By Jenna Marie Cooper
OSV News Question Corner
Q: At a recent Mass, the priest talked about “mortal sin,” about which I’d previously heard, but then he mentioned “venial sins” and “temporal sins,” and even “sins of omission.” I’m not familiar with these, especially the last one. How can a person commit a sin without doing anything?
A: Every sin represents a turning away from God, which is never a good thing. But as we know from Church teaching, life experience and common sense, not all sins are equally terrible, and the dynamic of how we come to fall into sin can vary depending on the circumstances.
Mortal and venial sin are categories along the scale of how serious a sin is. The more serious kind of sin is mortal sin which, as the name implies, essentially kills our relationship with God. Or, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it: “Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him” (CCC, No. 1855).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1861) teaches, “Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.”
For a sin to be considered a mortal sin, three conditions must be met. First, the sin must be “grave matter,” meaning that it is seriously wrong in an objective sense. (As an illustration, stealing someone’s life savings is grave matter; stealing a paper clip is not.) The person committing the sin must do so with full knowledge and deliberate consent (See CCC, No. 1857).
If a mortal sin has been committed, going to confession is necessary before receiving the Eucharist or other sacraments. Sacrilege is a mortal sin that is committed by receiving the Eucharist or other sacraments with an unforgiven mortal sin on one’s soul. The important point is that God’s mercy, love and forgiveness are available in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
A venial sin is a less serious sin that “does not break the covenant with God” and which does “not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal happiness” (CCC, No. 1863).
Minor sins that do not involve grave matter are considered venial sins. Some sins that might ordinarily be considered mortal sins might actually be venial in some circumstances if the one sinning either was not aware of the gravity of the sinful action or was committing the sin because of pressure to do so, points which the priest in the confessional evaluates. Venial sins do not imperil our souls in the same way that a mortal sin would, but it’s still important to strive to avoid committing even venial sins. Among other reasons, “deliberate and unrepented venial sin disposes us little by little to commit mortal sin” (CCC, No. 1863).
As taught in the Catechism, the Eucharist removes venial sins, “As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins. By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins — that is proper to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church” (CCC 1394-1395).
The term “sin of omission” does not describe the seriousness of a sin, but rather how the sin came to be committed. The opposite of a sin of omission is a sin of “commission,” meaning a sin that we deliberately went out of our way to commit. In contrast, we commit sins of omission when we fail to do some good that we ought to have done.
Granted, none of us ever does as much good as we might, but a sin of omission generally involves a real failure to fulfill some clear-cut responsibility or duty. For example, actively forging documents for financial gain would be a sin of commission, whereas failing to report known fraud could be a sin of omission.
If you have questions whether a sin committed was mortal or venial, a priest will help you in the Sacrament of Penance. The grace we receive in this beautiful sacrament also helps us to avoid sin.
“Temporal sin” is not a term I have come across before, but my thought is that this was likely a reference to what we call “temporal punishment due to sin,” which is one way of describing the purification that happens in purgatory.
Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to [email protected].