olay
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I'm guessing you've gathered this is a Catholic concept - mortal and venial sins with different gravity. Yes! It is written in the Catechism of the Catholic Church; official Church teaching.ellen.louise said:I never really understood this concept: i think it's something that comes from people and not from the bible. I'll use an analogy someone told me: If you have two cups full of water, and you put one drop of food colouring in one and the rest of the bottle in another, they're both still coloured water.
Is there actually anything stating that someone who lies is less sinful than someone who murders? The punishments are the same for all in the bible: "the punishment for sin is death." It just seems like a very human concept, sort of like the concept of religion: "I have to do things to please God" (this is why i try to make the distinction between faith and religion.
Could you explain where this idea came from to me?
Definitions:
1. Charity = Love. 'Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbour as ourselves for the love of God' (CCC 1822). You know the famous 'Love is patient, Love is kind' verse from the Bible? 'Charity' is the complete equivalent to 'Love' (according to the Catechism). It is heavily tied into the 'new commandment' where Christians are called to 'love one another as I have loved you'.
2. Mortal Sin: 'Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God...by preferring an inferior good to him' (CCC 1855).
3. Venial sin; 'Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it'. (CCC 1855).
For a sin to be mortal, it has to be all of these three things:
1. A sin of grave matter (i.e. in violation of one the 10 commandments)
2. It must be committed with full knowledge that it is a sinful act.
3. It must committed with full consent - i.e. it is a deliberate, voluntary act.
At its core it strongly contradicts loving God or loving 'neighbour' i.e. other ppl.
It actually says in the CCC '...murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger'.
The gravity of a sin is less when it's unintentional or ignorant 'but noone is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man' (CCC 1860).
Also, 'the promptings of feeling and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders' (CCC 1860).
Finally, 'Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest'.
Anyway, that's mortal and venial sin in a nut shell... check out the Catechism for yourself if you want to understand it better, there's a whole lot more in it! Again may I reinforce that this is a Catholic framework and doesn't necessarily extend to Christian theology as a whole.
And back to the question at hand with dating a 'religious girl'... there seems to be a general sentiment that if someone was a practicing Christian, they wouldn't go out with someone that wasn't Christian. Well... again, at least from a Catholic perspective there isn't anything 'wrong' with it. Perhaps not ideal on a personal level ... but I mean there are many valid, beautiful marriages within the Catholic Church (and I am sure many other churches, Protestant, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu etc...!) where they aren't of the same faith. I don't think it's a valid statement to say that someone isn't following their faith if they're going out with / married to someone who is not of the same faith.
My advice (which seems pretty blatantly obvious) is to be yourself. Let her know where you stand in your beliefs. Let her know your intentions towards her, let her know where you stand with her beliefs. If it's all good then yay for you! If not, then I'd say this girl is not the one for you, at least not at this very moment.
If it makes you feel any better, I am in a relationship that started off with different frameworks - he was and is a very devout Catholic Christian, I was an adamant Agnostic / Atheist. We courted for a year and went out for almost another year before I had a conversion to Catholicism. My conversion had nothing to do with his beliefs. In fact if you took me back to the day before my conversion, I would have projected that if we ever got married, it would be a Catholic / non Catholic wedding...but that's another story. Our relationship worked because we knew where we stood with eachother beliefs and did not convince eachother of anything else. Sure, it deepened the relationship after my conversion because... well, we were really on the same page after it. And we're still together so I'm glad he took a chance and went out with me even though I wasn't Catholic and even though his faith was/is so much a part of him.
Bottom line for the both of you: stay yourselves, stand firm in your beliefs, don't try and convert one another to your beliefs but be open to eachother about what you believe. Good luck!