When conscience kicks in

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YehoiakhinEx232

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When someone starts thinking or doing something that is grave, and then conscience kicks in, and he/she realizes he or she is doing something, or thinking grave and stop, does the fact that they stopped right as conscience kicked in right then and there, mean that they stopped before committing a mortal sin and are innocent from having committed one? Or is it a sign that said people have malformed conscience as it didn’t kick on until after the person started committing the mortal sin? Does the grave matter involved, or how deeply one gets into it before conscience kicks in, effect whether it’s the former, the latter, or something else?
 
So a person wouldn’t be guilty of mortal sin in this situation?

What about the other circumstances I’ve mentioned?
YehoiakhinEx232 said:
Does the grave matter involved, or how deeply one gets into it before conscience kicks in, effect whether it’s the former, the latter, or something else?
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Alright, let’s take a look at each of these scenarios in which there is clearly grave matter and each person has sufficient refection:

Scenario A: Alex has sexual thoughts entering his mind, and after having them enter for sometime, he suddenly realizes he’s having sexual thoughts and fights them. Did Alex commit a mortal sin for waiting sometime to realize he’s having them and then fighting them, or does the fact that he didn’t realize he was having them until then mean that he isn’t guilty of a mortal sin? Would the circumstance of how long he had these sexual thoughts make a difference .

Scenario B: Mark is struggling with angry thoughts towards certain people he’s argued with online, as he continues to struggle with this, his thoughts turn towards believing that these people hold certain views that, in reality, he doesn’t know whether they hold them or not. Suddenly Mark realizes that judging someone with absolute certainty, based on limited evidence is a mortal sin, and pulls out of these angry thoughts. Did Mark commit a mortal sin by waiting so long to pull out of those thoughts? Or did the fact that Mark pulled out when he realized he was having those thoughts mean he wasn’t guilty of mortal sin? Would it make a difference depending on how long he had those thoughts before he realized the thoughts he was having were grave?

Scenario C: Sarah was having extremely angry thoughts regarding a Pro-Abort politician, as the thoughts continue, she starts to wish death on the politician. After a couple of moments, Sarah then realizes that wishing death on someone is a mortal sin and takes her mind off of this. Now did Sarah commit a mortal sin by wishing death on a politician, and then taking awhile to realize how serious that is? Or Did the fact that her conscience kicked in and she realized what she was doing, stopped thinking those thoughts prove that she wasn’t guilty of a mortal sin? Would difference whether Sarah had these thoughts for a shorter or longer time?

Please realize I’m not using precise Moral Theological terms for these scenarios.
 
If you don’t realize that an act is gravely immoral, then your sin lacks the condition of full knowledge required for the full culpability of actual mortal sin. If the person realizes it is a grave sin, and does not stop, then it could be an actual mortal sin, if there is also full consent (full deliberation). It can be difficult to judge in particular cases whether an act is an actual mortal sin, but of course we should strive to avoid all objectively grave sins, even if they lack full culpability.
 
Thanks, I think I understand now, how all this works.
 
To make a sin mortal, you have to already know it is a bad sin. If you didn’t know it was bad, then you wouldn’t have had sufficient reflection, or full consent of the will.
 
Ron_Conte said:
If you don’t realize that an act is gravely immoral, then your sin lacks the condition of full knowledge required for the full culpability of actual mortal sin. If the person realizes it is a grave sin, and does not stop, then it could be an actual mortal sin, if there is also full consent (full deliberation). It can be difficult to judge in particular cases whether an act is an actual mortal sin, but of course we should strive to avoid all objectively grave sins, even if they lack full culpability.
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BridgetN said:
To make a sin mortal, you have to already know it is a bad sin. If you didn’t know it was bad, then you wouldn’t have had sufficient reflection, or full consent of the will.
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So in the cases mentioned above, the people in question wouldn’t have had sufficient reflection because; even though they knew that things they were doing were wrong, the fact that their consciences didn’t kick in until then means that these people didn’t have sufficient reflection until that very point?
 
Sufficient reflection means that you know such-and-such is gravely sinful, and to do it would be to commit a mortal sin.
Full consent of the will means that, you know it is a sin, and you’re gonna do it anyway.
 
I don’t agree with the idea that a person’s conscience “kicks in”. Conscience is the inherent ability of reason and free will to seek, recognize, and adhere to moral truth. As soon as you realize that an act is sinful, you are obliged to refrain.
 
So what exactly is happening in the above? These people in these scenarios, seem to know that what they are doing is wrong, and yet they don’t realize it until a certain point in time.
 
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depends how far into the sin they got. at least their conscience works though.
 
How far would that be? In the scenarios listed above, at what point during what they’re doing would they have passed the threshold of sin, so to speak?
 
Actually this is a question I was just pondering myself. I was scrolling through my explore feed on Instagram and came across a laughfactory video. It started out relatively fine but then moved on to inappropriate topics so I got disgusted and clicked out of it and blocked the page so I wouldn’t see thise videos again. But, in those split seconds that I was still watching the inappropriate topic (it was all in what the guy was saying, not showing) and my conscience hadn’t quite kicked in yet to close the video, did I sin? Perhaps it would be better to say that my mind took a while to realize where it was going before getting out of the situation.
 
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