Orthodox Sins: Understanding Mortal And Venial Transgressions

The Orthodox Church does not recognise the same distinction between mortal and venial sins as the Catholic Church. Instead, it sees sin as a spiritual disease, or sickness, to be treated rather than a crime to be punished. While certain acts are considered worse than others, there is no systematic categorisation of sin in the Orthodox Church. However, some Orthodox saints, such as St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, have differentiated between mortal and pardonable (or venial) sins.

The Orthodox Church does not categorise sins as mortal or venial

While the Orthodox Church recognises that certain sins do separate individuals from God more than others, it does not classify them as mortal or venial. For example, murder would be considered a graver sin than underpaying for items at a self-checkout. However, the Orthodox Church does not have a precise taxonomy or systematic categorisation of sins.

The Orthodox Church also does not accept the teaching on purgatory that has developed in Roman Catholicism. Instead, it focuses on achieving a state of holiness and purity, free from sin and its impurities. This is seen as the divine law of man's being, achieved through living in goodness, love, prayer, righteousness, meekness, fasting, self-restraint, and other virtues.

The Orthodox Church encourages individuals to confess all the sins they can recollect to Christ, with the confessor serving as a witness. Any sin unconfessed can grow and eventually warp an individual's heart and character. This approach is seen as more therapeutic than juridical, focusing on spiritual healing rather than giving a guilty plea.

Sin is viewed as a spiritual disease

Sin is not a physical disease and cannot be diagnosed with medical technology. However, it is a spiritual disease and always brings death.

In the New Testament, Jesus heals a young blind man (St. John 9:3). His blindness is not a result of any fault committed by him or his parents but is used to reveal God's healing power. The young man is healed in body and soul.

The Orthodox Church does not have a precise taxonomy of sins. However, it is recognised that certain sins do separate an individual from God more than others, and are therefore considered graver. The Orthodox Church takes a more 'therapeutic' approach, viewing sin as a disease that can grow like cancer and eventually warp a person's heart and character.

Sin is the opposite of obedience and surrender to God. It is a conscious separation from God and His will, resulting in a loss of inner coherence, identity and truth.

Mortal sins are those that deprive the soul of divine grace

The Orthodox Church does not recognise the same distinction between mortal and venial sins as the Catholic Church. In the Catholic Church, mortal sins are those that would prevent someone from entering heaven unless confessed before death. These include pride, lust, sloth, and failing to attend Mass, among others. Venial sins, on the other hand, do not jeopardise one's salvation.

The Orthodox Church does not divide sins into these categories. Sin is viewed as a spiritual disease, a sickness to be treated rather than a crime to be punished. Sin is defined as "lawlessness", something done against the law or without the law.

While certain acts reflect a graver spiritual condition than others, there is no systematic categorisation of sins in the Orthodox Church. All sin is viewed as missing the mark of a Christ-like life.

However, it is important to note that the Orthodox Church does recognise that certain sins separate individuals from God more than others. For example, murder would be considered a graver sin than under-reporting the number of avocados purchased at a self-checkout machine.

The Orthodox Church also recognises that committing a grave sin before death and being unrepentant could put one "in some trouble". However, the emphasis is on the disposition of the individual at the time of death, rather than whether or not a specific mortal sin was committed.

The Orthodox Church does not believe in Purgatory

At the Second Council of Lyon in 1247, the Eastern Orthodox Church opposed the notion of Purgatory as a "third place" in the afterlife, containing literal fire. This was one of the differences that prevented reunification with the Church of Rome. The Orthodox Church also rejected the idea of Purgatory at the Council of Florence in 1439 and the Council of Trent in 1545-1563.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America states that:

> The Orthodox Church does not believe in Purgatory (a place of purging), that is the intermediate state after death in which the souls of the saved (those who have not received temporal punishment for their sins) are purified of all taint preparatory to entering Heaven, where every soul is perfect and fit to see God. Also, the Orthodox Church does not believe in indulgences as remissions from purgatorial punishment. Both purgatory and indulgences are inter-correlated theories, unwitnessed in the Bible or in the Ancient Church, and when they were enforced and applied they brought about evil practices at the expense of the prevailing Truths of the Church.

The Eastern Orthodox Church instead believes in the necessity of faith in an intermediate after-death state in which souls are perfected and brought to full divinization, a process of growth rather than of punishment. This process of purification is often referred to as "Hades".

While the Catholic Church has also moved away from the idea of Purgatory as a physical place, instead describing it as a "condition of existence", the Orthodox Church does not use the term Purgatory and lacks an objectively identifiable teaching authority.

The Confession of Dositheus, adopted by the Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, states that:

> [The souls of those involved in mortal sins, who have not departed in despair but while still living in the body, though without bringing forth any fruits of repentance, have repented—by pouring forth tears, by kneeling while watching in prayers, by afflicting themselves, by relieving the poor, and finally by showing forth by their works their love towards God and their neighbor, and which the Catholic Church has from the beginning rightly called satisfaction. [Their souls] depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed. But they are aware of their future release from there, and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers of the priests, and the good works which the relatives of each do for their departed.]

Some Orthodox scholars affirm the Catholic view of purgatory, describing a process by which those who die with faith in Christ but are imperfectly penitent can be aided by the prayers of the faithful, resulting in their transition from hell to heaven before the Final Judgment. However, the Orthodox Church does not believe in postmortem repentance for those who die impenitent.

Mortal sins are those that keep us out of heaven unless we repent

The Orthodox Church does not have a precise taxonomy of sins, but it does acknowledge that some sins are worse than others. While the concept of mortal and venial sins is not present in the Orthodox Church, it is believed that certain sins can separate an individual from God more than others. For instance, murder is considered a graver sin than reporting the wrong number of avocados at a self-checkout machine.

In the Orthodox faith, the focus is on the therapeutic aspect of confession, rather than viewing it as a guilty plea. All sins that can be recollected are confessed to Christ, with the priest serving as a witness. This approach is believed to prevent sins from growing and warping an individual's heart and character.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), a mortal sin is one that "destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death." Mortal sins cut individuals off from God forever unless they are "redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness." These sins are considered deadly because they have the power to separate individuals from God.

To be considered a mortal sin, three conditions must be met: "grave matter," "full knowledge," and "deliberate consent." Grave matter refers to the seriousness of the sin, and the Catechism specifies that this is outlined by the Ten Commandments. Full knowledge implies that the individual is aware of the sin, and deliberate consent means that the individual chooses to commit the sin.

Venial sins, on the other hand, are less serious and do not wholly block the inflow of sanctifying grace. They are committed without full reflection or consent and can include gossip, impatience, or a failure to pray. While venial sins do weaken the sinner's union with God, they do not constitute a deliberate turning away from God.

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