Drunkenness As Mortal Sin

[tinytherese]

My mom doesn't understand why getting drunk with full knowledge and full consent is a mortal sin. She thinks that it is not a grave matter. She argued that yes it is an issue of moderation, but that eating too much food is an issue of moderation as well and that that isn't a grave sin. What should I say to her?

Edited November 29, 2010 by tinytherese

[Theoketos]

Keep in mind that arguing in the modern sense is hardly productive. The goal is not victory, but truth. With that and charity and the fourth commandment in mind...

Overeating (gluttony) is one of the seven deadly or capital sins. Drunkenness would certainly be a kind of gluttony with additional grave matter attached. The additional grave matter is that alcohol, in the amount it takes to get drunk, does serious damage to our bodies. Further drunkenness places us in a state where it is much easier to sin. Knowingly going where it is easy to sin is itself a sin.

From the CCC

1852 There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."

2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.