Last week we learned that destroying a growing and living
human being is truly against the Will of God.
Therefore all followers of God are obliged NOT to do those things. Our Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes
St. Augustine when defining ‘sin’.
Augustine says: “Sin is an offense
against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for
God and neighbor cause by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human
solidarity. It has been defined as “an
utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.” (CCC 1849)
The Catechism also defines sin thusly: “Sin is
an offense against God. It is a revolt
against God through the will to become ‘like gods,’ knowing and determining
good and evil. Sin is therefore “love of
oneself even to contempt of God.”” (CCC 1850)
We know there are two levels of gravity of sin, venial and
mortal, Scripture is very clear on that point (1 john 5:16). A venial sin is an act that does not
completely cut himself off from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ. A mortal sin does indeed cut him off from
God. The Catechism defines these terms
this way: “Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a great violation
of God’s law; it turns man away from God”… “Venial sin allows charity to
subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.” (CCC 1855)
For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be
met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is
grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate
consent.” (CCC 1857) Therefore since
we know that contraception and abortion
are of a grave matter (very serious subject) then for one to deliberately
(freely) and knowingly perform these or help others in performing these acts is
morally evil (ie mortal sin).
It has been a tenant of our Catholic faith since the very
beginning that abortion and the use of contraception is always and everywhere
gravely wrong. Whether anyone else
believes this to be right or wrong is irrelevant for our purposes today. If our conscience dictates that it is a
great moral evil to use contraception or abortafacient drugs then by virtue of
loving our fellow man we are also obliged not to directly help them acquire
such products and services. For example,
if it is morally wrong for me to intentionally kill an innocent bystander then
it is also morally wrong for me to knowingly supply the gun so that someone else
can kill him. Since 1973, ever since
abortion has been legalized, federal law does not protect all of its
citizens. It currently discriminates
against a class of persons not yet born and with the Healthcare services being
proposed by Obama (ie, Obamacare) the government will force its citizens to pay
for these deadly services whether we have religious objections to them or
not. We must make our voices heard. The voice of reason needs to overcome or our
great country will no longer be a country where freedom or religion prevails. We must prevent our government from trampling
on our right to freely exercise our religion in the public square.
Even though “unintentional
ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense”
as well as “the promptings of feelings
and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense,
as can external pressures or pathological disorders…” we as a society are
obliged to defend our constitutional right to freedom of religion. PLEASE, let us rise up and be heard.
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