Part 3

Prudence looks to the near future, and to the remote future. It considers what are likely to be the consequences in this world, and whether the course of conduct will receive the sanction of the all-seeing, all-just Judge at the Last Day. "The wisdom of the prudent," said Solomon, "is to understand his way." That is, as Conscience looks back to God for its justification, so does Prudence look forward to the course taken in obedience to the dictates of Conscience, and smoothes it.

Prudence is generally a moderator in the execution of duty. That execution might be harsh, and hurtful, but Prudence wisely softens and simplifies, abates prejudice, and commends the course of Conscience to the approval of others.

2. We will now consider some practical rules for conduct in such cases as the Conscience does not give a certain decision, but sees that different opinions may be probable, more or less, and is in hesitation which to follow.

(_a_) One good rule is to follow that course which is most natural; what is strained and has the semblance of being excentric is probably one flattering to self-esteem, and had better be avoided.

(_b_) Another good rule is to follow that course which is safest, in which there is least likelihood of disturbing others, injuring or annoying them. Also, which is least riskful to ourselves, in health, substance, or reputation.

3. It must not be forgotten that it is quite possible so to carry out a _right_ purpose as to do _wrong_ in the execution. Having decided on what is right, foresight and judgment are required to determine _in what manner_ and _at what time_ it is to be carried out. Prudence often shews us that the same result may be attained by the exercise of patience as by an impulsive and precipitous execution, and that the act performed cautiously and judiciously will do good, whereas if done at once in a headlong manner it may effect mischief. Also it shews that there are more ways in which the same thing may be done, and that there is a right way and a wrong way, a way that is advisable, and a way that is mischievous and to be dissuaded from. We are warned not to do evil that good may come, but people forget that a considerable amount of evil is done by those who do good in a wrong manner.

4. Prudence is but another name for _wisdom_, and wisdom is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. By understanding we see God's law, by wisdom we know how to carry it out.

Second Monday in Lent.

_ON FORTITUDE._

1. We have seen that Conscience, enlightened by Divine Revelation and assisted by Understanding, obtains a clear knowledge of God's Will, and its application to the several conditions in which man is placed in his course through life.

We have seen how that it is not sufficient for man to _know what_ is to be done, he must also _know how_ it is to be done, and this is where Prudence is needed.

But Prudence is not enough. Prudence may be so timorous as to dissuade from action altogether, and may neutralise the effect of the promptings of Conscience. Prudence sees dangers, and it may magnify dangers. "The slothful man," says Solomon, "saith, There is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets," and so does not go abroad. Now Prudence counsels a man not to go out of doors when there actually _is_ a lion there, but Timidity keeps him at home _on the chance_ of a lion being there. It is the function of Prudence to foresee dangers, take account of obstructions and difficulties, and if Prudence stood alone it might induce to inertness, and spiritual sluggishness.

2. Therefore God gives us a supplementary counter-balancing grace, which is that _Fortitude_, or courage, to carry us with resolute, bold hearts through the fulfilment of duty. When we know well our duty, then we prudently consider which is the best way of executing it, and then fortitude steps in to nerve us to the full and exact completion of our duty.

Many an one, having seen the right way, invokes all his fortitude to assist him in the carrying out of what is right, regardless of the advice of Prudence, and many an one, when Prudence indicates difficulties, and advises delay, falls into neglect. Each is necessary, and each is equally necessary.

3. Fortitude is a gift of God; it is an attribute of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit, not only of Counsel, but also of Strength.

We need Divine strength to _undertake_, strength to _carry through_, strength to _bear the consequences_ of doing what is right.

(_a_) _In the first place_, having obtained a clear sight of what is God's Will, and also having prudently considered what is the best way of fulfilling it, we require strength to brace our resolution to undertake the task set us, that is to say, to make up our minds strenuously to do that which God commands, and to do it in the way most advisable.

(_b_) _In the second place_, we require strength to persevere and not to become discouraged, and leave off imperfectly done that which we see it is our duty to do. It is often better not to begin, than to leave off what has been undertaken unaccomplished.

(_c_) _In the third place_, we require strength to endure the consequences of our act. If we have done that which is right, we cannot be sure that it will not entail on us loss, ridicule, disappointment. But we must then invoke the aid of the Divine gift of Fortitude to strengthen us to endure cheerfully such consequences as come of what we have done, putting all our trust in God, and leaving all further care to God.

4. It must not be supposed that the Divine gift of Fortitude is one and the same thing as human _obstinacy_. Many men are obstinate in carrying out their resolutions, and in carrying them out in their own way. They have strong wills. But the Divine grace is different; it is allied to humility, and human obstinacy is tied up with self-conceit. It is therefore not difficult to distinguish the one from the other. A lowly spirit may be strong in the Lord to fulfil resolutely the Will of God, but an obstinate spirit is a self-opinionated one that follows not God's Will, but its own. We must be careful in examining our own selves, and seeing if there is strong resolution in us, if it is strong in the right way, and with the right sort of strength.

Second Tuesday in Lent.

_ON SIN._

THE NATURE OF SIN.

1. We come now to the consideration of Sin. Sin is either:--

(_a_) The revolt of the created will against the Divine Will; or

(_b_) A voluntary violation of a commandment of God.

2. God is the Supreme Lord of all creation, and Author of our being. His Will should be the absolute law of all created beings. But as He made men and angels in the plenitude of freedom, He gave them wills, wills wholly free, and He set before them His law as the way of happiness, revealing to angels and men that so long as they conformed their wills to His Will they would be happy. Men and angels, though created free, were for all that dependent on God; but certain angels, with Satan at their head, revolted--they set their wills in opposition to the Will of God, from dependence they aimed at independence.

The fall of Adam and Eve was different; instead of a complete revolt of the will against the Will of God, it was an inclination away from God's Will in one particular, a transgression of a commandment, not an act of rebellion.

The revolt of the will against God is a deliberate resistance to the just and holy laws which He has laid down, and it attacks the immutable order He has appointed as the relation between Himself and His creatures. It is also a wilful attempt to change the destiny of the creature.

Thus Satan rebelled through pride, dissatisfied with what God had ordained as to his place in the hierarchy of created intelligences. He desired to be higher or different from what he was. His rebellion was against the supremacy of God.

3. Now it is but exceptional to find man wilfully, knowing what he is about, rise up in open and deliberate rebellion against God; nevertheless, such revolt is found to be among men, though it may be hoped not always, or not often _conscious_ revolt. Those rebel against God who--

(_a_) Profess _Atheism_. They deny His existence, His law, His providence. God has put in every conscience a witness to His being, to His law, to His providence, and to profess Atheism is not only to reject revelation, but to resist the inner testimony of the Conscience. It is incipient, encouraged, and becomes habitual, till the whole attitude of the inner nature is one of antagonism to God.

(_b_) Who resist _God's moral law_. Men may be ready to admit that there is a God in Heaven, but as His law limits and controls their liberty, they strive against the restraints He imposes on them, and submit only to such laws as they are forced by the law of the land, or by social society to observe. They cast God out of their consciences.

(_c_) Who resist _God's truth_. Men may accept the fact that God exists in Heaven, and that He has imposed on men a moral law, but they reject His revelation regarding the facts of the Faith, the articles of the Creed, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, the Commission to the Church, the Sacraments. All wilful resistance to the faith as taught by the Church, the depository of Revelation, is thus a rebellion against God.

(_d_) Who resist _God's Church_. The Church is the kingdom of God on earth, and all schism is a revolt against His authority as committed to His Church, and in as far as it is _conscious_ and deliberate, is rebellion against God, different only in degree to that of Satan and his apostate angels in Heaven. Where this is in ignorance, it is of course otherwise. God will always consider the imperfection of man's knowledge, and if a man resists His truth, His moral law, His Church, through invincible ignorance, He will excuse such rebellion.

Third Wednesday in Lent.

_THE NATURE OF SIN._

(CONTINUED.)

1. We have considered the first and most terrible Sin, that of the Revolt of the creature against the Creator. We might indeed consider all transgression as a rebellion of the will against the Divine Will, but it is not always so. It is not a rebellion of the will altogether, and consciously against God as Ruler, but it is a transgression of a single command, either through stress of temptation or through carelessness. It may, however, be deliberate and wilful, a transgression of one law, but without the intention of stepping into absolute and acknowledged hostility to God.

2. We sin against God's commandment, either--

(_a_) By _thought_, when we voluntarily and with deliberation consider, and take pleasure in considering, those things which we know to be forbidden by God. The thought of evil is not necessarily sinful, nor is the emotion of pleasure that follows on the thought, _unless harboured_. We cannot avoid the knowledge of evil, nor can we help the sense of pleasure which is due to the corruption of our nature through original sin, but when the _will consents_ to the thought of evil, takes it up and gives it a lodgment in the heart, then it becomes Sin.

(_b_) By _desire_, when, knowing that a certain course of conduct, or a certain act is contrary to the Will of God, we feel a desire, and encourage that desire to take the course, to do the act which we know is wrong. We sin by wilfully harbouring an evil thought, and by wilfully harbouring an evil wish. For instance, we may desire that someone who has injured us may meet with some accident, or not recover from some sickness. The thought of such a thing must at once be put aside, lest it should breed the wish that so it might be.

(_c_) By _speech_, when knowingly words are uttered either (1) contrary to truth; (2) contrary to charity; (3) contrary to religion.

1. God is truth, and loveth truth, and all falsehood is abominable in His sight. As children of God we must seek ever to be open and truthful, avoiding evasions of the truth, and perversions of the truth, and denials of the truth. That is to say, avoiding the obligation of speaking the truth exactly when it is required; twisting the truth about so as to alter its appearance and give it a look other than it should have--a dressing up of the truth, denial of the truth, knowing what we are doing. Satan is a liar, and the father of lies.

2. Contrary to charity. We sin when we speak words that are unkind, even if they be true. We have no right to reveal what we know, and to publish abroad the infirmities, the errors, the faults of our neighbours, unless we are called upon to do so for some justifiable cause. All backbiting, slandering, evil-speaking, is inspired by the Evil One, who stirs up strife, whereas God is the God of unity.

3. Contrary to religion. We sin when we speak against God's revealed truth and His Church. But we can also sin by holding our tongues when we ought to speak. When we hear error proclaimed we are bound to stand up for the truth; not to do so is to neglect a plain duty, for God has made us all missionaries of His Gospel, soldiers in His army, to advance His kingdom by example and by precept, and we are bound by our allegiance to Him to use our best endeavours to dissipate error and remove prejudice.

Third Thursday in Lent.

_THE NATURE OF SIN._

(CONTINUED.)

1. We have seen how that we can sin against God's Commandments, by thought, and by word. We can also sin against Him by act, and by omission. We daily say, "We have offended against Thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done."

We will therefore now consider sins of _commission_ and sins of _omission_.

2. We commit sins of the first sort, that is, we are guilty of _sins of commission_, when we do anything, when we adopt any course of conduct, knowing it to be forbidden by God. It seems hardly necessary to say much about such sins, as they are obvious to all. It is perhaps only necessary to say that we are guilty of sins of commission, when we transgress any of the Commandments of God _in the spirit_, as well as in the letter. Our Lord shews us that the Commandments are expanded under the Gospel to include much more than appears on the surface. Consequently any little act of unkindness, any trifling with sensuality, any over-indulgence in eating or drinking, any disrespectful treatment of those who are in authority, are sins of commission, though they are not against the written words of the law. It is therefore right for us to consider what is implied by the written law, and to measure our conduct and weigh our acts by the spirit of charity, by first principles of justice, and then it will be found that we have allowed ourselves many things which are contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." (Rom. xiv. 22.)

3. We use much less circumspection about _sins of omission_. It is therefore advisable to consider them more carefully.

We sin by omission when we omit to do those things which

(_a_) We are commanded by the Law of God.

(_b_) Our Consciences advise.

(_c_) We are commanded to do by those set in authority over us.

(_d_) We are required to do by the State, or social law.

(_a_) Now it must never be forgotten that our duties as Christians are not merely _negative_, to abstain from this and not to do that, but are _positive_, to advance the Kingdom of God, and work out our own salvation. Our Lord, in the parable of the unprofitable servant who hid his treasure, shews us this. We must try to discover what active work in His Kingdom He has ordained for us to accomplish, and then do it with all our might. No man has any right to live in idleness. He must do something either for God, or for his fellow men.

(_b_) We must obey the promptings of our Conscience. If Conscience urges, and we neglect to obey it, we are neglecting the voice of God.

(_c_) We are bound to obey and execute the commands of those set over us, parents, guardians, masters. If in authority, and they require us to do something, then we cannot omit doing what is ordered without incurring sin; for all authority devolves from God, and we are responsible to God for the way in which we fulfil our duties under those set over us. We must obey _readily_, _cheerfully_, and _exactly_.

(_d_) We are members of the State, and to the laws of the State we are morally bound to give obedience; all organizations, the family, society, the State, are divine in origin, and we cannot revolt against any one of these without lesion of the Spirit of Unity which makes all society possible, and that is the Divine Spirit. It is only when a social or a State law is clearly contrary to revealed Divine law, that disobedience is permissible.

Third Friday in Lent.

_SOURCES OF SIN._

1. We have now considered the Nature of Sin, and shewn that it is essentially a revolt against God, either complete and conscious against God Himself, or particular, against some commandment of God.

We will now see whence Sin arises.

There are _interior_ and _exterior_ sources of Sin.

2. We will take, first, the interior sources of Sin. These are three--(_a_) Culpable ignorance; (_b_) Human fragility; (_c_) Malice.

3. _Culpable ignorance._ A man is guilty when he commits an act which is sinful, or omits to fulfil a duty, not knowing that the act is sinful, or that the duty is obligatory, through ignorance, but through ignorance which is voluntary, because he has neglected to learn what is his duty and what are the commandments of God, or else, because having learnt, he has allowed his knowledge to lapse, and he no longer keeps in mind what he once learnt; or else, because by trifling with his conscience he has so confused it that it no longer speaks distinctly and emphatically, telling him what to do and what to avoid. Consequently, we are bound to use our best endeavours to learn exactly what is the Will of God, and having learnt to keep in mind what has been acquired, and so promptly, and without prevarication, to obey our consciences that they may not become to us uncertain in their utterances.

We may be, and we shall be, excused if we have sinned through involuntary ignorance, but not if we have neglected the opportunities placed in our way of learning our duty.

4. _Human frailty._ The weakness of our mortal nature is prone to let us be drawn away into evil, either through--

(_a_) The violence of temptation; or

(_b_) The weakness of our resolution; or

(_c_) The force of bad habit; or

(_d_) The warmth and concupiscence of imagination.

5. _Temptation is strong._ Temptations are from without and from within. It is necessary to recognize the fact that we are being tempted in order that we may be prepared to resist. Half the sins fallen into are committed before we have realized that we are in temptation. Therefore we pray that we may not be led into temptation.

_Our resolutions are weak._ Some wills are much weaker than others. Nothing can be a greater blessing than to have a strong will rightly directed. A strong will perverted to evil is a great evil; but so also, and only a little less so, is to have a feeble will devoid of resolution. This is what most have, poor, crippled, infirm wills, and we must strive after God's strengthening grace to brace and nerve these limp wills, so that we may have the will to do after God's good pleasure. Half the sins, indeed, more than half the sins, committed are committed, not from deliberate wickedness of the will, but from infirmity of the will, which has not the strength to stand against temptation.

_The force of bad habits_ is very great. We say that habit becomes a second nature. If we have allowed a bad habit to grow, it requires great resolution and Divine grace to enable us to cast it off.

_The warmth of imagination_ which unfolds pictures before the mind encouraging to evil. Imagination is a faculty that may be of great service to us, but it is also one that may lead us into danger. Many a sin is committed out of curiosity. It was curiosity that led to the first transgression.

6. _Malice._ The sin committed out of malice is the most condemnable of all, for it issues from a _will_ that is corrupted and resolved on disobedience. In temptation, through our frailty that leads to fall, the will is overcome; it may wish the good, but be powerless to take the right course; but where the will is set determinately on evil, there the sin is of the worst kind conceivable. This is the condition of Satan, one of continuous and complete revolt against God out of hatred of what is good.

Third Saturday in Lent.

_TEMPTATIONS TO SIN._

1. There are three exterior sources whence temptation arises. As we have seen, there are springs of temptation in our own selves, but we are also subjected to temptation from without. There are, (_a_) The Devil who seeks our destruction; (_b_) Created beings that seek to draw us from God to make of them our ends; (_c_) The world that endeavours to bring us down to obedience to its low tone of morality instead of following the high course as indicated by revelation.

(_a_) The devil walketh about as a roaring lion, says S. Peter, seeking whom he may devour. We do not know for certain the reasons why Satan so diligently seeks man's destruction, but they are probably _jealousy_, because man is created and called to occupy those places in Heaven which he and his apostate host have lost through their rebellion. They are filled with envy and spite against us, that we should attain to eternal blessedness, whereas they have lost it, and are doomed to eternal misery. Another cause is certainly _malice_, hatred against God; Satan and his host know what God has designed for man, and know what God has done for man, and because they have set their wills in antagonism against God, they ever seek out of malignant hatred to mar God's work and undo His ends. A thoroughly bad man takes a malicious delight in making others as bad as himself, and the devils feel this same inclination in a heightened degree. Another cause is the _pride_ of the evil spirits. They are in warfare against God, and they feel a sense of triumph when they are able through man's free will to obtain the fall and degradation of one of God's noblest creatures. It flatters their pride to be able to gain something like a victory over God.

(_b_) Created beings endeavour to draw us from God, to fix our ambitions, our affections, on them. Or rather it may be said that we are tempted to forget our true end and aim, allured by the beauty and attractiveness of the creatures of God, to set our hearts and minds on them instead of on the Creator. We are surrounded by God's good things of creation, but we must look up through nature to God Himself, not let nature arrest our attention. So with human beings, we should love them indeed, but not let love of them take off our hearts from the supreme love of all, that should be given to God. We are guilty of loving the creature above the Creator whenever we allow our love for men, or for things of this world, to make us give up religious duties, cease to care for things spiritual, and to engross our thoughts.