Why are sins devided in only two buckets?

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Timidandunsure

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I was wondering what people’s opinions why Sins are so cut and dry, it seems there are small sins and there are Big doom Mortal sins. It seems to me that its a 5% to 95% ratio in favor of the deadning of the soul being the whopping majority of the sins. I wonder as time goes by, all sins will work there way over to mortal just to get people to fear them enough to avoid them.

Now you would think it would be the other way around. I wonder if some of these sins (not the traditional easy ones to know, like stealing, cruelty, killing and such) were upped in the church do to the fact they needed to have more impact with the people so they would avoid it if they could.

(the not eat meat on Friday rule comes to mind as one that might have been upped for effect)

I have always had a hard time thinking the sin of masterbation has the same weight as leaving your wife, having a drunken affair for two nights and then comming home. But they are both mortal sins, They both turn the soul dead, from what we are told and what we are to believe.

I try to take this and look at it as a parent that I am…If I had a child I loved dearly, and they did these two things. One would get a frown and one would upset me very much, I doubt I would see them as even.

I think as men and woman, we want things black and white. Its easier to be a theogeon (ack my spelling) than it is to trust your heart and listen to God and what he wants you to do. Its like we are walking up to him and slapping our hands and saying, okay whats the rules, what do I do to pass go and collect 200.

Sometimes I look at all the rules and obligations, and it looks so confining and expect so much, that it seems almost impossible and hopeless to live up to that. But I don’t loose hope, I pray and hope for myself, I know I sin, I am not proud of it. I fear its all these little things that are going to trip me, I will never kill anyone, I don’t steal, I will never cheat on my wife or be cruel to another. I struggle to be kind whenever I can, even to those I don’t like. I will love God with all my heart, and pray for myself often. I would hate to think I do this all my life, and then Dam my soul because a moment of lust I dwelled on that passed through my mind.

Hmmph… Sorry a little down today, I come here to find hope, and when i get here, sometimes It makes me realize actually how far from hope I really am.

Its hard to find your Sprituality…sometimes…
 
Well, as to how different-some people theorize different levels of Hell. Remember, no one accidently goes to Hell. You will it. Sometimes, people forget that one just needs to ask God for forgivness, and do his best to do better, and Our Lord will grant him pardon. Also, I was thinking what if it worked a different way?

Say a person gets 1000 “sin points.” Each sin costs a certain amount. A person with 999 is safe, but the poor soul with 1000 is damned. That hardly seems right! Say God decides to be lenient to the 1000 and let him in. Hes got to do it to the other 1000’s to be fair. So then someone who gets 1001 says hey I’m only one over. He granted the last guy who was one over pardon, so why not him? And it just keeps going on and on and on and on…
 
Actually, if you read some moral theology textbooks, you will find that sins are divided into quite a bit more than two buckets. True, they are either venial or mortal; but within each category is a range of seriousness from the fairly trivial to the most abominable.

Not all mortal sins are of equal gravity. As you mentioned, some are worse than others. The danger lies in the continuum. If we accustom ourselves to less serious sins, it is easier to progress to more serious sins. And the more ingrained we become in the serious sins, the harder it becomes for us to turn back.
 
We need the two categories to correctly assign regulations.

The relevant difference between the two sins is procedural. One makes you have to go to confession before receiving the Eucharist, and the other does not.

The same sin (e.g. missing Mass) can be mortal or not depending on objective criteria, but they can only subjectively be discovered, so it must not be too big a deal to misclassify them sometimes, and if in doubt go the more sinful route and assume it is mortal.

We never really know if a sin is mortal. From a working standpoint, that means a sins mortality classification has subjectivity built in, and therefore there is always weasel room to maintain hope for someone who dies or goes to Communion after being seen engaging in ostensibly “mortal” sin.

Alan
 
God does not sit in heaven with binoculars, waiting for you to sin and then throwing you into hell. He calls you at all times,

“Hello? I LOVE you more than you could imagine, please stop sinning”.

Agreed, it is scary that one mortal sin = eternal damnation, BUT you must die in that state of mortal sin, not wishing to repent. And a passing thought will never be a mortal sin, only if you start to play with the thought, entertain it, and wish that it came true. Try to remember that if you truly love God you would never purposely commit a sin, because you know how much it “hurts” him. Im sure this will become more clear as time goes on.

Andre.
 
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Timidandunsure:
I was wondering what people’s opinions why Sins are so cut and dry, it seems there are small sins and there are Big doom Mortal sins. It seems to me that its a 5% to 95% ratio in favor of the deadning of the soul being the whopping majority of the sins. I wonder as time goes by, all sins will work there way over to mortal just to get people to fear them enough to avoid them.

Now you would think it would be the other way around. I wonder if some of these sins (not the traditional easy ones to know, like stealing, cruelty, killing and such) were upped in the church do to the fact they needed to have more impact with the people so they would avoid it if they could.

(the not eat meat on Friday rule comes to mind as one that might have been upped for effect)

I…
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the church does not categorize sins as deadly ‘to ramp up the effect’ or to make a point
the Church categorizes any action or omission as sinful because it has harmful effects
the Church categorizes sins as deadly by the gravity and permanence of their effects, not to exert political or juridicial muscle.
the Church differentiates among acts and omissions that are sinful inherently because of their effects on individuals and society: (murder, theft, adultery, fornication, sodomy etc.); those that are deadly because they rupture the relationship of individuals, families, communities and society with God (failure to accord God the worship and obedience due to Him for example); and those sins which are deadly because they arise from wilful disobedience to the discipline and authority of the Church founded by Jesus Christ. Those disciplines can be changed, but the gravity of the sin of denying the authority of the Church granted by Christ Himself never changes.
 
Perhaps we use the two main categories of mortal and venial because those are the two main categories mentioned in the bible: deadly and not deadly.

When St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and warns them about specific sins such as adultery, fornication, sodomy, murder, etc., he did not seem to be in any doubt about the gravity of these actions. --Those who do such things will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Mortal sins have an objective gravity to them. The only subjectivity comes about because of our interior disposition of mind and will. It’s an objectively serious thing to commit murder. If I’m insane or mentally incompetent for my actions, I may not be personally culpable for the sin, but that doesn’t lessen the objective gravity of the act itself.
 
Criminal Law seems to have followed the pattern dividing crimes into Felonies and misdemeanors.
 
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puzzleannie:
and those sins which are deadly because they arise from wilful disobedience to the discipline and authority of the Church founded by Jesus Christ. Those disciplines can be changed, but the gravity of the sin of denying the authority of the Church granted by Christ Himself never changes.
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Beautifully put, puzzleannie!

Betsy
 
I’ve been listening to EWTN radio and they had a talk about the pratices of the early Chuch and how they only gave a person one chance to repent and confess a serious sin. If they commited a serious sin again, they were excommunicated from the Church.

Kind of reminds me of the talk my father gave me about the good old days when grandpa had a stick and he know how to use it. He did not have to talk loud or repeat himself because you knew he ment what he said so you better listen! God Bless
 
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Highwayman:
I’ve been listening to EWTN radio and they had a talk about the pratices of the early Chuch and how they only gave a person one chance to repent and confess a serious sin. If they commited a serious sin again, they were excommunicated from the Church.

Kind of reminds me of the talk my father gave me about the good old days when grandpa had a stick and he know how to use it. He did not have to talk loud or repeat himself because you knew he ment what he said so you better listen! God Bless
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In those times penance often took up to 21years. There wasn’t time to Confess twice. 😉
 
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