Editors note: Answers to the first letter immediately follow each question
Dear Catholic Exchange,
Rick Warren (A Purpose Driven Life) states that a person cannot earn (good works) his way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
So does the Catholic Church:
CCC 2010: Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion.
Protestants attest that once a person surrenders to God at any time in his life, he is saved.
Some, not all, Protestants believe a doctrine of “once saved, always saved.” The Catholic Church rejects this.
As a Catholic I was taught that a mortal sin before death can condemn a soul.
Right.
Where does the law end and conscience begin?
Law is intended to instruct and inform conscience. However, law cannot save. Only the Blessed Trinity can save us. Law is like an x-ray machine: it can show you where the broken bone in your soul is, but it can't heal the bone. Only God can.
So many Catholics seem to be forgiving themselves their sins (cafeteria Catholics). Are they indeed sins if they don't believe them to be?
Bill Seno
Hinsdale, Il
Yes. However, our culpability varies according to our knowledge and freedom.
If a 3-year-old child finds a gun in Daddy's desk and, thinking it is a toy, shoots and kills his brother, a great evil has been done, but not a great sin. The child's lack of knowledge reduces his culpability to virtually zero.
However, there is another kind of ignorance that is not innocent. As C.S. Lewis observes, the trouble with trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you can often succeed. So, for instance, there were people who saw Jesus perform works of healing and exorcism and who simply refused to face the facts. Instead, they declared Him an agent of Beelzebub. This was ignorance, but one which make the sinner even more guilty.
Obviously, it's up to God to judge, not us. But our task is to keep informing our consciences, not to make ourselves stupider like the Pharisees did. Grave sin can only exist where we have grave matter, freedom, and sufficient understanding. Without those three, grave sin does not exist. But that's not an excuse to keep oneself ignorant of what grave sin is.
For further reading, see “What We Can't Not Know” by J. Budziszewski.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
Dear M. Shea,
Thank you for your quick and thorough answers. Some theologians believe being condemned while dying with a mortal sin is pre-Vatican II.
Some theologians believe all sorts of nonsense. 🙂 The truth, however, is that if a person dies in mortal sin (that is, dies choosing to radically reject the grace of Christ who alone can save him) that person shall get what they chose and shall find that what they chose is precisely hell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, a very post-VII document, tells us:1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death, the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire.” The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
Maybe the gist is your definition of grave sin (grave matter, freedom, and sufficient understanding), of which I would appreciate a clarity.
Bill Seno
Bill,
Here's my take on the distinction between mortal and venial sin.
Hope that helps!
Blessings,
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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