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SIN, OR MORAL irresponsibility as failure to respond to the good of persons and ultimately to God, for the most part involves harm to human persons in themselves, in society or in their environment. God is offended because human persons made in his image are harmed (Lewis, 'Sin as Failure to be Fully Responsible', Compass 2013, Issue 3, pp. 14-18). The question was asked in that article whether too exclusive a focus on sin as offence against God while taking too little account of the relational dimension of harm to others has led to failure to recognise the reality and extent of sin today?
When the further issue of the degree of seriousness of sin is raised, a similar question could be asked: Do some people see serious sin where none really exists? Is it possible to feel guilty of grave offences that one has not in fact committed?
Clearly not all sin is equally serious, because lack of responsibility can range from some minor fault to an action that is gravely harmful to persons. The degree of seriousness of sin depends on the harm one intends to do and in fact does to human persons in themselves and in their relationships. This can range from a passing hurt to a completely irresponsible act that is totally dehumanizing and totally destructive of a human relationship.
Mortal and Venial Sin
The Christian tradition recognizes this progression in the seriousness of sin in its distinction, implicit in fact although not explicit in name in the New Testament, between mortal and venial sin. The names 'mortal' and 'venial' were in common use certainly by the time of St.Augustine, but the New Testament already distinguished the reality of so-called daily sins to which all are subject from those serious sins that exclude the person who commits them from the Kingdom of God, such as leading an immoral life, idolatry, adultery, pederasty, avarice and so on (ICor 6:9f), and which also lead to exclusion from the community (ICor 5:113).
Traditionally sin has been termed 'mortal' or 'death-dealing' when it is so serious as to destroy the new life of grace that Christ won for us upon the cross, a destruction that will, unless repented of, result in the loss...