Catholics and Sin, Why so Guilty?

[Robert_in_SD]

My take on it in a nutshell:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins”

So… if God forgives us, and we don’t forgive ourselves… isn’t that really presumptuous and arrogant of us? I mean, putting our opinion of ourselves above God’s opinion? Bad idea.

If God says we’re forgiven, we’re forgiven, our sins cast “as far as the East is from the West”, “as though we’d never sinned”, and we should forget about it and move on. No use at all for guilt at that point!

Hello Isdaari;

I don’t think the issue is that scrupulous Catholics doubt being forgiven of sins they confess to God. Rather, I think the problem is in knowing what is a sin… and what is not a sin. That seems to me to be the real issue with people who scruple over the smallest of issues. And I don’t think it’s confined to Catholics alone, although the stereotype certainly does exist. I’m sure there are some very scrupulous Baptists, Lutherans, Non-Denominationals, and even Methodists out there struggling over whether to confess to God that they sampled the cooking sherry and burned the Christmas cookies…

In the larger sense, I do agree with you that we need never doubt God’s power to forgive even the blackest of sins.

Peace,
Robert

 

[Izdaari]

Hello Isdaari;

I don’t think the issue is that scrupulous Catholics doubt being forgiven of sins they confess to God. Rather, I think the problem is in knowing what is a sin… and what is not a sin. That seems to me to be the real issue with people who scruple over the smallest of issues. And I don’t think it’s confined to Catholics alone, although the stereotype certainly does exist. I’m sure there are some very scrupulous Baptists, Lutherans, Non-Denominationals, and even Methodists out there struggling over whether to confess to God that they sampled the cooking sherry and burned the Christmas cookies…

In the larger sense, I do agree with you that we need never doubt God’s power to forgive even the blackest of sins.

Peace,
Robert

Yeah, you’re right. People do disagree about what is a sin, both individuals and churches. And likely there are overly scrupulous folks in all churches.

 

[Izdaari]

‘forgetting about it’, I find, is the shortest and easiest way to slip straight back into old sinful habits. A healthy (not excessive) dose of guilt about past sin helps me to be more careful, more thoughtful about what leads me into sin, more aware and determined to avoid it in future.

I agree that we should remember what past sins we’ve committed in order to know what our temptations are, and to avoid them in the future… but that doesn’t require any feelings of guilt. Once we’re forgiven, guilt seems to me not just unnecessary but a sin in itself, putting our feelings above God’s promise.

 

[JustaServant]

My take on it in a nutshell:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins”

So… if God forgives us, and we don’t forgive ourselves… isn’t that really presumptuous and arrogant of us? I mean, putting our opinion of ourselves above God’s opinion? Bad idea.

If God says we’re forgiven, we’re forgiven, our sins cast “as far as the East is from the West”, “as though we’d never sinned”, and we should forget about it and move on. No use at all for guilt at that point!

Once we have been forgiven, then the guilt is dealt with as well. That doesn’t mean guilt won’t remain for a time, but the*** fact*** that we are forgiven overides that. Giving in to guilt for sin forgiven shows a lack of faith. That’s why that verse you quote is so important.

For some though, ‘guilt’ is an emotion that they feel is silly because they do not think what they did was sin. They change the definition of sin to deal with guilt.

For others, guilt is a weapon they use pummel others with the ‘record of wrongs’ they have committed. Doris Roberts on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond is a classic example. I’ve often told my wife, we laugh at that show, but the real life Marie Barones’ (Roberts character) are pitiful, bitter, unforgiving people who ‘keep a record of wrongs’ done to them and use guilt as a weapon.
I’ve had a few Marie Barones in my family.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

I Jump into the fray.

Catholics, guilty?

Police: every criminal returns to the local of the crime. So, when the crime is bad, they just wait there with a cop ready to take not of the guys who suspitioly come there.
Adultery: no remorse , no guilt, sang a rock song. So, it seems that even the hardened sex-driven guys feel it.
Robbery: the other day I saw the news of a poor old man who returned , say 100 dollars as capital and interrest of a small amount that he stole in a Library 40 years ago !!! It made the news.
Bad decision: I have a firend, an old lady, who still feels bad for she abandon her daughter 47 years ago, and it was for a good cause.
Pedophilia: one guy was sentenced to death. He asked the judge for no recourses. He wanted to die. He thought he was doing wrong, he could not correct it, he knew that he was going to do it again, so he forbade any appeal and was executed.
Gospel: “the one who has no sin please throw the first stone” - I think it were the oldest who exit first and I do not know why? Were they bothered with more sins)

Catholics, guilty?

 

[Dymphna82]

I apologize for making a blanket statement, but it’s impossible not to in order to ask my question.

Reading the Apologetics section and Ask an Apologist on this forum it seems that Catholics are obsessed with sin. Is X a sin? Is Y a sin? I did X by accident, am I going to hell? It’s so prevalent that there are other threads devoted to scrupulosity.

One often hears about “Catholic guilt,” but I always dismissed it. Now, I’m starting to take it a bit more seriously.

The questions run the gamut from accidental nocturnal emissions to missing Mass due to a headache to smoking a cigarette before communion. These are things I never worry about, yet you go to confession for discretely spitting piece of chicken in your napkin at a dinner party.

What gives? Why so guilty?

I don’t view Catholic guilt as a bad thing.

I have depression. A big element of depression is feeling guilty about things. At least with Catholicism, if I feel guilty, there is a means of absolving myself of such guilt. Without Catholicism, I’m just a girl, alone, digging her way further down a bottomless pit.