Ex 22, 20-21 You shall not wrong any widow or orphan

Exodus 22 (chosen pages)

(Ex 22, 20-21) You shall not wrong any widow or orphan

[20] "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. [21] You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. [22] If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.

(CCC 1857) For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent" (RP 17 § 12). (CCC 1858) Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother" (Mk 10:19). The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger. (CCC 1867) The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are "sins that cry to heaven": the blood of Abel (Cf. Gen 4:10), the sin of the Sodomites (Cf. Gen 18:20; 19:13), the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt (Cf. Ex 3:7-10), the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan (Cf. Ex 20:20-22), injustice to the wage earner (Cf. Deut 24:14-15; Jas 5:4).