Q&A 42

Q. Wait. Sin creates disorder?

A. Yes. Sin and vice are moral disorders just like illness and injury are physical disorders. And they all create more disorder. Playing sports while you're injured exposes you to greater injury; so too sin and vice only lead to more sin and vice (one more reason why "the end justifies the means" is false). This is why a proud person will usually also end up being insincere and disobedient, or a gluttonous fellow will end up having difficulties in purity etc. Or to look at it from the reverse angle, to grow/improve in any virtue will necessarily mean growing/improving in other virtues e.g. to grow in punctuality necessarily requires one to grow in order, in temperance, in prudence, in fortitude and so on.

But going back to our analogy between the disorders of sin and illness: an illness is where pathogens that should be found outside the body are found inside; injury such as a fracture is where you have bone in the wrong place. Both are forms of disorder that make the normal functioning of the body painful, difficult or outrightly impossible.

So too with the soul: sin and vice are disorders that make the normal functioning of the soul painful, difficult or outrightly impossible.

The analogy - though limited like all other analogies - goes further: the "normal functioning" of the body targets physical and sexual maturity called health; the "normal functioning" of the soul targets personal and social maturity called sanctity.

Injuries if untreated lead to infections and thus illnesses; vices if untreated lead to falls and thus sins.

Some injuries and illnesses are mortally incompatible with the health of the body; some sins and vices are mortally incompatible with the health of the soul.

23^rdNovember 2015