We attended Holy Child Jesus School for eight years where we were taught among other things all about sin by the nuns using the Baltimore Catechism, the official source book from which we memorized the basics of Catholic teachings. Maureen and I were recently reminiscing about it so I recently re-read from that fabled textbook. What we learned by rote, in preparation for our First Confession and Communion, were the precise answers to the basic questions about God, Adam and Eve, the Trinity, Christ (the God-man), and sin.
I found it incredible to realize that we had memorized all the answers to these ponderables by age seven; for most of us that was 2nd grade. The theory was that by seven we had reached the "age of reason" and were thereby eligible to receive communion. But first, we had to be aware of and cleansed of sin.
The topic of sin was by far the most carefully expounded by "Sister" because you had to have the equivalent of a degree in that topic to prepare you for confessing your sins just prior to your First Communion. The Catechism provided the fundamentals, i.e. the definitions and categories of sin: Original Sin, actual sin, venial sin and mortal sin. We also could, believe it or not, recite the seven capital sins: "pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth" in precisely that form!
But, consider the problems poor Sister faced in enabling us to slice-and-dice such niceties for comprehension by seven-year olds as:
1. Had we already committed sins? When did we become responsible?
2. Were any of them "mortal" thereby already condemning us to hell? Were two mortal sins worse than one?
3. Distinguishing between unintended "bad" actions such as breaking a window, forgetting to brush your teeth, or letting the door slam even after Mom had told you not to, and sinful deeds. Your intention was the keynote in telling the difference. ("But did I really intend that?")
4. What sins could we have committed that we must reveal in our first confession? OK, lying we understood. But what else? Talking back to or disobeying your parents was a good one. Fighting with another kid? Cheating at marbles? Copying homework? Swearing? (damn, hell, taking the Lord's name in vain). Of course, not going to Mass on Sunday was a BIG one, mortal!) Eating meat on Friday (Did you really 'forget' it was Friday before you bit into that hamburger? Should you finish it now rather than waste it? Was it a mortal sin?) As Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" would say, "These are questions to try even a Rabbi's mind!"
5. The number of times we committed a specific sin had to be tallied before confession as we would be required to specify the number of each of our sinful categories. ("I lied to my mother five times." ) If you really couldn't remember, was it better to give the higher or the lower estimate? In reality, this supplemented our math learning since we could figure thusly: "I probably told a lie to Mom at least once a day and if it's been two weeks since my last confession that meant 2 x 7 = 14 sins of lying." This clearly helped us became proficient in the seven-times table.
6. Among the capital sins we understood anger easily enough but how was Sister to explain "pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, and sloth" to seven year olds? Was a second helping at dinner gluttony? Was it lust that made me think of kissing Janie? Was forgetting to mow the lawn sloth? What really is the difference between covetousness and envy? Was it sinful to be proud of being an American?
7. Add to all this, to be forgiven by God, even if the priest gave his absolution, we had to have a "firm purpose of amendment," meaning we really intended never to commit that sin again. (Really? Never going to tell a lie again to my parents?) By the way, I don't think that lying to other kids ever counted as a sin for most of us.
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