The Cause of Sin

The direct cause of sin is the will inasmuch as itculpably lacks the direction of right reason (the trulyenlightening and counseling intellect) and God’s law, and is intent upon some creatural good.

Thus the interior and proximate cause of sin is found in the will.We usually say that this interior andproximate cause of sin is in the reason, meaning by the word reason the whole intellective element or part of man, that is, his intellect and will together. The remote, as contrasted with the proximate, interior cause of sin is the influence of the sentient appetites and the imagination. This remote interior cause of sin is never the complete cause; it must be admitted into theintellective part of man by free will before it can become thoroughly effective.

Exterior things can be, in some sense, the cause of sin, but only partially and incompletely in so far as external objects can stir the senses and, through the senses,exercise an influence on reason. Thus a precious gem may stir aperson to desire it, to dwell imaginatively upon the joy of possessing it, and so lead him to steal it. But, in the last analysis, the theft is not truly caused by the gem itself; the theft is caused by the thief’s will, acting without the right ordering of reason.

One sin may be said to cause another, since a human act may dispose a person to perform its like. One breakthrough of the restraints that keep a person from sin may invite, so to speak,other sins to follow in the wake of the first. But, in each case,the complete cause of the sin is the will, the reason, of the sinner.