Please state the church teaching on this very very important matter.
The Church teaching on the matter is that the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday (and all Holy Days) is a serious one and that missing Mass constitutes “grave matter”, which means that it meets one of the conditions for constituting a mortal sin.
I have seen time and time again on this forum that if one dies with a mortal sin they go to hell, no ifs ands or butts.
And that is absolutely correct: one perfect definition of a mortal sin is that it is a sin that if one dies with it on their soul, then they go to Hell.
When were talking salvation it needs to be taken seriously.
No one takes salvation more seriously than a Catholic.
Now either the Church teaches they do or they don’t , which is it
You seem to be confused on the difference between what is “grave matter” and what is a “mortal sin”. As Scripture clearly states “all wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin is deadly (ie mortal)”. As was mentioned above, there are three conditions to the determination of a mortal sin: grave matter, knowledge of the gravity of the sin, free will in committing the sin.
Grave matter is only one quality of the determination of mortal (ie deadly) sin. The gravity of a sin describes it’s 'badness". If the sin is relatively trivial - say a minor traffic violation - then it cannot be a mortal sin. In order for a sin to have the potential to be mortal, it must be a very bad sin such as stealing, or any of the 10 commandment sins.
Now, once the determination that the gravity (or badness) of the sin is significant enough to be called “grave matter” the 2 additional requirements exist in the determination of whether the sin involving grave matter constitutes a mortal sin. The first consideration is whether the grave matter was done with the knowledge that it was, in fact, a very serious(grave) sin. If so, then the person committing it may have committed a mortal sin (there is still one last condition to be met); if not, then the person is definitely not guilty of a mortal sin, but merely guilty of unknowingly committing a grave sin. Assuming the first 2 conditions are met, the sin is of a grave nature and the person committing it knows that it is, then only one last condition or dimension of the sinful act remains: was the sin committed
freely by the person who committed it? If so, then the person has committed a mortal sin; if not, then the person has not committed a mortal sin. An example of a grave, intentional sin that is not a mortal sin would be if someone is held at gunpoint and forced, say, to steal something from another. Is stealing a grave sin? Absolutely. Did the person who stole know that stealing is a grave sin? Yes, they did. Did the person freely commit the theft? No, and that last point eliminates the possibility of the act involving intentional, grave matter of being a mortal sin.
The difficulty with the above analysis is that there are only 2 people who can really know whether a sin was mortal: the person committing it and God. Another person cannot really know the degree of knowledge and of freedom that another exercises in committing an act involving grave matter. Returning to the original topic, do most people who miss Mass realize exactly how serious it is? I don’t think so, if they did, they’d get off their butt and go. Does missing Mass still constitute grave matter and thereby have the POTENTIAL to be a mortal sin? Absolutely.
I hope that helps you understand better the depth and wisdom of the Church in articulating it’s teaching on grave matter, knowledge, consent of the will and mortal sin.
