Venial Sin related to Mortal Sin

[EasterJoy]

This is really the problem. The will is not the desire or anything similar to that. It is the “I am going to do X now.” Just because a man is pointing a gun at me and telling me to walk, that doesn’t mean that my will is not free. My personal will is free. I am presented with the choice of how to use it - to accept death or to obey the gunman - but the will is free. The will ceases to be free only when the human mind is so distressed by duress that it cannot function properly or evaluate rationally.

OK, I don’t disagree with any of this. But the catechism is pretty clear that it isn’t an either/or: that is, when a grave matter is concerned, the person doing is either committing a mortal sin or not sinning at all. That isn’t what the Church teaches.

This is not to say that one can afford to be cavalier about what consititutes consent. “Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart,” says the catechism, “do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.” (CCC: 1859)

Also, the seriousness of venial sin should not be discounted, for a habit of venial sin also disposes the soul towards both vice and mortal sin.

I also have a bit of a problem with the concept of meriting the high or low rent district in hell. Total and eternal separation from God: what could be worse than that? What could mitigate its torment?