So easy to sin mortally

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Psalm30

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There are so many threads on here where people talk about how they fall out of a state of grace so easily and are frequently in a state of mortal sin. And the people who post on these threads appear to be God-fearing people who try to do right by God and the Church.

I’m trying to tread carefully while asking this question, but I am really genuinely curious… For everyone who believes it is so easy to commit mortal sin, I truly am curious about what these mortal sins are. What horrible things do God-fearing, church going people do on such a regular basis that they have to constantly worry they’ll end up in hell?

I mean, by the way some people talk, there’s very little hope of anyone getting to heaven.
 
I have to admit, I was thinking the exact same thing earlier today. I’ve only been a Catholic for two and a half years, and have done my best to remove sin from my life. Mortal sins don’t seem to be too hard to avoid. Maybe it’s my age at 63.
 
One word, Pornography. It’s the near occasion of sin right at your fingertips.
 
As himbleseeker said, porn is perhaps the worst offender. All it takes for an addict is one slip-up of voluntarily looking it up and you’re no longer in a state of grace. I’d assume masturbation and fornication are mortal sins young Catholics often struggle with as well.

Edit: I shouldn’t say young Catholics are the only ones strugging… The aforementioned mortal sins are prevalent among the under 40 crowd is all.
 
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Sins of the flesh (i.e., sexual sins) seem to be the easiest to fall into, the easiest to rationalize away, and when a habit is developed, the hardest ones to quit committing. Human nature inclines strongly towards them, they hold forth an apparent “good” that can blind one to higher truth. Society more or less expects them, and once they are begun within a relationship, they are hard to repudiate and break with, in that they have an element of love that goes along with them.

They are not the worst sins, but any deliberate sexual act outside of marriage, as well as any deliberate sexual act within marriage that is purposely removed from the possibility of procreation, however remote, is an objectively mortal sin, given sufficient reflection/knowledge and full consent of the will.

I don’t think it’s going out on too much of a limb to say that if a faithful Catholic will remove sexual sin from their life, staying out of mortal sin otherwise is pretty much of a cakewalk. Not many people find themselves seized with a raging desire to steal large amounts of money or goods, tell lies where serious matter is involved, practice gross acts of uncharity, or deny doctrines of the faith.
 
All it takes for an addict is one slip-up of voluntarily looking it up and you’re no longer in a state of grace
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While we do live in an age where it is harder to avoid pornography than ever before, I do caution that some things due reduce culpability. Someone addicted to pornography or any drug for that matter would have reduced culpability since they would lack a completely free will and as a result of a formed vice. This isn’t to say that drug/pornography use is any less grave. It is grave matter. However there are more “prongs” for a sin to kill the grace within us such as sufficient knowledge of the sinful nature of an act and its gravity, AND a complete and deliberate consent.

I know some theologians debate whether mortal sins are common or rare. Since I’m not a theologian, I won’t comment on that debate. The only thing I can say on the matter is that we should always strive to grow in love for God and by virtue of this, each other. If we do believe that we committed a mortal sin, we have a beautiful gift in the sacrament of Reconciliation. And this gift is so great, it allows us to be forgiven of all our sins! God is good! 😃
 
The devil knows our weakness.
And hits us with it as hard and often as possible.
For some, it is porn.
For others, theft.
Others, lust.
Others averice.

God has provided a guardian angel to help us.
Do not doubt the temptations the devil makes just for you.
 
Convert3 said:
I have to admit, I was thinking the exact same thing earlier today. I’ve only been a Catholic for two and a half years, and have done my best to remove sin from my life. Mortal sins don’t seem to be too hard to avoid. Maybe it’s my age at 63.
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I think age has a lot to do with it. When I was 22, it would have been hard for me to remove all sexual mortal sin from my life. Now that I’m in my 50s and a widow, it’s not that hard. Sex and dating and romantic relationships simply aren’t the driving force in my life any more and I don’t want them to be, as I feel like I wasted too much of my life on that stuff already, and that I enjoyed life more when I was a kid pre-puberty and didn’t feel like my hormones were in a constant battle with my logical mind.

I still have plenty of sins and faults to work on, but few of them involve any grave matter.

I do worry sometimes when I feel I am too proud, too focused on earthly things, or lacking in charity towards others. Sometimes I think people just overlook the seriousness of those types of sins because they’re focusing on obvious things like lust, porn, stealing, violence etc.
 
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Psalm30 said:
There are so many threads on here where people talk about how they fall out of a state of grace so easily and are frequently in a state of mortal sin. And the people who post on these threads appear to be God-fearing people who try to do right by God and the Church.

I’m trying to tread carefully while asking this question, but I am really genuinely curious… For everyone who believes it is so easy to commit mortal sin, I truly am curious about what these mortal sins are. What horrible things do God-fearing, church going people do on such a regular basis that they have to constantly worry they’ll end up in hell?

I mean, by the way some people talk, there’s very little hope of anyone getting to heaven.
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Scripture is clear and even lists sins that are mortal.

Example: (not meant to be a complete list by any means)

Gal 5:10-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality 20 idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy ange, selfishness, dissension , party spirit, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Does that consequence (not going to heaven) describe venial sin or mortal sin?
 
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I think after sins of the flesh not calling sin a sin is a big problem in the modern Church. Christ gave us the Spiritual Works of Mercy for a reason but it seems the ‘spirit’ of Vatican II has devalued them.
 
Some people are easily angered (road rage, seeing terrible evils in the news, loud music from the neighbor’s) , some easily succumb to lust, some are prone to jealousy and envy and so on. People have their weaknesses and their strengths and most don’t start out saints.
 
There is a sustantially higher percentage of members here with anxiety/OCD/scrupulosity than in the general public. So, the percentage of such posts we see is inflated.
 
To which one could add that a number, if not the majority, of the posts appear to be written by teenagers and/or very young adults.
 
… “”“There are so many threads on here where people talk about how they fall out of a state of grace so easily and are frequently in a state of mortal sin…For everyone who believes it is so easy to commit mortal sin, I truly am curious about what these mortal sins are…What horrible things do God-fearing, church going people do on such a regular basis that they have to constantly worry they’ll end up in hell?..I mean, by the way some people talk, there’s very little hope of anyone getting to heaven.”""

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Excellent Question - which in turn IMO contains a few questionable assumptions…

IMHO - I don’t think that your average person - has committed a 3-Conditioned Mortal Sin.

In the past, many actions were labelled Mortal Sins… Let’s look closer at that understanding; especially at the Third (and necessary) Condition…

Whereas it’s somewhat easy to fulfill the first and sometimes second (of the three) Conditions necessary for a sin to be a full-blown Mortal Sin… one must consider what the third condition is… before accepting that a person would be on their way to Hell unless they Repent ( yes, repentance removes the Sin - aka leading to Forgiveness.

Excerpt from An excellent Article on this question -
  1. Mortal sin is a sin of grave matter
  2. Mortal sin is committed with full knowledge of the sinner
  3. 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. This means that mortal sins are “premeditated” by the sinner and thus are truly a rejection of God’s law and love.
FULL ARTICLE which Answers Many if not all Questions.

WHAT IS A MORTAL SIN?
http://www.saintaquinas.com/mortal_sin.html
 
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CathoRick said:
As himbleseeker said, porn is perhaps the worst offender.
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The worst offender?

The trouble is that when we label one sin as worse than another, we give justification for that “other sin”; the one, we self-righteously proclaim we are glad we are not guilty of.

But, like James reminds us (James 2:10):

“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”

So, yes, it is easy to sin mortally, but thankfully through the mercy, and grace of God flowing from the Sacraments, sin whether mortal or venial does not come with a certain Death Sentence.

Rejoice!
 
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DIERM said:
The trouble is that when we label one sin as worse than another, we give justification for that “other sin”; the one, we self-righteously proclaim we are glad we are not guilty of.
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I didn’t read that as one sin being worse than another. I think the post intended to mean that pornography is so easily available to people now and the generally loosened morals in society lead more people to sin than anything else.
 
It is not easy to commit a mortal sin. The act may be easy but you also have to have full knowledge and full consent of the will. St Paul said I do things I don’t want todo and I don’t do things I want to do.

Most.Catholics confess sins that are grievous matter out of an abundance of caution because they are afraid to do the hard mental work to declare themselves innocent of mortal sin.

What does full knowledge mean. I think to understand your action will completely cut yourself off from God and really want to do that.
 
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