Sin

On a forum where I post, the question of sin has come up.  What is sin?  Is sin not sin if you don't believe it?

 My perspective is as a Catholic.  As a fairly well informed Catholic. 

I do not believe sin to be subjective or ever changing depending on the circumstance.  Sin is sin.  If you steal you steal.  If you fool around on your husband you fooled around on your husband.  What I do think changes is the level at which we will be judged for those sins.

The mom who steals because her children are hungry, has stolen, there is no disputing that fact.  The person who screwed around on their spouse, has broken his/her sacramental vows.  No doubt.  The sin is still a sin.  It is there, it never changes.  There is no degrees to the sin.  It just is.  It just exists.

What does change in this scenario at the end of our early existence, I believe, is God's mercy.  God alone sees the big picture attached to our sin.  The sin is stealing, but He sees the intent and the motivation behind the scenes.  Is this a single mom stealing to feed her kids, is it an angry young man taking stereos from cars to sell for partying because he has no direction in life, through a lifetime of neglect and abuse.  Only God will know this. 

I think we are going to be judged on the level of our understanding and experience.  At least I have great hope that God is going to take that track.  If he loves us individually, each of us, since before we were born, I cannot imagine that that great mercy and love isn't going to extend to the end of our lives too...

I'm counting on it