Agnus_Dei:
I understand where you are coming from
but i believe that everyone here who has commited a mortal sin can understand my next point
masturbating with full consent may be an act of disobediance to God
but how is it openly rejecting him
every sin, mortal or venial, is a act of disobediance to god
buth during even mortal sins
Ah, it seems you equate sin with disobedience and thus the trouble with understanding the difference between mortal and venial.
Let’s just look at disobedience…
we love our parents…we show our respect and reverence by obeying them (trusting them)…
When we decide not to obey one of their rules does that mean we don’t love them anymore?
Yes.
But you would argue, no way. I love them, I just don’t agree with their rule.
With God, and with our parents, it doesn’t work that way.
The key here is ‘trust’.
When we have loving, responsible parents we can trust completely that what they ask of us is for our best interest, not their own, and so we obey even though we may not agree.
Same with God…
Now we know without a doubt He loves us completely.
We know without a doubt He wants the absolute best for us.
But we have such a difficult time truly trusting Him in **all **matters of our lives…
and so we find ourselve nit-picking His commandments…
we love God completely, but we don’t like that commandment of adultery…certainly I can masturbate and still love God completely…
Wrong.
He has made it very, very clear
if we love Him we will keep His commandments.
We have to absolutely trust that when He says adultery is a ‘grave and serious’ offense against Him, He means it.
We rationalize all the time and that’s what gets us into trouble.
Whether or not
you believe masturbation is worth eternal damnation is not relevant. The only thing you need to know and accept is God’s own words on the matter. He cannot lie for He
is Truth, so quit beating yourself up trying to make sense of something and start just accepting the Truth already.
Have you ever heard about “fear of the Lord”? Well overcoming masturbation and a whole slew of other sins are where that phrase can really be of assistance in keeping you from ‘giving into’ those temptations.
Why hunt around for a ‘church’ which tells you what you want to hear? That it’s ok to masturbate, it’s ok to abort, it’s ok to contracept, it’s ok to divorce and remarry when scripture shows God and Jesus never held those positions? These churches are lying to you. They want your membership so much they’re willing to tell you whatever you want to hear.
But the Catholic church loves you so much that she is willing to risk losing you because she tells you the Truth yet you are not ready to live it. Jesus asks us if we really want to be with Him. He tells us that if we do it is a narrow path and a difficult road. The fact that the Catholic church continues to say the same thing God and Jesus said 2000+ years ago while the other churches do not is evidence that she is the True Church. Her Way (Jesus’ Way) is narrow and hard especially in this culture of ours.
Back to mortal/venial “disobedience”, it’s rather simple…some ''rules" we choose to break in life can be fatal or not. Drinking and driving can be fatal for us or for someone else we strike. Disregarding the sign on a ledge which says “do not lean against the railing” can end up fatal when we lose our balance or the rail breaks. Bottom line, we decide whether or not to obey the rule. The consequences are quite clear, but we gamble on them. Sometimes you have the blessing of making it to reconciliation after committing sin. One of these times, you may not (per your example - what if). Is eternal damnation truly worth the risk of a moment’s pleasure in this lifetime?
The 10 commandments are non-negotiable. To knowingly
and willingly break them especially now that you’ve read so posts making it clear it’s a no-no is grave matter indeed, should you choose to disregard our warnings. You don’t have to agree with us or the church, you don’t even have to believe us. The fact is you now know the Truth, so please, resist temptation…pray fervently whenever it is present…and trust in God’s mercy and love for you. Your guardian angel will sustain you. You do not need to be afraid so long as you are confident in your love for God. For if you truly love Him you’d never want to do anything which would offend Him. And trust us, masturbating offends Him.
