September 7
The Ravages Of Venial Sin
Preparation. - The more effectively to cure our soul of the great evil of venial sin, we shall meditate, first, on its ravages within us, and secondly, on how it leads us to mortal sin. the fruit of this mediation will consist in arousing our faith in the motives we have for abhorring light sins, especially those which occur the oftenest, and are the root of our other faults. “Abstain from every appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5. 22).
I. The Ravages Of Venial Sin
How careful we are to avoid all that may injure our body, or weaken or destroy our health! And yet our body, of itself, is lifeless, formed from clay and destined to be dissolved. Our soul, on the contrary, is spiritual, rational, immortal, the living image of the Creator and redeemed with Christ’s infinitely precious blood. In baptism she was enriched with grace, supernatural virtues and gifts, was united to Jesus Christ by the most sacred bonds, and became the adopted child of the heavenly Father, who communicated to her His Holy Spirit. And how dare we sully this soul so noble, so rich, so beautiful, by our willful faults!
We know that God loves our soul, bestows special care on her, incessantly labors to sanctify her, and we are bold enough to counteract the action of the Almighty, to endeavor to diminish His authority, to disfigure in us His image and cover it with hideous stains by our venial sins! O Lord, where is, then our faith? St. Catherine of Siena would have preferred to walk through fire until the day of judgement, rather than behold in its deformity one of those faults we call light; and this incomprehensible ugliness and deformity we daily inflict on our soul, God’s master-piece!
To avoid so great a misfortune, St. John Chrysostom would have chosen exile, the prison and even death itself. And we, although we have no such evil to fear, but in order to avoid an act of self-denial, or through human respect, or even for amusement or out of cheerfulness, we inflict on our immortal soul a wound, the very sight of which horrified the saints! Have we lost our reason or our faith? We shun contagious diseases with horror, we take good care of our body, which is only our slave, and we cover with wounds an exiled queen, our soul, at the risk of forever ruining her!
O Jesus, I sincerely repent of my numberless acts of unfaithfulness. Give me the strength to avoid all deliberate faults, especially those prolonged resentment with passionate projects; those acts of impatience which so intensify the fault; those long distractions so injurious to pious exercises; that vanity, those indiscreet words, those expressions of discontent against authority, which scandalize my neighbor. Enable me, at any cost, to shun the habitual venial sins which would deprive me of Thy favors by making me insensible to the attractions of grace.
II. Venial Sin Leads To Mortal Sin
There are various degrees in both virtue and crime. We cannot become saints in one day. In like manner, says St. Bernard, no one becomes a great criminal suddenly. There is, however, some difference between them. We find difficulty in doing good, whilst we find it easier to do evil, for it is easier to slide down the incline of vice, than to ascend to the summit of perfection.
Hence our Saviour says: “He that is unjust in little things, is unjust also in those that are greater” (Luke 16. 10), if he continues in the same path. David fell into two great crimes neglecting to mortify his sight. St. Peter, presuming his own strength, was led to deny his divine Master three times, and Judas, by his attachment to temporal goods, lost the eternal by betraying Jesus Christ. God showed St. Teresa that place prepared for her in hell, if she would not give up too human an affection; so easy it is to cross the limits separating venial from mortal faults!
He who sins venially grows tepid in the service of God. Hence he becomes negligent in his spiritual exercises, dissipated in mind, attached to the world, and desirous of earthly pleasures and gratification. He soon gets disgusted with mental prayer; serious duties weigh heavily upon him; he flatters his inclinations, and thus glides down towards the abyss.then lacking the special protection and abundant graces bestowed on the faithful souls, he multiplies his faults, making no account of them, and becoming familiar with them; and soon he is on the brink of mortal sin, without getting much frightened, and, on the next occasion he oversteps the limit without dread; and as he got there gradually and without a shock, he rises with difficulty, if at all. He at last wallows in that state and is irrevocably lost. Such is the history of so many sinners and apostates, who have scandalized the Church of God.
O Jesus, preserve me especially from certain venial faults the more dangerous, because they lead to greater ones. Help me to shun all want of modesty in looks, all excess in eating and drinking, too tender affections, misplaced familiarity, and similar failings which gradually entwine us in the bonds of Satan. I am determined to correct n future those defects that are more hurtful to my soul, and, therefore, I am resolved, first, to make them the subject of my particular examen; secondly, to have recourse to prayer in every danger or occasion of a fall; and thirdly, to impose a penance on myself after every fault. Strengthen these my resolutions, O Lord, through the merits of the Virgin most faithful, who was ever exempt from the slightest stains.
