Basketball or Golf

[ricatholic]

Are sins determined by the refs (church) like in basketball fouls or are they like Golf where the scoring is done by the individual and its the awareness of the true rules that determines whether a true score is turned in?

For instance can a person feels he sins in war, even in an instance where the church says it isn’t a sin?

Peace

 

[Dr.Colossus]

I voted “like basketball”, but sin is not nearly so clear-cut. In most cases, sins are defined objectively by ‘the ref’ (the Church), and are therefore ordinarily instituted and called on like basketball. However, there are elements of the golf analogy as well. If a person believes something is a sin (even if he is mistaken) and does it anyway, it is still a sin due to the fact that their intent was to sin. However, your example, a soldier feeling that he has sinned in war, even if the Church declares it not to be a sin, is scrupulosity, and would be akin to a golfer adding strokes to his game simply because he felt he didn’t deserve that hole-in-one.

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

I think the matter of sin is a lot more complicated than basketball or golf. A sin cannot be mortal (deadly) unless it is a serious matter. We are obligated to develop a well informed conscience. The easiest way to do this is through the Cathechism of The Catholic Church. This leaves no doubt about what is considered sin. But there is more! Many of us fail to think about sins of omission. When we should have done something and didn’t do it. For instance, when we treat others badly, in a less than loving way, we violate the the words of Jesus that said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The priest is not a 'Ref." Jesus acts through the priest and forgives your sins. Well informed Catholics don’t need a “Ref.”

 

[Bill_Buck]

It’s more like archery or the shooting sports. Sin is when you fail to hit the predetermined target. I have been told that in Hebrew the word sin means to miss.

Our target is perfection as defined by God. We are told to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect.

The Church teaches us what God has defined. The Church by her instruction shows us the “bulls eye”

So definitions of sin such as mortal and venial define the degree to which we miss the intended target.

In the shooting sports if you hit a “bulls eye” you receive 10 points. The points earned fall by one for each successive larger ring. Of course there are no points awarded for missing the target all together.

So we want to avoid the mortal sin, that is missing the target completely.

Are we to be satisfied with just hitting the target and getting a score of 5, 6 or 7? Should we be satisfied with a score of 8 or 9? Or should our goal be consistently hitting the bull’s eye?