Sorry after confession

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svwc

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I went to confession today and confessed all my sins. However I had the intention of taking communion on Sunday and then copying hw (which would be a sin of lying).

Now that I realize it, this is a very selfish act. I no longer intend to cheat, but am I still in a state of sin for intending to cheat after I took communion?
 
and why not? I did not mean this in a challenging way, just wondering.
 
Because cheating on homework, even if you had done it, is not a mortal sin. I also don’t think that intending to do something like that is a mortal sin if you then decide not to. It seems you are probably scrupulous. I mean, so am I, so I understand completely.
 
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Ok, totally understand that. But at the time, I planned to just take communion and then commit the sin. Is this in itself a mortal sin?
 
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I just messaged you individually–you can respond on that if you saw it.
 
First of all, Catholics say we “receive” communion, not that we “take” communion. “Take” communion sounds Protstant to a lot of us.

Second of all, you were tempted to sin, but you didn’t actually commit the sin and have firmly decided not to commit the sin. So you didn’t sin. Thank God for guiding you away from the sin you were going to commit, and be at peace.

To put it another way, if I planned to go to Mass and receive communion today and then murder someone, but later decided I could not in good conscience commit that murder, I haven’t committed the sin of murder. I was tempted and I overcame temptation. No sin occurred.
 
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Please do not copy homework anymore, and please try to get out of the habit of deliberate, premeditated venial sin.

I think I am correct in saying that copying a single homework assignment, especially one that is fairly trivial when compared to your grade in total, does not rise to the level of mortal sin. But it is still wrong — a species of lie that says, in effect, “this is my work” when it isn’t. If you don’t know the material for your homework assignments, how are you going to know it at test time?

If you are having trouble learning the material, see your teacher and just say so. I have made enemies in my day because I wouldn’t let them copy my homework, I wouldn’t do their work for them, and I wouldn’t let them cheat off of me, but we must always do the right thing, even when other people don’t like it. I would like to see a world where, when students (beyond a certain age) don’t want to do the work anymore, don’t want to learn anymore, think school’s a joke, can be released from their school obligation, and go out into the world and see how they like working at jobs which require no education.

Stay in school and make the best grades you can make honestly. I say this both as a father and as an educator.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
The OP already said in the first post that he decided not to copy the homework and is no longer planning to do so.
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Thank you, I see what you are saying. However, if he had already resolved to copy the homework, then changed his mind, he still committed the sin when he resolved to do so. I know you know this, I am just clarifying this for the reader’s benefit. I also just assumed (and we know what happens when you “assume”) that he was in the habit of doing this. He might not be.

To the OP, relax, this does not seem to rise to the level of mortal sin — the matter is probably just too trivial. Plagiarizing a term paper, perhaps. Copying Friday’s math homework assignment, probably not.

ETA — Since this thread has been closed, I cannot answer anyone’s posts, but I would just note that, according to the OP, he wasn’t just “tempted”, he had resolved to commit the sin, and then changed his mind. For the sake of clarifying the discussion, sin begins in the will, and whether the act is carried out or not, is of secondary importance.

I hope the OP will not think I am “beating up on him” for something that, as sins go, is pretty tame. Many people cheat their way through school, even through university, and since our society rewards results and earning ability, over the means used to obtain those results and character development (upon which you cannot place a price), shaky academic credentials are just kind of “winked at” and regarded as being of little importance.
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
However, if he had already resolved to copy the homework, then changed his mind, he still committed the sin when he resolved to do so.
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No, he did not “commit the sin” by being tempted to do something that he did not follow through and do.

It’s not like "lust in your heart’ where you commit all the sins of fantasizing about sex with a person but do not actually do the act, or a crime of violence where you committed a sin of hating a person so much you wanted to beat them with a lead pipe but for some reason stopped short of doing so.
Those are acts involving thoughts and fantasies that are sinful in and of themselves. Cheating on homework is not the same type of act. You don’t commit cheating on homework in your heart.

He was tempted to cheat, but in the end didn’t, and thus committed no sinful act.
 
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Again, we have another young person bringing a question to the forum which properly needs to be brought to his/her priest and not the forum.
 
Correct, and the “venial sin” in this case would likely have been whatever the fault is that leads to the temptation to cheat, such as laziness in study, or anxiety over doing well on homework, or creating an occasion of sin by hanging around with bad companions who encourage you to cheat, etc.
 
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