Is this a mortal sin?

[Tennis42]

I was talking with some friends on Xbox Live while my parents were away. One of them has a habit of swearing, but I usually just ignore it. I left my room for a second, and my parents came home. My mom walked in to check something, and heard him drop the F-Bomb. She asked me who it was that said that. I knew it was him, but I told her I must’ve gotten disconnected from my friends and it was probably some random person. I sort of did this automatically, and although I had suspicions, I didn’t know if lying to your parents was a mortal sin. I regretted it, and I thought of telling her the truth, but it would just be kind of awkward for me to bring up that incident out of nowhere. Was it a mortal sin?

 

[Robertanthony]

One of the sine qua non conditions for a sin to be mortal is grave matter, this is hardly the case. In the case of lying, think totally ruining someone’s reputation, or someone goes to jail unjustly because you lied etc. It’s still a sin, mind you, but you won’t go to hell over it should you not wake up tomorrow morning.

 

[Cryptic1]

Tennis42,

Actually no, this is considered a venial sin according to the church. While it’s not a mortal sin, all sin is offensive to God only because God is so holy that He cannot tolerate sin. Venial sin is like getting a small tear in your favorite pair of jeans and if you keep on wearing it (engaging in venial sin), after awhile there’s a really big hole in your jeans and then you can’t wear it anymore. A small lie is still a lie but the only problem is when it turns into a pattern of habitual lying which opens the door to other sins, perhaps even mortal sins, which eventually separate you from having a relationship with God.

So, the really bad thing about sin, any sin, whether venial or mortal is that it separates us from God. We no longer walk with God or talk to Him like we used to. It’s like having a friend that we turn to all the time and then, something happens and the friendship sort of cools off and we’re left wondering, what happened?

The good news is God knows what’s in your heart and if you repent (regret the action), your heart is now turned back towards God and the relationship is as it was before. Of course, if we are talking about mortal sin, we would probably confess the sin to a priest in confession. The point is, don’t let your not being able to go to confession stop you from repenting (telling God how sorry you are) right then and there. It’s good to recognize when we sin but it’s also good to know that God is waiting for us so we can go back to having a relationship with Him. Because really, in the end, that’s what we were created for.

 

[valentino]

Lying isn’t a mortal sin in most incidences.It would have to depend on the moral impact it has.If you were to lie about some person say being in home who you knew was dangerous and he ended up killing your sister then that would be a mortal lie(or sin).You did commit a venial sin in lying to your mother and to be forgiven you must tell her and go to confession to be forgiven by God.

 

[PiousTemplar]

I think I would be in pretty bad trouble myself if this constituted as a Mortal sin. My siblings and parents swear their heads off and use blasphemy. It’s disgusting.