Part 5

(_d_) _Inadvertence_, or excusable want of attention. It does often happen that a wrong act is done before we really know what we are about. It is done without premeditation. We are of course bound to be ever on our guard against temptation; but that sin into which we have fallen _unintentionally_ does not carry with it the same guilt to the soul as if it had been done with deliberation. "Be not high-minded, but fear," says the Apostle. The Evil One is ever on the watch to entrap us when unprepared into sin. And though a sin committed inadvertently may not be mortally sinful, yet it may, and probably will, carry with it the temporal consequences just the same as if it had been committed deliberately. "Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation." S. Peter denied his Master partly through fear, partly through inadvertence, he was caught off his guard. We stand often without any sight of or suspicion of the temptation on the brink of which we are, and with a touch we are over. As we are repeatedly warned to caution and watchfulness, such inadvertence does not wholly excuse us. We are _bound_ to be ever prepared, nevertheless the nature of man is weak and frail.

2. Let no man seek to excuse himself for his sins. The remarks made are calculated to comfort the distressed and agonized soul that finds itself fallen into sin, which it hates, and is not intended to encourage a comfortable assurance of peace when there is no peace, and to engage to lack of watchfulness, and want of contrition.

Fourth Saturday in Lent.

_CONDITIONS THAT AGGRAVATE GUILT._

As there are certain conditions that remove the gravity of guilt attaching to mortal sin, so, on the other hand, are there certain conditions that aggravate the culpability of an act against God's will, conditions that may cause a sin, not in itself heinous, to become deadly in its consequences to the soul. These conditions shall now be taken into consideration. They are four, just as there were four conditions that lessened guilt.

The conditions are these:--

(_a_) _An error of Conscience_, which leads the person committing an act, to believe that an act is forbidden by God, which really is harmless or allowable, and he nevertheless commits the act wilfully. Believing a course to be sinful, he takes it deliberately. The course may not be in itself wrong, but in that he thinks it wrong, and wilfully elects to take it, believing that he is going against the Will of God, he sins mortally. This we can see at once, for it is a deliberate revolt of the will against what is believed to be God's Will, and it is the setting of the will in opposition to God which is the condition that makes sin to be mortal.

(_b_) _The evil of the end proposed._ That is to say, if anyone allows himself to do an act in itself harmless, or permissible, in order to attain to an evil end, then the act, though in itself harmless and permissible, becomes exceeding sinful. The end proposed poisons the whole course of conduct pursued. In the former case a harmless act is made deadly in its consequences through antecedent ignorance, in this case through subsequent evil. In both cases there is revolt of the will against God. He who desires an evil of any kind, knowing that it is evil, _i.e._, that it is against the law of God, and deliberately compasses that end, makes every step he takes in the course whereby he reaches that end, however indifferent they may be in themselves, taken by themselves, to be mortally sinful to him. This is clear, because throughout he is acting with a will in opposition, and in known opposition, to the Will of God.

(_c_) _Contempt of the law or Lawgiver._ An act done by man in disregard of God's law, with indifference to what God wills, is in itself mortally sinful. No man has any right to disregard God's law, which is the rule the Creator has impressed on His intelligent creatures, and no man may be indifferent to God, Who has given His law as the rule of well-being for the creatures He has made. To put God out of the thoughts, and to act as if there were no God Who has expressed His Will is practical Atheism. With the lips he who so acts may indeed confess Him but in acts deny Him. Neglect and disregard of God may, indeed, be due to circumstances over which man has no control--defective teaching in childhood, for instance--but of this we are not speaking, but of such cases where a man has been taught about God and His Will, and deliberately puts such considerations aside, and does not allow them to influence his conduct.

(_d_) _The circumstances of the case._ An act, harmless or permissible in itself, may yet be sinful, and gravely sinful, if the circumstances be such as to make it the occasion of evil; for instance, if it lead on to the formation of a bad habit; or if it be the occasion of grave scandal. Such was the case of eating meat offered to idols. In itself it was innocent, but he who ate meat so offered before weak brethren, knowing that he was causing injury to their consciences, thereby defiled his own conscience. In the former case we have an act made sinful through disregard of the Lawgiver, in this through disregard of the consequences to ourselves or to others.

Fourth Sunday in Lent.

_ON FREE WILL._

1. We have seen throughout how that the exercise of the Will is that which gives character to an act, stamping on it its mark of sin or righteousness, in as far as it affects the individual Conscience.

We will now look at the Human Will, and consider how it operates.

An object is presented to it, and it can determine with relation to it in three different ways.

(_a_) It can _consent_ to it. If the object be evil, and it consent to it, then it becomes guilty, it sins. This is what has been insisted on throughout, that the Will of man is the determining quality making a thing to be sinful or not to the individual Conscience.

The imagination or the intelligence presents to the Will a certain picture, proposes a certain act, and the Conscience then pronounces on the right or wrong of what is presented and proposed. Then the Will forms its decision. If it consents to what is suggested, and the Conscience has informed it that this is _wrong_, then it makes a deliberate act of separation from and revolt against God.

(_b_) It can _resist_, it can absolutely refuse to take the course indicated, when the Conscience has pointed out that the course is contrary to what God has ordered. When the Will thus deliberately resists the evil suggestion, it not only does not sin, but it performs a good and meritorious act. It has taken the side of God, and such an act of positive adhesion to God is rewarded by God, and strengthens the Will in a right course.

When we say that an act of adhesion to God is meritorious, we do not mean that any act of man unassisted by grace can deserve a reward, but that God will reward man if he, by an exercise of free will, ranges himself on His side, just as surely as He will punish man if he, by an exercise of his free will, ranges himself against Him.

The devils, by an exercise of free will, rebelled, and lost happiness. The good angels, by an exercise of free will, remained faithful, and deserved and retained Beatitude. So man has to decide. God's grace does not constrain, it encourages and helps, but it forces no man to take the course that leads to life. The determination lies with man, and that determination must be made by an exercise of the Will.

(_c_) It may remain _passive_, neither consenting nor resisting. Now, the Will of man is given to him as a determining power, and no man has any right to bury this talent. Free Will is the best gift God gave to man, and though it has been weakened by his fall, yet it can be brought again to full vigour and energy by the exercise of it in one direction or the other. The rudder is given to the ship that by means thereof it may be steered. So the Will is given to man that thereby he may be directed. No good steersman will desert the wheel and let the vessel drive before the wind and become a prey to the waves, and no man may leave the determination of his course to accident, without moral deterioration. We must strive to brace the Will so as to decide according to judgment and Conscience, and every such decision gives tone and force to the Will.

2. There are certain cases in which it is advisable to _avoid_ instead of _resisting_ temptation. When we know that circumstances are strong against us, and we know that our Wills have not acquired that nerve and independence which will enable us manfully and persistently to resist, then the judgment advises avoidance of the danger.

This is especially the case in all such temptations as affect modesty. We must never run into temptation, and where we are doubtful, and the way of avoidance is possible, there we do well to take it.

Fourth Monday in Lent.

_THE DETERMINATION OF THE WILL._

We have seen now what the Free Will in man can do. It can choose, or refuse, or remain inert.

Now we will go a little further, and see how it decides. It can aim directly or indirectly at a certain end.

(_a_) The Will can be _direct_ when it decides for that which is evil, _because it is evil_.

Or when it decides for that which is evil, _because of the pleasure or profit_ accruing therefrom.

Naturally, the first of these decisions is the worst; it implies a radical hostility of the will to God. It is the condition into which the will of the devils has fallen through persevering opposition to God. They love evil for its own sake. The transgression of God's Law affords them no gratification, the prospect of transgression holds out to them nothing but a deepening of their woe; nevertheless, their wills have become so set in opposition that they hate what is good, and love what is evil, simply because good is good and evil is evil. The more any man suffers his will to deflect from the Will of God, and he allows himself consciously to choose evil, the nearer he approaches to this condition of rooted and hopeless antagonism to God, and separation from the source of life, light, and happiness.

The second condition is the usual one, in which man chooses evil because of the gratification to his senses, or his pride, that the commission of a forbidden act, or the adoption of a forbidden course, or the dereliction of a commanded duty, will entail on him, or that he fancies it will entail. He does not love evil because it is evil, but he loves pleasure or what flatters his pride, and he accepts the evil because of what it promises.

(_b_) The Will can be indirect in its pursuit of evil when (1) It does evil that good may come, _or_ (2) When it does good that evil may come.

In _the first case_, the Will proposes to itself to attain to a good end, but it allows a certain course which it admits to be against God's Law, in the hopes that the lesser evil will result in the greater good. Thus, a lie is told to gain the conversion of a heretic. It is good to draw a man from heresy into the way of true religion, but to use a forbidden means to do this is to sin. Or an act of injustice may be done for the sake of doing some great and manifest good. This is not permissible. Not only must the end aimed at be good, but the means by which it is attained must be good also. Better leave the end unreached than use illegitimate methods for obtaining it.

In _the second case_, the Will proposes to itself to attain a bad end, and to reach that uses good and legitimate means. For instance, the truth is spoken when we know that by speaking the truth we shall rouse violent passions and produce discord. We do not mean that the truth should be perverted into untruth, but that it may be withheld. We are not bound _always_ to say everything we know, but to maintain a prudent reserve. If A. has said something harsh of B., we are not bound to tell B. what A. has said of him. It may be perfectly true what we retail, but if we do retail it we know it will be productive of discord. So it is quite possible for a person with an ill intention to use quite legitimate means--that is, means in themselves unobjectionable--to attain an evil end. Self-deception may, and does sometimes, blind people to the badness of the object they seek, by representing to them that they have done nothing wrong in the way by which they have worked to reach it.

Fourth Tuesday in Lent.

_PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS._

From what has been said about the Will of man and the Nature of Sin, some plain and Practical Conclusions may be drawn.

1. Those evil thoughts that pass in us, to which we give no consent direct or indirect, are not sinful to us, entail on us no guilt. That is to say, we are not responsible for evil thoughts, images unseemly, profane, uncharitable, for distractions in prayer, dreams of the night, unless we arrest them and give them our consent. Living in this evil world, surrounded by evil, we cannot avoid the knowledge of evil; that knowledge may, however, pass over the mind darkening momentarily, but not staining, like the shadow of a cloud on a hill side. So also with regard to wandering thoughts and unsuitable ideas presenting themselves to us in prayer, we cannot help them, but if we allow our thoughts to wander without effort to recollect them and harbour the unsuitable ideas, then they become sinful.

2. Sin consists in the assent given by the will to the suggestion of evil. That has been sufficiently insisted upon, and need not have anything further said thereon in this place.

3. If certain evil effects are foreseen, more or less distinctly, as likely to ensue, if we follow a certain line of conduct, and there be no reasonable motive to force us to adopt that line of conduct, and those evil effects ensue, then we are guilty of them. It lay in the power of our will to avoid that line of conduct which brought us into peril of doing those things which are evil, and, foreseeing the risk, we took the perilous course. This is the case of rushing into temptation. For instance, we foresee that association with certain individuals will lead to a lowering of our religious fervour, a laxity of view with regard to our moral obligations, and, nevertheless, we cultivate their society, then we are guilty of the coldness that ensues in our religion and the laxity that occurs in our moral look-out.

Or, again, if we see that by going to a certain place we are running great risk of committing a certain sin, and, without any real necessity, we go to that place, and fall under temptation, then we are guilty, as if we had deliberately committed the sin. Or, again, if we see that by spending much time, and thought, and money on dress, we are becoming liable to vanity, and we go on lavishing attentions on our personal appearance, so that we do become conceited and vain, then we are guilty of the sin of vanity. We have wilfully chosen that course which leads to vanity.

Fifth Wednesday in Lent.

_THE GRAVITY OF SIN._

We come now to consider why Sin is in itself so grave. There are several reasons.

1. It is a revolt against God. 2. It is a setting at naught of the Work of Christ. 3. It neutralises the Work of the Holy Ghost. 4. It is an attack on Society.

1. _It is a revolt against God._ In the first place because God is the supreme authority, the Lord over all Creation, and that creature which sets up its own will against His, is thereby a rebel. Man regards, may be, the laws as unjust, or as tyrannical, that God has imposed on him; unjust because they limit his freedom, or are beyond his power to obey; tyrannical because they oppose the desires of his heart and animal appetites.

In the next place it shows a disregard or disbelief in God's promises and warnings, it is therefore grave because it shows indifference to God's goodness and to His severity. In the first case it robs God of the obedience due to Him, in the second case it robs Him of the respect due to Him.

Then, again, Sin is a revolt against God, as it makes man seek another end than that which God has ordained. God would have man seek Him, make Him the object of all His aspirations, all His efforts. By Sin a creature is substituted in the place of God, and man labours for, thinks of, cares for this created object, a person, or a thing, and makes of it an idol. It turns a man away from God as the object of life and its energies to a perishable and unworthy end.

Once more, Sin is a revolt against God, inasmuch as it robs God of the love, fear, reverence, worship, the thoughts of the mind, and the affections of the heart, that properly belong to Him.

Sin therefore is a state of rebellion against God, in that it refuses to acknowledge Him as king, and in that it sets up another sovereign in His place. It takes away that obedience, homage, love that should have been given to God, and gives it to something or someone else.

2. _It sets at naught the Work of Christ._ Christ came down on earth, taking human nature upon Him to break the power of Sin, and enable man to overcome it. Therefore He made atonement for Sin, and provided means of grace whereby man might be enabled to conquer it. But Sin is the making in vain the Atonement. "If they fall away ... they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." (Heb. vi. 6.) It prevents the sacrifice of Christ having any efficacy on the soul, to cleanse it from the past and to strengthen it for the future.

3. _It neutralises the Work of the Holy Ghost._ Our Lord poured down the Holy Spirit on His Church to be the sanctification of all the members thereof. This Divine Spirit prompts to good, and helps to perform what is good. It "prevents and follows us," _i.e._, it goes before, stirring up the will to do, and follows assisting in the performance. The Divine Spirit endeavours to purify us, illumine us, and strengthen us. But Sin stains, darkens, weakens us, consequently every sin wilfully indulged in, undoes the work of Sanctification which should be daily going on in us, forming in us the likeness to the perfect pattern of Jesus Christ.

Fifth Thursday in Lent.

_THE GRAVITY OF SIN._

(CONTINUED.)

1. We have spoken of Sin as a revolt against God, as undoing the work of Jesus Christ, and neutralising the Holy Ghost's work of Sanctification. We will now consider it as _an attack on Society_.

God is the Author of peace and concord, "He maketh men to be of one mind in an house." It is due to Him that Society is possible. He made man not only to be an individual with freedom, but to be a member of a community. The most elementary type of community is the Family, then comes the State, and lastly, the Church. Such unions can only be formed and maintained by a certain amount of sacrifice of individual freedom, and by mutual forbearance and compromise. Now as we see that barbarism, pure and simple, is the state of man who lives merely as an individual, and as we may be quite sure that God never intended man to be a savage, we may conclude, from reason, that God wills that man should unite with his fellow-men into societies, and therefore that He sanctions and blesses the surrenders and compromises that make such unions possible. It is so in a family; no single member can do exactly what he likes, he must give up something for the others, and it is exactly the same in the State and in the Church. In human nature there is an union of different elements, and in man as created all these were in complete accord; since the Fall disorder has entered into their relations, so that there is divergence of object aimed at by mind, body, and soul. God desires to see man's nature restored to perfect unity, so that all conflicting tendencies may cease.

2. Now Sin attacks Society--_i.e._, the Divinely-ordered unity--in several ways.

(_a_) By _Pride_ it impels the individual to assume a place to which he has no right, or to refuse to the rest those concessions which are necessary to make social harmony possible. Man rebels against being only one among many, and endeavours to thrust himself into prominence by arrogating to himself what does not lawfully belong to him.

(_b_) By _Jealousy_ men are excited the one against the other. They envy each other the place, the wealth, the respect, that they have obtained. All men cannot have the same position, the same wealth, and the same respect; there must be difference among the members of the community, as there are differences among the members of the body. Sin is an attack on Society when, through envy, it stirs up class jealousies, and stimulates hostility between different members of the social body.

(_c_) By _Cupidity_. Men, in their selfish greed to arrogate to themselves all things desirable, use the strength, opportunities, position they have, to draw to themselves the good things of this world, to the despoiling of their fellows. Our Lord warns against love of Mammon. No man, He said, could serve God and Mammon, that is, riches; and one reason is, that this greed after wealth is not for the distributing of means of subsistence among the many, and the relief of the necessitous, but in order that it all may be retained for the glorification and indulgence of self.

3. These three motives for the breaking-up of Society are all of Diabolic inspiration. As God is the author of unity, so is Satan the source of all schism. God brings men together, and inspires to the sacrifice of their individual caprices to the general good; the Evil One, on the other hand, urges to the undue exaltation of the individual self, so as to procure separation. He is the cause of discord in families, of the sapping of the principles of unity in the State, and to heresies and schisms that rend the Church. In a family, in the State, in the Church, all members, all classes, all orders, are bound together for the common good, and the Divine Spirit is in every social body as a good ferment--working out of it what is evil. But the Spirit of Evil is the spirit of decomposition, which breaks up all unity. It is in the family, in the State, in the Church, what death is to that unity, the living man--a break-up into warring units.

Fifth Friday in Lent.

_THE EFFECTS OF SIN._

We will now consider what are the effects produced by Sin. These effects are _general_ and _particular_.

The general effects of Sin are as follows:--

1. Sin causes a _stain_ or scar on the soul. But this stain or scar is not to be regarded as having a positive existence, but to be a privation. A stain is a deficiency in whiteness, as a scar is a defect in healthy smoothness. We are restored as far as guilt goes, by our Baptism, to a state of innocence before God, the infirmity and liability to Sin remains in us, but no condemnation before God. Our souls are white and sound, white as bleached linen, sound as an untorn garment. But every sin committed after Baptism is a loss of purity and of soundness. The soul that has sinned always after bears traces of the sin committed. The blot may be covered, the rent mended, but the traces of its having been made are never removed, though, indeed, the guilt may be put away by true repentance and absolution. This is due to the fact that a sin is a something committed, and an act can never be undone, though its consequences may be rectified. A word spoken can never be recalled, nor can an act that has been done. There is salvation for the sinner that repenteth, but the salvation attained by the penitent is and must be different in kind from that achieved by the soul that has never fallen into wilful sin.

2. Sin entails _condemnation_, subjecting to punishment, either temporal or eternal.