Was This Sacrilege?

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ATeutonicKnight

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This happened many, many months ago, and I confessed it so I no longer worry about it, but basically, on Divine Mercy Sunday, my mother wanted me to go receive the Eucharist, so all of my sins would be forgiven. I did not want to go, as I was in Mortal sin, and I knew it wouldn’t work since I hadn’t even gone to confession, so even if I wasn’t in Mortal sin, all of my sins wouldn’t be forgiven anyway, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer, and made me receive the Eucharist against my will. Was this sacrilege? At the time I thought it was, but now that I’ve learned a little more about it, I’m not so sure. Does anyone know?

God bless you. :signofcross:
 
You need to talk to your priest, not random people on the internet who do not know your situation.
 
ATeutonicKnight said:
This happened many, many months ago, and I confessed it so I no longer worry about it, but basically, on Divine Mercy Sunday, my mother wanted me to go receive the Eucharist, so all of my sins would be forgiven. I did not want to go, as I was in Mortal sin, and I knew it wouldn’t work since I hadn’t even gone to confession, so even if I wasn’t in Mortal sin, all of my sins wouldn’t be forgiven anyway, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer, and made me receive the Eucharist against my will. Was this sacrilege? At the time I thought it was, but now that I’ve learned a little more about it, I’m not so sure. Does anyone know?

God bless you. :signofcross:
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When asking this type of question you must be prepared to accept the answers given. Were you in a state of mortal sin when you received communion on that occasion? If your answer is yes then it was a sacrilege and you committed a mortal sin.

How old are you? Why is your mother telling you to receive communion? Even if you are a minor parental obedience does not apply in circumstances like this. We are not obliged to obey our parents if they are telling us to do something that is a sin.
 
1ke said:
You need to talk to your priest, not random people on the internet who do not know your situation.
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As I said, it’s been confessed. I simply wanted to know for future reference.
 
Well… would your mother have taken it out on you if you didn’t receive the Eucharist?

Without full consent, no act can be a mortal sin. The thing I worry about is the fact that your mother shouldn’t force you to receive the Eucharist for any reason. I certainly would not do that to my children.
 
you have confessed it. be at peace now. for the future if you know that you are in a state that you can not receive the body and blood then simply don’t no matter what others thing or say. even you own parents.

i guess the best thing would of been to go up as if you are recieving and cross your arms putting each hand near your shoulders to show the priest that you can not recive at the moment and he would of given you a quick blessing.
 
jesus4ever said:
i guess the best thing would of been to go up as if you are recieving and cross your arms putting each hand near your shoulders to show the priest that you can not recive at the moment and he would of given you a quick blessing.
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Actually the best thing would have been to respectfully but firmly tell your mother “no.” and tell her that the two of you can talk to the priest after Mass and figure it out.

Blessings should never be given during communion.
 
TheMc said:
Yes, but the sacrilege was on your mother’s part, not yours. But still talk to a priest.
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I don’t believe that she committed sacrilege. I hadn’t gone for a few weeks and she wants me to go every week, so after I told her I wasn’t going to go she told me otherwise. She didn’t know I was in Mortal sin. She probably thought I wasn’t going because I didn’t want to go.
 
ATeutonicKnight said:
I don’t believe that she committed sacrilege. I hadn’t gone for a few weeks and she wants me to go every week, so after I told her I wasn’t going to go she told me otherwise. She didn’t know I was in Mortal sin. She probably thought I wasn’t going because I didn’t want to go.
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She still forced you against your will to recieve the Eucharist, something that is never acceptable
 
ATeutonicKnight said:
This happened many, many months ago, and I confessed it so I no longer worry about it, but basically, on Divine Mercy Sunday, my mother wanted me to go receive the Eucharist, so all of my sins would be forgiven. I did not want to go, as I was in Mortal sin, and I knew it wouldn’t work since I hadn’t even gone to confession, so even if I wasn’t in Mortal sin, all of my sins wouldn’t be forgiven anyway, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer, and made me receive the Eucharist against my will. Was this sacrilege? At the time I thought it was, but now that I’ve learned a little more about it, I’m not so sure. Does anyone know?

God bless you. :signofcross:
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Your full consent was compromised. Not a mortal sin for you. And I don’t want to pass judgement on your mother.

That’s why I wish they went back to the 3-hr fast. Can always claim you’re hungry and no mother would deprive you of food. 🙂
 
You’re a wee bit scrupulous 🙂

Don’t you worry, no mortal sin on your part. Your mother was wanting you to, and so your free will was not as free! Neither was this sacrilege. God Bless :signofcross::byzsoc:
 
ProVobis said:
To some extent, I suppose. But how do you say no to your parent without creating a scene in Church?
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That could become a circular argument. How does your parent force you to do something in church without creating a scene. The fact remains that our obedience to our parents is relative not absolute. On reaching the age of majority and particularly if you no longer live with parents their authority over you is reduced. Now, please don’t misinterpret me: I am not saying we should completely abandon our respect for our parents’ authority. I would still give great respect to things my mother might request (my father is dead). However, there are certain things that our parents should not do and if they do then we are not under obligation to obey. As in the case of the OP’s situation: your parents’ cannot make you commit a sin and you are not obliged to obey them if doing so would be to commit sin.
 
Matthew_Holford said:
That could become a circular argument. How does your parent force you to do something in church without creating a scene. The fact remains that our obedience to our parents is relative not absolute. On reaching the age of majority and particularly if you no longer live with parents their authority over you is reduced. Now, please don’t misinterpret me: I am not saying we should completely abandon our respect for our parents’ authority. I would still give great respect to things my mother might request (my father is dead). However, there are certain things that our parents should not do and if they do then we are not under obligation to obey. As in the case of the OP’s situation: your parents’ cannot make you commit a sin and you are not obliged to obey them if doing so would be to commit sin.
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This is kind of like arguing whether apples or oranges are similar to eggs. Neither is the right position to take.

The answer to whether or not it was an act of sacrilage is yes. The answer to whether or not that constitutes a mortal sin is MAYBE.

Nobody here knows the state of mind the person was in at the time of the action, hence why the final arbiter in the question of state of grace (at least externally to us humans) is our own well formed conscience. The OP’s state of free will MAY have been compromised, or it may not have. He MAY have (invincibly) ignorantly thought that disobeying a parent in this case would have violated a commandment and therefore gone. There are a bevvy of factors involved in the state of mind the OP was in when he made that decision, of which NONE of us can judge if they were sufficient justification to mitigate the gravity of the act.

So to the OP: Yes, such would be an act of sacrilage. No one here can tell you if it was mortal sin or not, though your confessor can help you make that determination if you need. In the future, you are not bound to take communion to placate your mother. You are bound to HONOR her, not to be obedient even unto disordered requests.
 
promethius said:
This is kind of like arguing whether apples or oranges are similar to eggs. Neither is the right position to take.

The answer to whether or not it was an act of sacrilage is yes. The answer to whether or not that constitutes a mortal sin is MAYBE.

Nobody here knows the state of mind the person was in at the time of the action, hence why the final arbiter in the question of state of grace (at least externally to us humans) is our own well formed conscience. The OP’s state of free will MAY have been compromised, or it may not have. He MAY have (invincibly) ignorantly thought that disobeying a parent in this case would have violated a commandment and therefore gone. There are a bevvy of factors involved in the state of mind the OP was in when he made that decision, of which NONE of us can judge if they were sufficient justification to mitigate the gravity of the act.
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If I gave that impression then I have given the wrong one because that was not my intent. May be I could have made my posts more clear. I’ve now reached a point where, in this thread, I’m not so much answering to the OP’s query but making a general statement. Obedience to parents in relative. Parents cannot bind us to commit sin. Likewise they cannot bind us to commit a crime. We are not bound to obey our parents to commit sins or crimes. I know that in real life these statements are not always as easy to apply as they appear. They are not black and white but admit to many shades of grey.
 
Matthew_Holford said:
If I gave that impression then I have given the wrong one because that was not my intent. May be I could have made my posts more clear. I’ve now reached a point where, in this thread, I’m not so much answering to the OP’s query but making a general statement. Obedience to parents in relative. Parents cannot bind us to commit sin.
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Actually, I was referring to the following two statements:
Matthew Holford:
Were you in a state of mortal sin when you received communion on that occasion? If your answer is yes then it was a sacrilege and you committed a mortal sin.
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proVobis:
Your full consent was compromised. Not a mortal sin for you. And I don’t want to pass judgement on your mother
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While both of you are correct in your statements that parents can’t bind one to sin, while full consent and knowledge are required to sin, neither of you can authoritatively tell the OP whether or not it was mortal sin.

We can only state the following:
  1. His mother asked him to take communion in a state of mortal sin
  2. This is sacrilage, a gravely disordered act
  3. This MAY have been, depending on the person’s knowledge and freedom to give full consent, a mortal sin, but only the OP can know that.
When we start saying whether or not something was specifically a sin (rather than stating that it was gravely disordered and that it MAY have been a sin) then we are in the wrong as regards church teaching… namely that a person’s well formed conscience is the sole method of determining (for that person) whether or not they are in a state of grace.
 
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