Stab Me In The Heart
BY JOE SIXPACK
Rusty had a beautiful picture of the Mother of Sorrows above his bed. This image shows Our Lady with seven swords piercing her heart. Rusty used to look at the picture every night while he did his night prayers before going to bed, and he’d add three Hail Marys to the Blessed Virgin in her honor.
One day Rusty committed a mortal sin of impurity. He was sorry for his sin, but still planned to go to Communion the next day without first going to Confession. That night as he prayed at his bedside, Rusty was ashamed to look at the picture because his conscience was bothering him. Then he heard a voice saying, “Rusty, why don’t you look at me?”
Rusty looked up at the picture and heard the voice say, “Rusty, take this sword,” as she painfully pulled one of the swords from her heart and handed it to him. Then she said, “Now, stab me in the heart.”
Rusty was horrified. He said, “Mother, I could never do that! I’d never stab you!”
“But you will stab me in the heart, Rusty, if you receive Holy Communion tomorrow in mortal sin. Don’t you know you’ll be committing a sacrilege by receiving my Son into a sinful heart? Mortal sin nailed my Son to the cross, Rusty, and I’d rather have you stab me in the heart than that you should nail my Son to the cross with your sacrilege.”
Rusty cried out, “Blessed Mother, please forgive me! I’m sorry!”
The next day, Rusty made a good Confession and then received Jesus in Holy Communion. That night, as he said his prayers before the picture of the Mother of Sorrows, she seemed to smile at him because his heart was pure and clean again.
Our Mother of Sorrows made it poignantly clear to Rusty the immensity of the evil of mortal sin. As she said to Rusty, it is mortal sin that drives the nails into her Son’s flesh on the cross. But in these uncertain times when the popular culture and political correctness seem to have blurred the lines between good and evil, it’s often difficult for us to maintain a moral compass and identify just what is and isn’t sin.
Personal sin is any sin we commit ourselves by any free and willful thought, desire, word, action or (my personal favorite) omission — anything we failed to do but should have done — that is against the law of God. And there are two kinds of actual sin: venial and mortal.
Mortal sin is any serious offense against God’s law (e.g., murder, masturbation, abortion, artificial contraception, adultery, etc.). It causes the soul to lose sanctifying grace, destroys the merit of all a person’s good acts, and makes the person deserving of eternity in Hell … unless the sinner repents.
There are three conditions that must be present for a sin to be mortal: there is serious matter (the thought, desire, word, action or omission must be seriously wrong or thought to be seriously wrong); sufficient reflection (the person knows it’s seriously wrong); and full consent of a fully free will to doing what the person knows is seriously wrong. All three of these conditions must be present for a sin to be mortal.
Venial sin is a less serious offense against God. It doesn’t deprive the soul of sanctifying grace, but it does weaken our will toward mortal sin. Venial sin doesn’t make the sinner deserving of eternal punishment; however, because God is infinitely just, punishment is still exacted … either in this life or in Purgatory.
What makes a venial sin venial is when the sin lacks one or more of the three conditions of a mortal sin. In other words, if you act on an objectively serious matter without a fully free will, the sin is venial. If you act on an objectively serious matter but lack sufficient reflection, you aren’t guilty of mortal sin — merely venial. If you act on a serious matter but don’t realize it’s a serious matter, you commit venial sin. If the matter isn’t serious, you’re not guilty of mortal sin.
A good Catholic mother who was a cradle Catholic used a catechism I wrote twenty-five years ago to teach her children at home. She told me that until she taught her children from that catechism she didn’t know drunkenness was a mortal sin. So any drunkenness she was objectively guilty of prior to that was a venial sin. Now, however, having been corrected through her reading, if she gives in to drunkenness she will be guilty of mortal sin.
Consider this example. The eldest son of a family of five is leaving on a road trip for three days with his friends — a sort of final fling before going off to college. Mom and Dad tell him to be careful and call home every day so they know he’s okay.
The next night, Dad is staying up late to do some work at his desk. When he finishes, he goes to check on his younger children before going to bed. He turns off all the lights in the house and goes to his bedroom. As he begins to undress for bed, he hears a noise downstairs. He listens carefully and hears another small noise. He concludes someone is in the house, and he immediately fears for his family’s safety. So he reaches into the closet for his pistol.
Dad stealthily moves down the hall and down the stairs to the ground floor. It’s pitch black in the house. As he reaches the bottom step, he senses movement near him. In his fear and dread, he raises the gun and fires in the direction of the movement. He hears something fall to the floor. He turns on the light and finds… his eldest son dead at his feet. The son had come home unexpectedly without first notifying his parents.
Did Dad commit a mortal sin? Let’s examine it and see.
Is shooting his son serious matter? Yes, it is most certainly serious matter. Did he know it was serious matter (sufficient reflection)? Yes, he knew it was serious matter to shoot his son, but he believed he was exercising his moral right and duty to protect his family, so sufficient reflection is open to debate. Did he act with a fully free will? This is the trickiest part. He willed to protect his family. He didn’t will to shoot his son. His will was impeded and not fully free because of his fear and desire to protect his family.
Did Dad commit a mortal sin? Although he took the life of his son and the authorities are likely to charge him with manslaughter, it’s very unlikely he committed a mortal sin in the eyes of God. Had he turned on the lights or called out into the darkness and heard his son’s voice but then fired, he would most certainly have committed a mortal sin. Admittedly, this isn’t the greatest example to use, but it drives home the points of the presence of the three conditions and our need to know what is right and wrong.
There are endless situations that can happen in our lives, and we must be always aware of right and wrong. Our minds are made to know truth, so we’re obliged to learn God’s laws and form a right conscience. Failure to do so is itself sinful. And a principle of moral theology is, when we are in doubt as to whether something is the right thing to do, we must resolve the doubt or refrain from acting. We must never act on a doubtful conscience, and it’s sinful to do so.
If you have a question or comment you can reach out to me through the “Ask Joe” page of JoeSixpackAnswers.com, or you can email me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
Hey, how would you like to see things like this article every week in your parish bulletin as an insert? You or your pastor can learn more about how to do that by emailing me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
