I want to begin with a couple verses from Scripture to illustrate an aspect of the "psychology" of sin:
"'What evil has this man done? I found him guilty of no capital crime. Therefore I shall have him flogged and release him.' With loud shouts, however, they [the crowd] persisted in calling for His crucifixion, and their voices prevailed."
- Luke 23:22-23
The silent presence of the good convicts the sin of the guilty.
What harm had our Lord done? What did He do that was deserving of death? He is perfectly innocent and clean of all sin, evil-doing, and wrong. Yet He was our spotless Victim. It is we who have done wrong.
It is Your silent presence, sheer and pure goodness, that convicts us, O Lord.
When black is confronted with white, it sees truly how dark it is; it sees truly the depth of the contrast and how far from that pure white it really is. The silent presence of the good is enough to convict the sin of the guilty.
Two Possible Responses
When confronted with a model of goodness and truth, what does one do? There are two responses one can give:
1. Humbly acknowledge it and repent
2. Become indignant and angry out of their pride and hardness of heart
How do you personally respond?
The proud sinners choose the response of the crowd: They raise their angered voices in "loud shouts," persisting in their evil-doing - even trying to justify it.
"Coping" Mechanisms Against the Conscience
Sometimes, in response to the indignation we feel toward someone who has corrected or admonished us about our way of sin - or - in response to the guilt we should feel in committing sin, we try to go so far as to justify it.
Those in the crowd who were sentencing Jesus to death sought to justify their evil, the greatest evil - that of crucifying Christ, murdering God. These people were the very same ones whom Christ had called out during His earthly ministry - the ones Christ had called proud, arrogant and hypocritical. They were the same ones Christ had warned to repent or else suffer woe (Luke 6). They were convicted by Christ and His goodness and did not like it.
Do not we do this same things sometimes? Rather than be docile and humble toward the admonitions and corrections of others about our ways of sin, don't we become indignant? Rather than be inspired by
the good - those who are seeking to live Christlike lives - do we not sometimes resent them?
Why?
Because when the sins and darkness of our lives are contrasted with the goodness we see in others, we see the truth of how far off we are and see how unhappy we really are in our darkness. Rather than be humbled and inspired, we "raise our voices" like the crowd sentencing Jesus to death and we try to drown out that convicting, silent presence of the good.
The "Justification" of Sin
In attempt to "cope" with our indignation and the guilt we should feel after sinning, sometimes one tries to justify it in some kind of twisted reverse psychology. They do this in order to ease their conscience within, which is screaming at them to change their ways and "sin no more," as Christ commands (John 8:11).
Just look at the crowd that was crucifying Christ: They grew in opposition to Christ who is perfect goodness. They couldn't stand their darkness and the conviction thereof. Pontius Pilot asks, "What evil has he [Jesus] done?"...and deep down, the obstinant sinners know they have done the evil by their sinful lives and unwillingness to open their hearts to the Lord and the truth of His ways.
So what did they do? They turned the accusation around and inverted the truth: They made up lies and convinced themselves and others that they were actually doing a good thing. They had convinced themselves and others that, if Christ is killed, they would actually probably be protecting the people, the empire and nation from uprise.
In fact, in that crowd were Jewish leaders. They lead the sentencing process. These were the Jewish leaders that Christ had condemned several times in the Gospel for their hypocrisy and arrogance. These Jewish leaders had convinced themselves that by having Jesus killed, they'd be doing God a favor! They thought they'd be doing the Jewish people a favor by protecting them from false teachings taught by this "maniac," Jesus. And these were people who prayed, who went to synogogue, who fasted, who followed the Ten Commandments! What irony! Yet they too, because of the convicting power of Christ, had deceivved themselves into thinking that they were still on God's side! In reality, they were on Satan's side.
These people had taken the indignation and guilt they were feeling from the conviction of their sin and rather than kill the sin out of their lives, they wanted to kill our Lord. So that they may not seem dark in their sin, they wanted to snuff out the Light by crucifying Christ. ...And along the way, they had inverted the truth by convincing themselves - justifying their sin of wanting to murder Jesus - by making themselves think they were doing something good! They shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
This is exactly what modern society does today: It plays reverse psychology with itself and tells itself that sin is ok, in order to either ease the guilt or lash back out of indignation and anger that someone would dare admonish its sins. When good, God-fearing people speak up to present that which is good and true, or try to defend the Lord's ways, our society raises its voices "with loud shouts" against them. The gay "marriage" and abortion activists are often good examples of this toward Christian people, or anyone of good sense and good will. There are some who can calmly dialogue, but the typical responses are angry shouts and indignation.
The Drowning Out of Conscience
We do this too.
Deep down, those who are living in sin get eaten alive by their consciences and convictions of the Holy Spirit. This will eat away at their inner peace, until they repent and leave the sin behind. Yet rather than humbly acknowledge and repent, what happens? They go so far as to invert the truth and justify their sinful actions, so as to "appease" this gnawing conscience.
To some extent we all do this, or have done it in the past, when we have committed sin and done wrong. Deep down, our consciences became disturbed. But rather than listen to our inner uneasiness, we try to quell it by convincing ourselves of why that action or thought was OK. We try to justify our sin and convince ourselves that at least, at that moment, the sin was OK, or necessary, or had some kind of "good" reason or intention. We deceive ourselves in order to bend our conscience toward our own will, rather than God's. We deceive ourselves just like the crucifying crowd deceived themselves into thinking that if only they could kill Jesus Christ - that voice of their conscience- that they'd be OK and would even be doing something good, with good intentions. Yet in reality, the only thing they were killing was truth, goodness, and their eternal salvation.
Foolishness!
This is the reality with us: When we try to justify our sin in an attempt to drown out our consciences and inner unsettledness, we join in with the crowds who crucified Christ. We shout, "Crucify him!" ...You crucify Christ. You join in evil, convincing yourself - deceiving yourself - that it is good. We crucify Christ, who is nothing but innocent, pure, and perfect goodness and love.
And just like the Jewish leaders who partook in sentencing Jesus to death & sentencing their conscience to death, we who call ourselves Christian do this too! Rather than acknolwedge our sin and humbly go to the Sacrament of Confession and repent, we actually deceive ourselves into thinking we are still on God's side and in God's good grace. However, our actions are speaking something entirely different and contradictory to the Lord and His desires. We humans tend to be so good at justifying our sin that it's scary.
Dulling of the Conscience
So what happened with this crowd who, "with loud shouts, persisted in calling for His crucifixion" (Luke 22:23)?
St. Luke tells us "their voices prevailed."
Christ was crucified.
If a person "shouts" and justifies their sin long enough, it will prevail in their life and become the norm. And one of the effects of sin is that it dulls or "dumbs down" our consciences. It makes us oblivious of our sinfulness. Father Hardon said, "You watch sin on television hours a day; you read about sin in the tens of thousands of pages of print published every day; what people used to call sin sinners begin to wonder maybe is not sin after all..." We are entrenched in sin, here in our nation. Sin only leads to more sin.
Eventually, if you keep "snuffing out the light" (that inner voice of truth that leaves you uneasy when you do wrong), you'll begin walking in darkness. Your heart, your soul, your lifestyle will all adjust themselves to walking in the dark because you have obstinantly insisted to do so through self-deception...that is, convincing yourself that the sin is OK....or that it does not have to be given up, "at least not right now, later..." you say. What if later never comes?
Living Things Need Light
Living things don't thrive in darkness. They eventually die from lack of nourishment and light from the sun. They become weak and lose strength; they decay and endure a slow death. They become hardened, cold, and bitter.
These are two other effects of sin: It hardens our hearts and weakens our wills. When you exercise your strength in sinning, you weaken your strength to practice virtue, act selflessly, and choose the good. Our hearts become hardened in our ways, hence the offense and indignation we feel towards someone who wants corrects our erring ways to "lead us on the path of truth" (Psalm 25:4).
What To Do
We must flee from sin at its first signs lest we give way to it and it slowly and subtly permeates our hearts, minds, souls, and entire life. We must flee from sin lest we begin to foolishly justify it as though it is actually something good, "needed," or "necessary." Sin is never good, needed, or necessary. We must flee from sin at its first signs lest we obstinantly continue to commit it and falsely continue to think we are in God's good grace; lest we deceive ourselves in this regard thereby jeopardizing our souls. We must flee from sin in fear we might die in it; in fear that if we delay our repentance and conversion and not go to confession, we take a big risk. We must flee from sin lest death may unexpectedly come and we not have a chance to repent and change our hearts, thereby condeming ourselves to hell.
Crucify Christ no longer!
We are all sinners, yes. But the difference between a sinner who immediately repents and adamantly seeks to change his life and avoid all sin to "the point of shedding blood" (Hebrews 12:4) and the one who obstinantly persists in it is the difference between St. Peter who betrayed and denied Christ but repented by tears and those who stood firm in their sin, shouting with loud voices, "Crucify him!"
As St. Paul says, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood" (Hebrews 12:4). Do you resist sin to the point of even being willing to die rather than sin? St. Gemma Galgani did.
"I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin," said the great St. Teresa of Avila.
These saints understood the danger of sin. They knew its true ugly character.
We also have a duty to form our consciences. Our conscience is "a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act" (CCC #1778). Our consciences are not meant to be subjectively formed - that is, by our own thoughts and will. It's meant to be objectively formed - that is, by God and the authority He has given to the Catholic Church.
Although there is an innate sense of right and wrong engraved on all of our hearts by God, it's not yet perfected. There are parts of our consciences which are dulled because of our sinful tendencies. There are parts of our consciences "blocked out" because of our pride and our exaltation of self will. Regardless of the reason, we have an obligation before God to properly form our consciences, not just do whatever we "feel" or think is right.
The Catechism puts it well:
Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.
The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt, and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults. The education of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.
In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.
CCC #1783-1785
Read Sacred Scripture, thumb through the section in the Catechism called "Life in Christ" to form your moral conscience. We need to do it, especially in this dark world where we are constantly bombarded by sinful things.
Hope in Our Lord
To end, remember that there is a great hope in our Lord: Although the crowd insisted on commiting the greatest evil of all time - the murder of God - we know that He is Lord over all, even death. And so the greatest evil was turned upside-down and transformed into the greatest good of all time: Our redemption.
So wherever you are, turn to the Lord, beg forgiveness of your past sins and renounce them, no matter how great and evil. Know with all confidence that Jesus Christ our Lord can transform all of it and bring an even greater good out of it: Your sanctification and salvation; your glory, your joy, your peace, your sense of purpose, and your happiness.
The weaknesses dealt to you from various past "life wounds" and events that have left you broken and hurting from your past are precisely what Christ will transform and use as your greatest strengths also.
Trust in Him. Be faithful. Be patient and persevere. Be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10).
"Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God."
- St. Leo the Great