Moral Obligations

[S_V7]

When is one obliged to correct or “admonish the sinner”?
I’ve recently thought about this and found that quite alot of people (especially in school) do things which are gravely wrong and for the most part I’ve been a rather pacifist about it. I know prudence and charity play major roles in such a decision but I still can’t quite decide. What if keeping silent puts their souls (perhaps even ours?) in danger?

Let’s say a teacher was discussing his or her favorite candidate in a presidential election and going on about how great they were…without mentioning the candidate’s revolting stance on abortion.

Would I be obliged to say something?

And another thing, let’s say in the past I, through wrong information, made a statement that damaged someone’s spirituality or something. Let’s say I was misinformed and ranted lies about the Church, which I wrongly believed to be true. Later I found out the actual truth, would it be an obligation to go and correct those I spoke to about my mistakes?

I seem to remember a priest’s advice about something like this. He said that something along the lines of “tell them it’s wrong and leave it at that, we can’t force people to change and your obligation ends there” or something like that.

Also, in dealing with the reception of Holy Communion, I’ve found that many are horribly misinformed about the state one should be in before reception (i.e state of grace, 1 hour fast), should I remind others or tell them if I notice them snacking on some chips 10 min before Mass?

I know I can’t judge a person, but we can judge their actions, right?

Anyway, thanks for reading and God bless:thumbsup:

 

[Em_in_FL]

Hmmm… tough.
There’s a mighty fine line between “preaching the faith” and “judging our neighbor”…
We MUST be tempered with love.
We MUST use our words wisely, so that they aren’t interpreted as judgmental…

St. Francis puts it nicely…
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”

However, it is possible to openly share your faith without being judgmental… it just has to be done with great care.
Admitting you were wrong in the past is admirable… doing it in a humble way is more important, though.

You can “judge” someone’s actions, but think of St. Francis before saying a thing… sometimes actions get the point across much more effectively and lovingly.

 

[baltobetsy]

should I remind others or tell them if I notice them snacking on some chips 10 min before Mass?

I’ve said, as if I believed they really knew about the fast and just forgot, something like, “Oh, no! Don’t eat that - you’ll wreck your Eucharistic fast!” Sometimes they look really puzzled, and I gently explain.

With the teachers talking about pro-abortion people, you can respectfully ask a question that forces them to address the issue. Perhaps something like, “Wow, So-and-So sounds like a great person. He must also support a person’s right to life from conception to natural death, right??” (As if every great person would do that.)

With your friends, example is a great teacher. So is listening and asking questions to help them see that there is a better option than they may have chosen. Preaching at people doesn’t generally work, and, for that reason, is not required of you. God does not want an army of unpleasant weirdos telling people what they should and should not do. He does want us to be true friends who help others open their eyes to the truth, and who set others on fire with love of God in a quiet, effective, affectionate way.

If you have unintentionally misled someone, try, if you can, to correct the misinformation. It can be done simply. You can just say you were surprised to learn (whatever is actually true). The priest was right - it’s not up to you to change their mind - only they can do that. You have corrected the information - that’s all you need to do.

Betsy

 

[S_V7]

Thank you for the replies! I see your point…

But I still can’t “get it”.
Just a few minutes ago we were driving home with my aunt and small cousin, and they weren’t wearing seatbelts. And well…I always get these horrible ‘what if’ thoughts, as in “what if we get in a crash and they’re injured or die, and if I had mentioned the seatbelts, they could have lived…” and so on. I get very anxious and feel like I’m weighing the fear of ‘embarassment’ or whatever of adressing this and other such issues over the possibe consequence (i.e a crash)

I feel as though I’d rather remain silent and not face the fear of ‘saying something’ than do ‘the right thing.’ which would cause me some embarassment

It’s terrible and when I think about having a firm purpose of amendment to overcome my shyness or human respect or whatever, I can’t seem to convince myself.

Which is very bad.

One of the excuses I usually come up with is that I’m being scrupulous and don’t need to remind them of what they should already know, but this just doesn’t sound right. (by the way, I don’t think they normally wear seatbelts)

anyway, this is just one example, I’m sure I could think of many other’s. It’s just that I can’t distinguish between the right thing to do and my scrupulosity. Now I’m terrified over the thoughts I had during this seatbelt issue, as in “well if it’s a mortal sin not to tell them, I’d rather take that then say something to them, besides I’m planning to go to Confession soon…and I don’t know if this is serious matter so whatever…”

Needless to say, I feel horrible and don’t think I can make a good Confession until I resolve to overcome my fear of embarassment and human respect or whatever it is that’s keeping me silent:shrug:

Then again, I don’t know for sure where my responsibility lies so I’m still a bit confused.

Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think

(by the way, I ended up saying something about the seatbelts)

 

[Ron_Conte]

There are positive and negative moral precepts.

Negative precepts are acts to be avoided because these are sinful. If it is a sin, one is never justified in committing the sin. So sins of commission are to be avoided always.

Positive precepts are acts to be done, such as love thy neighbor, such as the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. But one cannot continually do each and every external act which is an expression of the positive precepts. One must choose prudently how and when to do various acts of mercy, such as correcting one’s neighbor, or such as finding some way to make up for the harm done by one’s past sins.

See Veritatis Splendor on this point.