St. Thomas Aquinas said that sin darkens the intellect.
Do you agree?
- I do agree
- I disagree
- Other
0
voters
yes, this is the function of leading a pious life. The more we sin, the les capable we are of understanding and opening our heart to God. Therefore the first step in spiritual life is to be a good person. We find this in every religion, because this the nature of how the material mind and body work. Good works cannot give us total salvation. But good works refine the intelligence of man so that he can open his heart to God. It is a prerequisite to spiritual life.
1 Like
I agree that sin, if not repented of, can darken the intellect. If we don’t repent, we can start altering our thinking to accommodate sin, and this involves rejecting God’s revelation.
1 Like
Yes, sin dims the intellect. It dims the spiritual impulse.
There are 2 kinds of pleasure. The pleasure of the flesh; and the pleasure of the spirit.
We need to eat. We need shelter. We need a place to sleep. We need security, to defend ourselves. And as a race we have a desire for family life. A man wants a woman; a woman wants a man. All of these desires are desires of the body and mundane-oriented mind.
The spirit obtains fulfillment independent of these material desires. the spirit obtains fulfillment in a living sense of communion with God and His son.
When we read the stories of the saints, we see that they are very austere. But actually they are not austere. They are experiencing spiritual pleasure, spiritual fulfillment. And spiritual fulfillment causes material desires to evaporate.
Sin. Sin takes the form of unlawful material desire and fulfillment. Even our Bible teaches that we cannot serve both God and Mammon. Both orientations are mutually exclusive. Therefore we have to make a choice.
This is why there are monastics, monks. Monks are people who are moving away from material pursuit, and towards spiritual pursuit. Why? Because material pursuit dulls the sense of spiritual fulfillment. The most materialistic haven sense of spiritual fulfillment. They think it is something we imagine. But it is not.
For the common man who requires the basic material comforts of his family and self, it is not wrong for him to biotin the basics. But if this becomes the goal of his life, and then if he becomes madly in pursuit of material pleasure, his spiritual impulse dies. That is the price. God or Mammon. It is our choice. We can’t have our cake and eat it. Therefore in the beginning spiritual life is a kind of austerity. But gradually, that so-called austerity becomes a spiritual pleasure.