Concept image of a signpost with the seven deadly sins upon the arrows.

Lent is a season of repentance and renewal. We turn away from our sinfulness and recommit ourselves to following Jesus.  As also stated in the encyclical “Laudato Si’, this time of the year can be the perfect occasion to summon our profound interior conversion, by recognising our errors, sins, faults and failures (217 – 218). 

The Global Catholic Climate Movement proposes to refer to the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth), so as to reflect and examine where we have turned away from our Creator, our peers and even ourselves from an ecological sin point of view.  As Catholics working for justice in various fileds, we can mistakenly focus too much on worldly fixes to worldly problems, such as government regulation, international agreements, and educational programs. As important and necessary all these are, we cannot forget that our worldly problems are rooted in spiritual realities.

Pairing these sins to their respective virtues, can help us to restore our relationships with our neighbours, community, and the environment and even with our own self.  This will allow us to live in sublime communion and to fulfil our Christian journey directed towards the striving for personal holiness. 

The thoughts issued by the Global Catholic Climate Movement propose respective  virtues and healing actions that can help us strengthen ourselves and thus nurturing a more virtuous and self-sacrificing lifestyle. Whereby pride can be worked upon through humility and fasting; lust through self-control and prayer; envy through gratitude and simple happiness.  Gluttony can be fought off with the virtues of temperance and simple food consumption; wrath with patience and dialogue; greed with charity and social love; and sloth with diligence and long-run commitment.  Combatting these everyday sins, can bring about an inner change of the heart, which could lead to a change in lifestyle and in our unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.  If we share this together, we can offer a practical solution from both an economic and technological level, coupled by a genuine conversion in Christ that will enable us to change the way we think and act.