Q. I recently felt a call to abstain from YouTube. The call is very real, like my call to become a Catholic. I feel that watching YouTube again would be a mortal sin. Can you help me?
A. It is amazing how scrupulosity and the demands it makes can be so compelling. A clue that reveals it is scrupulosity and not God is that scrupulosity isolates, while calls from God are relational and life-giving. This call to give up YouTube is isolating, demanding, and nonsensical, draped in the fear of mortal sin to compel your unhealthy choice.
Q. What can I do after acknowledging absurd hypotheticals in my head? How can I repent from such thoughts?
A. Repent from what? Unwelcome thoughts that you did not generate and do not accept, but that you somehow have convinced yourself that you are responsible for? How can you repent for something that has no moral content? It is a thought, nothing more.