Dear Father Angelo,

in a WhatsApp I received from Dominican friends  there is an email where you reply to a reader that God can be in us and we can consider ourselves in God in two ways: from a natural point of view and from a supernatural point of view.

My question is: are sins of a natural order? If so, why can a wrong natural condition remove a supernatural condition such as God’s gifts and grace?

I read again from you that: “before God a person cannot merit goods of the supernatural order because of the disproportion that exists between actions performed in the sphere of nature and the reward that is of the supernatural order. If man remains only in the sphere of nature he is incapable of receiving goods of another order, which is superior to it.”

Here is my second question: if we cannot deserve the supernatural order from the sphere of nature alone, then why should we demerit in the sphere of sins of nature?

I thank you and remember you in my evening prayer,

Francesco

The priest’s answer

Dear Francesco,

1. mortal sins are so called for two reasons: first, because they cause one to lose God’s grace.

Second, because if you die in such a situation you go into eternal death, namely, hell.

For these two reasons, sins have a typically supernatural meaning.

2.In fact, all sins that cause one to lose charity, which is a theological virtue, are mortal.

It is therefore a supernatural virtue not only because of its infusion but also because of its content.

It is because of charity that God dwells in us and we dwell in God, as St. John reminds us in his first letter, chapter 4, verse 16: “God is love; whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.”

As I have mentioned several times, many serious sins do not make one a delinquent from the point of view of nature. One who omits the sanctification of the feast because of negligence does commit a grave sin, but he is not a delinquent for that reason. However, he loses union with God through grace.

3. About the second question, it should be remembered that our communion with God presupposes righteousness of moral life.

To the young man who asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do in order to inherit eternal life?”Jesus replied, “Observe the commandments.”

And since that young man asked him which ones, the Lord listed to him precisely the commandments of the second table of the law, which have to do with relationships with others and therefore concern the natural moral law.

The first three precepts of the Decalogue, which directly relate man to God, presuppose a correct relationship with one’s neighbour.

St John reminds us that one cannot love God whom one does not see if one does not love their neighbour whom one sees: If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4,20).

Love for God is shown concretely by respecting our neighbour because God wills it and because our neighbour has been constituted by God as his image. For he said: ‘Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me’. 

(cf. Matt 25, 31-46).

4. In the encyclical Humanae vitae Paul VI recalled that the Church is as much a teacher in supernatural law as in natural law because the observance of the latter is also intimately linked to the life of grace and eternal salvation.

Here are his verbatim words: ‘No member of the faithful could possibly deny that the Church is competent in her magisterium to interpret the natural moral law. It is in fact indisputable, as our predecessors have many times declared, that Jesus Christ, when He communicated His divine power to Peter and the other Apostles and sent them to teach all nations His commandments, constituted them as the authentic guardians and interpreters of the whole moral law, not only, that is, of the law of the Gospel but also of the natural law. For the natural law, too, declares the will of God, and its faithful observance is necessary for men’s eternal salvation.’ (HV 4).

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for praying for me. It is particularly precious to me.

I gladly reciprocate it and, wishing you well, I bless you.

Father Angelo

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