Jesuits Catholic
Back When the Jesuits Were More Fully Catholic, they used their powerful minds and analytic skills to quantify things. Around 1900, it was announced that “The difference between a mortal and a venial sin is twenty dollars.”
If a person stole $20.01, the sin was mortal. If $19.99 was stolen, the sin was venial. Hair-splitters argued as to the fate of someone who stole exactly twenty dollars, a “double eagle” worth approximately a week’s wages.
Today, that same twenty dollar gold piece is worth about $1,600.00. If the original calculation was right, the difference between mortal and venial sin, adjusted for inflation, is $1,600.00.
Now, we all know that Jesuits are still Catholic, but they’ve stopped thinking so much about obedience and concentrate on making faith “relevant”. Still, providing a guideline as to the difference between mortal and venial sin at least keeps us thinking about the goodness and badness of what we may desire and do.
That sort of thinking brings our mind and soul closer to God especially when learning about Jesuits Catholic or I should say Back When the Jesuits Were More Fully Catholic.
