...Under Pain Of Mortal Sin

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life...Alone - like the moon. Alone - I wait for you. Alone - all of my life. I can't forget you.
Soledad~~~Amy Sky

Several of us Bishop Fallon Community and Friends were having supper at MY TOMATO PIE Friday evening. Keep in mind that this is a Friday, it is Lent, and part of what is ordered is Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza. While the food that was ordered, was being served a couple of remarks are being made about the pepperoni element to which I dead-pan...under pain of mortal sin.

To my surprise I received a bunch a blank stares. I'm sure it was a mix of...'where did that come from', and... 'what is he talking about, now!?!?'

I was somewhat surprised by the bewilderment because the crowd for the most part was: 58+ years age-group, attended Catholic High Schools, and Catholic Grade Schools. Apparently as these friends were growing up and observing their Lenten Season, they were never informed of the GRAVITY of KNOWINGLY eating meat on Friday.

Now I'm not looking to turn this essay into a theological and ecclesiastical thesis. I'd have to tap into the Library of Congress and the Liberia Editrice Vaticana, and I'm not about to do that. However, as I was growing up to where I was of age to have to start observing the fast and abstinence requirements of Lent, I was taught...that Under Pain of Mortal Sin, a Catholic could not knowingly eat meat on Friday. And apparently none of the persons at the table ever heard of that. I wasn't going to push it; we were there to have fun. But---I was haunted by this. Was I the only misinformed Catholic of that era?!?!? Over the week-end I thought I'd look at a couple of options. One absolutely shocked me!!!!!

I put...'Under Pain of Mortal Sin' into Google and lo and behold a non-Vatican-sponsored Catholic discussion Web Log comes up. And sure enough, as shown below, in WWW.AskaCatholic.Com...

The Church DOES teach that during ALL Friday's of Lent we are required to abstain from meat.
As the Body of Christ, the members of the Church offer a mini-sacrifice during this penitential season.

Our Blessed Lord, through the Church, has always taught that there are 3 criteria necessary for a mortal sin:

• Knowledge (knowing it is a sin.)
• Full Consent of the Will (they willingly do it any way)
• Serious reflection. (It was no accident.)

If any one of these criteria are missing, it is NOT a mortal sin.

If someone has met all three criteria above, and still eats meat on a Friday of Lent, they would have to go to Confession to remove the deadly/mortal sin from their soul.

A person who dies with mortal sin on their soul cannot be saved. (Go to Heaven)

If one were to purposely eat meat on a day of fasting or abstinence from meat, one is committing an act of rebellion. And therein lies the sin. There is nothing particularly holy or unholy about eating certain foods on certain days.

This is a matter of discipline and obedience to the Church's legitimate authority to impose disciplines. That said, there are all kinds of reasonable exceptions. There are those who, for health reasons, can't fast, or those who may have no choice in what they eat.

If all you have left in the refrigerator is a hamburger and you don't have enough money to buy anything else to eat, God is not going to send you to hell for eating meat on a day of abstinence. That's a pretty far fetched example, but it serves to illustrate my point. The sin of rebellion is what constitutes "grave matter". In fact, the Bible compares rebellion to witchcraft or sorcery.

The question was "has the Vatican ever stated or pronounced" anything on this issue and the fact is, while it is not in force anymore, there was a time when abstinence from flesh meat was binding under pain of mortal sin on every Friday (except those within octaves, which are the eight days after certain major feasts like Christmas and Easter).

"Binding under pain of mortal sin" means if you do it knowingly and deliberately, you are deprived of saving grace and if you die in this state (without repentance), you will go to Hell. This changed in the 60's. Thus you have the tradition of fish on Friday and so forth. As John points out, this was a discipline, and the sin was in disobeying the authority (binding and loosing power) of the Church to lay down this rule.

...there is a discussion of Lent, fasting, and the gravity of knowingly eating meat on Friday. In the discussions, the expression...Under Pain of Mortal Sin---is used!!!! I was at least relieved to know I wasn't nuts; I wasn't the only Catholic that knew of the expression.

Now comes the shocker. I'm at my Mother-in-Law's on Sunday. Keep in mind she is 85 years old. If anybody can reflect on old-school Catholicism, it would be my Mother-in-Law. During supper I asked her what does she recall being taught about the gravity of knowingly eating meat on Friday during Lent. With 'you' being taught by the Felician Nuns, weren't 'you' taught that the gravity was...under pain of Mortal Sin?!?!? To my surprise she, and her life-partner emphatically retorted---No!!!!

Apparently time and distance does blur realities. That is the angst I am concerned with regarding other areas of discussions where Revisionists take liberties, with the insulation of time, to suggest that different actions would have had different reactions.

While I was taught by the Felicians for 3rd Grade and 6th Grade, I will now say this, the tougher Nuns were the SSMN of Annunciation. It was at St. Boniface and Annunciation that I was taught...UNDER PAIN OF MORTAL SIN, it was wrong to knowingly eat Meat on Friday during Lent.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise