Article Fourth. On Sins Against Charity of Self

70. What these sins are. 1. Any sin whatever is opposed in general to charity of self, because by any sin whatever we bring evil upon ourselves: those who do sin and iniquity are enemies of their own soul.¹

2. Against charity of self in particular a sin is committed:

a. by excess, through the sin of egoism, by which someone seeks his own advantage in his actions in such a way that he prefers it even to the divine good, the glory of God, and to the public good.

b. by defect, through hatred of self, concerning which are the words of St. Augustine: if you have loved badly, then you have hated,² namely by this, that a precept obliging from charity of self itself is violated, as if care of eternal salvation or temporal health is neglected, if someone wishes or inflicts evil upon himself against the order of charity, if someone in danger of death does not seek reconciliation with God, if someone remains in the state of sin for a notable time.

3. Sins committed against charity of self in particular are not customarily declared as such in confession, because there is no precept which from charity of self alone obliges under grave matter; hence if the violation of another precept is accused, the violation of charity of self is understood underneath.³

Thus he who accuses himself of a sin against the fifth precept of the decalogue, insofar as this is affirmative, at the same time accuses himself of violation of charity of self, insofar as this prescribes care of bodily life; he who accuses himself of violation of a precept, whether divine or ecclesiastical, at the same time accuses himself of violation of charity of self, insofar as this prescribes care of eternal salvation.

¹ Tob. 12:10. Cf. Ps. 10:6.

² In Ioannem, tract. 51, n. 10.

³ Cf. Ballerini-Palmieri, II, n. 156.