What Are You Looking For? Part 2: The Liturgy and the Sacraments

Reconciliation: Mortal Sin

Reconciliation: Mortal Sin

                In the Protestant world, there are no degrees of sin.  At least not in the traditions I was raised in.  Venial sin didn’t exist, and mortal sin was only referred to jokingly.  By that I mean if someone said they were going to have a beer, someone else might exclaim, “That’s a mortal sin!”  For most of my life, all sin was equal, and it all sent you to hell equally.  That’s not the way it is in the Catholic Church. 

                In the Catholic Church there are two categories of sin: mortal and venial.  Mortal sins are grave matters.  They are serious sins.  But it’s more than just a classification.  To commit a mortal sin requires three things:

1)       It must be a Grave Matter

The clearest judge of grave matter is the Ten Commandments

2)       You must have Full Knowledge

One must have knowledge of the sinful nature of the act and of its opposition to the Law of God

3)       Willful Consent

It must also be a free choice made by the individual.

(Thank you, Joe, for your notes which I have just plagiarized shamelessly.)

                What this means is simple.  For a Catholic, missing Mass on Sunday is a grave matter.  It’s called our Sunday Obligation.  If I miss Mass on Sunday I violate the third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  This is condition number 1.  As a Catholic I (should) know this. Even if I don’t understand why the Church teaches it is so important to not miss Mass, I know the church teaches to miss Mass on Sunday is a grave matter.  This is condition number 2.  But…the Packers are playing the same time as Mass.  So I stay home.  This is willful consent.  This is condition number 3.  I have now committed a mortal sin.  Now if I stay home because my two-year-old (that I don’t have) is puking all over the carpet, it’s not a mortal sin (even if I watch the game while I am cleaning the carpet). 

                I picked missing Mass for my example, because it’s one of the less obvious of the Commandments that we break.  We all know, for example, that it’s wrong to murder or steal.  But really, who does it hurt if I miss church one Sunday?  First, it hurts us.  God commanded us to keep the Sabbath because otherwise we would work seven days a week.  Especially in our culture.  We need one day a week where we stop and focus, not on the earthly, but on the eternal.  For Christians, that day is Sunday, the Lord’s Day.  The day when we come together to be fed by the Word of God through the Liturgy of the Word, and fed with the Word of God  in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where we consume the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, hidden in bread and wine.  And pray that he consumes us just as we have consumed him. 

                When we miss Mass, we also hurt God.  We say, in essence, I’m more important than you are.  My life is more important than you are.  This severs our relationship with God.  All mortal sin does that.  It ruptures the relationship we have with God.  If we die in that state, in the state of mortal sin, we will go to hell.  I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth.  That’s why it’s so important for a Catholic to confess all mortal sins out loud to a priest as soon as humanly possible.

                The final thing that mortal sin does is that it ruptures our relationship with the Body of Christ.  When someone, anyone, misses Mass for no good reason, it ruptures their relationship with the Church.  They are missed.  You may not realize it, but your presence is important.  Your smile, your prayers and your active participation matters.  When you are not there, the fullness of the community isn’t present.  You don’t know whose life you may touch simply by being present and worshipping God.

                Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, all of these ruptures are healed.  Should we commit mortal sin, Jesus has graciously made the way for us to find restoration, both with God, with ourselves, and with the Body of Christ.  All that is needed on our part is for us to go and be reconciled.