Not-yet-Catholic Atonement for Sins?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tapiocapudding
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

tapiocapudding

Guest
I’m not yet a Catholic, but planning on starting the RCIA process in September. Since I have found the Truth I’ve engaged in several sins with full knowledge that what I was doing was wrong (e.g. calling in to work sick even though I wasn’t because I procrastinated and needed to study) and at least one sin that was very grave.
How can I atone for these sins? What would happen to me, if say I got hit by a bus tomorrow and I was still in this state of mortal sin? And how can I get out of it?
 
I’m not yet a Catholic, but planning on starting the RCIA process in September. Since I have found the Truth I’ve engaged in several sins with full knowledge that what I was doing was wrong (e.g. calling in to work sick even though I wasn’t because I procrastinated and needed to study) and at least one sin that was very grave.
How can I atone for these sins? What would happen to me, if say I got hit by a bus tomorrow and I was still in this state of mortal sin? And how can I get out of it?
If you cannot make a confession then you need PERFECT CONTRITION. That means you aren’t sorrow because you are afraid of going to hell for eternity, but because you have offended God who created you out of nothing. And because Jesus suffered for three hours on a cross for you.

Catholig
 
I’m not worried about going to hell, because I don’t plan to get hit by any trucks tomorrow! But seriously, I am very sorry for my sins and I’ve apologized to the Lord for them in my prayers. I feel guilty, not because of fear of hell, but because I have done wrong. What is perfect contrition and how do I obtain it?
 
I’m in the same boat as you. Perfect contrition is exactly that, being sorry for having offended the Lord, not just fear of punishment. For example, if my son steals a cookie and says he’s sorry because he knows I am going to send him to his room, that’s not perfect contrition. But if he’s sorry because he knows its wrong and he is sorry for disobeying my rules, that’s perfect contrition. Hand in hand with that, is that you will intend to never do it again. You also need to have the intention that once you are able to, you will confess the sin.
 
Talk to your priest if you have concerns about mortal sins. He can guide you.

If you are not yet baptized, your sins will be washed away at Baptism. If already baptized but not in full communion, you can make an appointment for Confession if your priest will agree to this (typically in RCIA you have first reconciliation just prior to confirmation).

Either way, God knows your heart in the event of an untimely demise knows that if you had been able to go to Confession you would have. If you are sorry and have firm ammendment of purpose not to do it again then let your priest guide you as to when/how to confess Sacramentally.
 
Jesus commands baptism for salvation yet the thief on the cross next to Jesus went to heaven with Jesus. God gives us sacraments to live His life in us but He Himself is not bound to the sacraments.

**1257 **The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” *God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.( *CCC 1257 italics included)

Jesus knows your heart and what you can and will do better than you . I’m sure more than anyone on this earth God would want to find any reason in His infinite justice to find you free from mortal sin. Say a good act of contrition, trust in His mercy and have a firm purpose of amendment and then last but not least hear His words: Be still and know that I am God…teachccd
 
Either way, God knows your heart in the event of an untimely demise knows that if you had been able to go to Confession you would have.
if you were to die as a candidate or catechumen you would possibly come under one of these baptisms, other than water:

Concerning Baptism of Blood and Desire
(Extract from St Alphonsus Liguori: Moral Theology, Bk. 6, nn. 95-7.)

Baptism, therefore, coming from a Greek word that means ablution or immersion in water, is distinguished into Baptism of water “fluminis”], of desire “flaminis” = wind] and of blood.

We shall speak below of Baptism of water, which was very probably instituted before the Passion of Christ the Lord, when Christ was baptised by John. But baptism of desire is perfect conversion to God by contrition or love of God above all things accompanied by an explicit or implicit desire for true Baptism of water, the place of which it takes as to the remission of guilt, but not as to the impression of the [baptismal] character or as to the removal of all debt of punishment. It is called “of wind” “flaminis”] because it takes place by the impulse of the Holy Ghost who is called a wind “flamen”]. Now it is de fide that men are also saved by Baptism of desire, by virtue of the Canon Apostolicam, “de presbytero non baptizato” and of the Council of Trent, session 6, Chapter 4 where it is said that no one can be saved “without the laver of regeneration or the desire for it.”

Baptism of blood is the shedding of one’s blood, i.e. death, suffered for the Faith or for some other Christian virtue. Now this baptism is comparable to true Baptism because, like true Baptism, it remits both guilt and punishment as it were ex opere operato. I say as it were because martyrdom does not act by as strict a causality “non ita stricte”] as the sacraments, but by a certain privilege on account of its resemblance to the passion of Christ. Hence martyrdom avails also for infants seeing that the Church venerates the Holy Innocents as true martyrs. That is why Suarez rightly teaches that the opposing view * is at least temerarious. In adults, however, acceptance of martyrdom is required, at least habitually from a supernatural motive.

It is clear that martyrdom is not a sacrament, because it is not an action instituted by Christ, and for the same reason neither was the Baptism of John a sacrament: it did not sanctify a man, but only prepared him for the coming of Christ.*
 
if you were to die as a candidate or catechumen you would possibly come under one of these baptisms, other than water:

Concerning Baptism of Blood and Desire
(Extract from St Alphonsus Liguori: Moral Theology, Bk. 6, nn. 95-7.)
I agree with Ravyn. It was taught in my RCIA class that if any of us Catechumens died before Easter, we could be saved by Baptism of Desire, since it was our express desire to obtain baptism. 😉
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top