Yesterday I posted about the entry at the blog of the USCCB about the benefits of confession. In that post the subject of “structural sin” came up. “Structural sin” is something liberals use to mask the reality of personal responsibility for sins committed by individuals. All “structural sin” has its roots in the commission of personal sins.
However, sin affects more than the sinner. It affects everyone. We are all in this together. When one member of the Body of Christ sins, we all suffer. Some people are more directly affected, but all of us are weakened. Therefore, when we seek reconciliation with God, we must also be reconciled with the whole of the Church, and not just with the person or persons we may have immediately harmed. So, there is a “social” dimension to sin.
There is also a “social” dimension, as it were in how we can sin. We can sin not only be our own direct actions, but indirectly through participation in the sins directly committed by others.
How does one participate in the sin of another person? We sin through another person’s actions by …
- praise or flattery
- the defense of the ill done
1. Counsel: If you tell or advise another person to do something sinful, so that they do it, you have sinned by participation in that person’s sin.
2. Command: If you have authority over another, and you forced that person to commit something which is sinful, while that person might have mitigated guilt, you don’t.
3. Consent: If you are asked if you think a sin is good thing to do, and have some power over the situation, and if you permit or approve or yield to the commission of the sin, you’ve sinned.
4. Provocation: You badger or drive or dare a person to do something such that he does it.
5. Praise of flattery: Pretty clear. This is another way of prompting a person.
6. Concealment: A person commits a sin and then you help that person conceal the evidence or the action.
7. Partaking: Another person is the principal person involved, but you are right there helping the actual sinful deed. For example, a person helping a doctor commit an abortion, a politician helping an aggressive governor or president or speaker of the house drive through recognition of contrary-to-nature “marriage” by providing a vote.
8. Silence: There is an old adage that “silent implies consent”. If a person with great authority or moral authority is in a position to stop a sin from happening, and yet stays silent and doesn’t get involved, then that may constitute participation in the sin committed. This is trickier to figure out, but it isn’t rocket science. There may be attendant mitigating circumstances, such as the probable invasion of Vatican City, the capture of the Roman Pontiff and destruction of the Church in many places. In the meanwhile one could work quietly. One cannot, however, do nothing. Another point must be considered: the rules governing fraternal correction. It may not be your place to correct another person, depending on the circumstances.
9. Defense: Pretty clear. You defend or justify or give an apology in favor of the sin committed. This is not the same as what a defense lawyer does in the case of a person who is guilty.
It is good to review this list once in a while with a view to your own examination of conscience.
We all wind up in morally ambiguous or difficult situations in which we are challenged to chose between goods or between greater and lesser evils. So that we don’t wind up like Buridan’s Ass, we make choices. We have to keep track of ourselves and are interactions with others so that a) we do not endanger our souls by participation in their sins and b) we do not endanger other people’s souls by involving them in our sins.