Is lust a mortal sin?

[basehitter320]

I feel like lust couldn’t be a mortal sin, solely because it isn’t grave. Unless it specifically hurts another person, it can’t really be defined as grave. Especially since sexual desire is a natural part of humanity, it doesn’t make sense that lust would be a “mortal” sin.

Thoughts?

 

[seagal]

Whether or not a sin is mortal doesn’t depend on our feelings about it. It’s not open for debate.

 

[corsair]

Well my friend, it seems that there are seven deadly sins, which means very grave sins.
1 - Pride, 2 - Covetesness, 3 - LUST, 4 - Anger, 5 - Gluttony, 6 - Envy, 7 - Sloth.

Does that answer your question? This is quoted from my 1962 Roman Missal.

God Bless.

 

[Padraig1972]

Lust is indeed a mortal sin and it leads to commiting a pontetial grave sin. I have made that mistake and when one does, it has to be confessed too.

 

[ByzCath08]

Christ said that anyone who looks lustfully at a women, commits adultery with her in his heart. Our feelings on the issue don’t really matter - Christ called this one out specifically.

 

[Bookcat]

Lust is indeed a mortal sin and it leads to commiting a pontetial grave sin. I have made that mistake and when one does, it has to be confessed too.

(likely a bit of “mis-translation” going on here)

Mortal sin = Grave sin = Serious sin

But yes lust is a mortal sin (serious sin, grave sin) on the objective plain.

It is yes a “grave matter” and if done (all things being equal) with the needed knowledge and deliberate consent one commits a mortal sin (grave sin, serious sin).

 

[thistle]

I feel like lust couldn’t be a mortal sin, solely because it isn’t grave. Unless it specifically hurts another person, it can’t really be defined as grave. Especially since sexual desire is a natural part of humanity, it doesn’t make sense that lust would be a “mortal” sin.

Thoughts?

Well you are wrong and your feelings have nothing to do with whether something is a sin of grave matter or not. Sadly many people try to argue their way around Church teachings because they want to somehow justify continuing to sin and they do not want to obey God but want God to bend to their will.

Lust is a sin of grave matter.

 

[crenfro]

Hello.

I wanted to be sure that what you were calling “lust” is what I understand to be “lust.” It’s an overused word these days. Sexual desire is a God-given and correct thing within marriage – between a man and a woman (sorry I have to qualify the definition of marriage this way…).

Here’s how the Catholic Encyclopedia defines lust:

The inordinate craving for, or indulgence of, the carnal pleasure which is experienced in the human organs of generation.

The wrongfulness of lust is reducible to this: that venereal satisfaction is sought for either outside wedlock or, at any rate, in a manner which is contrary to the laws that govern marital intercourse. Every such criminal indulgence is a mortal sin, provided of course, it be voluntary in itself and fully deliberate. This is the testimony of St. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, v. 19:

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, . . . Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God."

Moreover, if it be true the gravity of the offences may be measured by the harm they work to the individual or the community, there can be no doubt that lust has in this respect a gravity all its own. Transgressions against the virtues other than purity frequently admit of a minor degree of malice, and are accounted venial. Impurity has the evil distinction that, whenever there is a direct conscious surrender to any of its phases the guilt incurred is always grievous.

…

Lust is said to be a capital sin. The reason is obvious. The pleasure which this vice has as its object is at once so attractive and connatural to human nature as to whet keenly a man’s desire, and so lead him into the commission of many other disorders in the pursuit of it. Theologians ordinarily distinguish various forms of lust in so far as it is a consummated external sin, e.g., fornication, adultery, incest, criminal assault, abduction, and sodomy. Each of these has its own specific malice–a fact to borne in mind for purposes of safeguarding the integrity of sacramental confession.

And here’s something about lust from the Catholic Catechism:

CHAPTER TWO
“YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF”

ARTICLE 9
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ***, or anything that is your neighbor's.299

Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.300

2514 St. John distinguishes three kinds of covetousness or concupiscence: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life.301 In the Catholic catechetical tradition, the ninth commandment forbids carnal concupiscence; the tenth forbids coveting another’s goods.

…

For the Apostle it is not a matter of despising and condemning the body which with the spiritual soul constitutes man's nature and personal subjectivity. Rather, he is concerned with the morally good or bad works, or better, the permanent dispositions - virtues and vices - which are the fruit of submission (in the first case) or of resistance (in the second case) to the saving action of the Holy Spirit. For this reason the Apostle writes: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."304

I. PURIFICATION OF THE HEART

2517 The heart is the seat of moral personality: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication. . . . "305 The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance:

Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life.306

2518 The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."307 “Pure in heart” refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity;308 chastity or sexual rectitude;309 love of truth and orthodoxy of faith.310 There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith:

Thoughts?

Sorry these quotes are so long.

 

[stanczyk]

I have to make a correction to some of the above posts. The seven deadly sins are not directly correlated to mortal sins, and any of the seven deadly sins can be either mortal or venial depending on the circumstance.

What makes a sin mortal is that it concerns a grave matter and was done willingly. Lust which is instinctual, lustful feelings which one has unwillingly, therefore, are not mortally sinful. It is only when one willingly embraces those lustful feelings that it rises to the level of a mortal sin. As with any sort of grave sin of thought, an involuntary thoughts are not the problem, it is when you luxuriate in those thoughts that one willingly sins.

 

[JVSantos]

Lustful thoughts are never good. If the thought of lust came into your mind and you didnt want it there then its not your fault.
Here’s some more questions…
What is the difference between lust and appreciation?
Where does appreciation end and lust begin?

 

[Jonatello]

What is the difference between lust and appreciation?
Where does appreciation end and lust begin?

These are great questions. I love the choice of the word “appreciation” because it allows us to consider such an idea: appreciation.

To hear some tell it, we’re supposed to only appreciate the body as if it were a Florentine sculpture, being amazed, delighted, possibly aw-stricken by its artistry and symbolism.

While this is all true and good and wonderful (we should all be able to behold and appreciate the human figure in such a manner), it doesn’t exactly convey arousal.

Arousal is primal. The other more imaginative and thoughful aspects of appreciation can definitely heighten arousal, but they do not describe arousal.

So I would also ask this:

What is the difference between arousal and lust?
Where does arousal end and lust begin?

(i would think the difference is that the spirit of lust cares nothing for the object and is willing to get its own pleasure even at the detriment of its object, while good arousal wants to share in that pleasure with its object…good arousal would dissipate with the implication that the pleasure is one-sided and not shared, while lust wouldn’t care) - everything in parenthesis is half-baked off the top of the head attempt at putting the difference into words

 

[Bookcat]

What is the difference between lust and appreciation?
Where does appreciation end and lust begin?

Some aspects that can be involved: jimmyakin.org/2009/01/appreciating-beauty-vs-concupiscence.html (Jimmy Akin of Catholic Answers)

 

[Bookcat]

As to arousal…such is only to be sought or consented to in marriage…

 

[Bookcat]

A married couple can seek to be aroused …

A person who is not married is not to seek to be aroused or sexual pleasure

Of course sometimes some unsought arousal or sexual pleasure may “happen to one” … innocently… or unexpectedly…

–well…do not want it… turn to other things…etc

 

[Catholicpotato]

I feel like lust couldn’t be a mortal sin, solely because it isn’t grave. Unless it specifically hurts another person, it can’t really be defined as grave. Especially since sexual desire is a natural part of humanity, it doesn’t make sense that lust would be a “mortal” sin.

Thoughts?

Where are you getting the idea that a sin has to specifically hurts another person? That would do away with five of the ten comandments. I would submit to you that it does hurt another person directly and that even if it didnt, it hurts God. So, yup mortal, hell bound, deathly, dirty, evil, sin. Fortunatly you have the sacrament of confession and the grace of our Savior to free you from that awful fate.