Blogpost 6: Envy

Have you ever experience inordinate feeling of desire for somebody else's properties or abilities?
Such is envy and is more intense than jealousy.

Envy is an intense feeling of desire towards other's advantages, success, possessions and/or abilities. It is similar to jealousy that they both desire something that is of others but envy also desires the entity and covets it. Dante Alighieri defined envy as "the ultimate desire of depriving men of theirs." In Dante's Purgatorio, the penitent have their eyes sewn shut for having too much envy for material things. An article which is "The Seven Dealies Revisited, part One: Envy" by Mary Eberstadt, includes the manifestations of envy and its growing threats.

Envy's association with pride is evident since the envious desire things that is not of one's own access and something we do not possess.

Stay tuned~

Blogpost 5: Greed

There are people who seek wealth more than anything else. These people doesn't consider other men who might get affected in a non-beneficial way. These people are succumbed with the claws of greed.

Greed also known as avarice, is a sin of excess just like gluttony and lust. Greed is an excessive or rapacious desire for material possessions and wealth. In Dante's "Purgatorio" (one of the canticas of Divine Comedy), the penitent  were bound and laid face down on the ground for having too much focused on temporal things. In Dante's Inferno, souls unforgiven from sin of greed falls under the 4th Circle of Hell. This circle shelters those who hoards and steals and scavenge material possessions. According to the article, "Greed is Good and Bad" by Phil B., greed has a good and bad connotation. Sometimes, greed serves as incentive to work hard and good education. It may also encourage you to become thrifty at some point. Though after attaining what we aim for, we have some problems we might encounter after. These are the lost of interest after attainment which is similar to ningas-cogon, the continuous collecting even after reaching the amount sufficient to sustain life and, sometimes, people ultimately end up to immoral things. Immoral things involve, hoarding, scavenging, stealing and more.

Another article which is "The Seven Deadly Sins Revisited: Greed" by Mary Eberstadt, also talks about greed and its relation to things in present time.
The article includes the manifestations of greed such as the greed behind gambling wherein people gamble to gain quick cash or they call it fast-bucks.

Greed is obviously associated with pride in a way of valuing one's own interest over others. The greedy disregard the needy for own pleasures and gain which is somehow similar with gluttony.
Therefore, we must learn the virtue of charity in order to avoid the consuming of heart.

Blogpost 4: Gluttony

Have you ever eat so much yet, you are still not satisfied? Have you ever eat so less and foods go to waste? There come times where we are tempted to what food has to offer whether it is good or bad for us. Such is gluttony.

Gluttony is the excessive intake of food and drinks, the over-indulgence and over-consumption of something into the point of waste. It is considered by most religion as the excessive love for food and withholding it from the needy. It is interpreted as selfishness due to placing one's own interest over others especially when you disregard their needs.
In an article named "Seven Deadlies Revisited: II. Gluttony" by Mary Eberstadt, it was mentioned that, "Both St. Gregory the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, for example,laid down rules about what constituted Gluttony. Only one was what we commonly associate with the sin – i.e., eating or drinking too much. The other four concerned loss of self-control over food and drink, different ways of putting things rather than people first: eating too soon, too expensively, too eagerly, and too daintily. In other words, one can be a glutton not only by excess, but also by spending too much time and savor in either doing so or not doing so".
Mary Eberstadt, in her article, gave us idea about how gluttony manifests. She was able to describe gluttony and relate it with modern times in which we should become proper "stewards of the earth" and start minding not only how much do we eat, but also what do we eat. Eating to a point of waste may mean a waste of an animal life, right?

But where does gluttony usually starts?
In my opinion, gluttony starts in childhood and adapts as a habit as we grow. Even up to this date, childhood gluttony is present which causes the numbers of childhood obesity to skyrocket. As in the article, "Eating Disorders and Childhood Obesity: Who are the real gluttons?" by Joan M. Johnston, it talks about the connection of eating disorders and its impact on childhood obesity.

It states that eating disorders such as the compulsive overeating in which someone uses foods as drugs to soothe emotional depressions and the likes. Eating disorders mostly come from  habits and/or influences which most of the people not notice that it is gluttony.

Therefore; gluttony is the pointless consumption of something that leave us not contented despite of how much we eat while we not noticeably withhold it from the ones in need. In-satiety will make us desire more and consume more which leads to placing one's own interests over other's needs, depicting pride.

Blogpost 3: Lust

Are there times where you desire something so much that you get consumed by an inordinate feeling and urges you to do something unjust just to acquire that thing even if it means depriving other men? After acquisition of something you desired, do you feel that you want more and you're yet to be content?
Such feeling is lust whereas it is the second most confessed sin of men commonly having power and sexual pleasures as its object of desire.

Lust or lechery (carnal "luxuria") is an intense desire usually thought of as excessive sexual desire; however, lust is originally a general term to define desire. Therefore lust could involve not only an intense desire for sexual pleasures but also wealth, power and reputation.

Asmodeus, the demon in command of lust

    In Dante's "Inferno", those who were overcame by lust falls in the 2nd Circle of Hell wherein the unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self control to their lustful passions in earthly life.

Though, there's more to lust than just desiring, it also tempts you to take actions. Lust manifests in much more ways than we think. Some people says, "This is not lust, it's passion". But when passion goes over-bound, it turns into lust. These includes the excessive thinking and wishing for something that you do not work for or deserved. It is also lust when you desire things that are not of your property nor available (not for sale, inaccessible) and ultinately, when you deprive others just to attain something you desire.

Lust is an excessive desire for something, which becomes a psychological feeling of attaining its object. Men set their goals as to what they desire no matter how lowly or highly it is.
Though while we desire it intensively, our desire to attain it rises but unconsciously, our actual attractiveness declines in accordance to "Lusting While Loathing" by Ab Litt, Uzma Khan and Baba Shiv.

Well, lust's association to pride is evident when we desire to be over others instead of being submissive to others since pride only wants something better than anyone. We esteem ourselves and deprive others to lower theirs and expose our false superiority which can be identified as a work of lust since it exhibits the desire for power, a power over others.

Blogpost 2: Wrath

There are time where we feel uneasy whenever some changes which are unfavorable to us occurs and we tend to reject it, cast vengeance upon it and/or even destroying the entity itself. Whenever somebody offended us, we have hard time forgiving/pardoning them, right? And, there are times where we feel like we cannot forgive them unless we took revenge and par with them, or better said, when we have returned the favor. Though, this is not forgiveness, and this is not your simple serve of sadness; this is called wrath.

Portrait depicting wrath

Wrath, also known as "rage", may be described as the inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. In its purest form, it presents self-destructiveness, violence and hate that may provoke feuds that can go on for a very long time. Wrath is like an express way to discord wherein it is amplified by the other vices. It may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. Wrath is a feeling of grief that consumes a person and there he starts having grudge that leads to devising of wicked plots and/or having his hands shed innocent blood.

According to Dante Alighieri's epic poem, "The Divine Comedy", "Wrath is the love of justice perverted to revenge and spite," which is evident since a person with wrath seeks revenge as his sense of justice.

In one of the canticas in the said poem, "Inferno", souls unforgiven from the sin of wrath falls to the 5th Circle of Hell, Anger. This circle is a swamp-like water of Styx wherein, the wrathful constantly fight with each other and those who are sullen shall sink beneath.

One of the best example of wrath is, again, the Story of Lucifer wherein after the fall of the Angel of the Morning Star (Lucifer) from Heaven, he transformed into the Father of Eternal Night and Darkness (Satan) and begin to create discord amongst men. Some of his deeds were the temptation of man in the Garden of Eden, where Satan tempted Eve to defy God's will in form of a serpent (Genesis 3:1-7) and the standing up against Israel and provoked David to numbering Israel (I Chronicles 22:1).
Wrath manifests in many ways, one of which is self-destructiveness such as suicide which is the final rejection of God's graces.


  

Image depicting wrath of Zeus

Though, wrath may also manifest in the form of punishment. In Mythologies and Theodoric stories, wrath is a term used to pertain punishment or the feeling of wanting to punish somebody. Obviously, punishment is quite similar to religion's view of wrath whereas they both do something to the offender; although, punishment is only given to anyone who failed to comply with the accepted laws of man/society. In modern times, wrath is interpreted or is believed to manifest in two different categories/ways and one of it is the passive anger. Passive anger involves wrath manifested in non-engaging offensive manners such as giving fake smiles, giving cold shoulder, turning away, indirect provocation and criticism, stockpiling resentments on mind and back-stabbing. Passive anger is sometimes considered as the lesser evil part or the slightly positive connotation being a minor manifestation and serves as a tool to recognize a feeling of a certain person towards another. While aggressive anger involves harmful and engaging offensive manners such as bullying in forms of pushing, direct threatening, sexual advances, unjust accusations and prejudices and some more. This type of anger is the greater evil which is hard to control and swiftly runs into mischief.

In some point, anger or wrath is one of the dimensions of causality as I have read in "Pity, Anger, and Guilt" by Bernard Weiner, Sandra Graham, and Carla Chandler from University of California, Los Angeles.

" For both anger and guilt, the associated cause was perceived as controllable and internal to the target of the emotion." 

Since anger's dimensions are the direction of anger, its locus, its reaction, modality, impulsivity, and objectives according to Ephrem Fernandez, then it's true that it is controllable. I think you can express anger without having aggressive objectives such as revenge and other stuffs.


Anyways, how is wrath related to pride? Well, pride, being the root of sin, stems into other serious vices and, one of them is wrath. Wrath sprouts when a person's pride is at risk in which he starts to engage in an offensive behavior. When the proud is in the brink of despair, he clings into wrath and starts losing temper. An example is when a proud man is corrected, he feels uneasy and starts making reasons which is a passive anger according to social perspectives. When reasons does not suffice to justify his pride (in his eyes), the proud start throwing tantrums and/or blames which transits passive anger to aggressive anger; thus, pride is strongly associated with wrath and usually appears together.
Therefore; wrath must be conquered with charity and learn to forgive in the right and just manner.

Stay Tuned =D

Blogpost 1: Pride

Do you ever feel like being more important than others? Do you enjoy criticizing others and boast your deeds? Such is pride.

Pride is one of the seven capital vices (hubris) and is defined as an excessive love of self. It is the feeling of wanting to be more important and more attractive than others. This vice is considered to be the most deadly and most serious sin in its group. In Jacob Bidermann's medieval miracle play, "Cenodoxus", pride is defined as the independence from God and thus, leads directly to eternal damnation.

According to an epic poem, "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri, "Pride is the love of self perverted to hatred and contempt to one's own neighbour."

 Usually, the proud fail to appreciate the good work of others and instead, criticize others to esteem himself and at the same time, show his superiority which is in fact, a fallacy.

A famous philosopher named Aristotle defined hubris as:

"to cause shame to the victim, not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater."

Truly, pride manifests in so many ways and most of the common, yet critical, exposure of this is just like what Aristotle said. Pride loves depriving for own greatness which leads mostly to failure to consider other's opinions. Pride devastates and ruins life in many ways according to an article I have read which is "Problem with Pride" by Dr. Adrian Rogers. The article states the ways pride devastates pride. It also has a list of some characteristics of a proud person.



An example of pride is the Story of Lucifer, wherein Lucifer, the Angel of the Morning Star, defied God in serving humans which leads his fall from Heaven and his transformation to Satan, the Father of the Eternal Night and Darkness. In his transformation, he then compete with God which once he loved.




Another event where pride was exhibited was in the story of the "Tower of Babel". Men desired to create a tower that would surpass the Heaven just so they became known and make name for themselves. Upon the creation, God intervene and confused their language so the creation shall be halted. The men's purpose was clearly selfish and serves as clear evidence of pride throughout history.




How pride is connected to the other sins? When does pride gives rise to wrath?
Stay tuned~