In today’s 2nd reading St. Paul asks, “What can separate us from the love of Christ?” He goes on to answer that nothing external can separate me from Christ’s love, i.e. famine, nakedness, persecution, angels, or any creature – can separate us from Jesus. I wish to take a little liberty with Paul’s passage. I want to go a little further and ask, not just those things that are external to us, but also thing internal, i.e. my very self.
As Catholics we are taught that there are different kinds of sins all varying in degree of depravity and consequences. The Church teaches there are venial sins, these sins are “lesser” types of sins that hurt our relationship with God but do not break our relationship with Him. We believe in “deadly sins” which describe vice, our sinful disposition-weakness, they can be venial or mortal depending on the act and its circumstances. Finally, we believe in mortal sins which sever our relationship with God; they destroy charity in us given by God.
The problem we have in the Church is that people sometimes think they have committed mortal sin when in reality they have not, they are suffering from old school Catholic guilt. Then there is the opposite danger, where people no longer believe that there is such a thing as mortal sin or at least they never committed one.
First off, what constitutes a mortal sin? Three factors are necessary. One) the person must know the act is grave; Two) the person must have given it sufficient thought; Three) the person’s free will must not be hampered in any way. If these three conditions are met then the person has committed a mortal sin, at least that is what we can say objectively, but as always, the person is judged according to their own conscience before God.
As you can see for the Christian it would be difficult to commit a mortal sin, though not impossible. Some may not agree with me. But here is the problem. Let’s say you are in relationship with God, i.e. in good graces on Monday morning. Then on Monday evening you commit a mortal sin, now you are damned, but on Tuesday morning you go to confession, now you are saved, but on Tuesday evening you commit the same mortal sin, now you are damned, but on Wednesday morning you go to Confession, now you are saved, you get the point – saved in the morning, damned in the evening. It’s silly.
Our relationship with God doesn’t solely work that way, i.e. on conditions. Our relationship with God starts simply with that- relationship. One cannot escape conditions in life, even with God, but they are secondary to relationship. When a person’s disposition is one of faith in order for a person to be separated from God one must make a conscience choice to do so, just as a child would make a conscience decision to separate themselves from their parents. A child’s relationship from its parents is not severed because they may have done something bad or even awful, it may hurt the relationship, but not break it, it is only broken when a child decides either through one act or many that he or she no longer wants any part of them. An act of that nature would require sufficient thought, a free choice, and knowledge that the choice is indeed severe. You can see how difficult that is, so too with mortal sin.
Please do not misunderstand me, mortal sin is possible, even in one single act, I am just saying it’s not as easy to commit as people believe. Let’s take missing mass for example. Missing mass is wrong and sinful and it “could be” a mortal sin depending on the choice of why not to go. Here are two examples.
One) A person is on vacation having a great time, they wake up a little late on Sunday, they suddenly remember its Sunday, they quickly decide not to go to mass since they got up a little late, they are away, etc. In this case the person did not give the matter sufficient thought, they are still guilty of sin, but of a lesser nature, though it could lead to worse sins and to more grave vice. Remember if you play with fire you get burned, no pun intended.
Two) A person wakes up early Sunday morning, thinks for a while about not going to mass, can’t stand going actually, knows that the Church teaches one must not deprive themselves of the assembly, but has decided freely in his or her own mind I can worship God my way, hence I will no longer go to mass. In this case the probability of mortal sin has increased and could very well have been committed. The person gave the matter sufficient thought, knows the Church’s teaching and still makes a free choice not to go.
The second example is not most Catholics, but the first example is, and that needs to be changed, mass is not a luxury, but a calling of us to a wedding, who would refuse to go the Jesus’ wedding, especially when he is wedding us.
Back to Paul’s original question, “What can separate us from the love of Christ?” I don’t think that much can separate us from the love of Christ. It is improbable, but not impossible to be separated from Christ’s love. Do you think Jesus would go through what he did so that he would lose? No, Jesus is a winner and one either believes he is beating Satan or losing to him. You either believe positively or negatively, you either have more people going to hell or heaven, which one are you?
Think of the love parents have for their children and how much it would take for their relationship to be severed? It would take a whole lot. If that is the case for weak human beings then how much more is it so for a powerful God? Is it logical to think it less? No.
Again, I am not giving people license to sin, all sin is wrong, some of it even deadly, but it would take a lot more than we think to separate us from the love of Christ. Amen.
Fr. John
picture of Peter (us) sinking in doubt and even sin and still God holds on!, picture taken from: http://spiritlessons.com/Documents/Jesus_Pictures/Jesus_Christ_Pictures.htm
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