Lust and Sacrilege

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I’ve just thought of something. Isn’t lust a form of sacrilege? It would make sense, seeing that we’re made in God’s image and likeness. By lusting, we’re profaning that which is sacred. Would a Catholic need to confess to commiting the sin sacrilege as well as lust after having committed a sexual sin? If not, do you think it would be helpful to do so anyway, as a reminder of the sin’s gravity?
 
I think sacrilege has a much more specific meaning than you are ascribing to it. Sacrilege is the “violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object.”
newadvent.org/cathen/13321a.htm

So, while a person in general is made in the image and likeness of God, they are considered sacred only after they are “consecrated to God — such are those in sacred orders (in the Latin Church) and religious, even those with simple vows, if these are perpetual.”
newadvent.org/cathen/13321a.htm
 
Milestone said:
I’ve just thought of something. Isn’t lust a form of sacrilege? It would make sense, seeing that we’re made in God’s image and likeness. By lusting, we’re profaning that which is sacred. Would a Catholic need to confess to commiting the sin sacrilege as well as lust after having committed a sexual sin? If not, do you think it would be helpful to do so anyway, as a reminder of the sin’s gravity?
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Your thought strikes me as something akin to theological “double jeopardy.” Were your concept correct, then abusing one’s body by, say, overeating - “Gluttony” being one of the Capital Sins - would also then be sacrilege. I don’t think that’s the mind of the Church. Or to use an example also in the sexual area along your line of thinking, masturbation would also be “sacrilege.” I don’t think that’s what the Church teaches.
 
When you confess a sin, confess what you did.

Do not confess every related sin in the sin family.

No priest is going to be able to understand your Confession unless you confess in a normal way.

Look, I could call cake “bread” if I felt like it. It is technically a form of bread. But nobody would understand me if I invited them to come eat my birthday bread. (Or at least, not if we were speaking in English.)

So if you committed a sin of lust, you confess lust. You do not confess a loaf of birthday bread.
 
Milestone said:
I’ve just thought of something. Isn’t lust a form of sacrilege? It would make sense, seeing that we’re made in God’s image and likeness. By lusting, we’re profaning that which is sacred. Would a Catholic need to confess to commiting the sin sacrilege as well as lust after having committed a sexual sin? If not, do you think it would be helpful to do so anyway, as a reminder of the sin’s gravity?
Click to expand...
Modern Catholic Dictionary:

SACRILEGE. The deliberate violation of sacred things. Sacred things are persons, places, and objects set aside publicly and by the Church’s authority for the worship of God. The violation implies that a sacred thing is desecrated precisely in its sacred character. It is a sin against the virtue of religion.

Personal sacrilege is committed by laying violent hands on clerics or religious of either sex; by unlawfully citing them before secular courts, i.e., without just cause and without express permission of their ecclesiastical superiors; by unlawfully demanding of them the payment of civil taxes or military service; and by the commission of acts of unchastity by or with a person bound by the public vow of chastity.

Sacred places are violated by sacrilege through defilement, e.g., serious and unjust shedding of blood, as in willful homicide or by putting the sacred place (church or shrine) to unseemly use, e.g., secular trading, acts of debauchery; by grave theft from the Church or consecrated edifice; and by violating the immunity of a place as having the right of sanctuary.

Sacred objects are desecrated by sacrilege whenever something sacred is used for an unworthy purpose. This includes the Mass and the sacraments, along with sacramentals; sacred vessels and church furnishings; and ecclesiastical property. Desecration in each of these areas includes the deliberate invalid reception of the sacraments, simulation of Mass, grave irreverence to the Eucharist; gravely profane use of sacred vessels or vestments; and the unlawful seizure of sacred things or ecclesiastical property.

Sacrilege is many times reprobated in Sacred Scripture, notably in the second book of Maccabees and in the writings of St. Paul. Grave sacrilege in the Old Testament was punishable by death, and in the Catholic Church is considered a mortal sin. (Etym. Latin sacrilegium, the robbing of a temple, the stealing of sacred things.)
 
Milestone said:
I’ve just thought of something. Isn’t lust a form of sacrilege? It would make sense, seeing that we’re made in God’s image and likeness. By lusting, we’re profaning that which is sacred. Would a Catholic need to confess to commiting the sin sacrilege as well as lust after having committed a sexual sin? If not, do you think it would be helpful to do so anyway, as a reminder of the sin’s gravity?
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In catholicism sacrilege is profanities of something that relates directly to God, such as a person, place, sacramental, Holy Name, eg: a holy statue, Bible, God’s Name, Our Lady’s name, Eucharist, Holy Water, a priest, etc… (by word, action, or thought).
 
Milestone said:
I’ve just thought of something. Isn’t lust a form of sacrilege? It would make sense, seeing that we’re made in God’s image and likeness. By lusting, we’re profaning that which is sacred. Would a Catholic need to confess to commiting the sin sacrilege as well as lust after having committed a sexual sin? If not, do you think it would be helpful to do so anyway, as a reminder of the sin’s gravity?
Click to expand...
Yes to the first part, no to the second. The word lust is the clearer more defined word for the sin, and since it is already in that category of sin, you don’t have to say the word sacrilege too… its implied. Having said that, its not exactly sacrilege in the meaning of the word. You could confuse things to the priest if you did say it. Better just stick with the word with the clearest meaning most commonly used.
 
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