Quick mortal sin question....a little confused

[Celia]

So if you were about to commit a mortal sin and had already kind of started it but prayed and stopped committing the sin in the midst of it, is it still considered a mortal sin? Or do you have to complete the act/sin before it’s considered a sin?

 

[Genesis315]

I think you’re fine. A mortal sin is a conscious rebellion against God. It sounds to me like you were overwhelmed with temptation for a minute, maybe stumbled a little, asked God’s help, and overcame it. Doesn’t sound like conscious rebellion against God to me

It of course never hurts to confess venial sins if you haven’t been to confession in a while

 

[Celia]

Thanks, Genesis That’s pretty much exactly what happened…I went to confession this past Saturday, maybe that’s where the grace to stop the sin came from… I appreciate your response. :yup:

 

[Madia]

A sin becomes mortal once the person knows or believes it is grave matter and fully consents to do it anyway.

For example, if I was going to watch pornography but found out my VCR was broken, I would still have committed a mortal sin since I fully intended to watch pornography. If I started watching poronography then said to myself “What I am doing?” and realised the evil I was committing and shut it off, I would still have sinned mortally. If I intended to kill someone and when I saw them I thought to myself “I can’t go through with this” I would still have sinned mortally since I intended to kill that person. Of course, going through with killing that person would be an even greater sin.

Don’t figure just because you committed one mortal sin you should keep on committing them because you already deprived yourself of communion with God. For example, if you screwed up and viewed a pornographic image, don’t say to yourself “Well, I screwed up so I might as well view more pornography and then confess it all at Reconciliation.” This is what the devil wants you to do and also it is the sin of presumtion. It also indicates a lack of contrtion for the first mortal sin you committed.

 

[Celia]

Madia:

A sin becomes mortal once the person knows or believes it is grave matter and fully consents to do it anyway.

For example, if I was going to watch pornography but found out my VCR was broken, I would still have committed a mortal sin since I fully intended to watch pornography. If I started watching poronography then said to myself “What I am doing?” and realised the evil I was committing and shut it off, I would still have sinned mortally. If I intended to kill someone and when I saw them I thought to myself “I can’t go through with this” I would still have sinned mortally since I intended to kill that person. Of course, going through with killing that person would be an even greater sin.

Don’t figure just because you committed one mortal sin you should keep on committing them because you already deprived yourself of communion with God. For example, if you screwed up and viewed a pornographic image, don’t say to yourself “Well, I screwed up so I might as well view more pornography and then confess it all at Reconciliation.” This is what the devil wants you to do and also it is the sin of presumtion. It also indicates a lack of contrtion for the first mortal sin you committed.

Oh, no I would never think that! I have no intention of abusing the sacrament…that’s the last thing I would want to do. I wish I hadn’t started what I did, but I did (I don’t know why…slip in judgement I guess) and I stopped and asked the Lord to help me out to resist this sin. Immediately I stopped but I felt bad about the “damage already done” even though the sin wasn’t completed. It all happened in like a minute or two.

So now…after your answer…I’m confused again. I have a tendency toward scrupulosity and I now pretty much feel like the scum of the earth. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Patrick2340]

Well, when I have confessed to having started, but then having stopped midway in a mortal sin, my priest has always told me that this is still a mortal sin. However, my confessor also tells me that one gains many merits before God for having stopped during the commission of a mortal sin.

 

[Fergal]

You cannot half commit a mortal sin. Neither can you commit a half a mortal sin.

Sins are committed i.e. that sinful act is followed through to completion.

Madia, if a person suddenly realises that they should not be doing what they are doing, doesn’t that show that the act was being carried out without full knowledge? When full knowledge of what they were doing was realised, they stopped. No mortal culpability there.

Look, In order for a sin to be mortal, it must meet three conditions simultaneously:

• Mortal sin is a sin of grave matter
• Mortal sin is committed with full knowledge of the sinner
• Mortal sin is committed with deliberate consent of the sinner

This means that mortal sins cannot be done “accidentally.” A person who commits a mortal sin is one who knows that their sin is wrong, but still deliberately commits the sin anyway i.e. commits it in its entirety.

If you are unsure whether its mortal or not then its not because full knowledge is not present.

Celia, relax. Thank God that you came to realisation that what you were doing was sinful and decided to stop. Stopping takes a lot more will power than not starting it in the first place.

Of course confess it at your next confession and clear your conscience.

 

[Celia]

Thanks for your insights, Patrick and Fergal.

I did a little bit of looking around and really thinking about what was going on in my mind at the time of the, uh, incident. Basically, what I’ve come down to is that maybe I didn’t have full knowledge of the sin being a mortal sin. I was basically in the mindset of, “well, I can go this far but I if I don’t complete it then it’s not really a sin” I wasn’t fully convinced of that, and that feeling of “wait…that can’t be right” kind of increased and that’s when I stopped and prayed. So…I don’t know where this leaves me. I’m not trying to talk my way out of it, I promise just confused I guess.

I’m just worried about going to communion unworthily…I worry about that a lot.

sigh :whacky:

 

[Fergal]

Celia:

I’m just worried about going to communion unworthily…I worry about that a lot.

Same here Celia. Its our deep love of the presence of God that makes us worry about offending Him.

God Bless You!!

 

[Madia]

Madia, if a person suddenly realises that they should not be doing what they are doing, doesn’t that show that the act was being carried out without full knowledge?

What I was talking about was when someone is committing a mortal sin but in the course of it realise just how wrong what they are doing. For example, say I decide to rob a bank. When I go into the bank and hold up the teller I see the fear in their eyes. This makes me realise how wrong what I am doing and I don’t go through with the robbery. However, since I already knew robbing a bank was grave material (full knowledge) and chose to rob it anyway(full consent) I would be guilty of a mortal sin. The gravity would be lessened though since I didn’t complete the act.

Another example would be say I decided to look up pornography. I knew looking at pornography was gravely immoral yet I decided to do it anyway. However, while waiting for the computer to start and get connected to the internet, I had second thoughts and didn’t go through with it. Still, I would have committed a mortal sin the moment I consented to look at pornography since I knew it was grave matter.

I have a tendency toward scrupulosity and I now pretty much feel like the scum of the earth. Anyone have any thoughts?

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Even if we fall flat on our face and commit a mortal sin Jesus is always there waiting to pick us up. First make a perfect act of contrition. Second, trust in Jesus. Third, go to Reconciliation and confess what you have done.

Here’s a good reference for those with scrupulosity:
mission.liguori.org/newsletters/scrupulosity.htm

If you know you committed a mortal sin then ignore #2 for now.

 

[Celia]

Madia, good article, thanks