Paranoiac about sins (especially mortal sins),

[MojeIme1981]

In my thread about admiration for the Amish community (link) I tried to express how I feel about my everyday routine. I.e. The feel that through my ordinary job (Building automation), in my ordinary country (in Europe), with an ordinary free-market economy, with my ordinary family, I am bound to many sins of nations, and now that I realize that I am consciously involved in injustice, children dying of hunger, poverty of third world countries, the rich-poor gap within my country, all this makes them mortal sins for me. Or if not, who defines that?

So recently as I intended to fully restore my Catholic faith, also the topic of mortal sin came in front of me. And guess what. Now I am not sure any more what good can bring me a confession, because the very next thing after the Mass I will go back in to the world and be part of the injustice again . The question here is not, whether I am involved in injustice or not. That for sure I am. The question here is how can I properly be in peace with God? A confession will not last long, it brakes up as soon I leave the Church and go back into the world.
The doctrine of mortal sin could easily put me in the position to live in constant paranoiac fear. And that I think should not be the purpose of our Church. :nope:

Now I admit, my question is kind of questioning the usefulness of Confession and therefore questioning the infallibility of Catholic fait. But it is in no way a try to escape to a different Christian denomination, because from the 30000+ ones I have no idea which one to pick . It is just that I am not sure that mortal sin is defined properly, because as it is defined now, it makes me pretty much paranoiac

 

[MountainMan]

Mojel -

If I understand your position and your question, you are worried that your success and involvement in a modern economy is in and of itself an act that is mortally sinful. Assuming that my interpretation is correct, I believe you are misinterpreting the Church’s definition of mortal sin, which MUST include intent. As I understand, you clearly have no intention of abandoning the Lord or your fellow man, which eliminates the possibility that your work and/or your possessions are acts of mortal sin - see today’s readings and the reflection on the following web site, which addresses the issue of possessions: creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html

Go to the “Daily Reflections” page for today. I think you will find it helpful (again, assuming I am understanding you dilemma correctly) -

Chuck

 

[MojeIme1981]

If I understand your position and your question, you are worried that your success and involvement in a modern economy is in and of itself an act that is mortally sinful.

You understood me correct. Your interpretation is pretty much what I wanted to say.

…which MUST include intent…

Of course it is not my intention to participate in the injustice. But eventually through our economy I do it anyway. So I implicitly it might be interpreted as it is my intention. However, now that you have highlighted this “intention” thing, it opens some new sight to, so I’ll check the link…