19. What Are The Vices?

"Every one that committeth sin, is the servant of sin." - John 8:34

Vices are bad habits that incline the soul toward sin. A beginner must learn about vice because sin is not only a single act. Repeated sin forms the soul badly. It makes evil easier, weakens resistance, darkens judgment, and can make the sinner feel at home in disorder.

The catechism answer is simple: A vice is a bad habit that inclines us to sin. The chief vices are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

These are often called the seven capital sins because many other sins spring from them.

The question is not only, "What did I do?" It is also, "What kind of person am I becoming?"

One lie is a sin. Repeated lying forms a liar. One angry outburst is a sin. Repeated anger forms an irritable and unjust soul. One impure consent is a sin. Repeated impurity forms a soul that is weakened before temptation.

This is why vices must be named. A soul cannot fight what it refuses to recognize.

A habit is a stable disposition. Good habits help the soul do good. Bad habits make sin easier. Vice is not merely a strong feeling. It is a disorder that has begun to settle into the soul.

This should sober the beginner. Every repeated act matters. The soul is being trained either toward God or away from Him.

Yet this should not lead to despair. Bad habits can be fought by grace, confession, prayer, discipline, avoiding occasions of sin, and repeated acts of virtue.

Pride is the disordered love of one's own excellence. It makes the soul resist God, correction, authority, dependence, and humility.

Pride is especially dangerous because it can hide under many forms: self-importance, refusal to apologize, contempt for others, unwillingness to be taught, spiritual vanity, or the desire to be the measure of truth.

The remedy is humility: remembering that God is Creator, man is creature, every grace is received, and the soul must submit to truth.

Covetousness, or avarice, is the disordered desire for possessions, money, security, or gain. It makes the soul cling to earthly goods as though they were its final end.

A covetous person may neglect prayer, family, justice, generosity, and Sunday because gain has become too important. He may excuse dishonesty or harden his heart toward the needy.

The remedy is detachment, generosity, honest work, restitution when needed, and remembrance that earthly goods pass away.

Lust is the disordered desire for sexual pleasure. It attacks purity, marriage, modesty, the imagination, and the dignity of the body.

Lust is especially destructive because it wounds the soul's ability to see persons rightly. It turns what should be governed by love, marriage, and openness to life into appetite, fantasy, use, and self-will.

The remedy is chastity, custody of the eyes, modesty, confession, avoiding occasions of sin, disciplined media use, prayer to Our Lady, and prompt resistance to temptation.

Anger is disordered when it seeks revenge, loses rule, wounds charity, or exceeds the measure of justice. Not every anger is sinful. There is righteous anger against evil. But fallen man often calls his own passion righteous when it is not.

Sinful anger appears in harsh speech, contempt, mockery, bitterness, refusal to forgive, violence, and delight in another's humiliation.

The remedy is patience, meekness, forgiveness, silence when speech would wound, and zeal governed by charity and truth.

Gluttony is disordered desire for food, drink, or bodily pleasure. It does not only mean eating much. It includes being ruled by appetite, delicacy, excess, drunkenness, and refusal of fitting discipline.

A gluttonous soul becomes soft. It resists fasting, dislikes sacrifice, and expects comfort as a right.

The remedy is temperance, fasting according to one's state and strength, moderation, gratitude, and willingness to deny the body when God requires.

Envy is sorrow at another's good because that good is seen as a threat to oneself. It is a hidden and poisonous vice.

Envy can appear as resentment, detraction, secret satisfaction at another's failure, or unwillingness to rejoice in another's gifts. It wounds charity and makes the soul small.

The remedy is gratitude, charity, praise of God for another's good, prayer for the person envied, and remembrance that every gift comes from God.

Sloth is spiritual laziness or sorrow before the good things of God because they require effort. It is not only tiredness. A person may be physically tired without sin. Sloth is resistance to spiritual good.

Sloth appears when the soul avoids prayer, delays confession, neglects duties, refuses instruction, treats Sunday carelessly, or chooses distraction rather than conversion.

The remedy is diligence, prayer, ordered routine, small acts of duty, spiritual reading, and asking God for love of holy things.

Vice grows through repeated consent. First the soul is tempted. Then it consents. Then it repeats. Then it excuses. Then it becomes less ashamed. Eventually it may defend the sin as though it were good.

This is why small beginnings matter. A person should not say, "It is only a little sin," while training the soul toward greater weakness.

The devil often works by habit. He does not need every fall to be dramatic if he can make sin ordinary.

Vice is fought by grace and discipline. The soul should:

• confess sins honestly;
• avoid near occasions;
• practice the opposite virtue;
• pray for help;
• accept correction;
• keep a rule of life;
• fast or deny itself prudently;
• replace bad habits with good ones;
• ask Our Lady for purity and perseverance.

The opposite virtue matters. Pride is fought by humility. Covetousness by generosity. Lust by chastity. Anger by meekness and patience. Gluttony by temperance. Envy by charity. Sloth by diligence.

Many people excuse vice by calling it personality. The angry man says he is simply direct. The proud man says he has high standards. The lustful man says he is only human. The slothful man says he is overwhelmed. The envious man says he cares about justice.

Some temperaments are more tempted in certain directions, but temperament does not excuse sin. Grace must govern temperament.

The beginner should learn to name vice without despair and fight it without delay.

The soul must learn that vice is a bad habit inclining to sin.

The soul must learn the seven capital sins: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

The soul must learn that repeated sin forms the soul badly.

The soul must learn to fight vice by grace, confession, discipline, and the opposite virtue.

The soul must learn not to excuse vice as personality or weakness alone.

A vice is a bad habit that inclines us to sin. The chief vices are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

A beginner should ask: What sins do I repeat? What excuses do I make? What occasions do I keep near? What opposite virtue must I practice? Do I bring my vices to confession and prayer?

Sin enslaves. Grace frees. The Christian must therefore hate vice not with despair, but with holy seriousness, trusting that God gives strength to repent, begin again, and grow in virtue.