Sin

[PeteZaHut]

From my understanding (please correct me if needed), the gravity of sins is measured by whom we sin against. Since God is infinite and every sin is a sin against God, then we, as finite beings, can never make up for our sins. This is why God incarnated himself to do it for us.

If this is so, how can there be a distinction between venial and mortal sins? It seems like a dumb question. Obviously, murder is more serious than petty theft, but I am having trouble wrapping my head around the whole thing.

 

[LilyM]

From my understanding (please correct me if needed), the gravity of sins is measured by whom we sin against. Since God is infinite and every sin is a sin against God, then we, as finite beings, can never make up for our sins. This is why God incarnated himself to do it for us.

If this is so, how can there be a distinction between venial and mortal sins? It seems like a dumb question. Obviously, murder is more serious than petty theft, but I am having trouble wrapping my head around the whole thing.

Even though all our sins, even the most minor, are offences against an infinite God, that is not to say that whom we offend is the ONLY factor determining the gravity of an offense.

If this were the case, stealing 5 cents from a child would be as grave as beating that child black and blue, and neither would probably be as grave as even stealing 5 cents from the President, let alone beating on him.

Part of the equation is the actual objective matter of the offense, and rightly the objective matter of stealing five cents is universally agreed to be much less serious than beating a person, whether child or President doesn’t matter

 

[Catholic_Dude]

From my understanding (please correct me if needed), the gravity of sins is measured by whom we sin against. Since God is infinite and every sin is a sin against God, then we, as finite beings, can never make up for our sins. This is why God incarnated himself to do it for us.

If this is so, how can there be a distinction between venial and mortal sins? It seems like a dumb question. Obviously, murder is more serious than petty theft, but I am having trouble wrapping my head around the whole thing.

The gravity of a sin is based on (a) the nature of the sin, and (2) the deliberateness of the sin.

Some sins of their nature have the power to kill the soul (mortal sins). But in every case, sin is an act of the will, you must chose to do it, and the ‘deliberateness’ with which one does it is what measures the ‘gravity’ of the sin. A sin that by nature (i.e. based on God’s eternal ‘classification’) is not mortal sin but venial cannot kill the soul even if acted on very deliberately (but there still is damage done in other less sever manners)

Example: If you are illegally racing down the road and hit someone, you’re guilt of hurting them but this guilt is not as high as it could be because it wasn’t your intention to hit them but you knew engaging in dangerous behavior could lead to such a thing. But if you went out driving with the express intention of hitting someone, that’s a very grave sin because you deliberately wanted to. Of course, if you’re driving your grandma to church and accidentally hit someone, that’s not a sin at all because you didn’t will (desire) it.

 

[Newsy]

1 John 5:16 says
“Suppose you see your brother or sister commit a sin. But that sin is not the kind that leads to death. Then you should pray for them. And God will give life to them. I’m talking about someone whose sin does not lead to death. But there is a sin that does lead to death.”.

There are two types of sin. Intentional sin is willfully choosing sin, i.e. Mortal Sin or sin that leads to death. Unintentional sin is something you probably don’t realize until later, i.e. venial sin or sin that does not lead to death.

 

[funion987]

Correct. We could never “make up for” our sins alone; for that we need sanctifying grace. However, the way that God helps us atone for venial and mortal sins is different based on what is appropriate for each.

For mortal sins, we have the sacrament of confession where we can ask Jesus to forgive us for deliberately acting against him. For venial sins, we can perform acts of charity or receive the Eucharist (CCC 1416), or be purged from them in purgatory.

So for both venial and mortal, Christ is there helping us, but in varying forms.

 

[Bookcat]

Mortal sins and venial sins are very different! (though both are sin and are to be avoided…)

One of the reasons why mortal sins are required to be confessed and absolved even if one has had the grace of perfect contrition.

Venial sins are very recommended to be confessed (at least some of them…) but are not “required”. They can be forgiven in many ways…via prayer etc. Hence too they are often called “daily sins” …needing daily forgiveness for which we can pray…“forgive us our trespasses…”