I know you were not responding to me, but thanks anyway, Max. That is kind of how I would have understood the Catholic view. I think I've said elsewhere that I'm not comfortable 'rating' sin, this is especially true of my own, and I'm not convinced I'm qualified to rate anyone else's. I can see, however where there may be some logic in it.MaxPC wrote:Thank you, RZehr. I'd be happy to except for one snag: Catholic explanations are never brief in our writings. They tend to be repetitive so that the meanings are clear in multiple languages.RZehr wrote:I think we've discussed it for a bit. I'm fine with you sharing in brief, publicly, how the Catholics understand this.MaxPC wrote:Great thread, RZehr.
My explanation would be from Catholic theology and since this is an Anabaptist thread, I'll keep schtum about that perspective on list. If you're interested in the Catholic read of it, feel free to PM me.
An extremely abbreviated version is that we categorize sins according to the severity of impact on a man's immortal soul.
There are venial (smaller) sins that impede a man's discipleship but don't deal a death blow to his soul's eternal hope of salvation.
Then there are the mortal sins (the really big ones) that place a man's soul in danger of eternal damnation if he does not repent.
Repentance is always key to any of them. As the Bible instructs we never know fully what passes between a man's soul and God.
Hope that helps. Even the abbreviated versions are long winded. Just don't share this with the Vatican because someone, somewhere, in those ancient halls with far too much time on his hands will start nitpicking it to death.
As you said, the key for dealing with sin is repentance, and I would add to that, confession is also necessary, especially in the sense of 'agreeing with God' about what is sin.