QUESTION:

Someone asked me to pray for them and I really meant to do it, but I forgot.  Would God punish them or me for failing to pray?

Caren

Plano, Texas

ANSWER:

God won’t punish you.  You said you meant to but forgot.  That is not a willful act; however, I would suggest you keep a prayer list.  It doesn’t have to be anything complex, a piece of paper would do.  Look at it daily, perhaps several times a day to remind you who you want to pray for.

Since you asked about God punishing the person who asked you to pray for them, I assume you mean, since you didn’t pray, will they not benefit from you prayers.  The answer to that is prayer is an act of faith.  When we ask someone to pray for us, it is a demonstration of our faith in prayer and faith in sharing prayer.  Once we ask someone to pray for us, we have completed our act of faith.  It is not up to us to ensure they pray.  Even if they refuse to pray for us, we will still receive the benefit of the act of faith we showed by asking.

QUESTION:

What do you think of the new Seven Deadly Sins?

John

Los Angeles, California

ANSWER:

Oh boy, that’s a loaded question, but I’ll throw myself on the live grenade and answer it anyway.  All seven of the new sins are issues which need to be addressed and who better to address them than the Vatican.  Unfortunately, calling them seven new Deadly Sins, raises another issue.  All of the original seven sins are states of being.  This is not true of the new ones.  The Bible tells us God looks on the heart and not on the action as people do.  That means sin is a matter of the heart, i.e. a state of being, not actions.  It is my personal opinion that the new sins in some ways actually weaken the original seven.  For instance, when we say obscene wealth is a deadly sin, we put a limitation of the sin of avarice.  The sin of avarice does not have a lower limit.  Under that sin people who want any amount of money they do not need and only want it for the sake of having it are sinners.  Some people need large amounts of money to do the work God has called them to do.  Gandhi once said, “My supporters tell me it takes a lot of money to keep me in poverty.”  The amount of money is not an issue, but what we do with the money we have.  Jesus said “By their fruits you will know  them.”  That means our willful acts (good or bad) demonstrate the condition of our hearts. It is my opinion the original seven deadly sins cover all sin and there is no reason to add to them.