What does that mean, though, to be purified? Didn’t Jesus already die for me? Am I not already clean by the Blood of the Lamb? Even St. Paul knew he could screw up. This should concern me.
For a sin to be mortal it must meet these three conditions:
1. It’s a grave sin (adultery, fornication, murder, etc.),
2. You know it’s a grave sin, and,
3. You do it anyway.
I humbly submit that the three qualifiers for mortal sins can be expressed more succinctly, especially the third. They are; (1) the gravity of the sin (gravity is not subjective), (2) one’s knowledge or awareness of that gravity (here is where unintentional ignorance may come into play), and then (3) a full knowledge and complete and deliberate consent to that action (i.e., the freedom and full volition to choose to commit the known grave act). I think that freedom, or lack thereof, to commit a mortal sin is a lot more nuanced than just saying that it is just "doing it anyway" after being aware of the first two premises. Hope I'm not splitting hairs.
Anyway, just my two imperfect cents…. Again, great article. Thank you and I look forward to reading more. Peace
Father - excellent points. Thanks for sharing. I suppose my "You do it anyway" was my attempt at keeping it as simple as possible, primarily for my Protestant friends and family who may read this and have concerns. But you're absolutely correct on all points and not splitting hairs at all (of course, I don't have many hairs to split to begin with).
Great article! You stated that:
For a sin to be mortal it must meet these three conditions:
1. It’s a grave sin (adultery, fornication, murder, etc.),
2. You know it’s a grave sin, and,
3. You do it anyway.
I humbly submit that the three qualifiers for mortal sins can be expressed more succinctly, especially the third. They are; (1) the gravity of the sin (gravity is not subjective), (2) one’s knowledge or awareness of that gravity (here is where unintentional ignorance may come into play), and then (3) a full knowledge and complete and deliberate consent to that action (i.e., the freedom and full volition to choose to commit the known grave act). I think that freedom, or lack thereof, to commit a mortal sin is a lot more nuanced than just saying that it is just "doing it anyway" after being aware of the first two premises. Hope I'm not splitting hairs.
Anyway, just my two imperfect cents…. Again, great article. Thank you and I look forward to reading more. Peace
Father - excellent points. Thanks for sharing. I suppose my "You do it anyway" was my attempt at keeping it as simple as possible, primarily for my Protestant friends and family who may read this and have concerns. But you're absolutely correct on all points and not splitting hairs at all (of course, I don't have many hairs to split to begin with).
Greg, thank you so much for that article. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I get what you did, it makes sense. Keep going, brother!
Happy belated birthday!
Hasn’t happened yet ;)
Happy birthday early then!