As someone who celebrates the sacrament of
reconciliation often, it is not uncommon for me hear a penitent confess that they have
committed a mortal sin. Rarely a day goes by without hearing this. What IS in fact uncommon to hear, is someone
who has ACTUALLY committed a mortal sin. While the Christian faithful are most certainly
capable of committing grave acts against God and neighbor, and they do happen all of the
time, there seems to be a great misunderstanding among the faithful as to what actually constitutes
a mortal sin. How does the Church define this type of sin
and what conditions are required for it to count? This is Catholicism in Focus. While some Christian denominations will contest
this point, it seems almost too obvious to say that not all sins have the same gravity
or culpability to them. Stealing a candy bar at five years old and
murdering your cousin at 35 are very, very different sins. For this reason, the Catholic Church has held
the tradition for centuries that sins can be grouped into one of two categories: venial
sins, offenses that are of a common variety and do not require special remedy, and mortal sins, acts that are so grave they cut one off from the grace of God. The Catechism describes a mortal sin as an When we talk about mortal sins, we’re not
talking about stealing a candy bar here. For the most part, we’re not even talking
about stealing in general. Mortal sins are so grave that they leave you
outside of the communion of faith, unfit to receive the eucharist, and cut off from charity. Yeah… so these are some high stakes that
we want to be careful how we use this term. So how do we determine what is a mortal sin
and what is just a venial sin? The Church teaches that three criteria need
to be met in order for it to be a mortal sin. The first has to do with the nature of the
act itself, namely, whether or not it deals with grave matter. In order for it to be a mortal sin, it has
to be serious. Now admittedly, and probably in its great
wisdom, the Church doesn’t offer a clear definition or comprehensive list of what is
to be considered grave. The Catechism points to the foundation of
moral law when it teaches, Obviously this is just a starting point and
not to be confused with a full list. There are certainly plenty of grave acts that
are not enumerated in the commandments or explicitly mentioned by Jesus, and there are
surely instances in which violating one of the commandments is far from a grave act. Again, murder? Yes. Stealing a candy bar? Not so much. What’s important here is to remember the
overall definition we’re working with: a mortal sin is something so egregious to Christian
life that it cuts one off from the grace of God. Being that there is no exact or comprehensive
list of grave sins taught by the Church, there will always be debate on what it includes,
but the concept itself serves as a good starting point: is this act so serious that it would
cause a fundamental change in my relationship with God and others? If it doesn’t, then it cannot be a mortal sin. With the exception of one instance, which
we’ll get to next, if there is no grave matter, there can be no mortal sin. But if it does deal with grave matter, in
other words, causes a fundamental change to one’s relationship with God and others,
then we must look to the second criteria: the full knowledge of the sinful character
of the act. As I discussed in a previous video, there
is more to consider in moral theology than the act itself. Running someone over with your car is by no
means a good thing, but there’s a major difference between unsuccessfully swerving
to avoid them, and successfully swerving to hit them. One’s intention when acting is equally,
if not MORE important to any determination. The same thing goes with determining if something
is a mortal sin. In order for an act to qualify, the one committing
it must be fully aware of the nature of the act, what they’re about to do, and what
the consequences of it are. There is no such thing as accidentally committing
a mortal sin. In the case of unintentional ignorance, cases
in which a person was not only unaware of their actions but was free from any responsibility
for knowing such things, the Church teaches that one’s culpability for a sin is diminished,
if not completely removed. This would include accidental situations,
cases where the person acted out of passion without fully considering the consequences
of their actions, or even those times when they were impaired in some way, say by drugs
or alcohol. Of course, this this doesn’t give you the
right to get drunk and do whatever you want or to always acts on impulse—there are still
the sins of negligence and recklessness, and the Church reminds the faithful that no one
can be ignorant of certain foundational principles of love and life. Saying “Oh I didn’t know you couldn’t
murder” isn’t going to fly. Certain things are written on our hearts,
and will always be wrong. The said, if you are not fully aware of what
you are doing or don’t realize that you are committing a grave offense, then it cannot
be a mortal sin. If there is no full knowledge, there is no
mortal sin. But if there is full knowledge and grave matter,
or the exception from above, if someone believes something to be a mortal sin, even if the act in itself is not grave and chooses to
act precisely BECAUSE they think it is --an act of true defiance— then we must look to our final criteria: complete consent of one’s
unhindered free will. One of the great mysteries of our human existence
is the fact that God gave our nature the capacity both for love and hate, to obey and to disobey. Even within the purity of our unadulterated
nature before the fall, we had this capacity. At the same time, we know that our will is
not completely free. Sometimes it is the weight of concupiscence
that clouds our judgment, but other times we can be affected by forces beyond our control
and choosing—addictions, vices, pathological disorders, trauma, even coercion. For this reason, the Church teaches, In other words, if someone has an addiction,
a deeply rooted vice, or factors outside of their control making the decision to do good
immensely difficult or nearly impossible, there is the possibility that they are free from guilt. This consideration is of particular importance
to the Church in regards to sins like pornography and masturbation, as it is often the case
that these sins are the result of compulsion rather than disobedience to the law, but really,
it can be applied to any sin. Addictions are very real, and often have a
stranglehold on people’s free will. If you are not completely free to choose what
is right, for whatever reason, if you are unable to give complete consent to an action,
it cannot be a mortal sin. If there is no consent, there is no mortal sin. But if there is complete consent, if you are
unhindered and in your right mind, choosing with full knowledge of the gravity of a sin…
then we have a problem, because what you’ve done is knowingly chosen to do something in
an act of defiance against God and neighbor. In these cases, you have said, with full knowledge
of what you are doing, that you no longer want to follow God’s law. That you could, but you just don’t want to. When someone finds themselves in a state of
defiance such as this, the prohibition against receiving the eucharist and other sacraments
is not so much a punishment as it is a protection—it is not to inflict further harm on someone,
but to recognize that they themselves have injured their relationship in such a way that
they are no longer in communion with God, that something has to be done lest they hurt themselves
further. A husband who cheats on his wife, or a woman
who murders her brother wouldn’t just go and sit down at the dinner table with the
rest of the family as if nothing had happened. The gash in the relationship would prevent
them from receiving any benefit at all, and they would likely cause further pain to their
family. Reconciliation needs to happen before the
relationship can move forward. Luckily for those in such a situation, there
is recourse to the sacrament of penance. With the exception of a few extremely rare
situations, any mortal sin can and should be forgiven by a priest, as this is the normative
function of the sacrament: to forgive mortal sins. But how prevalent are these sins? It’s an interesting question. I can certainly say from experience that penitents
come to the confessional all the time lacking one, two, sometimes all three conditions,
and so a lot of what people think is a mortal sin actually isn’t. But what about those who are fully formed? There are some in the Church who, recognizing
the fallen nature of our world, suggest that it is quite easy to sin mortally, that we
do it all the time. Others, recognizing the serious conditions
required, suggest that it is extremely rare, even impossible, for someone to have an active intention of separating themselves from God. Me? All I know is that we are certainly capable
of doing serious harm, but there is nothing so grave that can keep someone from God if
they repent. It’s good to take these things seriously
and to examine our consciences, but at the end of the day, what does it matter what we call it? We should hate all our sin and seek God every
time we fall.
