positive ways. She goes on diminished perspective broadens our self permissiveness. And excuses and rationalizations become easier and easier until before we know it our spiritual lives are sabotage through a comfortable all through our comfortable excuses and rationalizations. After a while we don't even see our sins as actual sins. They become things we joke about. How about this? Remember to keep the Lord's keep holy the Lord's Day. And you've heard this reaction. Come on. My job is demanding. The weekend is short, full of family obligations. And I'm sure I deserve to luxury ate on a Sunday morning with coffee in the paper instead of heading off to church. God already knows I love him and he wants me to be happy, right? And how about this one? Thou shalt not commit adultery. And I've heard I'm sure we've heard this excuse. Hey, it's a best seller. So what if it's a little soft pony ish? Maybe it's just a fantasy, it spices things up? What's wrong with that? 

As long as I'm a good person. So part of the attractiveness of Scalia's book is the remedies. And the prayer Scalia offers to us to help us get back on the path. And here's a prayer for correcting our self indulgences. And I like it. Lord, you have given us a world full of so many good things. And through the example of your saints, we know that all things in moderation exemplify Your goodness. Help us to discern when we have begun to slide from our occasional self indulgences into habits that can render us so vulnerable to our cravings and our desires for food, for disordered fantasy for success for acceptance, that we begin to move away from you and your gift of grace and the name of Christ Jesus, Amen. 

So in today's Catholic corner as we continue on our Lenten journey, let us find a good confessor. And let us begin that process of self examining our motivations, our desires behind those pesky little habits and actions, those indulgences we take. And in doing so, we will end up with better and more fruitful confessions. And then we will certainly be on the road to a flourishing life. Happy Lent, my friends.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on