Okay, you know what the right answer is supposed to be, but if the Catholic Church is going to make such a big deal about mortal sins being . . . well, mortal, then it kind of makes venial sins look light by comparison.
Even when it comes to confession, the stress is always on the mortal sins: make sure to include them, the frequency, and just what were you thinking? (Okay, maybe that last one is just some repressed Catholic guilt™.)
This superficial understanding of the distinction between mortal and venial sins can be confusing for those without experience in the tradition. This confusion can create a misunderstanding of what role sin has in a person’s spiritual life.
Besides the spiritual complacency it can engender in the individual (“oh, that’s only a venial sin”), it can cause scandal, as a collection of Catholics who dismiss committing venial sins, which are also more common, creates the impression that Catholics do not care about sin at all.
Fortunately, the Church’s extensive reflection on the spiritual life includes specific, concrete ways that venial sins will negatively affect a person and why they should be avoided. One helpful list is provided by spiritual master Jordan Aumann, O.P. in his Spiritual Theology. In it, he lists four such effects of venial sin on the individual spiritual life (155):
1. Venial sin stifles the offering of God’s grace.
God is continually offering grace to every person in the way most suitable to that person. However, God is also upholding, by his grace, our free will, which is the capacity in us that makes it possible to reject God’s grace. When we commit venial sin, which often forms habits, we dull our sense of recognizing those opportunities to cooperate with the grace God offers.
Consider self-centeredness. When I am always caught up in my own concerns, thoughts, and goals (often exacerbated by the handheld feedback machine constantly providing new concerns, thoughts, and goals), I am less able to recognize others inviting me into deeper engagement with them, experiencing real life. These opportunities for grace—for example, my wife and children—are continually offered to me for my sanctification. If I don’t look around every once in a while, I will miss it.
2. Venial sin shrinks our capacity for charity.
Sin, by its nature, is opposed to charity. Any sin, including venial sin, will necessarily oppose the charity present in a person’s soul. Even the seemingly harmless white lie, pear theft (gotta love the classics), or “victimless crime” reflects a rejection of charity. Arguably, the “lighter” material of a sin betrays a primary motivation simply to rebel. This rebellion is a deeper wound to charity than the lie or the stolen item.
The best example of this is provided by St. Augustine. Reflecting on his rebellious youth in his Confessions, he recognizes the deeper wound of his peer-pressured pear pilfery. The sin for the sake of sin did the real damage to Augustine’s soul. It was technically venial, but Augustine recognized how destructive it was to his young, undeveloped sense of charity.
3. Venial sin stymies virtue.
Similar to the first point about preventing grace offered by God, venial sin also undermines the natural virtues latent within us. Virtue, because it is a moderate action between the vices of defect and excess, is hard enough as it is. The human tendency upon recognizing a sin in us is to overcorrect, swinging between defect and excess. The more we do this, the harder that balance is to strike.
For example, a person who struggles with gluttony will perhaps resolve, just after over-indulging, to make up for this sin by taking on a fast. Although a fast is, of course, not sinful, it is likely an imprudent decision on this individual’s part that will surely create another, greater temptation to overindulge again. This makes the balance of a healthy relationship with food more difficult.
4. Venial sin predisposes us to mortal sin.
This fourth point is really the culmination of the previous three. A habitual dismissal of grace, severing of charity, and obstruction of virtue could only result in serious sin.
Far from a slippery slope fallacy, this point follows the infallible logic of addiction. Eventually, the addict will need more and more of the drug to get the same high. Whatever excitement the initial sin caused, or, to put a more sympathetic spin on it, the same need threshold that justified the initial sin, will continually change as the sinner repeatedly engages in that sin. Inversely, the justification will produce more sophisticated rationales. The movement is not from stealing one pear to stealing a hundred, it is more like stealing because the sinner thinks no one will be hurt to stealing so that the victim is hurt. This is a change in the quality of the sin, beyond just the quantity.
Yes, it really does matter!
If it was not obvious already, yes, venial sin matters on the individual and corporate levels in the Church. We are, after all, the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:29), and our actions, even small ones, have effects. Stubbing your toe really hurts your toe, but it also affects your gait and your posture, which affects your back, which pinches nerves, and now you have a headache, too!
Fortunately, we have spiritual masters like Fr. Aumann, who clearly articulates the finer points of how sin affects us. We also have the sacrament of reconciliation, where we can confess our sins to a properly deputized priest (James 5:16)—and those sins, I have it on good authority (John 20:21-23), will be forgiven.
2about venial sin. It is, itself, an opportunity for God’s sanctifying grace, so going to reconciliation is our cooperation with grace. Our contrition in confessing our sins, even if it is imperfect contrition, is formed by charity. Because we humble ourselves by going to reconciliation, we exhibit a foundational virtue that allows for other virtues to grow. Finally, the sanctifying grace of reconciliation washes away any actual mortal sin in the soul, and all the more any predisposition to mortal sin.
Athough the “bad news” of venial sin is still bad (it is sin, after all), the good news, the gospel, which necessarily includes the Church and the sacraments, is much, much greater!