I’m basically saying that I don’t love God TOTALLY . . . at least not yet.
You seem to be saying that you do not want to follow God’s will in all things.
Now, I may not follow God’s will in all things but that is because I am weak, ignorant, careless, etc. Overall, I
want to follow God’s will in everything, but I mess up.
Do you see the difference between what you are saying and what I am saying?
- It could be that you notice yourself failing to do God’s will, sometimes deliberately, and have thus concluded that you apparently do not want to do God’s will.
- Or it may be that you are saying, “Forget this! I wanna do what I wanna do, and I do not care what God wants in this matter!”
If the first, then you are like the rest of us, weak, riddled with concupiscence, full of bad habits, etc,
but trying to do better. That is on the right path.
If the second, well, unfortunately, you are on the wrong path. It doesn’t matter that you want to put your will over God’s only in small things, because you attitude is that what you agree with you are willing to go along with, but what you don’t agree with, you will do your own thing.
It just so happens that you agree with God on the big stuff. But in these small areas, you are reserving for yourself what God wants and deserves to have.
I would say that the second, reserving to yourself the right to flout God’s will, even tho now expressed only in small things, is grave matter, the first of the 3 criteria for mortal sin. The other 2 are full knowledge and full consent.
If you fall into the second camp, then it is up to you to decide what you will do.
An explanation: a priest can not absolve a sin if there is no purpose of amendment. If a man confesses ongoing adultery but plans to keep his mistress, the priest cannot absolve that sin. Confession is to help us become better people, not feel less guilty about what sins we plan to continue to commit.
Here’s hoping you are in the first camp, or that if you are in the second, that you will decide to change for the New Year.