Daily Mystic Messages - The Cardinal Sin
When I was growing up in the Catholic Church, there were things known as “Cardinal sins.” Kind of like the unforgivable curses in Harry Potter.
These are "the gravest of sins, representing a deliberate turning away from God and destroying charity (love) in the heart of the sinner. A mortal sin is defined as a grave action that is committed in full knowledge of its gravity and with the full consent of the sinner’s will."
And if you die with one of these on your conscience, it's a one-way ticket to hell. There's not necessarily an exhaustive list of these, but the 10 commandments is a god starting point.
But there’s one that didn’t make the list, and when it comes to self love, and sharing that love with others, it’s critical.
It’s damaging the self worth of another.
If we were to put it into bible speak, I suppose it would be “Thou shalt not harm the worth of others.”
And now we have an 11th commandment. But I digress.
Harming the self worth of others might look like…
…criticism and blame
…using guilt to get them to do what you want
…shaming someone
…cutting someone down to size
…giving unwanted / unasked for feedback on a vulnerable topic. Or any topic really
If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of that, and let’s face it, we’ve all been there, you know how sticky some of those things can be.
It’s not always easy to shake, and over time, It becomes that little voice of doubt, chipping away at your confidence and self esteem.
And that can ripple out into a persons life in unimaginable ways.
Now it’s important to recognize that each person is responsible for their own experience, and that goes for you too. But I think we can agree that we’d never want to be on the wrong side of this karmically or ethically.
There is enough blame and criticism in the world, and far too much shaming and cutting others down.
And while I don’t think we need to add fear of eternal damnation our list of anxieties if we happen to slip up with this, I do want to extend the invitation to take this idea of harming the worth of others with thoughtful consideration; to treat it as something truly precious, and more vulnerable that might be apparent.
We could all do with a little more gentleness- for one another, and certainly for ourselves.