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Thanks for the clarification Sam. Merry Christmas.
Doesn’t the Church say our true nature is good (i.e. made in God’s image and likeness), however because of original sin and concupiscence we tend towards brokenness.? My reference is to your writing:
“”The first thing we need to do is come to grow in self-knowledge. We are fallen beings, and while it might hurt our pride to say so, we are utterly helpless to do anything good on our own. So often we don’t realize this. We look at our failures and are surprised, as if perfection is our normal state of being and sin is an aberration. We think we can overcome our sinful nature with simple willpower.
The reality is exactly the opposite. Sin is our normal mode of existence. There is no sin, no act of depravity which we are not capable of committing. We should rather be surprised that we do anything good at all, and that when we fall, our falls our not more frequent or more grave.”
This sounds a little more like Calvin and being totally depraved… thoughts? Clarification?
thanks for all you do.
Thanks for your thoughts! When I speak of sin being our normal mode of existence, I mean specifically post-fall. Of course we were not made to sin in our original state. And yes, our nature remains good, but we are still broken beings. Our passions are disordered, our will is weak and attracted toward the wrong things. To acknowledge this is not Calvinism. The Council of Trent made it clear that grace is necessary for us to do anything good in God’s sight.
So in sum, we are broken, but our free will is not erased and neither is the essential goodness of our nature. We cooperate with God in our salvation. But grace is essential for any kind of holiness or goodness on our part, and grace actually prepares us for cooperation with God’s work in us. As Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing.” I hope this helps!
Simply beautiful! Thank you Sam Guzman!
Good article Sam. I am courious what do you think about this Tony Robbin’s speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqGLF55R3Jw
It is not catholic attitude sensu stricto but I think he is right talking about neccessity of raising our standarts and about conditioning ourselves by applying good rituals.
Thank you, Mr. guzman. This is what I needed exactly at this time.
Thank you, Sam. I struggle with the chronic discouragement of the weekly (or daily!) “Fall” into sin. This piece has given me a new perspective, and renewed my sense of Hope. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thank you very much for this post. I have re-read it several times already. A few days back I was drawn to “ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE ON SERIOUS SIN”, and now this one hit the mark again. Reading your stuff I am drawn to Saint Maximilian. God bless you for what you do – it bears fruit in more places than you know.
The timing of this article is incredible for me. Just yesterday, on the way home from Mass, I was telling my wife about a little quote that my brother wrote down for me about 20 years ago; unfortunately, he is into Eastern spirituality but hey, even a broken clock is correct twice a day. The quote was, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” It is amazing that I read this article less than 24 hours after recollecting that quote to my wife. Let us never lose hope and always trust in the mercy of Our Lord.
Thank you. For me, this was the perfection. Happy New Year.
Thank you for this article, l clicked on it when you posted it but I was interrupted before I could read it, later some challenges happened between then and now that made me reflect on this subject, I got up this morning still thinking about it, I opened my phone and your article was the first think that came up as I tapped my browser’s icon, I read it and it was exactly the answer that I was looking for, I know this was God inspired. Thank you again!! God bless 🙂
Happy new year buddy!