Question from a scrupulous soul

[workinprogress]

I have a question. I know that not confessing all your mortal sins that you can remember and then going to Holy Communion is a sacrilege on top of a mortal sin. However, if you commit a mortal sin during the week but forget if you met the criteria for one by mass time, wouldn’t you be committing a sacrilege on top of a mortal sin without realizing it–though it might not get you off the hook since you did commit a mortal sin that week?
Thanks!

 

[JimG]

Wow, that sounds kind of convoluted. How can you commit a mortal sin (presuming you met all the conditions) and then forget whether you met all the conditions later in the week??

If you are not sure that you committed a mortal sin, I’m guessing you did not meet all the conditions.

JimG

 

[Mary]

A mortal sin requires the following conditions:

1. Involves a grave matter
2. Sufficient reflection and knowledge of its sinfulness
3. Freely consenting to it.

A mortal sin would weigh heavily on the heart of a vigilant Catholic, such as yourself (I assume you are because of your scrupulosity…) and you wouldn’t forget about it easily. Remember too it has to involve a grave matter. Not that I’m trying to get people out of taking sins seriously, they’re all serious, but receiving the Body and Blood of Christ can provide amazing graces to deal with venial sins that may still ‘tarnish your soul’…

Oh- and I always wrap up confessing my sins with ‘for these and all my sins that I may not have remembered, I am truly sorry’… just to cover the ground… if I do remember ‘forgotten sins’ later, I confess them afterwards!

 

[baltobetsy]

work(name removed by moderator)rogress:

wouldn’t you be committing a sacrilege on top of a mortal sin without realizing it

Remember this forever: You can never commit a sacrilege or any other kind of sin without realizing it. Ever. Ever. Ever.

You can commit an evil action without knowing that it is evil, but that is not a sin, because you lack knowledge. It does not become a sin later when you learn that it is evil. What matters is what you knew when you committed the action. If you learn that it is evil and then do it again, that’s a sin.

In the case that you mentioned, if you sincerely forgot that you had committed a mortal sin earlier in the week, and then received Communion, it would not be an additional sin of sacrilege because you would lack both knowledge and consent.

Your original question implied that you were not sure if you had met the requirements for mortal sin. Let’s talk about conscience. Conscience can tell you one of three things: an action is right and lawful, an action is wrong and unlawful, or “I don’t know.” The first two constitute a certain conscience, and you have an absolute obligation to follow the dictates of a certain conscience. (A whole other issue is your obligation to form your conscience correctly, according to the Commandments and the mind of the Church, but we’ll leave that alone for now.) The third possibility (“I don’t know”) is called a dubious conscience. If at all possible, one should not act on a dubious conscience, but wait until a determination can be made about the lawfulness of the act in question. To do otherwise would expose an attitude of willingness to commit a sin, even though we’re not sure about the sinfulness of the act. This is not generous with regard to the will of God, and not how we should act. If it is absolutely necessary to act with a dubious conscience, one should choose the option on the side of charity, rather than the side of self-love - the side opposite to one’s passions. This is generally the safer course. (Material on dubious conscience taken from The Principles of Natural Law, by Burlamaqui).

To relate this to the original question, if you were not sure whether you had actually committed a mortal sin earlier in the week, and you wondered whether you should receive Communion, you probably should not, because you don’t want to be willing to commit a sin of sacrilege. This applies to people who are not dealing with scrupulosity, under the care and direction of their confessors. Those people should always obey, even if what they are told to do “feels” wrong. See this thread for the kind of advice you will receive in this situation. It seems counter-intuitive, but obedience is always the best course of action in the case of true scrupulosity.

Betsy

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

There is a great little newsletter called Scrupulous Anonymous. I highly recommend it. Father Corapi teaches his classes to fight scrupulous thoughts like you would a temptation to sin.

God bless you
Deacon Tony SFO

 

[workinprogress]

Thanks for your generous and thoughtful answers. Just to be sure I was not misunderstood, I was wondering if, having fulfilled all the requirements for a mortal sin earlier in the week, I go to mass not sure (possibly due to not wanting to look strange if with family, really feeling you could use the benefits of the Eucharist,etc.) of whether I really fulfilled the requirements but receiving it for the benefit of the doubt. Well, if I actually did commit a mortal sin, remember it or not, I’d still be not in a state of grace, thus officially committing a sacrilege upon reception of Jesus. God may have mercy on me and overlook it on my day of death, but that cannot be presumed.
Of course, if I went to confession, that would be included but, in this case, I would have not gone not being sure if I really had committed a mortal sin. You can’t have forgotten mortal sins absolved by merely forgetting or undermining your memory from the flesh saying “Go ahead” when your conscience says “Beware”. I could go with the advice that I stick with my conscience, but I could be mistaking my conscience for Satan’s wish whispered into my ear (using poetic license since I don’t hear voices) that I don’t receive Jesus into me when I really could (that is, if I truly did not commit a mortal sin after all)

BTW I did buy Fr. Santa’s book but I don’t think that was covered. Thanks again!
Phil

 

[baltobetsy]

Nothing says you must have mortal sins on your soul in order to go to Confession. If you have the opportunity, and you’re not sure if what you have done is a mortal sin, GO and make sure you’re forgiven.
work(name removed by moderator)rogress:

Well, if I actually did commit a mortal sin, remember it or not, I’d still be not in a state of grace, thus officially committing a sacrilege upon reception of Jesus. God may have mercy on me and overlook it on my day of death, but that cannot be presumed.

If you did not remember it (sincerely - not pretending to forget), you lack one of the three conditions necessary for sin - knowledge. Lacking knowledge, there is no sin. Actually you are making a sophisticated distinction - that of material sin and formal sin. Material sin means actually doing something wrong, which would include the case of receiving Communion after committing a mortal sin. It does not include knowledge and consent (which are lacking when you forget), and therefore you are not culpable. Formal sin means doing something wrong with knowledge and consent, and you are culpable. On the day of your death, God will hold you accountable for formal sins, not material sins. So you would not be presuming, but certain that you are not responsible.

Betsy

 

[jmm08]

work(name removed by moderator)rogress:

…I know that not confessing all your mortal sins that you can remember and then going to Holy Communion is a sacrilege on top of a mortal sin. …

I’m Baptist going into RCIA / RCIC. I think I understand scrupulous.

Is that true that I need to confess all my mortal sins in my first confession (which won’t be until lent I suppose – and could theoretically be later)? I figure a list of mortal sins could be quite long. Should I start making notes and going over them? So I won’t forget some of them? I can’t think my first confession would be less than an hour, especially if the Priest has to say something regarding each sin.

 

[workinprogress]

If it’s a really long list, perhaps a private confession would be best. There are books you can get, but a priest could help you think of things.

 

[workinprogress]

What I mean by private is like…not shortly before mass with a long line behind you (better yer…as an appointment). The priest would probably like to guide you along and give you a fruitful counseling about those sins so as to help you do better and you both may run out of time.

 

[Pug]

jmm08:

Is that true that I need to confess all my mortal sins in my first confession

Yes, you must confess all your mortal sins done since your baptism. (I’m assuming you are baptized already). If you forget to confess any, they are still forgiven, but if you later remember it, then mention it in your next confession. Don’t say half of your mortal sins in your first confession and the other half in your second. Get them all in one go. Never omit a mortal sin in a confession. List them all.

Don’t focus so much on your sins that you become discouraged or anything. But for your first confession, you may have to spend some time thinking about your list. Your RCIA class will probably give you a booklet with a list to look at to help yourself to know what you need to confess. It is okay if the list is very long, but remember, you don’t have to confess each time you, say lied, as a separate thing. What you do is you say you lied 50 times or give some other indication of how many times. If you several types of lies, separate them out by type and number or by how frequently. Take a paper list into confession. I usually do that, then tear it up (really tiny pieces!).

The priest probably will not comment on them all. He may pick up a theme or talk about the biggies. Make an appointment to see the priest and say it is a first confession covering how many years. He will help you out. By the way, your RCIA class may arrange a schedule for this very thing.