Replies

Somebody toys briefly with the idea of stealing a pencil, while somebody else commits armed robbery of a bank and gets away with $200,000 in cash. Both of them are committing the sin of "stealing," but it's ridiculous to suggest that the objective guilt of both acts is the same.

Otherwise you end up with morally ridiculous situations, like equating what Adolph Eichmann did with me getting angry at someone who cuts me off in traffic. Both are sins against the commandment "Thou shalt not kill".

27“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28 NASB

Roman Catholic theology is leading you astray on this issue.

In the passage above Jesus does not make any allowance for your positions.

He makes it clear our thought life, in this case about adultery, is equal to the actual physical act itself.

It is either sin or it is not.

Jesus says it is.

This is where the Roman Catholic false doctrine of mortal and venial sins leads the Roman Catholic astray.

I've had too many conversations with your fellow Roman Catholics, and probably you as well, on this issue to know Rome views the thinking about adultery as being different than the physical act.

I agree the earthly consequences are different. If you lust after another woman (or dude if you are a gal), your spouse may never know.

However, God knows and that's what really matters.

Our thought about adultery, or stealing, or murder, etc....even for a moment condemns us.

It's these thoughts we're sometimes not even aware of that condemn us. It shows how utterly impossible it is to be "good enough" to get into Heaven on our own merits.

As I've said before, IF I were a Roman Catholic I'd never let the priest out of my sight. I'd be confessing every hour on the hour....just to be sure.

Fortunately, Christianity teaches something different than Roman Catholicism.

We we profess our faith in Christ He wipes away all of our sins. He nails them to the cross.

13When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14 NASB

Not quite true. It's the same sin, but there's a difference in the gravity of the objective guilt between thinking about the act and actually committing it. There are gradations of "thinking about it," as well -- between a slightly willed momentary toying with the idea, and a decisive fixation of the will "I'm going to do this ..." -- which matter, too. Somebody toys briefly with the idea of stealing a pencil, while somebody else commits armed robbery of a bank and gets away with $200,000 in cash. Both of them are committing the sin of "stealing," but it's ridiculous to suggest that the objective guilt of both acts is the same. Otherwise you end up with morally ridiculous situations, like equating what Adolph Eichmann did with me getting angry at someone who cuts me off in traffic. Both are sins against the commandment "Thou shalt not kill".

I'm with you. But there are many folks here who believe that sin is sin and that there is no difference between venial and mortal sin.
The example I gave was: murdering people and stealing your brother's cookies. To them, they are both the same. Bible quotes spilled out from them all over the page.
They made NO sense. Non-Catholics are free to interpret the Bible as they see fit.

For sure they are NOT Catholics.

They haven't the authority of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Living Magisterium--

https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a2.htm