Wrong views about Mortal Sin

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That some sins lead one to spiritual death, the loss of grace, is clear from Scripture.

But are there unhealthy – and untrue – ways Catholics sometimes approach the teaching on mortal sin?

In my past, even now, I have been strongly influenced by a view that Christians can slip in and out of grace — even weekly. Of course, mortal sin has conditions: It must be grave matter; consent of will; and full knowledge. However, these are not always clearly explained.

If you look at how people on CAF talk about sexual sins (for example, masturbation), you will see severe concerns about going in and out of Mortal Sin and then back to the state of grace. Surely this is not how we ought to think of Mortal Sin, no? Is it really that easy for a faithful Christian to fall out of the state of grace (and risk hell) only to pop back up after weekly confession?

It seems we have to avoid two extremes: The idea of “once saved always saved,” or an extreme view of “Fundamental Option” (whereby one’s concrete acts do not affect one’s fundamental choice to follow God) on the one hand and a legalistic, do-this, automatically sin mortally on the other — to the extent we diminish God’s grace and mercy.
 
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How do you think the teaching on Mortal Sin is sometimes unhealthily applied in our spiritual lives?
 
Good questions. Our acts express our heart…sometimes.

A person could reject God, even hate the thought of God and yet still lead an otherwise virtuous life. State of Grace? doubt it.

Acts are committed under specific circumstances that must always be taken into account.
An act may be disordered or intrinsically wrong but until the circumstances are considered I don’t think the gravity of sin can be determined.
 
For a confession to be valid the penitant must have true contrition for his sins. Also, according to Servant of God, Fr.John Hardon SJ the penitant must also have fear God and have faith.
 
For those that have the attitude that they can just pop back into confession fall into another sin. The sin of presumption.
 
It is that easy, and you must also realize that those who post endless threads about this are 15 and not exactly mature in their faith.
 
Yes. Yes it is.
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What is your reason for this?

Does this correspond to how the early Church practiced public confession? The first few centuries of the Church seemed to suggest a common understanding that only GRAVE actions could throw one out of relationship with God and Church…

Hence, the idea that you could only be forgiven once after Baptism.

Also, going that easy from mortal sin to grace seems to contradict passages that speak of God’s grace continually guiding us to our final end:

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. -Phil. 1:6
 
That it’s easy to commit certain objectively grave sins is different from so easily actually falling from grace via a formal mortal sin.

Some would argue that a persistent will to follow God, which flanks both before and after a given specific grave sin, may in fact indicate that that objectively grave sin is really venial in nature (when it comes to subjective culpability.)

In other words, it seems unhealthy to think:

Saturday: Confession
Sunday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Monday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Tuesday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Wednesday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Thursday: I’ve fallen again! I’m in a state of moral sin
Friday: Feelings of despair and disappointment
Saturday: Whew! Confession! State of Grace again…
Monday: Repeat
 
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One must be cautious that one doesnt fall into the fundamental option heresy where one believes that one mortal sin will not send one to hell, only a person who constantly commits mortal sin loses Gods grace.
 
One must be cautious that one doesnt fall into the fundamental option heresy where one believes that one mortal sin will not send one to hell, only a person who constantly commits mortal sin loses Gods grace.
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True enough, and I understand that the definition of Mortal Sin and Catholic teaching would insist that one single grave act could be the means where one says NO to God and throws away his grace.

I think my issues with it are how I described it above^^ Where someone who is consistently persevering in the Faith and is otherwise a faithful Christian begins to become jaded and disappointed and even despairing because they think they are hell-bound every other week.

I don’t think that’s healthy. The other extreme is presumption, to be sure. But I’m not saying the answer to the dilemma is presumption. Rather, I think there’s something else going on that affects the proper understanding of God’s grace and mortal sin.
 
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That’s a misunderstanding of the effects of confession.
Scruples are deadly.
Of course it’s unhealthy.
Confession is not a whitewash.
One must AVOID mortal sin and use the grace given to avoid repetitive mortal sin.

Mortal sin remove us from a state of grace.
No way around that.
 
@pianistclare This may be a misunderstanding of Confession, but many people will think in these terms:

In other words, it seems unhealthy to think:
Saturday: Confession
Sunday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Monday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Tuesday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Wednesday: State of grace as long as I don’t do grave sin X that I’ve been struggling with…
Thursday: I’ve fallen again! I’m in a state of moral sin
Friday: Feelings of despair and disappointment
Saturday: Whew! Confession! State of Grace again…
Monday: Repeat
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…especially with sexual sins. So how do we help people get it right? How do we explain Mortal Sin correctly?
 
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The Catechism is very human in that it takes into consideration different circumstances people may be in, as such mortal sin isn’t always as clear cut as people may want it to be.

To take the often used example of masturbation: ‘To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.’ CCC, 2352
That doesn’t mean there’s a ‘get out of jail free card’ but it does mean that some sin isn’t always mortal in given circumstances.

Even priests in the confessional may be reluctant to pronounce something as a mortal sin but still advise that it was right to confess and if I’m doubt to refrain from receiving Holy Communion. (On the other hand I was once, worryingly, told that ‘hardly anyone commits mortal sins as you need to be actively rejecting God to do so’).
 
Also, while I don’t accept everything about Fundamental Option Theory, since most of it doesn’t fit with Catholic theology and has been rejected by the magisterium (especially Pope JPII), I think some aspects of it make more sense then the “jump back and forth between state of grace and mortal sin”

Because, on the view that one can fall so easily into Mortal Sin and then pop into Grace again, and again, and again, it becomes a game of chance: What if you happen to die on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, if on Wednesday you would have gone to Confession?

Meanwhile, Fundamental Option makes the point that, over time, we orient our lives either more towards God, Life, Grace, and Heaven, or against God to selfishness, Loneliness, sin, and hell.

I think there has to be a middle way in order to make sense out of human living and sanctification, or else it indeed seems like Heaven and Hell are up to chance (if we bounce in and out of Grace every other week or even month).
 
Lack of prayer is usually the reason. That and a lack of self knowledge plus lack of perseverance.

Some have a mistaken view that once they are free from sin, there’s nothing else to do but wait for death. But that’s not true at all. The spiritual life is an upward battle, right up until we reach the seventh mansion.

Routine prayer is a must and so is a resolute will to not sin, even venially, and to weed out all affections for sin.
 
Masturbation is intrinsically evil and always an objective mortal sin. Intrinsically evil acts mean that no intention or circumstance can make an evil act like masturbation permissible. With that said for any sin to be mortal it has to be 1) grave matter(which I just explained masturbation is always gravely immoral) 2)knowlege that the sin is grave 3) and the person has to will the sin.
 
I don’t quite understand what you’re getting at. Isn’t that what my post implied anyway?
 
catholic1seeks said:
Because, on the view that one can fall so easily into Mortal Sin and then pop into Grace again, and again, and again, it becomes a game of chance: What if you happen to die on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, if on Wednesday you would have gone to Confession?
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If one commits a mortal sin, they should make an act of perfect contrtition. Then, If you die before confession, you won’t go to hell.
 
Nice advice but there is also room for doubt here. If an Act of perfect contrition was made simply for offending God great, however, if made even for the slightest trace of fear of Hell it’s therefore not perfect. We may think it is perfect but ‘the heart is devious above all things’ so we shouldn’t rely upon it. That said, in confession, even the slightest amount of contrition is sufficient. There really is an abundance of God’s mercy.
There is a fine line we need to tread though, in my opinion, one between ‘I’m going to Hell because I was half asleep and touched myself’ and ‘I’m okay as I didn’t really mean to do it and I still love God.’
 
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