Typical venial sin could be mortal?

[Vittorio23]

I was discussing this with my youth group last week but we never came to a concise conclusion on the matter… I remember being told once that if you commit a sin, even if it is considered venial, with complete and full knowledge that it is sin and that you understand the consequences of the sin, yet you commit the sin anyways- it automatically is then considered a mortal sin. Is this correct with Church teachings?

 

[Flopfoot]

No, there are 3 conditions for a sin to be mortal. You mentioned 2 of them - full knowledge and full consent - but the other condition is that it must be a grave matter. Deliberately driving 56 in a 55 zone when you know that 55 is the speed limit is not going to get you sent to hell even if it’s unrepented. Murdering someone on purpose when you know it is wrong will get you sent to hell if unrepented.

 

[baltobetsy]

Vittorio, the key to recognizing the error in your original post is the word “automatically.” The relationship of the soul and God is intimate and personal and there is nothing automatic about it. God knows your heart and your intentions and cannot be fooled, even though we can sometimes fool ourselves. He knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us more than we can love ourselves.

He sees the reality of every situation and is ready to plunge us into the ocean of His mercy at the slightest sign of repentance. We need only be honest and sorry.

What you may be thinking of is that sometimes an action that is not normally defined as grave matter can be a mortal sin for a person who is convinced that the action is seriously sinful. Let’s make an analogy to illustrate. Suppose there is a person whom you wish to harm, and you believe he has a certain food allergy. You cook a dish and include the allergen among the ingredients. You are surprised when the person does not become ill after eating it, because he is not actually allergic to the item. Wouldn’t you expect the relationship to be seriously damaged if the person knew what you had done?

The same thing happens with our belief about the sinfulness of our actions. To use the example in the post above, if you sincerely believed that driving 56 mph in a 55 mph zone was a mortal sin, and you did it anyway, you would be guilty of mortal sin. You were willing to do what you thought to be mortally sinful. God sees that in your heart and is offended just as He would be about a real, objective sin.

This is the flip side of ignorance excusing some things that are sins. If you are really, honestly misinformed about the seriousness of an action - if you truly believe it is not a sin, then, for you, it is not. And if you find out later on that the action is sinful, it does not retroactively become a sin. However, you must not do the action again, now that you know its sinfulness.

The key is honesty. God knows all, and it does no good to fool ourselves.

Betsy

 

[Mark_Robert]

I guess that would depend on the intent behind the venial sin. If you’re committing it out of malice against God (to hurt Him), then the venial sin would, in fact, constitute a mortal sin of malice and hatred against God.
Remember that a mortal sin requires three elements to be serious. First, the offense itself has to be grave in nature such as murder for example. Second, you must be cognisant of the sin’s gravity according to a well-informed conscience.( Ignorance of the moral law is not an excuse if you have the opportunity to form your conscience according to the dictates of the Church and fail to do so out of laziness, apathy or aversion to spiritual things.) Third, you must give full consent of the will to violate God’s law in a grave matter. If the sin is lacking in any one requirement, it is venial no matter how premeditated. However, as previously mentioned, if the intent to commit the venial sin bears grave matter (defiance against God for example) then the intent itself would constitute mortal sin.

 

[Vittorio23]

Okay, that makes sense then. I was just missing the Grave matter and thinking only of the other two requirements. Thanks.