CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (CCC)

What is sin?  The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us a concise

definition. “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience;
it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse
attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures
human solidarity.  (CCC #1849).

 COMMENTARY
 In today’s culture, hardly anything is called a sin except maybe during
a Church Service.  God has been set aside and replaced by one’s own
authority to decide right and wrong. (Moral Relativism) Sin is just not
something people like to talk about because they too may be guilty
and in need of repentance and change of behavior.  But sin actually
exists today as well as in days of old.
In the Old Testament God gave us the guidelines for our wellbeing on
Mount Sinai when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the
promises that all will be well if Moses and the Israelites followed these
guidelines.  Of course they didn’t, any more than Adam and Eve
obeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

ORGINAL SIN.
In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve in His image and
likeness, He endowed them with intelligence, love, free will, and
conscience.  He gave them the grace of “original holiness.”  God also
gave them preternatural gifts. Man and the world began in grace, not
sin. The inner harmony between man and woman, and all of creation
comprised the state of “original justice.”
 The preternatural gifts received by Adam and Eve include infused
knowledge, absence of concupiscence, and immortality of the
body. Adam and Eve received these free gifts not just for themselves
but to be passed on to the whole and entire human race.  After Adam
and Eve committed “original sin,” they lost “original justice” and the
preternatural gifts for the entire human race.  Now they could only
pass on a fallen human nature.  Their descendants are now subject
to ignorance, concupiscence (disordered desires), suffering and
death.
 God “tested” our first parents by forbidding them to eat of the “tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.”  The tree is a symbol of the limits
that humans have as creatures. Our freedom to choose means we are
free to choose good. We are not free to choose evil.  To step outside
God’s moral laws is to assume a freedom never granted to man.  To
choose evil has bad consequences for mankind.
We did not commit “original sin.”  But we are born with its effects, a
wounded human nature in body and soul and estrangement from
God’s divine life.   Man’s passions are no longer ruled by right reason.
The union of man and woman became subject to tensions, lust, and
domination.  The rest of creation became hostile and alien to man. 
Death entered into human history.  Because of man’s act of
disobedience, all of creation is now subject to death and decay.

CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TODAY

We are told by Jesus not to judge lest we be judged in like fashion and
rightfully so. Matthew 7:1  Only God can judge a human heart.  This
does not mean we can’t judge objectively sinful behavior and
its consequences.

As examples, I will use the seven deadly sins as described in Scriptures

and Catholic Church teaching.  Why, deadly, because in grave matters
they can lead to the death of the soul and eternal damnation.  These
are sometimes described as cardinal or capital sins because all sin
flows from these vices.

 Lust, (disordered desire) is just one of the seven deadly sins

mentioned in Scripture.  The others
are: Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. Because of the
sin of Lust, we have broken marriages, dysfunctional families, increase
in venereal diseases, domestic violence, pornography, child abuse, and
sex trafficking.

Gluttony really includes any overindulgence of food, drink, addictions.

Consequences may be drunkenness, drunk driving, abuse of drugs,
overdoses, suicide. Health problems that are related to food products.

Greed results in stealing from others, fraud, cheating, lying about

financial affairs, taking from someone else which is rightly theirs,
opposing what is in the interest of the common good but may cut into
your profits ie..solar energy which is safer and cheaper for households
but threatens profits of fossil fuel industry.

Most people barely examine themselves on the deadly sin

of Sloth.  They just think it means being lazy but also sins of omission
should be considered.. Consequences of the deadly sin of sloth may
not be witnessing to your faith when it is attacked; not voting to make
a difference in the world; ignoring those in need the least of our
brethren; and not helping others when you could and should.

Consequences of WRATH are wars, broken relationships, hate,

physical harm to others, discrimination, using God’s name in vain,
abuse of spouse and/or children,

Those who nurture ENVY may covet their neighbor’s wife or property

to the point of taking what is not rightfully theirs.  Envy also results in
dissatisfaction with one’s own blessings and gifts from God, takes
away our inner Peace and undercuts our call to choose God’s will over
our own.
Pride, I save for last because all sin can be traced back to the sin
of Pride.  Our first parents passed on our fallen nature because they
listened to the lies of the devil that they would be just like God if they
ate of the tree of good and evil. While in fact all they discovered
was evil and slavery to sin.  We, today, become slaves of sin every time
we choose our will over God’s will.