![\"puppysofa\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2016\/12\/puppysofa-300x215.jpg\")
I came down the steps this morning and caught the dog jumping down from the sofa.<\/p>\nI came down the steps this morning and caught the dog jumping down from the sofa.<\/p>\n
Anna\u00a0knows she is not allowed on the sofa.<\/p>\n
She was guilty and she looked it. She glanced over her shoulder at me and went scooting off to her bed.<\/p>\n
She was afraid of being punished.<\/p>\n
She knew she had done wrong and felt ashamed.<\/p>\n
It made me think about me and you and sin. I\u2019ll talk about me so you do you don\u2019t think I am blaming you, \u00a0but you get it\u2026<\/p>\n
When I sin if the only thing I feel is shame at what I\u2019ve done, fear of being caught and fear of being punished, then my moral sense is not really any better than my dog Anna. Right?<\/p>\n
Dogs can be taught to obey and they can learn to be afraid of being caught and afraid of being scolded or punished. But that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
They can\u2019t understand WHY something is wrong.<\/p>\n
What troubles me about me (and of course so many Catholics I talk to) is that their conscience is no better developed than an old hound dog\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Someone has told them, \u201cDo this. Don\u2019t do this. God is happy when you do this. He will punish you if you do that.\u201d Or they were taught, \u201cDon\u2019t do that. Nice people don\u2019t do that. You\u2019re going to get the girl into trouble if you do that. Don\u2019t do this because you will get caught and maybe go to jail. You should do this because I tell you to and you should not do that because I tell you not to. If you do this you will be punished. If you don\u2019t do that you will be ok.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the moral theology of dogs.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re supposed to be better than that. We\u2019re supposed do know WHY something is wrong. It is wrong because it will hurt us, hurt another person or separate us from the love of God. We\u2019re supposed to hate sin because we have figured out that sin is destructive. Sin distorts all that is good. Sin feasts\u2013cannibal like on others.<\/p>\n
Now this is what gets me going even more: at least the dog has a sense of shame and fear of being found out and punished.<\/p>\n
Lots of Catholics don\u2019t even seem to have that!<\/p>\n
They are guilty of adultery, guilty of greed, guilty of all kinds of mortal sin and they have no shame. They have no fear of being caught. They have no fear of being punished.<\/p>\n
Their conscience is seared and their moral theology hasn\u2019t even advanced to the level of my dog Anna.<\/p>\n
If you find this disappointing. I\u2019m sorry.<\/p>\n
I do too. Especially as it often applies to me too.<\/p>\n
Image Creative Commons via Bing<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I came down the steps this morning and caught the dog jumping down from the sofa. Anna\u00a0knows she is not allowed on the sofa. She was guilty and she looked it. She glanced over her shoulder at me and went scooting off to her bed. She was afraid of being punished. She knew she had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":22158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n