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Father Cleary
Father Richard James Cleary was born and reared in Wichita. After graduation from Cathedral High School in 1947, he attended the seminary operated by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey in Northwestern Missouri. There he came to appreciate the life of the monks and, having obtained the permission of Bishop Mark Carroll of Wichita, he became a monk of that monastery. After being ordained a priest in 1955, his superiors sent him to get his master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada, then to study in Athens, Greece, and then in Rome, Italy, where he obtained his doctor’s degree in Theology. Finally, he spent a year of study at Harvard University. Later, Fr. Cleary was assigned to teach for many years in Rome. In 1998, he returned to Wichita, where he served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at Blessed Sacrament parishes. In 2001, his abbot (superior) transferred him to Arkansas, where he served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, and helped in the parishes of northeast Arkansas. In March 2010, he was re-assigned to his monastery, Conception Abbey, Conception, in Missouri 64433. He can be contacted there at, 660-944-2877, or by email: rjcleary@juno.com.
Religion
2013-04-29 13:30:29
Sins: big & little
Q-Which sins are big and which sins are little? Which sins are serious and grave, mortal and deadly (for the soul), and which sins are not so grave or venial? For example, if one person believes that pre-marital sex is not a sin or a small sin, and another person believes it to be a grievous sin: which person is right? If a person really believes something is not a sin or a minor sin, will he/she be held accountable for the sin as if it is a grievous or serious sin?
A-All sin is understood to be an offense against God. Sin involves a rejection of God, even opposition to God, even as sin continues to weigh heavily on human life. Only in the light of the Bible and the Church's Tradition can we recognize sin clearly. Without God's revelation we are tempted to explain sin as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for mankind can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the free-will that God gives to every human person:so he/she is capable to loving God and loving one another. Sin is an offense against reason, truth and right conscience. Sin is any thought or word or action, which turns our heart away from God. God loves each one of us, and He created us to love Him in return. There are many kinds of sins. The Bible provides several lists of them. In his Epistle to the Galatians (5:19-21) St. Paul lists "fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you . . . that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." The root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of Jesus: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person" (Mt 15:19-20). The distinction between mortal (serious, grave) sin and venial (lesser) sin in taught by St. John in his first epistle (5:16-17): "There is such a thing as deadly sin. . . . True, all wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin is deadly." This is corroborated by human experience. Mortal (serious, grave) sin is sin whose object is grave matter, and which is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent. Serious or Grave Matter is spelled out by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother" (Mk 10:19). The gravity (seriousness) of sins is more or less great: e.g. murder is graver than theft. One must also take account who is wronged: to steal from a poor person is more serious than theft from a rich person. In order that a sin be serious (mortal, grave) it is necessary that the sinner have full knowledge of what she/he is doing, and that they are doing it with their complete consent. To pretend ignorance or habit does not diminish, but rather increases the willful character of a sin. God is not deceived by pretense. The gravity of a sin can be diminished by unintentional ignorance, and sometimes by external pressures, or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is most serious (grave, mortal). When a sinner dies unrepentant for a serious (mortal, grave) sin, she/he is excluded from God's kingdom. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a serious sin, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God. A person commits a venial (little) sin when, in a non-serious matter, he/she does not observe the moral law, or when she/he violates the moral law in a grave matter, but is lacking full knowledge or complete consent. Venial sin weakens the will and impedes the individual soul's progress towards God. It deserves temporary punishment. Who sins in small matters is not deprived of friendship with God, and consequently can obtain eternal happiness. "While in this life, a person cannot help but have at least some light sins" (St. Augustine). But even these should be repented every day. Small sins, which a person takes-for-granted, can lead easily to repetition, and then to hardening the conscience: so that gradually it becomes easier to commit greater sins. Eventually, the repetition of small sins can lead to mortal (serious, grave) sins, which separate a person from union with God. Now I return to the example mentioned in the original question: ". . . if one person believes that pre-marital sex is not a sin or a small sin, and another person believes it to be a grievous sin: which person is right?If a person really believes something is not a sin or a minor sin, will he/she be held accountable for the sin as if it is a grievous or serious sin?" Pre-marital sex is the serious sin of fornication. Whoever believes it is not a sin is wrong because it is against God's Law, as I cited from St. Paul above in the second paragraph. Whoever believes some small matter to be a serious sin is wrong in their opinion. But, if they go ahead and do it anyway, they will be held accountable: not by reason of the small matter, but because of their rejection of God in sinning against their conscience. Every human person is endowed with conscience as part of reason, whereby she/he can recognize the moral quality of a concrete act that he/she is going to perform, or has already completed. In everything she/he says and does, a person is obliged to follow faithfully what he/she knows to be just and right. To act against one's conscience is sinful. Through ignoring the good intentions of one's conscience, it is possible to deaden one's sensitivity to sin, and think of the evil, to which a person is inclined, as being perfectly natural. A sinner, who has "killed" his conscience, is unlikely to repent before he dies, and therefor will suffer the consequences throughout eternity.
 
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