I have been having lots of trouble with this sin. The first time I confessed it, I went three weeks before falling. The second time I confessed I made it two weeks. I just fell again yesterday and am planning on confessing today. What can I do to help break this cycle?
Also a friend asked me a question about my faith that pertains to this and I didn’t know how to answer it. If smoking is not a sin, then why is masturbation? his justification was that our body is a temple so isn’t smoking defiling our bodies and making in impure for god? smoking harms our body, how is it not a sin? smoking harms us physically and masturbation harms us mentally, shouldn’t they both be mortal? again thats my friends views not mine.
I may not be the best person to help you, since I also have had lots of trouble with this sin, and for a much longer time than you have. It is a biggie. The important thing is not to despair. Keep going to confession regularly – not every day, but regularly, steadily, so you’re constantly plugging away at it. Keep praying. A priest once advised me to try not to let masturbation become the centerpiece of my spiritual life – don’t give the devil his due, don’t let him force you to dwell on the sins you’ve committed or the temptations to do it again. Cultivate strong relationships. Don’t be alone too often. Build yourself up in every kind of virtue, and learn to love better as a Christian; you will need every tool you can get your hands on to beat this. (The happy consequence of which is your struggle may be propelling you down the road to sainthood.) Avoid the temptations of the internet: many people claim that internet pornography and generalized salaciousness can be an outlet for sexual energy, but actually it functions as an amplifier, like pouring kerosene on your desire and building up a whole new kind of compulsion. Know that culpability is reduced as the sin becomes compulsive – which is no excuse not to worry about it (you should be very, very worried about it), but it is a reason not to give up hope. Don’t receive communion when you’re not definitely in the state of grace, and receive it as often as you can when you are.
And be patient. In the end, your only hope is God’s grace, and grace works on its own timetable. Just be sure to make yourself ready for it by the time it arrives.
To your friend’s question, I would argue – and this will be controversial on CAF, I’m certain – that knowingly taking up the smoking habit nowadays,
knowing what we know about tobacco, could easily be a mortal sin. Those who are already deep in the habit may not need to give up everything to break the habit, but there’s really no excuse for smoking.
That being said, there is an important difference: a single act of cigarette smoking is not going to kill you. Only the
habit is going to kill you, over an incredibly long time frame. So no single act of smoking can properly be a mortal sin.
Masturbation is a direct attack on your capacity to love. Love is defined, in Catholic theology, as giving oneself to another person, and sex is a powerful physical form of self-gift. Masturbation (and the related lusts) take the whole engine of natural, outward-facing human love, and turns it in on itself. It is profoundly selfish, profoundly isolating, and profoundly unloving. A
single act of masturbation, freely chosen, is damaging enough to turn the lights out on your soul. Thus, it is a more serious and dangerous sin than any single act of smoking.
Hope that helps. God bless you.
