I have OCD and it is very hard for me to distinguish between mortal and venial sin. I sexually sinned mortally about a year and a half ago or more. I went to confession and have not engaged in that behavior again. However I went on this person’s facebook page and saw a picture of him working on something. His shirt was a little raised and I wanted to look so I glanced at the picture quickly but then felt bad I did it so I looked away. Would this be a mortal sin? I did have a sexual feeling and looked but it was very fast. If I should say this in confession my biggest issue is how to say it. Do I go into details like I did in this post? Thanks for your help.
Thanks for your honesty .
Please just read what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say :
"1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
Now that above quote needs very , very serious consideration .
All three conditions have to be met together .
It has to be grave matter committed with full knowledge .
Now what you did was not grave matter , but suppose it was , you would have to commit it with full knowledge . Now the fact that you are asking the question whether it was a mortal sin shows you do not have full knowledge . So that rules out one of the condtions which would make it a mortal sin .
Again suppose the matter was grave . Did you give it deliberate consent ? From how you describe your attitude to what happened I would say that you did not give deliberate consent , but rather got out of the situation when you saw where it was leading . So that rules out another condition which would make it a mortal sin .
Not grave matter , no full knowledge and no deliberate consent . Plus the OCD would have a diminishing effect upon the gravity of the situation .
It isn’t easy to commit a mortal sin if you are striving to follow Jesus .
I have read where mortal sin is a 100% thing .
It has to be 100% grave matter .
There has to be 100% knowledge of this .
There has to be 100% consent .
If just 1% of any one of those three is absent , then it rules out mortal sin .
It’s has to be as simple and as serious as that .
Be at peace , and trust in God who does not allow us to fall into mortal sin as easily as some would make out . The fact is that He makes it hard for us to do so .
The relevant bit can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church para 1854 - 1869. Here is a link: