“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” (Prov. 24:16)
Sin touches upon the very core of the human condition. We can see that we are innately disordered by simply looking at all the ills in the world around us. Because of the choice of our first parents (Adam and Eve) to reject the commandments of God, we all, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, have fallen into at least venial sin (cf. Rom. 3:23). This means that since “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), we must make recompense and receive forgiveness for our transgressions.
Societies throughout time have come to the conclusion that certain transgressions are worse than others. This is reflected in our legal system when we compare the punishment of a crime to its severity. In this way, a reasonable person would recognize that a sentence of life imprisonment for a man convicted of jaywalking would be unjust. Scripture itself takes this into account when St. John expresses the difference between sins that “lead unto death,” and those that do not (1 John 5:16-17).
When one evaluates their sins, it is important for them to properly determine each sin’s severity. The Church draws a distinction between these two types of sin. A sin which “leads unto death,” or as the Catechism puts it, “destroys charity in the heart of man,” is called a mortal sin, while a sin which does not lead to spiritual death but “offends and wounds [that charity]” (CCC 1855), is called venial sin.
To be clear, this loss of charity “causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell” (CCC 1861). By freely committing these grave offenses against God with knowledge of their gravity, we destroy the love of God within us and reject Heaven. We are not merely wounding such charity, as with venial sin, but consciously choosing something inferior to replace it within our very souls.
How then do we differentiate between these two types of sin? The Catechism lists three criteria for recognizing a sin as mortal. The sin must first constitute grave matter. This means that the object of the sin must be gravely wrong. The actions that are “gravely wrong” can generally be understood as those things which are forbidden, explicitly or implicitly, in the Ten Commandments, the natural law, and the statutes of the Church (e.g. adultery, sodomy, failure to keep the Sunday obligation, etc.), as well as the “sins that cry out for vengeance” (CCC 1867).
The sin must also be committed with full knowledge that the action is gravely wrong. This means one must know at the time of committing the sin that what they are doing is a direct rejection of the will and commandment of God. For example, a man who knows that eating meat on Fridays in Lent is against the precepts of the Church, but still does it anyway, is culpable for his sin.
Finally, the sin must be done with complete consent. This means that there are no or minimal coercive factors which contribute to the choice of committing the sin. The Catechism describes this level of consent as “sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice” (CCC 1859). As an example, a man who is a first-time drug user with no previous addiction is able to give complete consent since his will and mind are not yet restricted by chemical dependence.
Understanding that we have all fallen into mortal sin is not something which should instill us with dread, but rather should be a source of hope. The Gospels tell us that “God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him” (Jn. 3:17). We also know that “where sin abounded, grace did more abound” (Rom. 5:20). Both of these passages give us the hope that though we have fallen, we may yet still be saved through God’s abundant mercy via Baptisimal regeneration and the restoration of sanctifying grace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Even when we have fallen from the narrow path and have committed these sins against God, He remains ever merciful and gracious. All that is needed to restore divine charity into our souls is to sincerely and contritely confess our sins to Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (CCC 1856). God does not stretch out His hand to condemn us for our wrongdoing, but to reach down so that He may pick us up again.
Photo is La Confessione by Giuseppe Molteni courtesy of Artgate Fondazione Cariplo via Wikimedia Commons
James Pritchett is a Sophomore studying History and Classics with a deep affinity for his native land, the Golden State. Despite being the most recent lover of Catholicism on the Torch staff, he is the C101 editor and his main interests consist of reading Dostoyevsky, playing devil’s advocate, and correcting people on niche theological heresies.
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