YOUCAT Lesson 316
YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth
316 How can we distinguish serious sins (mortal
sins) from less serious (venial) sins?
Serious sin destroys the divine power of love in a person’s
heart, without which there can be no eternal beatitude. Hence it is also called mortal sin. Serious sin breaks with God, whereas venial
sin only strains the relationship with him.
[1852-1861, 1874]
Photo: My
granddaughter Leila with her cousin Jack in a chicken coop. …..316
Temptations
to Sin. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be
better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned
in the depths of the sea. Woe to
the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to
the one through whom they come! If
your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut
it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or
crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to
sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life
with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.” -- Matthew 18:6-9
A serious sin cuts a person off from God. One requirement for such a sin is that it be
opposed to an important value, for instance, directed against life or God (for
example, murder, blasphemy, adultery, and so on) and that it be committed with
full knowledge and full consent. Venial
sins are opposed to secondary values (honor, truth, property, and so on) or are
committed without full knowledge of their seriousness or without full consent
of the will. Such sins disrupt the
relationship with God but do not sever it.
“Only someone who has seriously meditated on how heavy the
Cross is can understand how serious the sin is. “ St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033/1034-1109)
“I have just produced expensive ashes: I have burned a
five-hundred-franc note. Oh, that is not
as bad as if I had committed a venial sin.”
St. John Vianney (1786-1859)
1852-1861, 1874
III.
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SINS
1852 There
are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them.
The Letter to the Galatians contrasts
the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: "Now the works of the
flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,
enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that
those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."(Galatians 5:19-21; compare Romans 1:28-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:3-5; Colossians 3:5-9; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; 2 Tim 3:2-5.)127 –Catechism
of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
1853 Sins
can be distinguished according to their objects, as can every human act; or
according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect; or according to the
commandments they violate. They can also be classed according to whether they
concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be divided into spiritual and
carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word, deed, or omission. The root of
sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of the
Lord: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man."( Matthew 15:19-20.)128 But in the heart also resides charity, the
source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds. –CCC
1854 Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The
distinction between mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture,( Compare 1 Jn 5:16-17.)129 became part of the tradition of the Church.
It is corroborated by human experience. –CCC
1855 Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a
grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate
end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him.
Venial sin allows charity to
subsist, even though it offends and wounds it. –CCC
1856 Mortal sin, by attacking
the vital principle within us - that is, charity - necessitates a new
initiative of God's mercy and a conversion of heart which is normally
accomplished within the setting of the sacrament of reconciliation:
When the will sets
itself upon something that is of its nature incompatible with the charity that
orients man toward his ultimate end, then the sin is mortal by its very object
. . . whether it contradicts the love of God, such as blasphemy or
perjury, or the love of neighbor, such as homicide or adultery. . . .
But when the sinner's will is set upon something that of its nature involves a
disorder, but is not opposed to the love of God and neighbor, such as
thoughtless chatter or immoderate laughter and the like, such sins are venial.( St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II,88,2, corp. art.)130
–CCC
1857 For
a sin to be mortal,
three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is
grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate
consent."( Reconciliatio et Paenitentia 17
§ 12.)131
1858 Grave matter is specified
by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young
man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false
witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother."( Mark 10:19.)132 The gravity of sins is more or less great:
murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged:
violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a
stranger. –CCC
1859 Mortal
sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes
knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law.
It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.
Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart(Compare Mark 3:5-6; Luke 16:19-31.)133 do not diminish, but rather increase, the
voluntary character of a sin. –CCC
1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the
imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the
principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man.
The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and
free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological
disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the
gravest. –CCC
1861 Mortal sin is a radical
possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of
charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace.
If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion
from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the
power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can
judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of
persons to the justice and mercy of God. --CCC
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