September 5

Mortal Sin

Preparation. - The disease we should first remove, is unquestionably mortal sin. That we may be preserved therefrom, we shall meditate, first, on the injury this sovereign evil does to God, and secondly, on its ravages in our soul. The fruit of this meditation shall consist in increasing our horror of all that offends God, by considering these words of the prophet: “Know and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee to have left the Lord thy God,” who alone can make us happy (Jer. 2. 19).

I. The Injury Mortal Sin Does To God

God is in Himself infinitely great, infinitely perfect. It behooves all creatures to consecrate themselves unreservedly to His glory, and to render to Him an eternal tribute of praise and thanksgiving. But the sinner does just the contrary. He refuses to obey the Most High, and thus defied His authority, and His omnipotence ruling the whole universe. He despises the divine justice, before which even the devils tremble; he even goes so far as to outrage God’s sovereign majesty which is adored by the angelic hosts. “By ye astonished, O heavens, at this,” exclaims the prophet (Jer. 2. 12). An impure and abject helpless creature dares to insult in His very presence Him, who can in a moment reduce him to dust and precipitate him with lightning speed into the abyss of torments. He dares to commit, in the presence of infinite Holiness, what he would be ashamed to own to the vilest slave. Is not this acting as if God did not exist, and hence seeking to do away with God?

God is one; but the sinner makes as many idols for himself as he has inordinate affections. God is three in persons, and the sinner denies each of them by his foolish conduct: the Father, by renouncing His adoption; the Son, by crucifying Him anew; the Holy Ghost, by stifling Him in his heart. What an execrable misdeed! God is our Creator and Lawgiver; He is our Lord and best Benefactor; but the sinner makes no account of all these sacred and august titles. He tramples under foot the domain of the Almighty and disregards His laws; he revolts against His regal authority and paternal goodness; and he goes so far in his ingratitude, as to make use of God’s benefits to inflict on Him the most offensive outrages, by attacking, says St. Bernard, His very Essence! How horrible!

O my God, I have thus crucified Thy adorable Son, committing an evil greater than the destruction of the universe. I repent of it from my inmost heart. Through the infinite merits of Jesus and the powerful prayers of the Mother of mercy, grant me the grace, first, of often recalling the motives that ought to fill me with horror of sin; and secondly, of unceasingly watching over myself and praying, so that I may entirely avoid even all fully deliberate venial faults.

II. The Ravages Of Sin In A Soul

Let us represent to ourselves Lucifer in the highest heavens. Being clothed with sanctifying grace and adorned with every virtue, he is rich, beautiful, bright, superior to all the princes of the angelic hosts. Nevertheless, what has mortal sin made him? The most horrible of demons. Let us picture to ourselves Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise, with an enlightened mind, their passions under control, their heart happy and enjoying in abundance all the goods of soul and body. But they sin grievously, and at once a fatal ruin in them follows the most enviable prosperity.

Such is also the case of the Christian, the disciple of Jesus, who separates himself from Him by committing a mortal sin. He loses sanctifying grace and, together with it, the virtues and the gratuitous gifts, the supernatural beauty and that sweet peace, which is a foretaste of the happiness of the elect. Had we, says St. Alphonsus, amassed as great spiritual wealth as St. Paul, the hermit, who lived ninety-eight years in a grotto; as St. Francis Xavier, who won to God over a million souls; did we possess the combined merits of all the Blessed without excepting the Mother of God, and were we, after this to commit only one mortal sin, we should lose at once all that we had acquired at the expense of so many pains and sacrifices. After a man’s sin, says the prophet, “all his justices, which he had done, shall not be remembered” (Ez. 18. 24).

By his sin the sinner deprives himself of all right to the heavenly heritage, and exposed himself to the punishments of hell, if he is not converted. “Were the angels capable of weeping,” says St. Francis de Sales, “they would shed bitter tears over the misfortune of him who becomes the enemy of God, the supreme Good.”

We who can weep, ought to groan over and bewail our past misdeeds. Let us study ourselves and examine what can lead us to offend our Creator grievously. Have we not some habitual levity, dissipation of mind, some venial fault tending to make us lukewarm, or exposing us to some deep fall?

O my God, do not let me languish in Thy service, but enable me to derive from mental prayer and the sacraments, vigor and life, that is, the graces that produce saints. I am resolved, first, often to invoke the holy names of Jesus and Mary especially in trials and temptations; and secondly, carefully to shun the defects and dangers that might expose me to displease Thee even venially, for Thou hast said: “Watch ye and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Mat. 26. 41).