Was it a Mortal Sin - quick responses appreciated

[identifyasCatholic]

I have this problem again where I become very cautious of avoiding lust. So here it goes I was looking at a screen and then one character from a show comes on who I never cared for before, but not my mind is saying how I noticed their attractiveness (They were attractive but it was not really supposed to be a problem) so that is going to cause me lust because I am very prone to it- or that i have trouble with bad images a lot (not exactly generated by me, more like they come intrusively) so i should stop looking at the screen. I thought whether this was an occasion of mortal sin WHILE i was looking at the screen . at the end of it, i didn’t lust. but now i think i’ve committed a grave sin because in the moment, i thought i was not avoiding occasion of mortal sin (which is also a mortal sin) and i went back to look at the screen again (no lust), i went back for enjoyment of the show- not person.

 

[Thom18]

The Catechism denotes three necessary conditions that need to be met for mortal sin to exist.

For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

Lust is serious matter, and you do have full knowledge, but probably not full consent. You should speak to your pastor and get his opinion.

 

[GladTidings]

I think you have a good heart. I used to have intrusive thoughts as well. Confession has helped me get past that. Follow the advice of the above posters and speak to your pastor, that’s one reason he is there.

One time I was looking through my kid’s phone and saw something on instagram. I looked again to make sure what I was seeing was really what I was seeing because it was a shocking form of pornography and I could not believe it was on my kid’s phone. At that time I believe I had not committed a mortal sin. Then I looked again. At that point I believe I had committed a mortal sin, so I took it to God in confession.

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

This is the only advice anyone should be giving him.

 

[otrrl]

If you have a problem with any program on tv, change the channel.

Consider, these images are a spiritual attack on you. Is there ANY tv program that is that important? I don’t think there are any programs that are that important to me. We each have free will to decide.

You have to decide yourself, on the spot. There isn’t time to call a priest every time a temptation comes along. EWTN radio priest JR says that as a priest he cannot decide if a penitent’s sin is a mortal sin, because there so many variables.

Scripture says that there is no temptation that is so strong that it cannot be escaped. You need to have an escape plan.