BEST of PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 by Diane K. Osbon in REFLECTIONS ON THE ART OF LIVING: A JOSEPH CAMPBELL COMPANION
“Heaven and hell are psychological definitions. The Catholic definition of mortal sin should relieve you of the thought that you have committed one. As a Catholic, you learn that for a sin to be mortal, the kind that condemns you to hell, it has to be a grievous matter, over which there has been sufficient reflection, done with full consent of the will. So, a mortal sin is a deliberate exclusion of the gift of grace, and is what the devil symbolizes. You cannot open to supernatural grace, to the voice of God.
Deliberately breaking the ritual law can be a mortal sin. But here’s the bizarre thing about such a religion of ritual laws: kill your mother in a passion, and that is not a mortal sin. That’s a venial sin, and you will have your two-thousand years in purgatory on that one. But one little mortal sin, and you’re bound for hell. Let’s all go in a big chariot. When the church said that eating meat on Friday was no longer a mortal sin, there was a crisis in the entire Catholic community. In New York City, where there are a lot of Catholics, there was a great crisis, part of which had to do with the fish merchants.”
Joseph Campbell, in Diane K. Osbon's “Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion”
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Deliberately breaking the ritual law can be a mortal sin. But here’s the bizarre thing about such a religion of ritual laws: kill your mother in a passion, and that is not a mortal sin. That’s a venial sin, and you will have your two-thousand years in purgatory on that one. But one little mortal sin, and you’re bound for hell. Let’s all go in a big chariot. When the church said that eating meat on Friday was no longer a mortal sin, there was a crisis in the entire Catholic community. In New York City, where there are a lot of Catholics, there was a great crisis, part of which had to do with the fish merchants.”
Joseph Campbell, in Diane K. Osbon's “Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion”
For more information regarding this book, visit Amazon.
A FREE service since its inception, "Ponder on This" benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including "links" to Amazon.com and other Web sites where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it. In all instances these links are provided as a convenience, and do NOT generate any type of compensation for Pondercentral.
Individuals interested in a direct subscription to "Ponder on This" are requested to please click here or feel free to forward to a friend.
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