What are sins of Omission?

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You might be dizzy, but you raise good questions for thought. Once during a retreat in North Central Ca, the priest stated that he was going to hear confessions and only wanted to hear sins of omission. In a sense, every sin is a sin of omission, where we fail to love God and neighbor. Sins of omission are when we fail to do something, when in good conscience we know we should be doing. Some things we sometimes omit are: Mass on Sunday, Easter duty, seeing to it that our children are educated in the faith. Standing up for our faith, when we see it trampled. (In a loving way.) Some good that we can reasonably do and fail to do because of being too lazy or not interested.

Deacon Tony
 
Deacon, Indeed I agree, that failing to educate your child(ren) in the faith is a sin of Omission, but I have a question along those lines. I was received just this past Easter, before that, an atheist. That being said, my 11 year old son, had no formal religious education/church attendence, other then going to a baptist church sometimes. Now that I attend, he refuses to, in fact will chat through most of it just to upset me.

In a case like mine, other than pray (which I do all the time) and show by how I live my life, how or what do I do to get him interested in Holy Mass? He refuses to listen to any explanations I give him. 😦
 
Another ecample of a sin of omission, would be, you see someone in need (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) and you fail to help him. Like the in the parable of the good samaritin, the priest and the levit commited a sin of omission.
 
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dizzy_dave:
What is meant by sins of omission? What’s that mean?
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I’m Baptist signed up for RCIA / RCIC.

See newadvent.org/cathen/14004b.htm
“a sin of omission is a failure to do what is commanded”

Sins of omission are things we should have done but didn’t do.
Let your conscience guide you.

I think a good example is the parable of the good Samaritan.
See Luke 10:30-37. The Priest and the Levite didn’t do what they should have done.

Once in a while – perhaps even today – I can sit down at the end of a day and think I didn’t do anything too bad (yet). Probably nothing much to say in a confessional.

But what could I have done this day if I had given more of it to Christ? That is a haunting and revealing question. Maybe today doesn’t outwardly look too bad to others. But how much of today did I really give to Jesus? Even if I count 100% of the time spent at Church or the time visiting a good friend who is presently not well. Not even 15% of the day. I doubt if it really was even that good.

The homily was very good, but I had many thoughts of pride. I was thinking that I wanted to be there, but the young fidgety man sitting next to his momma didn’t want to be there. So I had the sin of pride thinking that I was better. The priest asked a show of hands if anyone knew what the Black Pope was. I think I was the only one who raised a hand. Pride. I only knew because I had to find so much out and debunk so much Jack Chick stuff. Years ago I used to order Jack Chick tracts by the box of 10,000 – “This Was Your Life”. Not the anti-Catholic stuff – but I’ve read most of the anti-Catholic stuff. See? Even as a sinner or as a Protestant I’m proud. The priest said how he really likes Fulton Sheen. And I’ve been reading so much from Fulton Sheen. More pride.

My day has failed to fully Glorify His Name. By a long shot. Much of the day was spent looking out for my own interests and doing what I wanted to do. And the supposedly good parts of my day were much like the “filthy rags” of an empty righteousness. So honestly, I can say my day scored less than 2% on a scale of 100%. And maybe I got a much poorer grade than that.

dizzy_dave: I think the main thing we do is try. And I think God looks at our trying and loves it. So don’t get down on yourself. Each day is a new day. We get to try again.

I think that the greatest words we hope to hear are “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” So we need to find something to be faithful with. Something that we can do for God each day. I know Archbishop Sheen spent a Holy Hour every day (faithfully). We are only starting. Archbishop Sheen suggested to a Protestant once that since they could not do Eucharistic Adoration, they could instead spend an hour each day in the Presence of God in his Holy Bible (“Treasure in Clay” pages 196-197).

But even me telling you is quite hypocritical. I need to get back to daily Bible reading myself. I started on July 13, but have many skipped days. As a Baptist, I found the best thing towards being faithful was to make a monthly chart showing each daily details. And then each day as I recorded checks (for tasks done), I could see the days where tasks weren’t done. Start a new chart each month. And this can help you to become faithful.

I’ve heard others ask how Baptists know their Bibles, etc. Well many Baptists don’t know as much as you think. There are two ways you can water your garden. With a watering can or with a hose. Perhaps as a Baptist I only had a watering can for some things. And perhaps as a Catholic y’all may have more because you have Jesus in the Eucharist, etc. With a watering can, we must learn how to use what little we have. So some of us Baptists may be better with our watering cans than you might be.
 
Well, let us use an analogy explain what the sin of ommision is.

A man was confessing his sins to a priest. Then, a thought came upon the man. He remembered stealing something. Ah, he muses to himself, “here is a sin I would confess!”. He then confesses to the priest that he “stole” a rope, and was “proud” of confessing the fact. Yet he conveniently “forgot” to confess what he was pulling at the other end of the rope, namely a cow.

He admitted “stealing” the rope, but not the cow.

Gerry
 
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mkw:
Deacon, Indeed I agree, that failing to educate your child(ren) in the faith is a sin of Omission, but I have a question along those lines. I was received just this past Easter, before that, an atheist. That being said, my 11 year old son, had no formal religious education/church attendence, other then going to a baptist church sometimes. Now that I attend, he refuses to, in fact will chat through most of it just to upset me.

In a case like mine, other than pray (which I do all the time) and show by how I live my life, how or what do I do to get him interested in Holy Mass? He refuses to listen to any explanations I give him. 😦
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Along the same lines, my priest mentions as a sin of ommision failing to set limits and to discipline your children. I don’t mean that as a criticism but by 11 years old, you should be able to set down some rules for his behavior in church that he would be expected to keep. Some parishes have a version of RCIA, RCIC that is for older children that you could look into. The children attending are likely to be in similar situations and learning with peers might help. Regular CCE classes might be good too, depending on the program avialable.

You don’t mention whether you have a spouse that is united with you in your view of the Church but if it isn’t too disruptive, try introducing some easy devotional practices at home. Grace before and after meals, family prayer, a family Bible in a prominent place (and read from it 🙂 ), a crucifix and/or statue of Mary. Let him take the lead with some things like leading a prayer or lighting a votive candle (boys that age seem to love ‘jobs’).
 
mkw, I am sorry about your situation with your 11 year old. You can not be held accountable for what you did not have, when you were not in the church. Sometimes the more that you push a kid, the more they rebel. When there has not been a basic foundation, it is difficult. There are some great Catholic psycologists on Catholic radio. I suggest you present the problem to them. They are quite good in situations such as yours.

Good luck and God bless. Do not blame yourself. Remember Jesus said that love for him would divide families.

Deacon Tony
 
My understanding of the sins of Omission is it’s the times when we fail to do what we should have done, i.e., (neglectfulness, failing to be kind, slacking off at work, not going out of our way for others, etc.)… I have heard it said that some of us are probably guiltier of these than those of Commission.:hmmm:
 
KM…saddly, my husband died on our son’s 9 birthday. Since that time, my son has been a challenge. I wish it was as easy as setting down ground rules, this is done, but short of beating him, (which i will not do) I know of no other way of getting through to him. Yes, we have been doing the therapy route to no avail. Progress is being made with him,but its slow going at best.

For me, its dealing with the self-impossed guilt of thinking i’m a weak parent, which i’m not. My husband and I worked well as a team, my son has always been a “high” maint. child, my husband pretty much dealt with enforcing the rules and discipling when needed, my role was that of support. We were a great team.

My son needs an even stronger hand now, I never developed that skill, didn’t need to, now I am faced with trying to figure this all out.

It’s easy to say because he’s 11, that I should just make the rules and thats that, but reality is very different.

Prayer and Love…and NOT GIVING UP ON HIM…I trust in God and know that He will warm my son’s heart when He feels my son is ready.
 
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