Saying grave matter and mortal sin are the same thing, is like saying tobacco and tobacco cigarettes are the same. While a tobacco cigarette is always made up of tobacco, not all tobacco goes into cigarettes. The same with grave matter and mortal sin. Mortal sin is always from a grave matter, but not all grave matters are mortal sins.
In the natural order,
- grave = the place where the dead are buried…correct?
- If a soldier is said to have suffered a mortal wound on the battlefield, that’s the sensitive way of saying, he died on the battlefield.
b:
As to your statement that stealing a pencil is not grave matter, I agree that stealing a pencil is likely a venial sin, but it’s still a grave matter.
I think you’re refering to this passage from the CCC …lest serious matter vs grave matter.
**1862 **One commits
venial sin when, in a
less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he
disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent.
I think you will agree, Ignorance can always give wiggle room, but as you will see later, down the page, feigned ignorance covers nothing, and actually boosts one’s guilt. iow in reality, it’s not impossible, but it’s not easy either, to play the ignorance card and have it real.
for example:
**1791 **ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man “takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.” In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
b:
Does that mean that everything stolen, which by the Catechism IS a grave sin, is a mortal sin? No. We have clear examples in the Catechism ( a poor man starving to death etc) whereby the sin is reduced, even removed. Grave does not always equal mortal, but mortal is always grave.
Again, In the natural order, grave and mortal deal with the reality of death. If you put someone in a grave they better be dead. If someone on the battlefield died due to their wound(s) they are said to have sustained a mortal wound.
In the spiritual order, the soul can’t die. It’s immortal. But
sanctifying grace and charity in the soul
can die. That’s the area we’re speaking of.
definitionally,
**1859 **Mortal sin requires
full knowledge and
complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.
Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
For example:
Unless someone has had no involvement in any society on this planet, they’ve heard fornication, adultery are wrong i.e. sinful. Catholics, Protesatants, Jews, Muslims, for example know these are an offense to God’s law. Are these sins grave matter? Yep! Are they committed with personal choice? Everyday…Yes? ergo mortal sin, is easy to commit.
using grave and mortal in the same sentence
**2484 **The
gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin,
it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.
**2539 **Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes
grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
