- Feb 15, 2017
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Ironically enough, I get rather irritated when asking about the sin of anger, mainly because I have a hard time getting an objective answer. And in case anyone is wondering, I have for the most calmed down from my anger issues earlier, but I still haven't fully recovered.
Anyways, I really want an objective answer to the question of when is anger mortally sinful. So far, I have gathered this much, anger is mortally sinful when one kills or seriously injures someone, or thinks about killing or seriously injuring someone. Anger also becomes mortally sinful when one seeks to spiritually injure or kill another person, (like committing scandal) thinks about spiritually killing someone, (like wishing the person was damned) or by outright blasphemy. That's my understanding of when anger becomes mortally sinful, if I've gotten anything wrong, a lot of this was based on both the Catechism, and the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
However, there are still a lot of things I don't understand about anger, and when it becomes mortally sinful, I really want know about these instances which I am about to list here, can anyone please explain these instances and whether or not they render anger mortally sinful:
1. Hitting: As mentioned above seriously injuring someone is mortally sinful, but what about striking someone without the intention to seriously injure someone? What about thinking about striking someone in a vaguely violent way where it's clear whether such a strike in real life would cause serious injury?
2. Wishing to cause someone harm: I assume torture would be considered mortally sinful, even though it's intention is usually to cause someone pain without seriously injuring them. But about wanting to cause someone pain with seriously injuring them, in a non-tortuous way?
3. Passion and culpability: With lust at least, passion usually doesn't undermine culpability, but what about anger? I already touched on hitting, but what about other instances where passion results in grave consequences? What about a person who acts out, and tries his best to make the situation not mortally sinful, and yet grave consequences he had no intention of causing still arise?
So these are my question regarding when anger becomes a mortal sin. There may have been other questions I have forgotten to ask, but this question is already quite long. Please answer them.
Anyways, I really want an objective answer to the question of when is anger mortally sinful. So far, I have gathered this much, anger is mortally sinful when one kills or seriously injures someone, or thinks about killing or seriously injuring someone. Anger also becomes mortally sinful when one seeks to spiritually injure or kill another person, (like committing scandal) thinks about spiritually killing someone, (like wishing the person was damned) or by outright blasphemy. That's my understanding of when anger becomes mortally sinful, if I've gotten anything wrong, a lot of this was based on both the Catechism, and the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
However, there are still a lot of things I don't understand about anger, and when it becomes mortally sinful, I really want know about these instances which I am about to list here, can anyone please explain these instances and whether or not they render anger mortally sinful:
1. Hitting: As mentioned above seriously injuring someone is mortally sinful, but what about striking someone without the intention to seriously injure someone? What about thinking about striking someone in a vaguely violent way where it's clear whether such a strike in real life would cause serious injury?
2. Wishing to cause someone harm: I assume torture would be considered mortally sinful, even though it's intention is usually to cause someone pain without seriously injuring them. But about wanting to cause someone pain with seriously injuring them, in a non-tortuous way?
3. Passion and culpability: With lust at least, passion usually doesn't undermine culpability, but what about anger? I already touched on hitting, but what about other instances where passion results in grave consequences? What about a person who acts out, and tries his best to make the situation not mortally sinful, and yet grave consequences he had no intention of causing still arise?
So these are my question regarding when anger becomes a mortal sin. There may have been other questions I have forgotten to ask, but this question is already quite long. Please answer them.
