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Question
Dear Father Angelo,
Thank you for your answers. I have another question that I would like to clarify with you. According to Catholic doctrine, mortal sin is such if the conditions of 1) grave matter, 2) deliberate consent, 3) full knowledge exist.
The worship done to pagan gods has always been associated with the sin of idolatry, that is a mortal sin against the first commandment. I wonder, however: since there is no full knowledge, is such a sin considered mortal in God’s eyes? In other words, can anyone who does not know that a certain grave sin is such, and does it in good faith, be saved?
If so, then why did the Lord want to spread the gospel to the world and have all men baptized? If pagans, worshiping their idols, do not commit mortal sin (because there is no full knowledge of sin), what reason is there to open their eyes?
I apologize if I was not clear in the question,
Waiting for your answer,
Gaetano
Answer of the priest
Dear Gaetano,
- Your reasoning appears to be flawless.
At this point, however, Jesus would have done better not to incarnate and to face passion and death, because all, or almost all, would have been saved anyway.
But it is not so.
- What you said about mortal sin and the conditions necessary to commit it is true.
However, St. Paul recalls that serving idols is the same as serving demons: “So what am I saying? That meat sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, I mean that what they sacrifice, (they sacrifice) to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons” (1 Cor 10: 19-20).
- Now you can imagine what a devastation the devil does in people who even unwittingly open up to him and remain his slaves.
The Lord calls the devil a thief. In fact, he says: “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).
St. Thomas comments: “In the first place, the thief ‘comes only to steal’, i.e., to usurp what is not his: ‘He waits in ambush to catch the innocent’ (Ps 10:8). Secondly, the thief comes ‘to kill’, and he kills by bringing in perverse teachings and evil practices.
Thirdly, the thief comes ‘to destroy’, by casting into everlasting destruction: ‘Lost sheep were my people’ (Jer 50:6)”.
- Jesus also said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (Jn 8:34).
Those who are slaves are dependent, they are bound, impeded.
Those who commit sin are prevented from soaring high, from knowing, loving and possessing God in their heart.
How can one who is imprisoned in sin be satisfied with the rich food of his house and the drink he gives from his delightful stream? (Ps 36: 9)?
- It should also be remembered that even if one is not aware of committing sin, sin remains an evil in itself and hurts those who commit it.
John Paul II writes in Reconciliatio et paenitentia: “As a personal act, sin has its first and most important consequences in the sinner himself: that is, in his relationship with God, who is the very foundation of human life; and also in his spirit, weakening his will and clouding his intellect” (RP 16), and thus, gravely offending God, “ends in turning against man himself with a dark and powerful force of destruction” (RP 17) .
As I have said several times, even if you do not have the warning that a certain drink is harmful, if you drink it, it is still harmful!
The Scripture says: “Those who sin wrong themselves” (Sir 19: 4).
And John Paul II: “Sin is a suicidal act” (RP 15).
And Saint Augustine: “Sin is a curse” (Contra Faustum, 14,4), that is, it is a certain curse that one does to oneself.
- Man cannot do without Christ to save himself.
Only in him does he find the full truth about himself (Gaudium et spes, 22).
Only Christ is way, truth and life.
Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).
So how can man be saved without the light of Christ and the help of grace?
Anyone who is not a Christian is lacking the knowledge of Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2: 3), he is lacking the sacraments of the Church.
He is deprived of the sacrament of Reconciliation, which forgives sins, purifies and renews.
Above all, he is devoid of the Eucharist, of being able to sit at the same table as the Lord and in some way acquire the very powers of the One who invited him.
For the ancient Eastern kings, inviting to supper was tantamount to elevating a person to one’s rank. This is what the Lord wanted to do with us.
He feeds us with that Eucharist of which the manna of the Old Testament was a prefiguration. And if manna was the food that revealed God’s sweetness towards his children because this substance, “serving the desire of him who received it, was blended to whatever flavor each one wished” (Wis 16:21), how much more should be said of the Eucharist!
So why leave a multitude immersed in the misery of ignorance and sin and deprive them of that life that Jesus came so that they might have, and have it more abundantly? (Jn 10:10).
- Hence, as we can see, the urgency to bring the Gospel of Christ to all men.
It is the highest form of charity we can have for everyone.
Also for you, who wrote to us.
I remind you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo
Translated by Chiara P.