Planning to sin - receive communion?

  • Thread starter Thread starter hyacinth
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hyacinth

Guest
If you have tentative plans to sin mortally—for example, you’re going to a bachelorette party and wanting to get drunk, even though you might not get drunk in the end—should you abstain from communion? In other words, is it a mortal sin to receive communion if you have not yet committed a mortal sin but are planning on it?
 
If you had to give your plans for the day to Jesus every time you received Him in the Eucharist, what would you say that time?

“I receive you Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity now, Lord, and then I’m going to a party and getting drunk”
 
Sin can happen before the actual sinful act is carried out.

As soon as you decide that you’re going to get drunk, provided the other conditions for mortal sin are present, you’ve sinned mortally.
 
“Hey God, I’m gonna destroy my relationship with you at 8 pm sharp tonight, but I just wanted to get one last Holy Communion in first and I hope we can still be friends because I’m planning to confess my mortal sin next Saturday and then we’ll all be buddies again.”

Seriously, no. Just no.

Also, I’m not sure that getting drunk at a party constitutes a mortal sin. I guess it depends on how drunk you get and whether you do something else sinful when drunk, like drive drunk or commit illicit acts with a Chippendales dancer.
 
Part of the requirement for a sin to be mortal is that one fully knows and ACCEPTS the fact they are mortally sinning. Why would they want to sin in the first place? One should not sin just because “it’s cool/fun/interesting/different” (in reality stupid). Don’t abuse forgiveness, we don’t deserve it, but God has granted us this great gift because he loves us. Hope that helps, and may God bless you.
 
Last edited:
Tis_Bearself said:
Also, I’m not sure that getting drunk at a party constitutes a mortal sin. I guess it depends on how drunk you get and whether you do something else sinful when drunk, like drive drunk or commit illicit acts with a Chippendales dancer.
Click to expand...
So just getting drunk is not a sin in itself?
 
I can’t tell you whether it’s a sin or not for you. It depends on many factors including the occasion, whether the person drinks/ gets drunk often, whether the person commits other sins when drunk, whether the person is of legal drinking age, whether the person or their parents or other people in the family have an alcohol problem, whether the person plans to drink in a safe environment where she will not endanger herself or others, how drunk she plans to get, etc.

There’s a big difference between my relatives getting tipsy once a year at a family wedding and a bunch of people under legal drinking age going out to a bar and getting wasted every weekend using fake IDs.

If you are wondering about the sinfulness of your behavior, go ask a priest.
 
Last edited:
hyacinth said:
40.png
Tis_Bearself:
Also, I’m not sure that getting drunk at a party constitutes a mortal sin. I guess it depends on how drunk you get and whether you do something else sinful when drunk, like drive drunk or commit illicit acts with a Chippendales dancer.
Click to expand...
So just getting drunk is not a sin in itself?
Click to expand...
As Tis_Bearself said, plus you changed this from “mortal sin” to “sin”. There’s an important difference. 🙂

I don’t think there’s a firm definition of when drunkenness becomes a grave sin. All the factors Tis_Bearself mentioned would come into, but especially the amount of drink and level of intoxication.

I know Catholics who occasionally drink to the point of merriment, and don’t regard it as a sin at all, and others who drink beyond that, but still wouldn’t have necessarily committed a “mortal” sin. I would guess that stupification (say, a bottle of spirits in a night) is a grave sin, but less than that is a gray area.
 
Last edited:
I’ve been to quite a few weddings and other occasions where everyone got drunk, including the priest. I wasn’t aware it was considered a sin, although personally I don’t drink. Not on any moral basis, I just don;t like the taste of alcoholic drinks. Do you all think you are committing sins when you get drunk? Honest question.
 
The key is not getting drunk but drinking JUST enough to not throw up next morning or get hungover

And to remember your whole night of course
 
Last edited:
That’s a big part of it. There’s a big difference from being drunk and being drunk to the point loss of reason and memory.

Just don’t drink too much so that you lose control.
 
Sedona said:
I’ve been to quite a few weddings and other occasions where everyone got drunk, including the priest. I wasn’t aware it was considered a sin, although personally I don’t drink. Not on any moral basis, I just don;t like the taste of alcoholic drinks. Do you all think you are committing sins when you get drunk? Honest question.
Click to expand...
I’ve always thought it was a mortal sin because a friend said it was. So now I don’t know.

In college I would sometimes commit another sin when drunk, but now, if anything, I’ll lie about my name or age to whatever stranger I’m talking to. I don’t consider that a serious sin.
 
Back in the days when I was a lazy Protestant with rare churchgoing routine… I learned about the Lent from where?

40 Days and 40 Nights movie & it was not very appropriate obviously but I remembered how they mocked the idea of sexual chastity.
 
Do most people plan to commit mortal sins or do these actions just happen?
 
JackMcCoy said:
Do most people plan to commit mortal sins or do these actions just happen?
Click to expand...
I would think sometimes people plan hours, days, weeks, etc. in advance but for other times it’s a decision made right before committing the sin.
 
Sedona said:
Do you all think you are committing sins when you get drunk? Honest question.
Click to expand...
No. However, I never drank underage, drank very sparingly (we’re talking a couple of times a year) during most of my life, have always been very careful not to drive when drunk and to avoid any kind of “drunk hookup” sex, and didn’t have any sort of alcohol issues running in my family genetics.

As I got older, my preference has been to drink less, because I tend to think if one is drinking every week, one has a problem in their life (not necessarily alcohol problem, but some problem) and drinking is not a productive way of addressing it. When I do drink, I get quite happy, and feel that God gave us alcohol in order to give us a little preview of the much greater happiness we will have in his presence. I’ve probably drank about four times this year and only got drunk once, which I define as too drunk to drive but not too drunk to safely walk home alone (it was daylight and the occasion was my local craft beer festival which was held a few blocks away).

I really don’t see this type of occasional drinking as wrong and I did grow up in an area where the priests also drank right along with us parishioners. I am aware of two priests who developed alcohol problems there and had to be sent away, but the vast majority of them including our longtime pastor when I was a kid did not overimbibe or suffer ill effects.
 
Don’t forget that at the wedding at Cana Jesus changed the water into a large amount of wine. I think we can expect that was going to have an effect on those present, and they had already consumed a reasonable amount.

Here’s a good article by Catholic apologist Jim Blackburn of the issue of drinking, (in moderation and excess), in scripture.
 
I’ve had some periods in my life where I was drinking with friends like that a couple times a week.

It’s not a practical thing to keep up for the long term though. And one reason we were all doing that is that we all had some issues in our lives at that point, one of them being a really high-stress grad school curriculum we were all coping with, and in some cases some marital or relationship issues. Eventually we all moved on with our lives and didn’t have the impetus to be doing that regular drinking thing any more.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top