The Therapeutic Erasure of Sin

Modern Western culture has been viewing and interpreting sin through the lens of social conditioning rather than morality for far too long. Sin itself is reframed as dysfunction, trauma, addiction, or social conditioning. While these factors are often the underlying cause of some disordered actions, the near-total loss of morality in the language used to diagnose the conditions that cause these behaviors has weakened our ability to confront evil. Society seems to have decided that with enough psychological excavation all evil actions can be excused, and their motives are met with performative compassion rather than honesty.

Society still recognizes suffering, exploitation, and cruelty, but it seems to struggle to describe those realities in moral terms. Unfortunately, public discourse tends to explain wrongdoing in psychological or sociological terms before even considering it ethically or morally. If and when ethics and morality are considered, it tends to be well after the fact, in an academically oriented commentary. We have become hesitant to describe human beings as capable of willingly embracing evil. Even when we look back into history and examine evil people and actions, the tendency in the modern West is to exhaust the how, leaving little energy for the why.

The fallout of this way of examining evil is the creation of a society that explains evil away in a manner so ethereal and diffuse that effective spiritual remedies are largely overlooked. The remedy for all sin and suffering is Christ, alive in the Church and fully present in the Eucharist. However, that important truth cannot be presented to those who need to hear the Good News unless there is a decent understanding of the spiritual aspect of our existence. If the metaphysical realities of spiritual life, pointed to by the Church, are discounted or ignored as superstition, skepticism will take root where spiritual curiosity and the desire for fulfillment should exist. Then, regrettably, the sacraments are seen as nothing more than a type of folk medicine.

This is not to say that some of the thing humans experience in their lives cannot find relief or remedy in modern medicine or therapies. On the contrary, to do our work within the frame of an existence that God so meticulously created, by utilizing our intellect, is to give glory to the Father in a profound and lasting way. But the spiritual damage that can accompany disease and trauma cannot be alleviated by any pill or injection. So, while it is important for people to seek competent medical advice and intervention when needed, it is equally important that they tend to the care and healing of their souls as well.

Catholicism has always understood moral life as not merely psychological self-reflection but as participation in an ongoing spiritual struggle. While it is true that Christ ultimately defeated sin and death with His sacrifice on the Cross, it is also true that He commissioned His apostles to continue His work of redemption at the Ascension. That Great Commission not only resided in the hearts of the apostles but lives on today in the Church. The laity, by dint of baptism, is charged with taking up spiritual arms against the evil one—not because Christ thrust us into a fight that we were not aware of, but because the fallen nature of the world picked the fight with us, whether we wanted it or not.

To adequately confront evil, we must first recognize it, and that requires calling out the rationalization and moral exoneration of immoral behavior that has become so alarmingly popular in the West. To morally rationalize evil is to set us up for far more consequential and wider-reaching incidents of sin. Society should not have to endure that, and Christians can simply no longer tolerate that.

If it means putting ourselves into positions that carry the danger of being castigated as religious zealots, then, frankly, so be it. Salvation history is replete with characters who, while on the outer edges of societal existence, spoke objective truths as guidance and warnings fearlessly. As Our Lord said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18, NAB).

One of the more disturbing developments in modern Western culture has been the collapse of shame into ersatz authenticity. Historically, shame served as a moral and social signal that something within a person’s behavior or conduct required reflection, repentance, and correction. Recently, shame has been treated not as something to be examined prudently but as an inherently oppressive force to be cast off entirely. Shame is largely seen as a byproduct of an intrusive society beholden to an outdated moral code grounded in hierarchical religious structures.

Therefore, the apex of human virtue is no longer moral formation or seeking grace and justice from the Father but radical self-expression. As a result, behaviors once understood as disordered or self-destructive are often defended under the banner of “living one’s truth,” while criticism itself is reframed as cruelty or oppression. The danger in this reality is not only permissiveness but the slow erosion of the idea that the self ought to be disciplined and transformed in pursuit of moral righteousness. Catholicism, by contrast, has always taught that authenticity is not found in the unchecked expression of the self but in the difficult and lifelong process of conforming oneself more fully to the Gospel.

Human beings remain deeply aware that something within themselves and within the world is fractured, even if the way we discuss that fracture has changed. The Church remains because it refuses to reduce the human person to psychology, economics, or social status. Catholic theology argues that mankind is, at the same time, both wounded and morally responsible for its actions. The recognition of evil as a metaphysical reality must be made public by the faithful, just as the redemption of humanity by Christ on the Cross is.

In an age that is so hesitant to speak honestly about sin and judgment, it is up to us, the Church Militant, to carry the Catholic banner forward into a tumultuous, ever-darkening world. Only by confronting the realities of evil, naming them, and recognizing them can one begin to understand the necessity of redemption.