If you're living in mortal sin, can you still love Jesus? (And some other related questions)

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If you’re living in a state of mortal sin because you know you’ll repeat the act after confessing it, do you still have a right to claim to love Jesus? What about if you still go to Mass every Sunday, try to restrict the sin you keep committing and keep away from other mortal sins?

Also, is God unhappy with you if you pray when you feel guilty? If you ask Mary to pray for you every day because you know you can’t sort yourself out on your own, can you be guaranteed help?

Thank you for reading this.
 
I should hope so, because in all those cases God still loves you.

And praying while guilty…I think if we’re honest with ourselves, this is a very familiar feeling for a lot of us when we pray (myself included). Sometimes things aren’t going well, and we need to be able to be honest with God and tell Him how we really feel. He can take it. He took up the cross and was crucified for us, for our sins which we were and are entirely guilty of!

1 Peter 5:7 tells us to “cast (our) cares upon Him, for he cares for you”. It’s so very true. God will be victorious when you are not. There’s nothing He’d like to do for you more than to pick you up from the depths of your sin and clean you up. Remember the psalm (51:10): “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” You want that (or else you wouldn’t ask such questions), but even better, God wants to do that for you!

So, yes, please continue to love God and to pray to Him no matter where you are.

I used to have a hymn linked in my signature that may help you. It is a prayer of the Egyptian monks of the California desert, asking God for help and mercy (it is adapted from the Psalms): My Lord Jesus Christ, Help Me

I pray this or fragments of it whenever I can remember to (trust me, when I really need it, it’s the first thing on my tip of my tongue! The Psalms are amazing like that. Learn to pray them and you will be armed for spiritual warfare like you could never imagine before.)
 
Your post very much reminds me of myself from a few years ago and I will answer from that perspective.
If you really loved Jesus you would do everything humanly possible to get yourself out of mortal sin. More than confessing with an intention of maybe not sinning again.
For example, if you are cohabiting with someone you’d go to confession, find a new flat and pack your bags. That’s what is required. I’m using this example because this was my situation. It took several months for me to actually realise that I had an obligation to do that rather than go home after confession and feel good about myself for a bit. But better late than never, right?
Any kind of prayer is better than no prayer and it will certainly help you grow more aware of your situation, whatever it is.
God bless!
 
Thyme said:
If you’re living in a state of mortal sin because you know you’ll repeat the act after confessing it, do you still have a right to claim to love Jesus? What about if you still go to Mass every Sunday, try to restrict the sin you keep committing and keep away from other mortal sins?

Also, is God unhappy with you if you pray when you feel guilty? If you ask Mary to pray for you every day because you know you can’t sort yourself out on your own, can you be guaranteed help?

Thank you for reading this.
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Hi Thyme.
To begin with the last question:
**“can you be guaranteed help?” **
The answer is, Yes! we are always guaranteed help. Remember Jesus came to save us sinners, and that is me, you and everybody out there who turns to Him and cries out for His help.
Now for the other part of your question:
"If you’re living in a state of mortal sin because you know you’ll repeat the act after confessing it, do you still have a right to claim to love Jesus?"

Part of a good confession, is to be truly sorry for your sins and resolve never to repeat it.This is absolutely vital.
**If you are determined not to sin again, then you cannot know for a fact that you will. **Should you fall again, then, we all have sinned and the Lord is ready to forgive us,as many times as it takes.You must , however turn away from the occasion of sin.
 
Love is sacrificial- so the degree that one truly loves someone is the degree to which one is willing to sacrifice.
 
I don’t really have sources for this, but I think that if I am choosing to continue in mortal sin, and either avoiding confession or making bad confessions because I have no interest in changing my ways, it’s hard to say that I truly love Jesus very much.

Mortal sin, by definition, is with full knowledge and full consent of the will. So it is a deliberate turning away from God’s will. It’s almost like if I was married and I said to my wife, “Honey, I love you, but I need to go sleep with my mistress tonight. Sorry about that. No, I don’t ever intend to stop. Sorry. No, you’re right, I know it hurts you badly, and I don’t need to do it. But I want to, so I will. Sorry.”

Now according to the catechism, full consent of the will is needed for the sin to be mortal. So if I am coerced into sinning, or I don’t really know it’s a sin, or if I have a powerful addiction that I haven’t been able to break - that can lessen my culpability. I think we can struggle with a grave or even mortal sin and still love God sincerely, if a part of us wants to change and please God. But if we choose to lead a life of mortal sin with no intention of change, then to me that says we love the sin more than we love God.
 
Use the very human experience of friendship and marriage. As noyed above, the Holy Trinity (God) loves us not because of our attractiveness but because of their desire for our happiness. On the human level, you cannot joyfully and peacefullly live in a home or be in a marriage if you violate the norms of living seriously and regulary there. A change of lifestyle is demanded, some are serous - stealing from Mom, some light, trashing your room and not doing chores occasionally ( all the time is serious abuse and disrespect). Confession requires m aking a great effort, “progress not perfection” so take it for what it is not just forgiveness but forgiveness and "firm purpose to drop the anchor that ties you to sin! You cannot be sincerely in love with Jesus or anyone if you regularly “diss” them!
 
How should I know if you’re living in mortal sin? I’m not God, and neither is anyone else here!

I do know that God DOES listen to the prayers of ALL His people, and that includes sinners. And I do know about Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican. From what I gathered about that parable, I think God was a little more favorably impressed with the publican’s attitude.

I also know that if I really love a fellow creature, I hurry to address the needs of that relationship. Same with God, not that He has any real needs, because He’s God! But I have a need to try to get my relationship with Him “right,” and that is why my conscience bothers me when I encounter such qualms.

That’s why the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And if there is something that I really am too attached to that I’m NOT willing to let go at this time, I ask God to MAKE me willing!

He usually does this, in all sorts of ways. That’s the funny thing about mortal sin. Not only is it a grave offense against God, but the sins in question usually result in consequences that really aren’t even in our own temporal best interests. Sin might LOOK like fun at first, but it usually doesn’t play out very well, even here on earth.

For example, say someone likes gossip and calumny, and takes that into the workplace with them. As mortal sins go, that’s a pretty “tame” one (by that I mean it’s not something like murder or adultery, not that “dramatic” a mortal sin, I mean, so let’s use that as an example.) They may undermine a rival at first. But their coworkers get wise to them, they get a reputation as a gossiper and liar, and they sooner or later lose all credibility, and take themselves out of the running for, for example, promotion. Or they may just be effectively ostracized by their colleagues. Forty hours a week of being ostracized because one was acting like a jerk is a lot of time out of one’s life. See what I mean?

Obviously, I don’t know what particular brand of mortal sin you’re talking about, but you might want to ask yourself how, in addition to offending God, you’re shooting yourself in the foot, and guaranteeing some misery for yourself right here on earth. That might be enough to make you willing to make some changes. God will certainly forgive our sins, but He does expect us to give it a real try to keep ourselves in a state of grace. And He does give us the resources to do that, if we are willing to at least be willing to try!
 
Thyme said:
If you’re living in a state of mortal sin because you know you’ll repeat the act after confessing it, do you still have a right to claim to love Jesus? What about if you still go to Mass every Sunday, try to restrict the sin you keep committing and keep away from other mortal sins?

Also, is God unhappy with you if you pray when you feel guilty? If you ask Mary to pray for you every day because you know you can’t sort yourself out on your own, can you be guaranteed help?

Thank you for reading this.
Click to expand...
Being in the state of mortal sin completely breaks our relationship with God. If you TRULY still love Jesus, you would do all you can to get yourself right in His eyes. Every time you commit this mortal sin, you ar hurting Our Lord. One would not willingly hurt Our Lord if they truly love Him. Period!

The short answer is, No. You cannot still love Jesus if you’re living in mortal sin.
 
That last statement needs a caveat. IF one really loves Jesus, she/he will not want to live outside His Friendship, that it not exclude oneself from His Will. BUT addictive behavor nd peer pressure can weaken one’s resolve. That is why we have Support Groups, 12-Steps and Prayer Groups- and go to Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.St Augustine described his addiction to sexual immorality in his Confessions.That is why we never judge an other’s struggle nor give up on her/him or our own 'demons>"
 
Saint John addresses this in a couple of places:
3* For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
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1 John 5:3
6* And this is love, that we follow his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love.
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2 John
 
Thyme said:
If you’re living in a state of mortal sin because you know you’ll repeat the act after confessing it, do you still have a right to claim to love Jesus? What about if you still go to Mass every Sunday, try to restrict the sin you keep committing and keep away from other mortal sins?
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The people who say you cannot love Jesus and still sin simply don’t know what they are talking about. If you have never struggled with addictive behavior that you know is wrong but can’t stop then you just don’t understand.

I had a 33 year porn addiction. My heart was on fire for Jesus for the last two years of it but I could not help myself. Then one day I started not only loving Jesus, but loving Jesus more than I loved myself. That’s when the sin stopped.

*"Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? (Luke 6:46)*One day I read this and the only answer I couild think of was that I loved myself more than I loved Jesus.

The key is not loving Jesus, but loving him more than you love yourself. Then you will be willing to do whatever it takes to please him, willing to deny yourself because you love Jesus more than you love yourself. When you get to this point, God will pour out graces upon you and you will rejoice and sing with Mary…

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed;
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good thingds,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
(Luke 1:46-55)

Sometimes, late at night, I think about how much I sinned and how he just took it all away out of his love and mercy and it makes me cry.

-Tim-
 
TimothyH said:
The people who say you cannot love Jesus and still sin simply don’t know what they are talking about. If you have never struggled with addictive behavior that you know is wrong but can’t stop then you just don’t understand.
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Great post in most ways and I agree with most of your points, and love that you pasted the Magnificat. Just wanted to note that I don’t think most people were saying “you cannot love Jesus and still sin.” I know what I meant at least in my post was that I don’t think you can truly love Jesus and be content to live a life of sin. There’s a world of difference between, “Jesus, I’m not strong enough!” and “Jesus, I know you hate this and I just don’t care.”
 
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