Where do we get the terms mortal and venial sin? Is it Scriptural?

Question: Where do we get the terms mortal and venial sin? Is it Scriptural?

Answer: The terms mortal and venial sin are indeed Scriptural. They are based on the 1Jn 5:16-17:

• If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

Sin that does not lead to death is known as venial sin. It damages your relationship with God, but does not kill it. Sin that leads to death (God's supernatural life leaves you, your natural soul still stays with you) is called mortal sin because when someone gives you a mortal blow, they end your life.

Two quick points about mortal and venial sin. First, all sin is bad, even venial sin. We must remember sin is about a relationship, not just breaking rules. In any relationship, we wouldn't just punch our best friend in the face for example and say, "Well, I just punched him, I didn't kill him." Even though you didn't kill your friend or your friendship, your actions damage that relationship. Secondly, even if we do kill our friendship with God through mortal sin, we must always remember that Christ died so that we may have life. He can raise us from the dead and he does that through the Sacrament of Confession which is based on John 20:21-23:

• Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said,"Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Explaining Mary and the Saints

Question: How do we, as Catholics, explain to people that we so not worship the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints?

Answer: The first thing you must always do when explaining anything is to know your audience. You would not explain Mary and the saints to an athiest (someone who does not believe in God) in the same way you would explain it to a Protestant, or even a fallen away Catholic. With that in mind, I will give you a variety of ways to explain how Catholics don't worship Mary and the saints, but we do honor them and ask for their intercession.

With that being said, we honor the saints in heaven for one simple reason, because Christ honors them. We see this through countless examples in Scripture:

• "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I call you friends"-Jn 15:5
• "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
  prepare a place for you."-Jn 14:2
• "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."-James 1:12
• "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."-Rev 2:10

So we see that Christ honors us by calling us friends, by giving us a mansion in heaven, and even crowns us as royalty because we stay faithful to him. Mary herself is given a special crown as shown in Rev. 12:1:

• A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Notice that this crown of the woman who would bear the "child destined to rule the nations with an iron rod"-Rev. 12:5 (who is Christ-see Ps 2:9, a messianic Psalm) is of 12 stars. This is the fufillment of the promise to Abraham through his desendant Jacob/Israel whose son Joseph, had a dream that was a to be fufilled in its fullest sense in Rev.-see Gen 37:9. The 12 stars are the 12 tribes of Israel which represented the people of God. So this woman is crowned as the Queen of God's people. God's people will all eventually be in Heaven (hence the title Queen of Heaven). She is crowned not by man, but by God Himself. So if, the saints are good enough to be honored by Christ, and thus God; if being a Christian means following Christ and His example; then we can't help but honor those whom God honors.

As for intercessory prayer, this is also because of Christ. In James 5:16, it says, "The prayers of a righteous man availath much." We see this truth presented all through out Scripture:

• God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah because of the intercession of the righteous Abraham (see Gen. 18:16-32)
• God spared Israel after they worshiped the Golden calf because of the righteous prayer of Moses (Ex. 32:7-14)
• God himself even asked Job to intercede on behalf of his friends because of his righteousness, "Now therefore...go to my servant Job and offer a holocaust to yourselves; and let my servant Job pray for you, for his prayer I will accept, not to punish you severely"-Job 42:8

Just so you don't think this is simply an Old Testament practice, intercessory prayer is in the New Testament too:

• And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.-Eph 6:18
• And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.-Rev 5:8
• Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.-Rev 8:3

Now these men while still on earth had powerful prayers because they were righteous in the eyes of God; how much more then, would the prayers of the righteous man in heaven who sees God face to face and lives with Him forever (see 1Jn 3:2) be! Even better still, how much more powerful the woman who is the most righteous human ever to live and has recieved a crown of glory in heaven as seen in Rev. 12:1.

Now the most common objection, 1Tim. 2:5, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." As Catholics, we believe this with all our might and to say anything otherwise is heresy. However, we as Catholics believe that the saints are not mediators in spite of or instead of Christ, but we are mediators precisely because of Christ. Christ gives mankind a share in his power and offices. Some example are:

• Christ is God, the creator of all things (see Heb. 1:1-2; Col. 1:16-17), but He gives man a share in that office in procreation. He even commands them to have a share in this when he says, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it."
• Christ is the Supreme Judge (see Jn 5:27, 9:39). He however allows those who are united with him to share in his judgement. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"-Mt. 19:28. See also 1Cor 6:2-3, Lk 22:30
• God also is the only one who has the power to heal. He is the Divine Physician (2Cor. 5:18-21). Christ shares this healing power with man. Peter heals a cripple in Acts 3:4-10. Ananias gives Paul back his sight in Acts 9:13-19. In fact, the apostles were so well known for their healing powers that people "carried their sick out into the streets in order to be healed"-Acts 5:15

So if Christ chose to give mankind a share in his offices and glory in these things, why could he not do it in his office of intercessor. He clearly does if you read Scripture as a whole as noted in the examples cited above. We can all intercede for one another because we all are a part of his Mystical Body. Thus, when we intercede for one another, we do so in and through Christ (hence why we can pray for one another) and the saints in heaven intercede for us because they too are part of mystical body of Christ even though the have died. After all, St. Paul tells us, "What can seperate us from the love of Christ...For I am convinced that niether death..."-Rom 8:35-39. If the saints are not seperated from the love of Christ by death, then they must be in the love of Christ and thus can share in his love, i.e, interceding for others.

This is how 1 Tim 2:5 must be read. We know this because in 1Tim 2:1, just 4 verses before 1Tim 2:5, reads, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone." Paul is not refuting intercessory prayer, but he is asking for it. What sense would it make for Paul to ask for intercessory prayer and then in the next sentence condemn it. Better yet, what sense would it make for God to inspire Paul to ask for intercessory prayer and then condemn it. We know that God can't contradict himself and that the Bible is inspired and thus cannot contradict itself. Thus we know that 1Tim 2:5 can't mean a condemnation upon intercessory prayer. It actually is the exact opposite. Paul is writing that because we are in Christ, we can and should intercede for one another.

Therefore we ask Mary and the saints to intercede for us because Christ has arranged it this way and Scripture clearly shows this.

Here are the answers to some other objections:

Explanation 1 (explanation through reason): Some people say that Catholics worship Mary and the saints because we honor them with our prayers.

Honor does not necessarily mean worship. The claim is that we put Mary and the saints on a different level than human beings. We pay them special tribute and thus we, as Catholics must be worshiping them. This is false and unreasonable because we pay a different degree of respect to different people even here on earth due to their titles. We pay more respect to our parents than we do to our little brothers or sisters. If the President of the United States walked in, we would stand up and maybe even salute him. This does not mean that we worship him, it means that we are showing respect to his title. Now the saints in heaven have the title of being with God for all eternity. They are ones who "are righteous in the eyes of God" and thus deserve a respect beyond just the average human being. Mary, has the unique title of Mother of God, and thus deserves the uttermost respect because of that. She is the mother of our Lord and thus, we as Catholics honor her in a special way.

Explanation 2 (through reason and Scripture): We must worship the saints and Mary because we have statues and graven images through of them all over the place. This is expressedly forbidden in Ex. 20:4-7

Having statues of something does not necessarily mean that you are worshiping it. There are statues all over Washington DC of presidents, animals, etc., but they are not there for worship. They are there to honor the person who the image is made of. If simply building an image and remembering a person equaled idol worship, then our entire nation and the history of the entire world was built on idolatry for statues have been around for milienia. The reason that we have statues, pictures, etc. are the same reason that families have family portraits, pictures of loved ones who are far away, and tombstones of those who have gone before them. So we can remember and honor them. The saints who went before us remind us that sanctity is not only something that we should aim for, but in Christ, something that is possible. When we remember our loved ones that are far away of those who have died, we are not worshiping them, we are honoring them.

Posting a question

To post a question:
1. Click under the "Introduction" blog the "Post a comment" link
2. Type in a question in the "leave your comment box"
3. I will look at the question and post a blog to that question so others can comment on the question or answer.
4. Note: If you want to remain anonymous, click the "create a profile" button and use a name other than your own such as "Student 1" or "Coolest dude" or whatever. God bless!!!!

or

Click on the "New Post" clip board in the top right hand corner of your screen and put your question.
2. Click on the "Publish" button (it's orange) at the bottom of the screen and I will answer it as another post so everyone can read it.

Note: This information is also under "comment" to the introduction section

Introduction

This blog is for all the questions that I have been asked by all of you teens that I thought you all may like to read about. I will post some each week or you can write in and I'll reply. I hope you all write in and ask questions. You do not have to leave your name, just ask the question. God bless and look foward to your questions.

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
Mr. Anthony

Is God male or female

Q: Is God male or female?

A: Neither, He is pure spirit. See the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #370. We must always remember that man was made in God's image, not God made in man's image.

Different Races from Adam and Eve

Q: If Adam and Eve were white, how do we have the different races?

A: First, we must realize that Adam and Eve were not "white" like we imagine. Some believe they may have first been put in Africa, but from the Genesis account describing the rivers around the Garden (see Gen. 2:10-14), the were around an area that is current day Iraq.
Anyways, as the first man and woman, just as with us today, they had dominant and recessive genes and thus there could be different combinations of eyes, skin color, pigmentation, etc. Thus, there could be different "races." So we see that science can work hand and hand with Theology.

Fear and death in the Garden of Eden

Q: Why was Adam afraid of death in the Garden of Eden if death was a consequence of original sin?

A: I did some more research into your question last night about why was Adam afraid to stand up to the serpent. I found the missing link. Original sin did bring death into the world, but sacrifice, the necessary ingredient for love existed before original sin (hence the command of God to Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. They had to sacrifice that tree to show their love for God.). Now God allowed Eve to be tested and thus Adam also to prove their love for Him. Eve failed due to her own free will, but Adam failed all the worse because he did not look after his bride (also done from his free-will).
Now, there are, if you may, three ways you could give your life: naturally, unfreely, or freely. Natural death is when someone dies from natural causes such as old age because their body just decays. This did not exist before original sin. The decay of the body was not something that is natural to human nature, it's an after effect of original sin (So I would still have a decent hairline if it wasn't for original sin). Then there is the ending of life in an unfree way, for example murder. Remember the demons and Satan had all ready fallen at this point and honestly did want to murder man (both male and female). So this kind of death did exist before original sin and this was the giving of life that Adam was afraid of.
The last type of giving of life is as a free gift. 1Jn 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out all fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love." Adam's fear was due to the fact that he would have to give his life, but if he really loved his bride with God's love (which was put in him from the very beginning), he would have laid down his life freely for Eve. Thus, it would not be fear of losing his life that drove him, but a glorification of His love for His bride. Our Lord tells us this, "No greater love than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends."-John 15:13. This laying down of life for love then no longer becomes murder, but marytrdom. Martyr comes from the Greek word martus which means witness. This laying down of Adam's life would be a witness/sign/sacrament-a visible sign of an invisible reality- to three things: the love Adam had for his bride Eve, his virginity (the togetherness of both his body and soul/emotions to make a gift of himself to his bride and God by laying down his life for them) and His trust that God is a Father and would look after him as such, not just as a master who could dispense with one of his creatures.
If Adam would have stood up to the serpent, he may have lost his life, but he would have obtained the beatific vision in light of it. He would not have died per se because death is simply the term for the seperation of body and soul (that's why I haven't been writing \nthere are 3 ways to die). He, as well as Eve, would have probably been assumed both body and soul into Heaven just as our Blessed Mother was after her earthly life because she never lost her virginity (in the true since of the word, not in the secular sense that the world defines it), hence her body never acted in a way that seperated her from the good of her soul. I say probably becasue we will never know if this were the case since Adam did fall. Hence, his reward is only something we can speculate about.
The laying down of one's life as a "gateway" to Heaven, was part of God's plan from the beginning because love was part of God's plan from the very beginning, and still is. Sin has not snuffed this out just as we noted in class. If you look in the book of Revelation, it shows us that there are two types of people that we know will be heaven: the virgins (Rev. 14:4) and those who have laid down their life for their spouse (whom it is revealed as Christ-see Rev.19:7) known as martyrs (Rev. 6:9; 14:13). Thus in the Eschaton (end times), we see that those in heaven are those who are virgins and martyrs, just as Adam and Eve were called to be in the beginning and as we are called to be now. Hope this helps. God bless and know that you're in my prayers!