Did We Commit a Sin?

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imatruefunk

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My wife and I sold our house about a month ago. We found our dream home and wanted a quick sale of our previous home. It had been almost a month with no bites, and we were getting nervous. So, a friend told us to get a statue of St. Joseph and bury it upside down in our front yard. We did, and two days later the house sold. However, we are somewhat superstitious, and when we uncovered the buried statue, his head had fallen off. We feel like we have desecrated St. Joseph, and don’t know what to do. We know superstition is a bad thing, but, we are worried about it. We have the headless statue with us, but feel like we need to do something more to show our respect and gratitude to St. Joseph. I know this sounds completely absurd, but, it is something we would like to fix. Thanks!
 
I think the conditions for an action to be a sin are deliberate (i.e. you did something on purpose that you knew to be against God), grave matter, and with free will.
This seems to me to be a pure accident, which only occurred because of your faith in the first place.
So it is sad that your statue is damaged, but certainly not something you did deliberately, therefore not sinful at all, but purely accidental.
I think you can rest easy
Love Cat1980
 
Wow…I had to look this up. St Joseph (that is, the foster-father of Jesus, as opposed to the many other St Josephs) is the patron saint of house-hunters.
So, let me understand this: you got a statue of St Joseph on the advice of someone else, buried it upside-down in your yard, and this is connected in some way with the sudden sale of your house. And now you’re worried about the head breaking off.

Firstly, you could have dug deeper, recovered the head, and glued Joe back together. (Yes, I am being flippant.)

Seriously, now:
The sin (if there was one) was in putting faith in an object, an idol, for the satisfaction of your earthly desires. Go to Exodus 20 and read the bit about images of things in Heaven (St Joseph surely is in Heaven, according to Catholic tradition).

The thing I mostly don’t understand is: even if St Joe is the patron of house-hunters; even if he intercedes with the Lord on behalf of certain house-hunters but leaves others homeless and destitute; even if most people in the world will never own the house of their dreams, no matter how fervently they pray------why, on earth, would St Joseph be impressed by the upside-down burial of a statue of him which, presumably, resembles his earthly form only because it has two legs, two arms, a torso, and (oops!) one head.

Sorry, but God does not organise real estate sales.

That the house was sold two days later is an example of coincidence and good luck.
 
Superstition is a sin and often times is a grave sin. I would say that, if you really did not know how what you were doing was wrong, than it is not a grave/mortal sin. For something to be a mortal sin it has to be a grave matter(which I would say this is), you have to have full knowledge (which you did not) and deliberate consent (which you did not have).

I would take this up in confession though and maybe talk to a priest. You may be able to get some good advice of how to deal with the situation. Going to confession will also probably eliminate the guilt. You could think about praying a novena to St Joseph.
 
hansard said:
Wow…I had to look this up. St Joseph (that is, the foster-father of Jesus, as opposed to the many other St Josephs) is the patron saint of house-hunters.
So, let me understand this: you got a statue of St Joseph on the advice of someone else, buried it upside-down in your yard, and this is connected in some way with the sudden sale of your house. And now you’re worried about the head breaking off.

Firstly, you could have dug deeper, recovered the head, and glued Joe back together. (Yes, I am being flippant.)

Seriously, now:
The sin (if there was one) was in putting faith in an object, an idol, for the satisfaction of your earthly desires. Go to Exodus 20 and read the bit about images of things in Heaven (St Joseph surely is in Heaven, according to Catholic tradition).

The thing I mostly don’t understand is: even if St Joe is the patron of house-hunters; even if he intercedes with the Lord on behalf of certain house-hunters but leaves others homeless and destitute; even if most people in the world will never own the house of their dreams, no matter how fervently they pray------why, on earth, would St Joseph be impressed by the upside-down burial of a statue of him which, presumably, resembles his earthly form only because it has two legs, two arms, a torso, and (oops!) one head.

Sorry, but God does not organise real estate sales.

That the house was sold two days later is an example of coincidence and good luck.
Click to expand...
The distinction between superstition and devotion is created by the person doing it. In other words, if you simply bury St. Joseph and count on that to sell the house, then it’s superstition. If you do it as an act of faith, then it’s devotion. The concern is not that we sinned by burying the statue in the yard as a reminder of the power of faith in prayer, it is that we didn’t show him respect by finding his head. I know it sounds silly, but that’s the concern.

As we left our house each day we prayed to the patron saint in hopes that he would pray for us to sell our house, to us, the statue, or idol, represented the presence of St. Joseph in our lives. Our prayers were answered, so yes, I guess with the prayers from St. Joseph, God did participate in the sale of our house. We believe strongly in the power of prayer.

I have a son who is developmentally delayed, and behind in school, I bought a medallion of St Thomas Aquinas and have it in my son’s backpack when he goes to school, and I ask for St Thomas Aquinas to pray for my son through his struggles in school. I am acting in faith, and using the medallion as a reminder that we have many who will pray for us.

Do you pray the Rosary? Is that not an idol? Are you not asking the Blessed Mother to pray for you by praying to the rosary? We did not place the faith in the statue itself, we did not believe it had “magical” powers.
 
Sounds like you’re in the clear, then.
You simply lost the head of a statue, no worse than losing a bead off a set of Rosary beads or if your son lost that Aquinas medallion you mentioned. It’s not a sin to lose an object.

Look, no harm. I was just trying to approach this from a realistic angle.

Thanks for the reply.

Peace.

(editing in: no, I don’t pray the rosary or any other prayers to saints. Nor do I care for any images of anything in the heavens above or the earth below, or in the seas. I pray to God.)
 
Maybe superglue, a wet cloth to clean 'im up and a place of honor on the bedroom dresser to remind you of how he came through for you.

God bless,
Dan
 
I have heard about St. Joesph devotions related to selling a house. But from what I rember, there is a second part of that devotion - involving creating a shrine to St. Joseph at your new house. Do a bit of research - if nothing else it might be an interesting read.
 
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