If one realizes that one is wrong, and one stops is one still bad?

[fakename]

If one realizes that one is wrong, and one stops is one still bad?

That is, if I’ve decided to kill someone, even though I know murder is wrong habitually, nonetheless, a passion flares up and I decide to go through with it anyway, but then realize how horrible that is, and I stop myself, did I still sin in my thoughts? Even though I corrected myself would I still be bad?

 

[DexUK]

Well clearly the decision had not been finally made, since it was possible to unmake it.

One might temporarily revel in the experience of seeking vengeance over someone or wishing someone ill, but having repented of it in one’s heart, the ‘badness’ no longer remains.

If you regularly harbour such thoughts, then you should probably seek some sort of counselling. In respect of sin and the need to confess, I think you might have sinned in thought, seeing as you would consciously have engaged in deliberate contemplation of sinful matter, but as to whether there was a mortal element involved, I’m not sure. The victim of such a sin would only ever be yourself, so inasmuch as you sin, you also reap the punishment of the sin in yourself at the same time.

Ask your priest!

 

[thistle]

If one realizes that one is wrong, and one stops is one still bad?

That is, if I’ve decided to kill someone, even though I know murder is wrong habitually, nonetheless, a passion flares up and I decide to go through with it anyway, but then realize how horrible that is, and I stop myself, did I still sin in my thoughts? Even though I corrected myself would I still be bad?

What’s with all the ones. I thought that stopped at the Royal family!

 

[ahs]

I think that you’d still be guilty of rage amd of harboring anger to a point that led you to have hateful and vengeful thoughts about the person. These are sins as well. You would not be guilty of the literal murder, since you stopped yourself, but you are guilty of the sin if hatred and rage (which are part of the same commandment to not kill), and those would need to be confessed.

If your anger/hatred toward the person were deliberate, well-contemplated (you dwelt on it purposefully kept it fresh in your mind and planned your vengence), and the decision to harm the person was deliberate (even if you stopped yourself)…and you were aware of the gravity of that sin…then it would be mortal sin, even if you did not kill the person.