Whether All Sins Are Equal?
Objection 1: It would seem that all sins are equal. Because sin is to
do what is unlawful. Now to do what is unlawful is reproved in one
and the same way in all things. Therefore sin is reproved in one and
the same way. Therefore one sin is not graver than another.
Obj. 2: Further, every sin is a transgression of the rule of reason,
which is to human acts what a linear rule is in corporeal things.
Therefore to sin is the same as to pass over a line. But passing over
a line occurs equally and in the same way, even if one go a long way
from it or stay near it, since privations do not admit of more or
less. Therefore all sins are equal.
Obj. 3: Further, sins are opposed to virtues. But all virtues are
equal, as Cicero states (Paradox. iii). Therefore all sins are equal.
_On the contrary,_ Our Lord said to Pilate (John 19:11): "He that
hath delivered me to thee, hath the greater sin," and yet it is
evident that Pilate was guilty of some sin. Therefore one sin is
greater than another.
_I answer that,_ The opinion of the Stoics, which Cicero adopts in
the book on _Paradoxes_ (Paradox. iii), was that all sins are equal:
from which opinion arose the error of certain heretics, who not only
hold all sins to be equal, but also maintain that all the pains of
hell are equal. So far as can be gathered from the words of Cicero
the Stoics arrived at their conclusion through looking at sin on the
side of the privation only, in so far, to wit, as it is a departure
from reason; wherefore considering simply that no privation admits of
more or less, they held that all sins are equal. Yet, if we consider
the matter carefully, we shall see that there are two kinds of
privation. For there is a simple and pure privation, which consists,
so to speak, in _being_ corrupted; thus death is privation of life,
and darkness is privation of light. Such like privations do not admit
of more or less, because nothing remains of the opposite habit; hence
a man is not less dead on the first day after his death, or on the
third or fourth days, than after a year, when his corpse is already
dissolved; and, in like manner, a house is no darker if the light be
covered with several shades, than if it were covered by a single
shade shutting out all the light. There is, however, another
privation which is not simple, but retains something of the opposite
habit; it consists in _becoming_ corrupted rather than in _being_
corrupted, like sickness which is a privation of the due
commensuration of the humors, yet so that something remains of that
commensuration, else the animal would cease to live: and the same
applies to deformity and the like. Such privations admit of more or
less on the part of what remains or the contrary habit. For it
matters much in sickness or deformity, whether one departs more or
less from the due commensuration of humors or members. The same
applies to vices and sins: because in them the privation of the due
commensuration of reason is such as not to destroy the order of
reason altogether; else evil, if total, destroys itself, as stated in
_Ethic._ iv, 5. For the substance of the act, or the affection of the
agent could not remain, unless something remained of the order of
reason. Therefore it matters much to the gravity of a sin whether one
departs more or less from the rectitude of reason: and accordingly we
must say that sins are not all equal.
Reply Obj. 1: To commit sin is unlawful on account of some
inordinateness therein: wherefore those which contain a greater
inordinateness are more unlawful, and consequently graver sins.
Reply Obj. 2: This argument looks upon sin as though it were a pure
privation.
Reply Obj. 3: Virtues are proportionately equal in one and the same
subject: yet one virtue surpasses another in excellence according to
its species; and again, one man is more virtuous than another, in the
same species of virtue, as stated above (Q. 66, AA. 1, 2). Moreover,
even if virtues were equal, it would not follow that vices are equal,
since virtues are connected, and vices or sins are not.
________________________