Four over fourteen hundred years mankind has been aware of seven sins which by some religious doctrines consider are considered to be deadly. Superbia – Pride; Invidia – Envy; Ira – Anger; Avaritia – Avarice; Tristia – Sadness (yes, replaced by sloth, but I understand sadness better than slothfulness); Gula – Gluttony; Luxuria - Lust.
The whole intent of presenting this information was to inform the devout of that which could place their position in the afterlife in question. If you know about a thing, you can account for a thing. You have a choice.
I wonder how often people might stop to think about what they actually do in their day to day lives that might fall under the category of a deadly sin. And, when you do start thinking hard about the issue, what kind of a list can you generate going back over time.
These are nothing more than states of emotion, and as often will happen emotions tend to feed off of each other. We are all emotional beings and we all at some time must experience one or more of these emotional states. But do we really consider them to have potential everlasting consequences, or has society gotten to a state where these “sins” are nothing more than business as usual?
I have pride in my accomplishments; I envy those with a relationship like the one I would like; I find anger at many things in the world; I have a lot of sadness for a variety of reasons; And what can I say about lust… It occurs in many forms and fashion.
It’s something to think about from time to time… How it all fits into my life at the moment, or what I consider being right or wrong, I’m not sure… But every once in awhile when I’m staring at the stars at night, just thinking…
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2 comments:
Good reflections, and certainly make one stop and think, but... the seven deadly sins are a bit more than mere emotions. The one we translate "anger," for instance, is more than just the feeling of anger: it's acting out of wrath, with no balancing thoughts of justice or compassion. Jesus was angry, and the Good Book says "be angry, but do not let the sun go down on your anger." Desire is not lust, because desire is a feeling, and therefore unconscious (or even preconscious.) Lust is the dwelling, reflecting, living in the feeling of desire. And maybe that's the relationship between the feeling and the sin: we can't help our feelings, and in certain contexts our feelings are valid. But when we dwell in them, live in them, and let them be the all-determining factors in our responses, then we commit sins. "Sin" being Greek for "missing the mark," all we're really saying is that when you let your emotions run your life to the point where nothing else factors in except your own feelings, you've missed the mark of what it means to be human (rather, than say, animal... I think this was a theme in Dune as well.)
Sadness is hardly sinful, but when lived in it can become despair, which probably would have been eighth on the list had some monk's quill not snapped! I would be skittish about taking out sloth, which is where we take a natural desire for periods of leisure and turn that into our focus: we live to play, to party, to watch TV, work is only a necessary evil and not something we can be proud of (proud without leading to the hubris that we deserve X because we're so damn good at Y.) Anyway, thanks for making me think about how wretchedly sinful I am. Ever think of becoming a Baptist preacher? ;-)
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