[Apologetics] Venial Sins and Mortal Sins

[Art Kelly]

>From the Baltimore Catechism:
 
53 Q. How many kinds of actual sin are there?
A. There are two kinds of actual sin--mortal and venial.

"Mortal," that is, the sin which kills the soul. When a man receives a
very severe wound, we say he is mortally wounded; that is, he will die
from the wound. As breath shows there is life in the body, so grace is
the life of the soul; when all the breath is out of the body, we say the
man is dead. He can perform no action to help himself or others. So when
all grace is out of the soul we say it is dead, because it is reduced to
the condition of a dead body. It can do no action worthy of merit, such
as a soul should do; that is, it can do no action that God is bound to
reward--it is dead. But you will say the soul never dies. You mean it
will never cease to exist; but we call it dead when it has lost all its
power to do supernatural good.

"Venial" sin does not drive out all the grace; it wounds the soul, it
weakens it just as slight wounds weaken the body. If it falls very
frequently into venial sin, it will fall very soon into mortal sin also;
for the Holy Scripture says that he that contemneth small things shall
fall by little and little. (Ecclus. 19:1). A venial sin seems a little
thing, but if we do not avoid it we shall by degrees fall into greater,
or mortal, sin. Venial sin makes God less friendly to us and displeases
Him. Now if we really love God, we will not displease Him even in the
most trifling things.

54 Q. What is mortal sin?
A. Mortal sin is a grievous offense against the law of God.

"Grievous"--that is, very great or serious. "Against the law." If we are
in doubt whether anything is sinful or not, we must ask ourselves: is it
forbidden by God or His Church? and if we do not know of any law
forbidding it, it cannot be a sin, at least for us.

Suppose, for example, a boy should doubt whether it is sinful or not to
fly a kite. Well, is there any law of God or of His Church saying it is
sinful to fly a kite? If not, then it cannot be a sin. But it might be
sinful for another reason, namely, his parents or superiors might forbid
it, and there is a law of God saying you must not disobey your parents
or superiors. Therefore a thing not sinful in itself, that is, not
directly forbidden by God or His Church, may become sinful for some
other reason well known to us.

We must not, however, doubt concerning the sinfulness or lawfulness of
everything we do; for that would be foolish and lead us to be
scrupulous. If we doubt at all we should have some good reason for
doubting, that is, for believing that the thing we are about to do is or
is not forbidden. When, therefore, we have such a doubt we must seek
information from those who can enlighten us on the subject, so that we
may act without the danger of sinning. It is our intention that makes
the act we perform sinful or not. Let me explain. Suppose during Lent a
person should mistake Friday for Thursday and should eat meat--that
person would not commit a real sin, because it is not a sin to eat meat
on an ordinary Thursday. He would commit what we call a material sin;
that is, his action would be a sin if he really knew what he was doing.
On the other hand, if the person, thinking it was Friday when it was
really Thursday, ate meat, knowing it to be forbidden, that person would
commit a mortal sin, because he intended to do so. Therefore, if what we
do is not known to be a sin while we do it, it is no sin for us and
cannot become a sin afterwards. But as soon as we know or learn that
what we did was wrong, it would be a sin if we did the same thing again.
In the same way, everything we do thinking it to be wrong or sinful is
wrong and sinful for us, though it may not be wrong for those who know
better. Again, it is sinful to judge others for doing wrong, because
they may not know that what they do is sinful. It would be better for us
to instruct than to blame them. The best we can do, therefore, is to
learn well all God's laws and the laws of His Church as they are taught
in the catechism, so that we may know when we are violating them or when
we are not, i.e., when we are sinning and when we are not.

*55 Q. Why is this sin called mortal?
A. This sin is called mortal because it deprives us of spiritual life,
which is sanctifying grace, and brings everlasting death and damnation
on the soul.

When the soul is sent to Hell it is dead forever, because never again
will it be able to do a single meritorious act.

*56 Q. How many things are necessary to make a sin mortal?
A. To make a sin mortal three things are necessary: a grievous matter,
sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will.

"Grievous matter." To steal is a sin. Now, if you steal only a pin the
act of stealing in that case could not be a mortal sin, because the
"matter," namely, the stealing of an ordinary pin, is not grievous. But
suppose it was a diamond pin of great value, then it would surely be
"grievous matter." "Sufficient reflection," that is, you must know what
you are doing at the time you do it. For example, suppose while you
stole the diamond pin you thought you were stealing a pin with a small
piece of glass, of little value, you would not have sufficient
reflection and would not commit a mortal sin till you found out that
what you had stolen was a valuable diamond; if you continued to keep it
after learning your mistake, you would surely commit a mortal sin. "Full
consent." Suppose you were shooting at a target and accidentally killed
a man: you would not have the sin of murder, because you did not will or
wish to kill a man.

Therefore three things are necessary that your act may be a mortal sin:
(1) The act you do must be bad, and sufficiently important; (2) You must
reflect that you are doing it, and know that it is wrong; (3) You must
do it freely, deliberately, and willfully.

57 Q. What is venial sin?
A. Venial sin is a slight offense against the law of God in matters of
less importance, or in matters of great importance it is an offense
committed without sufficient reflection or full consent of the will.

"Slight," that is, a small offense or fault; called "venial," not
because it is not a sin, but because God pardons it more willingly or
easily than He does a mortal sin. "Less importance," like stealing an
ordinary, common pin. "Great importance," like stealing a diamond pin.
Without "reflection" or "consent," when you did not know it was a
diamond and did not intend to steal a diamond.

*58 Q. Which are the effects of venial sin?
A. The effects of venial sin are the lessening of the love of God in our
heart, the making us less worthy of His help, and the weakening of the
power to resist mortal sin.

"Lessening of the love," because it lessens grace, and grace increases
the love of God in us. It displeases God, and though we do not offend
Him very greatly, we still offend Him. "Weakening of the power to
resist." If a man is wounded, it will be easier to kill him than if he
is in perfect health. So mortal sin will more easily kill a soul already
weakened by the wounds of venial sin.

To summarize, stealing, say, $10,000 would be a moral sin.  But taking a newspaper without paying from a newspaper machine which the previous user did not close completely would be a venial sin.
 
There is NO way Jesus would say that all sins equally harm the soul.
 
Unless that lady paraphrased Jesus incorrectly, that that alleged apparition CANNOT be authentic!
 
Art


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gathman.org/pipermail/apologetics/attachments/20100926/92778c25/attachment.html>