Go now to Alison in Pittsburg, Kansas listening on 93.1. Alison, is Pittsburgh
Kansas anywhere near Benedictine College? Yeah, a couple hours away.
Oh that's near in Kansas. Oh wow you guys...we call that far away here in
California. I don't know, here in Southern California that could be 10 miles. Yeah
that's a 10 mile drive here. All right, well that's just because our
guest Sara yesterday was from Benedictine College. Alison, your question
for Jim Blackburn. Well, I know that committing adultery is a mortal sin but
what I didn't know is what exactly that was. Does that mean making love to
somebody who's not your spouse, or is an online affair adultery, or...what exactly
does it encompass? Well, in the technical sense, adultery is when a
person is married and has an intimate relationship with someone else, and that
generally means, you know, physically intimate, although I suppose in our
minds, in our souls, we can commit adultery as Jesus said. You know, a man
who looks at another woman with lust in his eyes has already committed adultery.
So we could commit adultery in our will, I guess I should say, and by
entertaining the idea of entering into say a sexual relationship with
someone who's not our spouses. So that could be the sin of adultery. It might
not be the traditional definition of adultery in the strict sense,
but it certainly could be the sin of adultery. To commit a mortal sin--you
mentioned that adultery is a mortal sin, and it is a grave sin, and if someone
commits adultery knowing that they're committing adultery, knowing that
it's a grave sin, and they freely are entering into that, then that is indeed a
mortal sin. Okay Alison? I think so. So like an online affair, if they're
doing it, and they know they're doing it, they know it's wrong, then it's adultery
and it's mortal sin? Yes I would say it certainly could rise to
that level, if your will is engaged in this relationship to cheat on your
husband, and your, you know, your will is there, then you've already committed
adultery in your heart, in Jesus' words. That's--you know we can sin in
our minds. We can sin just by engaging our will in something that is sinful. So
if you're at that level, then I would say yes you are committing adultery
and, you know, if you knew it at the time that you did it, and you're freely
choosing to do it, then it's a mortal sin, it's something you should
talk to your confessor about, something you should confess. If you want to take say a
particular example, maybe something that you've gone through yourself, I recommend
seeking spiritual direction. Talk to a spiritual director about it. A spiritual
director can spend more time with you, talk about some things that we might not
want to get into on the radio, and give you some advice and help you determine,
is this something that has risen to the level of a mortal sin, is it something
that you need to confess? Even if it's not, even if it hasn't come to
the level of a mortal sin, it would seem that it's at least venially
sinful. And that's something the Church--the Church recommends that we
confess even our venial sins. Okay Allison? Yeah that makes more sense when
you talk about the will being engaged. Okay.
You don't actually have to be physically engaged, necessarily. So thank you very
much. Sure, and read Matthew in chapter 5,
verses 27 to 28 and the surrounding verses there, and see how Jesus talks
about this, how he talks about sin and that, you know, "You've heard it said this, but I
say this," he's showing us that sin can be much more broad than just simply,
you know, a strictly speaking, breaking one of the 10 Commandments in the
most strict sense. We can commit sins in other ways. So read that, chapter
5 of Matthew, and I think that might be helpful to you. Thank you very much
Allison for that call.