J
jyyzzoel
Guest
Hi everyone. I’ve been Catholic for a fair few years and been heavily into it. I’ve read a lot of books so I know a fair bit. However, the more I learn, the more the confused I am as to what the morally correct thing to do is - in any situation!
Let me explain with a few examples: I’ve read the Catechism. Basically it says in the Catechism that if someone commits a venial or mortal sin around you and you don’t pull them up on it, then you have more or less allowed it to occur/ or at least you have indirectly condoned it, and as a result you have also committed that venial/mortal sin with them.
The problem I have is that in today’s society, where if I take TV shows like “How I Met Your Mother” or “Family Guy” or even “The Simpsons”, as an example of the social situations I find myself in, I find myself recognising that in most situations conversation leads to topics of immodest behaviour. In normal life no one ever sits around and has “holy” conversations. As a result of the above piece from the Catechism I initially thought that I had to challenge anything anyone said and basically take the moral high ground in order to not pick up a sin.
Then I go to my priest and he says that it actually isn’t the best thing to do in a lot of situations. A lot of the time you should ignore it… but then… that goes against the Catechism.
Furthermore, if you look at the idea that it is only acceptable to kill someone if it is in self defence. The question for me then becomes, where does the line get drawn? Hypothetically, if I was living under an oppressive government, whose policies I believed would lead to me dying - would it be okay for me to assasinate the leader who implements these policies? It would obviously be to protect myself from dying - so that there is self-defence. But where is the line ever drawn? The commandments are very broad and abstract in some instances, which makes it hard to apply the rules and make the right choice in real life… and because I don’t know the right thing to do - I act without knowing whether my action is sinful or not (which is essentially sinful).
My point is that the more questions I ask about what the right thing to do is, the more I find it extremely difficult to figure out the answer. In most situations this leads to a sort of paralysis for me because in the Catechism it says that if you act in a situation without knowing whether the action you take is sinful or not - you’ve pretty much committed a sin - because of your willingness to act in ignorance. Because I don’t want to sin, I don’t act.
My question is what do I do? How do I come to know what the right thing to do is? I am extremely, extrmely confused - and rather than the thought of the Church and Jesus leading to peace, it leads me to become very stressed and anxious because I never know what the right thing to do is. How do I come to know what the right thing to do is?
Any suggestions would be really, really appreciated.
Let me explain with a few examples: I’ve read the Catechism. Basically it says in the Catechism that if someone commits a venial or mortal sin around you and you don’t pull them up on it, then you have more or less allowed it to occur/ or at least you have indirectly condoned it, and as a result you have also committed that venial/mortal sin with them.
The problem I have is that in today’s society, where if I take TV shows like “How I Met Your Mother” or “Family Guy” or even “The Simpsons”, as an example of the social situations I find myself in, I find myself recognising that in most situations conversation leads to topics of immodest behaviour. In normal life no one ever sits around and has “holy” conversations. As a result of the above piece from the Catechism I initially thought that I had to challenge anything anyone said and basically take the moral high ground in order to not pick up a sin.
Then I go to my priest and he says that it actually isn’t the best thing to do in a lot of situations. A lot of the time you should ignore it… but then… that goes against the Catechism.
Furthermore, if you look at the idea that it is only acceptable to kill someone if it is in self defence. The question for me then becomes, where does the line get drawn? Hypothetically, if I was living under an oppressive government, whose policies I believed would lead to me dying - would it be okay for me to assasinate the leader who implements these policies? It would obviously be to protect myself from dying - so that there is self-defence. But where is the line ever drawn? The commandments are very broad and abstract in some instances, which makes it hard to apply the rules and make the right choice in real life… and because I don’t know the right thing to do - I act without knowing whether my action is sinful or not (which is essentially sinful).
My point is that the more questions I ask about what the right thing to do is, the more I find it extremely difficult to figure out the answer. In most situations this leads to a sort of paralysis for me because in the Catechism it says that if you act in a situation without knowing whether the action you take is sinful or not - you’ve pretty much committed a sin - because of your willingness to act in ignorance. Because I don’t want to sin, I don’t act.
My question is what do I do? How do I come to know what the right thing to do is? I am extremely, extrmely confused - and rather than the thought of the Church and Jesus leading to peace, it leads me to become very stressed and anxious because I never know what the right thing to do is. How do I come to know what the right thing to do is?
Any suggestions would be really, really appreciated.
