Question of love

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sanz91392

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I have been reading some of the posts here. I ran across one about first cousins that wanted to know if it was OK for them to marry.

This brought to mind a close friend of my wife and mine and his sister. In fact he and his sister were treated as family by my family as we grew up after they moved next door.

The two had a difficult family life. An often absent father, worked two full time jobs and was home only to sleep, eat, shower and change and very controlling and demanding mother.

This is what I know and my wife later found out also. Before I knew them they lived next door to a girl a few years older then them. She was kind of wild and showed them how to play doctor and fool around we each other, all three of them.

This went on for about a year or maybe a little over. It did mess them up. I found out that when they entered their early teens he and his sister almost went all the way.

Luckily all they did was see each other nude, did a little touching and kissed before they stopped them selves. They both, being Catholic, confessed what had happened.

However, as I said before the damage was already done. My friend told me that he had strong feelings for his sister. She in turn would and to this day dislikes any females that he likes and goes out with.

To the extent that neither has married, though his sister did adopt a boy that is now married and has a family of his own.

My wife when she met them right away told me that the way his sister talked. She could tell that she was jealous of any female he liked because she was in love with him.

I knowing both thought that she had moved on and thats why she adopted her son. My question is. Though they have never done or acted on their feelings since they were young, are they sining by being in love with each other?
 
Though they have never done or acted on their feelings since they were young, are they sining by being in love with each other?
Well, it’s not really love though, is it? It’s the result of a terrible sin and a brokeness they both have. If these two people make through life without harming anyone else with this, without making a marriage with someone they can’t bond with appropriately or abusing someone as they were, then I see it as heroic, in a way. But terribly sad. But sin? I don’t see sin here.
 
Loving God please now heal this man and woman of what has held them captive all these years. Holy Spirit I ask Your powerful intercession for their healing and a wholesome relationship with each other and other persons.
 
I have been reading some of the posts here. I ran across one about first cousins that wanted to know if it was OK for them to marry.

This brought to mind a close friend of my wife and mine and his sister. In fact he and his sister were treated as family by my family as we grew up after they moved next door.

The two had a difficult family life. An often absent father, worked two full time jobs and was home only to sleep, eat, shower and change and very controlling and demanding mother.

This is what I know and my wife later found out also. Before I knew them they lived next door to a girl a few years older then them. She was kind of wild and showed them how to play doctor and fool around we each other, all three of them.

This went on for about a year or maybe a little over. It did mess them up. I found out that when they entered their early teens he and his sister almost went all the way.

Luckily all they did was see each other nude, did a little touching and kissed before they stopped them selves. They both, being Catholic, confessed what had happened.

However, as I said before the damage was already done. My friend told me that he had strong feelings for his sister. She in turn would and to this day dislikes any females that he likes and goes out with.

To the extent that neither has married, though his sister did adopt a boy that is now married and has a family of his own.

My wife when she met them right away told me that the way his sister talked. She could tell that she was jealous of any female he liked because she was in love with him.

I knowing both thought that she had moved on and thats why she adopted her son. My question is. Though they have never done or acted on their feelings since they were young, are they sining by being in love with each other?
Therapy would probably help her
 
No, if what they are doing is only love. There is no sin in loving someone else - love is a feeling. The sin comes in what we do because of that feeling.

The feeling of love turns to sin when we lust, when we give in to temptation, when we embrace scandal. It can also lead to the virtues of chastity, of self-control, of repentance, of forgiveness.

Your friends will be in my prayers and they should seek counseling and spiritual direction before their “love” takes them any further.
 
Love is not a feeling, it is an act of the will, it is to will good to someone, want to please them, and want what is best for them. and in this case, what is best may be separate homes.
but to answer your question, “are they sinning by being in love with each other?” that depends on what kind of “love” it is, is it a normal love between brother and sister? or an intimate love like between couples or spouses? or infatuation?(which is not love at all), or something else? that’s an important question, because if they are a temptation to each other, then they should not be living together, as that would be an occasion of sin, which we are obliged, within reason, to avoid.
but this is really something that should be discussed with a priest, and as someone else said, a therapist may be a good idea, provided it’s a good Catholic one, since there are many therapists who will tell people what they do sexually is fine and even recommend fornication and whatnot…so i’d just be very careful with that.

but to answer your question plain and simple, whatever feelings they have for each other, it does not become sinful unless they willfully consent to those feelings either in act, thought, or desire.

hope this helps, take care.
 
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