What is a serious sin?

[green889]

one of the requirements of a mortal sin is that it has to be a serious grave sin but how can one tell. for example is having lustful thoughts a grave sin? i agree it is a sin sins Jesus said it was but is it really a serious sin? same with angry thoughts. most of the time people talk about the other two requirements: full knowledge and consent but never about whether the sin is serious or not.

 

[teachccd]

one of the requirements of a mortal sin is that it has to be a serious grave sin but how can one tell. for example is having lustful thoughts a grave sin? i agree it is a sin sins Jesus said it was but is it really a serious sin? same with angry thoughts. most of the time people talk about the other two requirements: full knowledge and consent but never about whether the sin is serious or not.

Pretty much if it breaks one of the ten commandments then it is of serious matter. But it is to be noted that there are more than ten actions of word, thought or deed that can be serious. For example the fifth commandment can include abortion, euthanasia, murder, suicide and so on. There are many good examination of conscience lists that can be utilized. Regular use of the confessional can help you with your habitual sins and you will know whether or not you’ve either committed a mortal sin or you are headed in that direction.

In your question, yes lustful thoughts would be serious matter since it objectifies the person. Angry thoughts are not usually serious matter unless they involve a serious thought concerning how you might react to that angry thought. I hope this helps…teachccd

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Jesus Himself spoke on lustful thoughts, I believe, when He said that 'whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." IOW, the lustful thoughts were just as serious as the adultery which we KNOW is a mortal sin.

Anger, OTOH, is a different kettle of fish. Our Lord was angry when he drove the vendors from the Temple, but it was a righteous anger directed at those who turned His Father’s house into a den of thieves. BUT. . .we are also told that someone who calls his brother a fool is liable to judgment. Anger directed at sin (not the sinner per se) such that the person is stopping the sinful behavior is helpful. Anger directed at people over our own selfish whims etc. is not.

 

[Jessi_Thomist]

Forgive me if I get a bit technical in what follows, if it is not helpful please disregard.

A mortal sin, like the word quite apparently means, is a deadly sin-- one which is capable of removing a person from grace.
A venial sin, which just means “pardonable,” has something of the nature of a fault, which while it does not bring us to God (it is a sin, after all) we do not remove ourselves from God’s grace by committing it.

Augustine says there are two sorts of people, those who live for God and those who live for themselves; if you love yourself to the exclusion of God-- more than you love God-- then you sin mortally.

We talk about sins which are of “grave” matter, which means that by their nature they remove one from God’s grace. One cannot break the Ten Commandments with malice and not sin morally. Once I kill a man or fornicated, no matter my motive (leaving non-culpable ignorance aside), I have sinned to such an extant that my soul is, in a sense, dead. Because of God’s infinite mercy, I can still be forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance, but I have cut myself off from his graces.

Some sins are in themselves venial (pardonnable) but can be directed in such a way as to remove me from God. If I tell a harmless lie, but I do it precisely because I love that lie and myself to the exclusion of my love for God, I commit a mortal sin.

OK. So, now, lustful actions are of two kinds. First, we consider (to a certain extent) the emotional or biological response to someone of the opposite sex to be a lustful “movement of the flesh,” for instance. While this can be a prompt towards sin, and is at least sometimes a venial sin, it is not a mortal sin.
Second, we consider lustful intentions; here we have another distinction. First, the intention of the sin makes the sin to be what it is. Let us say that I want my boss dead and I try to poison his drink but it spills. Am I a murderer? Although I am not successful in the external act, I am still a murderer in my internal act or intention. So, also, when I intend to fornicate with an attractive man, even if I don’t actually go through with it, I am probably mortally sinning; because, again, in fornicating one removes himself from God’s grace.

Anger can be considered in the same way, but also with the caveat that there is bad anger, and righteous indignation, as the last post nicely said.

Remember always the infinite mercy of our God.
Jessi

 

[spirocatania]

Read this page on this link it helped me alot. it tells you examples of mortal and venial types of sins involving lust, sexual sins. its good for people that get stressed out because they dont know what they have commited is mortal or not. a great and simple read. GOD BLESS

tanbooks.com/doct/catholic_faith.htm

 

[spirocatania]

The following stages in temptation should be distinguished; we can compare them to someone at a door:

1. Temptation to sexual pleasure - the knock at the door;
2. Feeling the pleasure - the mind goes out to see who is there;
3. Taking the pleasure - “I want you; come in.”

MORTAL SIN
There is mortal sin when what a person does is something which of its very nature is apt to excite sexual pleasure, and at the same time the person has no serious reason for so acting. And the same is true if, even granted he has such a reason, there is a real danger of his accepting (not merely feeling) the pleasure. For example, to look closely and for a time at one’s own or another’s nakedness, to let one’s thoughts dwell on impure matters, to handle (not as a passing act) oneself or another indecently, to look fixedly at obscene pictures or to read obscene literature would be mortal sins.

VENIAL SIN
There is a venial sin when what we do is something which of its nature is not likely to produce sexual pleasure, even if at the same time we act out of no good motive, but merely, e.g., out of levity, imprudence, curiosity, bravado, vanity or the like. For example, deliberate but only passing glances at a naked body, a passing glance at immodest pictures, reading unsavory paragraphs in a newspaper out of curiosity, touching oneself deliberately but only lightly or in a passing way, deliberately entertaining for a moment an immodest (not an impure) thought - these would be venial sins.

 

[alongexpected]

Jesus Himself spoke on lustful thoughts, I believe, when He said that 'whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." IOW, the lustful thoughts were just as serious as the adultery which we KNOW is a mortal sin.

Do you really believe that thinking about having sex with someone you see in public and actually having sex with him/her are equal in sin? Are you serious?

Yes, in one of the Gospels Christ said that looking at women lustfully is the same as committing the lust itself.

STOP using a 2,000 year old book as a guideline for today’s life! Use something else! Common sense.

Common sense (and treat your brother as you’d want to be treated) tells us that, of course it’s wrong to murder or steal from someone. Of course it’s bad to have sex with someone’s wife.

Common sense doesn’t tell us that loving someone of the same sex is sinful…a 3,000 year old book does. Common sense doesn’t tell us that missing Church is a mortal sin. Why can’t you still treat your brothers with love while missing Mass?

Please, people…use common sense today and not singular passages of a book from millennia ago.

 

[jesus4ever]

GOD never put a use by date on the bible. it was created by chosen people that GOD willed to use to make the bible and it will always be with us until the end of time.