The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Achievements, relationships, and pleasures are meant to be ordered around and towards that principle and foundation of our life. In fact, we are created and called to seek our meaning and fulfillment in God alone, in our ever-deepening relationship with him. The problem comes when we seek meaning and fulfillment in those temporal, created realities. The things in themselves – achievements, relationships, pleasures – are not evil. Notice that each of these root sins is a disordered attachment to something. The sensual person tends to seek meaning and fulfillment in taking it easy and simply enjoying life. Sensuality is a disordered attachment to comfort, ease, and pleasure.

The vain person tends to seek meaning and fulfillment in being appreciated or liked by other people. Vanity is a disordered attachment to the approval of other people. The proud person tends to seek meaning and fulfillment in their own achievements and conquests. Pride, in this sense, refers to a disordered attachment to our own excellence.

That said, here are the three possible root sins: pride, vanity, and sensuality. It’s bigger than the others and exerts greater influence on our day-to-day behavior. Saying that we have a “root sin” simply means that for each of us, one of the three is dominant. All of us, simply because of our fallen human nature, have sinful tendencies linked to all three of the candidates.

Before I describe them, however, it behooves us to make one clarification. Spiritual writers through the ages have identified three possible candidates. In trying to identify our root sin, the wisdom of the Church comes in handy. Otherwise, progress is short-lived and unsubstantial, and sooner or later discouragement and frustration set in. If you want to get rid of the weeds, you can just pull out the stems you have to get at the roots. Unless we understand the dynamism underlying our frequent faults and failings, we will never be able to work intelligently to overcome them. A program of life is worthless (well, almost worthless, at least) without having identified our root sin. Can you give me some pointers about identifying my “root sin”? Dear Father John, I am not in spiritual direction right now, but I am trying to put together a program of life anyway.

List of spiritual sins