p. 2Of Venial Sin

Mortal sin extinguishes charity, banishes the Holy Ghost, withdraws us from our last end which is God, inflicts death on the soul, closes heaven against it, and leads straight to hell.

There can be no question, then, of reckoning this monstrous evil, the very mention of which fills the friends of God with horror and dismay, amongst the obstacles to our progress in virtue. We shall not allude to it here.

Venial sin, according to the Doctors of the Church, is the first obstacle to our perfection. To learn how to avoid it, and to stimulate ourselves to do so, let us reflect that it is a great evil—1st, in itself; 2nd, in its effects; and 3rd, in the chastisement it involves.

We will conclude this chapter by examining whether we entertain a genuine hatred of venial sin and a firm resolution to fly even the least faults.

Article I

1. Of the malice of venial sin considered in itself

Mortal sin excepted, there is no evil so great as venial sin.

According to a revelation made to St. Catherine of Genoa, venial sin is a greater evil than all others combined, even including death and hell. St. John Chrysostom, St. Anselm, St. Dorotheus, St. Thomas Aquinas, and all the Fathers unanimously hold this doctrine; and Aristotle, guided by the light of reason alone, teaches that ‘we should prefer to die rather than commit an action contrary to virtue.’¹1Ethic. To these testimonies a convincing argument is added by St. Thomas, who tells us that, ‘the punishment inflicted on sin participates less than the guilt in the nature of evil.’²21, q. 48, a. 6. Now, all the pains of this life, nay, even those of hell itself, being but the just punishment of sinners, it follows that the most trivial fault is a greater evil than all those. Besides, God, the essential and infinite sanctity, cannot be the author of sin, though, according to the Theologians, He is the author and positive cause of the punishment of sin. It is true, therefore, ‘that the punishment of sin is a lesser evil than the sin itself,’³3Ibid. and we should prefer to fall into hell rather than be guilty of it.

Children of men, I will cry out with the Prophet, ‘Give ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.’⁴4Isai. xxviii. 23. The least venial sin is a greater evil than all others, not excepting death or hell. The only inference to be drawn from this truth is, that if by the smallest venial sin we could avert the greatest evils and obtain the most substantial and desirable goods for the whole human race, we should not thereby be justified in committing it. Oh! thou who makest light of venial sin, ‘drinking iniquity like water,’⁵5Job xv. 16. would to Heaven that this ‘were deeply graven on the stone’⁶6Job xix. 24. of thy heart.

Yes, could we by a trivial lie avert all kinds of diseases, wars, famine, conflagrations; could we dispel all sorrows, re-establish our reputation, insure the union of families, preserve our country from imminent calamities; could we, by an impossibility, abridge or prevent the persecutions of Antichrist and extinguish all the p. 3fires enkindled by the Divine Justice in the other life, it would not be permitted us to tell that little lie. What do I say? If by a slight emotion of anger we could obtain the conversion of heretics, infidels, and idolators, release from hell and purgatory all the souls therein detained, could we insure the salvation of all mankind, we should not be justified in committing that venial sin. This is a certain truth attested by all the Fathers and Theologians of the Church. It is a dogma of the Christian Faith which cannot be controverted without impiety. The destruction of the world at the end of time, the consternation of nations, the eternal reprobation of the damned, are a less evil than the commission of a venial sin. All these evils only affect the creature, but sin, even such as is only venial, is an injury to God; it saddens and wounds His heart. In proportion, therefore, as the creature is inferior to the Creator, is sin an evil greater than all others.

Between God and the creature there is an infinitely greater disparity than between man and an insect; but since man sacrifices the life of an insect the moment he receives the least inconvenience from it, it must then be incomparably better to consent to the utter annihilation of the whole universe than to offend the Sovereign Majesty by even a light fault.

And yet, ‘O ye heavens, be very desolate;’⁷7Jerem. ii. 12. men, nay, religious, are to be found who presume to allege this culpable excuse, ‘it is only a venial sin!’ Oh! how differently we shall regard it at the hour of death!

2. God sovereignly detests venial sin

Such is the malice of this sin and such the hatred with which the sanctity of God pursues it, that even p. 4should a soul be enriched during its sojourn here with all the purity of virgins, the faith and constancy of the martyrs, the zeal of the apostles, and the perfection of St. John the Baptist, still should a single light fault remain unexpiated, God would keep that soul separated from Him till it should have been purified in the flames of purgatory.

Furthermore, if by an impossibility a saint in heaven were, by the least sin, to fall from the state of confirmed sanctity, which is the prerogative of the intuitive vision, that very instant, rejected from the bosom of God with the rapidity of lightning, it would be precipitated into purgatory, there to atone for a transient forgetfulness, a momentary weakness of the will. ‘Nothing defiled can enter heaven,’⁸8Apoc. xxi. 27. such is the oracle of the Holy Ghost. For the same reason nothing defiled could remain there one second.

Consider, you who are so indifferent about venial sin, who it is that shall be the avenger of it, and on whom and through what motives He shall exercise the severity of His wrath. It is the God of all goodness, He whose mercy is above all His works. Yes, He it is who for a single venial sin would so severely exercise the rights of His justice on the saints, His most beloved friends.

Nor does God punish beyond what is just; on the contrary, His Heart is a very furnace of love and mercy.

The saints themselves would willingly cast themselves from their thrones of glory into the fire of hell rather than be guilty of the least transgression. They would even esteem themselves happy could they, by enduring these devouring flames, prevent a light fault. And this heroic disposition is but simple justice, since, according to several learned Theologians, one venial sin does more injury to God than the united and eternal praises of the saints give Him glory.

Again reflect, you who contemn venial sin, and weigh its grievousness, not in the deceitful balance of human judgment, but in the unerring scales of the sanctuary.

Behold in what light God, Jesus Christ, and the saints regard such a fault, whilst you have the temerity to excuse it. The saints tremble at the idea of venial sin; the mere shadow of it makes the angels shudder and fills the heart of the Queen of Angels with anguish. And man, vile clay, has the audacity to commit it every moment in presence of the adorable Trinity, counting as nought the injury that results from it to God! Can it be possible that man alone regards as insignificant what the saints view as the greatest of evils, mortal sin excepted? Is it possible that a Christian, a religious especially, should make light of a fault for which he shall one day have to render a strict account? Nothing can be light by which the Sovereign Majesty is offended, nor can any fault be trivial which the sanctity of God condemns.

3. The creature cannot of himself make adequate satisfaction for venial sin

To realise more fully the inconceivable malice of this sin, let us suppose that all the saints, prostrate before the throne of the Most High, were to offer Him their united merits to atone for one venial sin; the Seraphim to present Him their love; the Patriarchs their faith; the Prophets their courage; the Apostles their preachings; the Pontiffs their zeal; the Martyrs their blood; the p. 5Confessors their penance; the Virgins their purity; the august Mother of God her incomparable sanctity. It would all be useless. These merits would bear no proportion to the offence offered to the Almighty by that venial sin. No one, not even the just man, with the merit of the habitual grace which enriches his soul, can, of himself, adequately satisfy for his own sin or that of his neighbour.

Let us maturely weigh the extent and bearings of our proposition. A lie told in jest, a slight emotion of anger, tepidity at prayer, include a transgression of so serious a nature that the burning love of the Seraphim, the eternal praise of the blessed, and the powerful prayers of the saints offered to the ‘Lamb as sweet odours in golden vials,’⁹9Apoc. v. 8. are not meet satisfaction for such a sin.

How deplorable is our blindness when we commit it so unconcernedly!

4. Venial sin combined with mortal is the cause of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ

Come, Angels of peace,¹⁰10Isai. xxxiii. 7. come in mourning and desolation to see your God expire. But thou, sinner, listen and tremble. Those light faults, which thou regardest as trifles, have caused the sufferings of Jesus Christ, and have robbed Him of life. ‘He was wounded for our iniquities; He was bruised for our sins;’¹¹11Isai. liii. 5. ‘He is dead for our sins,’¹²121 Cor. xv. 3. and even for our venial sins, for which also He has satisfied His Eternal Father by His passion. Yes, sinner! The Lamb without spot was covered with wounds on account of thy vain, idle, lying words; He was bruised on account of thy irreverences p. 6and distractions at prayer; ‘He was accounted amongst the wicked’¹³13Isai. liii. 12. to expiate thy jealousy, thy vanity, thy pride, and thy detractions. In fine, ‘He has borne in His body’¹⁴141 Peter ii. 24. the punishment due even to thy venial sins.

By each of thy venial sins thou hast added new torments to the passion and sufferings of Jesus Christ; thou hast committed a crime for which this loving Saviour was bound, laden with chains, scourged, crowned with thorns—a crime, in a word, which, combined with mortal sin, consummated on the cross a horrible deicide. What, unhappy soul! thou beholdest the consequences of thy sin, and yet thou abhorrest it not? Thy heart is not broken with sorrow. It is, then, harder than the rocks which split at the death of the Saviour.

But the malice of venial sin does not end here. Not content with having once shed the blood of a God, it daily renews the atrocious insults that accompanied the torment of Calvary—a torment which spread consternation through all nature ‘when the sun was darkened, the graves opened, the veil of the Temple was rent.’¹⁵15Luke xxiii. 45. If mortal sin crucifies again the Son of God, venial sin, according to the Fathers, renews against our Divine Master the ignominy of the derisions, blows, and insults. And yet man has the temerity to style such a fault light! O heavens! to strike the Son of God, to tear His hair, to cover His venerable face with spittle! Is this, then, but a light offence?—to load you with insults, O Divine Jesus! to overwhelm you with ignominy and outrages would, at most, be but a pardonable thoughtlessness in a Christian! Ah! who can restrain the thunderbolts of heaven from avenging such conduct!

‘Woe to you who drag these iniquities like a long chain.’¹⁶16Isai. v. 18. Woe to you, for the just avenger ‘is about to come, and He will not delay.’¹⁷17Habac. ii. 3.

My God, ‘may my eyes shed torrents of tears,’¹⁸18Ps. cxviii. 136. may they never cease to weep, because my offences ‘exceed in number the hairs of my head.’¹⁹19Ps. xxxix. 13. ‘I have sinned, I have done evil in Thy sight,’²⁰20Ps. l. 6. and a very great evil, when I committed even a venial sin; but for Thy love, my God, I am sorry for it with my whole heart. Terrified at its turpitude, I resolve never again, at least with full deliberation, to allow it to sully my soul.

I promise, ‘O living God, in whose sight I stand,’²¹214 Kings iii. 14. ‘that as long as breath remaineth in me my lips shall not speak iniquity, neither shall my tongue contrive lying.’²²22Job xxvii. 3. I will willingly relinquish all I possess, and suffer all evils rather than ‘deliver my soul’²³23Eccles. xix. 4. even to venial sin. But Thou knowest, O my God, that of myself I can but sin and lose my soul; deign, then, ‘to confirm what Thou hast wrought in us,’²⁴24Ps. lxvii. 29. ‘and assist us to accomplish the good resolutions Thy grace has inspired us to make.’²⁵25St. Aug.

Article II

Of the malice of venial sin considered in its effects

1. It vitiates virtuous actions

Venial sin is a very great evil in its effects. As ‘dying flies spoil the sweetness of the ointment,’²⁶26Eccles. 10. 1. so venial sin corrupts virtuous actions; and when it affects the foundation or principal intention of them it diminishes their value to such a degree that, ceasing to be acts of a supernatural order, they no longer merit eternal rewards. ‘Take heed that you do not your justice before men, that you may be seen by them, otherwise you shall have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.’²⁷27Matt. vi. 1. What conclusion are we to come to from these words of Jesus Christ, unless it be that virtue itself, if it originate in vain glory, shall receive no recompense in eternity?

But a thought of vain glory which determines us to the performance of a good work, being only a venial sin,²⁸28St. Thomas expressly says that the vain glory against which Jesus Christ here warns us is only a venial sin. it follows that the fact of being vitiated in its motive by this species of sin suffices to rob an action of all its value and merit. St. Jerome affirms that, ‘martyrdom itself, if endured solely to win human applause, would be a fruitless sacrifice,’²⁹29On 1st Chap. of Epist. to Gal. destitute of all merit in the sight of God. St. Thomas, examining this question of venial sin, decides that, ‘if an action be performed through vain glory it is no longer meritorious of eternal life, even though this bad disposition should not amount to mortal sin.’³⁰30St. Thom. 2. 2, q. 132, a. 3. Elsewhere he thus confirms this doctrine: ‘though the action of him who gives alms through vanity be not bad under all its relations, still the act of the will is altogether wicked.’³¹31St. Thom. 1. 2, q. 19, a. 7. It is true, therefore, that when venial sin so far influences the will as to be its directing principle, it is a poison which vitiates and completely destroys our good actions. Though our life were a continual prayer, though we should dispense treasures into the bosom of the poor, macerate our body by penance, exceed the angels in purity, excel the good p. 8Samaritan in charity, and at the same time practise patience, humility, and obedience in an heroic degree, still all these virtues would be devoid of merit should our heart unhappily imbibe the poison of pride, self-love, or sensuality, and those apparently laudable actions would degenerate into faults deserving of punishment.

Finally, though we should offer a pure intention to God on awaking, being careful to renew it frequently during the day, still the commission of a venial sin weakens its influence; it diminishes and sometimes even nullifies the value of our works till they be consecrated by a new oblation.

My soul! venial sin has mingled a base alloy with the gold of thy good works. With diabolical craft it has contrived to rob thee of the heavenly treasures thou mightest have each day amassed; it has robbed of its fairest ornaments the heavenly crown that it destined for thee.

Each time that it has so far insinuated itself as to exercise a directing influence on our actions, it has annihilated their merit and bereft us of so many degrees of eternal glory.

And yet, notwithstanding all this, we find it difficult to detest it; we even love and cherish it!

2. It cools charity

Another lamentable effect of venial sin is, that it not merely vitiates virtuous actions and impedes our increase of merits, but it likewise ‘diminishes’ in us the ‘fervour of charity’³²32St. Thom. 3, q. 79, a. 4. by rendering us so slothful in the service of God and so callous to our eternal interests p. 9that the heart of our Divine Master cannot long tolerate our tepidity.

‘A servant of God must avoid the least faults, if he would not soon see his love grow cool’³³33Life of St. Laur. Justinian. and a mortal languor take possession of his soul. Religious themselves, notwithstanding the powerful grace of their vocation, if they allow themselves to entertain ‘a contempt for small faults, insensibly lose their fervour’³⁴34St. Anselm. and fall into tepidity, a state whose fatal effects should induce us to fly it as the empoisoned source of countless evils. Yes; sad experience teaches that even the slightest faults lead us unawares to tepidity. See a man who commits them almost every moment without scruple: his soul grows languishing; the exercises of piety disgust him; he practises no self-imposed mortifications; shrinks from everything that requires the least effort; commences slothfully and continues apathetically whatever he undertakes, so that no, or at least very little, fruit results from anything he does. Completely engrossed with earthly things, those of heaven are perfectly insipid to him: he has not courage to restrain his sensual appetites, he tires of meditation, and religious practices of all kinds are irksome to him; he is hurried on to vice as by a natural tendency; self-indulgence and the gratification of the senses seem to be the one object of his life. With virtue thus enfeebled, how can the fervour of charity be preserved, or rather, how can it fail to be extinguished altogether? What pen could depict in sufficiently vivid colouring a misfortune so great? So perfect and precious a gift is the charity of God, or, if you will, sanctifying grace which ‘is poured forth in our hearts,’³⁵35Rom. v. 5. that there is nothing which can bear the remotest comparison with it. When you renounce it, therefore, O soul created for heaven, what a loss do you not sustain? Now, ‘venial sin’ indirectly ‘attacks the possession of this inestimable treasure’ and ‘paves the way to its utter loss.’³⁶36St. Thom. 2. 2, q. 24, a. 10. Not that venial sin immediately destroys or even gradually diminishes sanctifying grace, but it arrests its progress and leads the way to its ruin by causing the soul that commits it to fall into tepidity. Thus, St. Thomas teaches that, ‘though charity, according to its nature, cannot be diminished directly, it can nevertheless be diminished indirectly by venial sin, which is a disposition to the corruption and loss of this virtue.’³⁷37St. Thom. 2. 2, q. 24, a. 10. Charity, it is true, ‘is a devouring fire and a consuming flame’³⁸38Cant. viii. 6. but the ardours of this divine virtue are extinguished by a multitude of venial sins, as fire is extinguished by too great a quantity of super-incumbent ashes.

3. It in some manner separates the soul from God

‘Venial sin,’ says St. Thomas, ‘by attracting our will towards a created object, weakens its love for the Sovereign Good and thus establishes the commencement of a divorce between them.’³⁹39St. Thom. 3, q. 87, a. 1. Oh! fearful thought! Could there be anything more calculated to inspire us with a horror of this sin?

Christian soul, weigh well this truth: a venial sin does not entirely separate you from God, but it begins to withdraw you from Him: it renders you less worthy the cares of His especial Providence and of that love of predilection with which He protects the just man from p. 10evil, loads him with blessings, and makes all things ‘work together unto good.’⁴⁰40Rom. viii. 28.

After your sin this infinitely loving Father no longer receives you as affectionately as He was wont to do; He no longer opens His arms to you with His accustomed tenderness.

But if grace suffer a diminution, what will become of you? Alas! assailed by a thousand temptations, exposed almost alone to the darts of the enemy, will you not experience disastrous defeats? At present you give yourself but little concern about the imminence of your danger and the withdrawal of the divine assistance of which you as little comprehend the value as you fear the consequences of your fall; but woe to you if your reflections on it be postponed till eternity dawns upon you!

4. It sullies the soul

Venial sin imprints a shameful stain on the soul which disfigures and dishonours it in the sight of God. ‘It is a stain which tarnishes the lustre of innocence and obscures the natural beauty of the soul.’⁴¹41St. Basil on 4th chap. Isai. ‘A loathsome leprosy which does not, it is true, deprive it of life, but which covers it over with its horrible deformity.’⁴²42St. Cæsarius of Arles Homil. ‘It is a hideous wound which makes us an object of loathing to our heavenly Spouse and deprives us of His chaste embraces.’⁴³43St. Aug. And yet, in spite of all this, we give it free access to our heart on every occasion that offers!

How different were the sentiments of the saints respecting this sin. St. Catherine of Genoa would have preferred to be cast into a fiery furnace, St. Anselm to p. 11be precipitated into hell, St. John Chrysostom to be possessed by the devil, rather than consent to the least fault, whilst we multiply them incessantly. Day after day we accumulate them, forgetting that the most ordinary and at the same time the most dreadful effect of a habit of venial sin is to plunge the soul into the abyss of mortal sin and thence into hell.

5. It disposes to mortal sin

Oh, awful effect of venial sin! Hearken, O sinner, you who make a jest of light faults, hearken to this oracle of St. Thomas: ‘Frequent falls into venial sin are a disposition to mortal.’⁴⁴44St. Thom. 1. 2, q. 88, a. 3. Five times in the same article he repeats this proposition, and he even returns to it elsewhere to develop it still more. This teaching is perfectly in accordance with that of all the Fathers of the Church, especially of St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. John Damascene, and St. Gregory. But it is not merely the Fathers who have taught us that venial sin disposes to mortal, the Holy Ghost Himself has done so in these words: ‘He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little.’ He whom this menace fails to inspire with a horror of venial sin is very near his ruin. No one reaches an excess of crime at the first step; and probably there is not a soul in hell to-day who had not sinned venially before falling into mortal sin; so that very frequently eternal damnation is but the sad consequence of a single venial sin.

Not that of itself it deserves eternal punishment, but it gradually conducts to such a degree of prevarication as consummates the ruin of the soul. St. Teresa beheld in a vision the place prepared for her in hell if she p. 12persisted in a habit she had contracted of idle, worldly conversation with a young relative of a light disposition. And mark, this was not a mortal sin, for she had always sedulously shunned grave faults. My God! if a fault apparently so excusable would have compassed the destruction of that great saint, how should not we tremble considering the many and far more reprehensible habits of which we are the slaves!

You say that possibly your salvation may not depend on these little things; but perhaps also it may depend on them. Will you then risk your soul, your eternity, the possession of God, on so chimerical an alternative?

Had St. Teresa reasoned thus, she would have been lamentably deceived and have perished for ever. Why should you not fear a similar fate? Unhappy you if you persevere in despising venial faults, as the forfeiture of your eternal happiness may possibly be the result of what now causes you so little uneasiness.

Oh, inexcusable folly! the fear of death has sufficient influence over us to induce us to avoid, with the utmost care, all that could impair our health; and yet we deliberately commit venial sin which may imperceptibly lead us to hell.

Ah! let us dread and vigilantly guard against the wily and perfidious serpent which, if cherished in our bosom, would compass the ruin of our immortal soul by the deadly venom of its bite.

Alas! ‘my life hath drawn nigh to hell,’⁴⁵45Ps. lxxxvii. 4. ‘and I knew not.’⁴⁶46Ps. lxxii. 22. Hurried on by my light faults to the brink of the precipice, I was already enveloped with ‘the smoke of their torments,’ ‘which shall ascend for ever and ever,’⁴⁷47Apoc. xiv. 11. and I experienced no anxiety.

Ah! Lord, hadst Thou not hastened to my assistance I should have long since fallen from venial into mortal sin, ‘I should dwell with devouring fire, and with everlasting burning.’⁴⁸48Isai. xxxiii. 14. But, ‘O Keeper of men,’⁴⁹49Job vii. 20. who ‘hatest the least iniquity,’⁵⁰50Ps. xliv. 8. to Thy creature, ‘reach out Thy right hand,’⁵¹51Job xiv. 15. ‘lift me up from the gates of death,’⁵²52Ps. ix. 15. ‘and lead me on the paths of justice,’⁵³53Ps. xxii. 3. in order that I may no longer stray away from Thee, and may shun even the least faults. ‘Place Thy Angel with a flaming sword at the gate of my heart to guard the entrance of it.’⁵⁴54Gen. iii. 24.

Article III

Of the malice of venial sin considered with reference to the punishment it entails

1. Chastisements in this life

Moses is a striking example of the vengeance sometimes exercised by divine justice on venial sin, in this life. He was, says the Holy Scripture, ‘beloved of God and men.’⁵⁵55Eccles. xlv. 1. ‘The Lord spoke to him face to face as a man is wont to speak to his friend.’⁵⁶56Exod. xxxiii. 11. ‘He made him like the saints in glory, He glorified him in the sight of kings.’⁵⁷57Ecclus. xlv. 2. ‘After him no prophet was found like to him in Israel.’⁵⁸58Deut. xxxiv. 10.

This great man, ‘the chief of the princes of Israel, the consecrator of the Pontiffs of the Old Law,’⁵⁹59St. Greg. Naz. disc. 22. who was always ‘superior to his passions, who disdained all the temporal joys of Egypt, who, in his chaste conversations with God, received a vivid impression of sanctity, and, as p. 13it were, the plenitude of all virtues;’⁶⁰60St. Ambr. this great man had the misfortune to fall into a slight sin of distrust, which, in the opinion of the most esteemed theologians, was but a venial fault: ‘he struck the rock twice with his rod.’⁶¹61Numb. xx. 11. ‘He feared,’ says St. Augustine, ‘lest the sins of the people should prove an obstacle to the divine promise and render his word powerless to draw water from the rock.’ But, oh, terrible effect of the divine wrath on a fault seemingly so slight! God instantaneously issued forth this dreadful decree: ‘Go up to the mountain of Nebo.’⁶²62Deut. xxxii. 49. ‘Thou shalt see the land before thee, but thou shalt not enter it.’⁶³63Deut. xxxii. 52. ‘Thou shalt not lead these people into the land that I will give them.’⁶⁴64Numb. xx. 12. ‘Thou shalt be gathered to thy people.’⁶⁵65Deut. xxxii. 50. ‘Moses went up to the mountain and died there.’⁶⁶66Deut. xxxiv. 1, 5. So prompt and inevitable is the execution of divine justice. Oh, fearful warning! ‘Howl, thou fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen.’⁶⁷67Zach. xi. 2. He is fallen, this elect one, struck by the hand of God Himself. He is fallen just as he is about to enter the promised land, the land ‘flowing with milk and honey.’⁶⁸68Deut. vi. 3. He can behold it; for long years it has been the object of his most cherished aspirations, at length he is about to reach it after unheard-of toils and trials. Vain hope! for one light fault he is doomed never to enter it! He dies, and his death is accompanied by circumstances the most calculated to enhance the severity of his punishment. The Almighty, as though fearing to be moved by the prayers of Moses, forbids him to solicit pardon. ‘It is sufficient, speak no more to me of this matter;’⁶⁹69Deut. iii. 26. and to divest his servant of even the consolation of hope He confirms by an oath the sentence p. 14of death He has pronounced. “The Lord hath sworn that Moses should not pass over the Jordan.”⁷⁰70Deut. iv. 21. He even names to him his successor: “Thou shalt not go in thither, but Josue, the son of thy minister, he shall go in for thee.”⁷¹71Deut. i. 37, 38. But the severity of the sentence is about to reach its climax. “Go up to the top of Phasga, and cast thy eyes round about, to the west, and to the north, and to the south, and to the east;”⁷²72Deut. iii. 27. “behold the land for which I swore to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. Thou hast seen it and shalt not pass over to it.”⁷³73Deut. xxxiv. 4. What a trial for Moses! What an expiation for his sin! “Lord, be not angry, I beseech Thee, if I speak to Thee, whereas I am but dust and ashes;”⁷⁴74Gen. xviii. 27, 30. “consider that it is Moses Thy servant, from whom Thou exactest so severe a retribution for so slight a fault; Moses, who denied himself to be the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, rather choosing to be afflicted with the children of God, than to have the pleasure of sin for a time;”⁷⁵75Hebr. xi. 24. Moses, who, burning with a holy indignation, “laying hold of the golden calf, the execrable object of Jewish idolatry, burnt it and beat it to powder;”⁷⁶76Exod. xxxii. 20. “who was the meekest of men;”⁷⁷77Numb. xii. 3. who, during a period of forty years, bore the mutinies and revolts of a stiff-necked people with invincible patience; who, instead of avenging their contempt of his authority, their outrages and violent assault with stones, offered for them the inimitable prayer: Lord, “either forgive them this trespass or strike me out of the book that Thou hast written;”⁷⁸78Exod. xxxii. 31, 32. it is Moses, in fine, whom Thou hast Thyself declared to be “the most faithful in all Thy house.”⁷⁹79Numb. xii. 7. What, O “God of clemency!”⁸⁰80Acts xxiv. 4. Thou whose p. 15mercy knoweth no bounds, whose Heart is an inexhaustible treasure of goodness, Thou refusest to pardon him! Thou dost not even postpone his punishment! Is he then who so often propitiated Thy anger in favour of others the only one towards whom Thou art unrelenting? Lord, Lord, remember thy former kindnesses. Vain prayer! “The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent.”⁸¹81Ps. cix. 4. The fiat has gone forth. Moses must die. The splendour of his miracles, the greatness of his merits, the number and perfection of his virtues, will not obtain the revocation of his sentence. He must die for a fault which seems to us so slight, die on Mount Nebo, from which, to augment his grief, he will behold the fertile regions of the promised land.

What an awful lesson to future ages of the enormity of venial sin!

Unhappy we! “If in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?”⁸²82Luke xxiii. 31. If Moses is punished unsparingly for one venial sin, what have not we to expect who daily and maliciously multiply our offences?

Traverse ancient Judea in spirit, and at every step you will meet with some memorial of misfortune and death. Here you will see “seventy thousand men falling victims to a pestilence;”⁸³832 Kings xxiv. 15. there “fifty thousand Bethsamites suddenly struck dead;”⁸⁴841 Kings vi. 19. later on, “all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, are carried away by the King of Babylon; he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the valiant men of the army, and he carried away the king’s mother and his wives and his children into captivity.”⁸⁵854 Kings xxiv. 13, 14, 15.

Would we not imagine that such dire misfortunes as these must have been provoked by some abominable crime on the part of the Jews, such as a relapse into idolatry, murmurs against God, or the obstinate violation of some important precept? But no. These tremendous chastisements have another source. A mere thought of pride in David, a passing feeling of ostentation in Ezechias, a slightly irreverent look at the ark by the Bethsamites, such are the causes of all this mourning and desolation. And yet all theologians agree they were only venial sins. “The Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel,”⁸⁶861 Parlip. xxi. 14. because David had commanded Joab “to make a census of the people in order to know the number of his subjects.”⁸⁷872 Kings xxiv. 2. “The Bethsamites were stricken because having seen the Ark of the Lord,”⁸⁸881 Kings vi. 19. they gazed on it with a curiosity somewhat wanting in respect. “All that was in the house of the King of Juda was carried away”⁸⁹894 Kings xx. 17. to Babylon, “because the heart of Ezechias had yielded to vanity.”⁹⁰902 Parlip. xxxii. 26. Such are the chastisements inflicted by God on these kings and peoples, and yet David was “a man according to God’s own heart.”⁹¹911 Kings xiii. 14. “Ezechias was without an equal for religion amongst the kings of Juda.”⁹²924 Kings xviii. 5. “The Bethsamites” had shown their piety “that very day by immolating victims and holocausts to the Lord.”⁹³931 Kings vi. 15. Oh! how truly awful are the judgments of God, how dreadful the malice of venial sin!

But, you will ask, does man, whose nature is so frail, in falling into venial sin commit so great a fault that God must launch forth the thunderbolts of His vengeance against him? The Almighty does not so promptly yield to anger; “He knows that we are dust”⁹⁴94Ps. cii. 14. and “we have not a high priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities.”⁹⁵95Heb. iv. 15. Great chastisements suppose great crimes, and light faults do not demand so exemplary an expiation. Rash words! The Divine Judge was then guilty of injustice when for a venial sin He inflicted such signal chastisements on Moses, David, Oza, the Bethsamites, and Ezechias? He did not proportion the punishments to the offence in the various chastisements recorded in Scripture and Ecclesiastical History? Ah! “let us cease to accuse God of injustice.”⁹⁶96Job xxxiv. 10. Let us rather measure the malice of venial sin by the rigour with which it is punished even in this life by Him who is “a God merciful and gracious, patient and of much compassion.”⁹⁷97Exod. xxxiv. 6.

2. Chastisements in the other life

The enormity of venial sin is rendered still more evident by the chastisements inflicted on it in the other life, as they are more numerous, intense, and lasting.

According to St. Augustine, St. Anselm, Venerable Bede, and many others, the pains of purgatory exceed all the torments of the martyrs, the various punishments to which malefactors are subjected, and the most excruciating agony of all kinds of diseases taken collectively. St. Cæsarius tells us, “the fire of purgatory is a greater torture than all the evils that can be suffered or even imagined in this world;”⁹⁸98Homil. and St. Thomas adds that, “the least pain endured in that place of expiation surpasses all the sufferings of this life.”⁹⁹99Lombard, 4, d. 9, a. 4. And yet who can number the multiplied calamities to which man is sometimes subjected during his life! Who can reckon all the miseries, all the afflictions that pursue him from the p. 17cradle to the grave! See the unfortunate wretches tortured on the rack, or condemned to the intolerable labours and privations of the galleys; approach these unhappy beings stretched on a bed of anguish, the victims of incurable and excruciating diseases. What a sad spectacle of human woes!

We are told by Galenus that a person may experience several thousands of different kinds of pain in the head alone. If to these we unite all the interior and exterior sufferings to which the human frame is liable, what a complication of miseries shall we not behold! And yet, they are not comparable to the pains of purgatory. This is an undisputable fact. There all conceivable torments unite in the soul as in their centre, without allowing one moment’s respite or alleviation. It endures at one and the same time according to the number and nature of its faults, all the physical and mental sufferings by which the members and senses of the body and the faculties of the mind can be tormented; and this not for a few days or weeks, but it may be for long years!

But to continue: the tortures of these expiatory furnaces, inconceivable in their number, intolerable in their severity, overwhelming in their duration, are inflicted for venial faults. . . . Yes, for venial faults! . . . for a trivial lie, for a slight emotion of anger, for the voluntary distraction of a moment, for an idle word, for some moments ill spent; for those faults of such frequent recurrence that our lives are, as it were, a tissue of them. And on whom are these penalties inflicted? On predestined souls, spouses of Jesus Christ, children of God, heirs of heaven. They are inflicted, too, by an infinitely just God, who does not punish sin beyond what it deserves, and who entertains the tenderest love for these p. 18souls. From this we must conclude either that God is an unjust and ruthless tyrant, the mere thought of which is blasphemy, or that venial sin is a dreadful evil. Yes, Religious! Yes, Christian soul! either God is a relentless tyrant, or thy vain glory, thy dissipation, thy impatience are worthy of all abhorrence.

My God! we believe those truths, we teach them to others, and still we continue to sin. We know that a slight infidelity deserves purgatory, and yet we pursue our reckless career.

Were we assured that we should be burned alive after the commission of two or three venial sins, how circumspect we should be to avoid the least faults! And yet, though we know the flames of purgatory must expiate those with which our souls are stained, we do not hesitate to multiply them, “we drink iniquity like water!”¹⁰⁰100Job xv. 16.

O God! I, vile dust as I am, have presumed to offend Thee, the Sovereign Good, and this, notwithstanding all the favours Thou hast lavished on me. . . . I have offended Thee so repeatedly . . . for amusement . . . for a nothing . . . through pure caprice, without being even incited thereto by the hope of any gain or the apprehension of any loss. Were I to win an empire, or avert a torturing disease, nay, even death itself, by disobeying Thee slightly, I would not be justified in doing so. I am aware of this, and yet, day after day, hour after hour, and with a smile upon my lips, I have accumulated venial sin to an overwhelming amount! I have offended God with utter unconcern. . . . God, my infinitely tender Father; for a base interest, through vain glory, through jest. Led on by venial sin to the imminent danger of mortal, reckless of my salvation, I have laughed at and contemned the pains of purgatory, which I have deserved!

Oh! well may we weep tears of blood over such an infatuation.

But I repent, I bewail all, even my least faults. I desire to imprint indelibly on my heart the holy maxim: “Rather die a thousand deaths than sully my soul with any sin, however light.” “O my God, enlighten my darkness,”¹⁰¹101Ps. xvii. 29. that henceforth I may fully realise the grievousness of venial sin. “Create a clean heart in me,”¹⁰²102Ps. l. 12. that I may abhor and shun all that could in any way displease Thee.

Article IV

Of the hatred we should entertain for venial sin and the care with which we should avoid it

The fruits of the truths we have just been meditating should be not only a more perfect knowledge, but also an efficacious hatred of venial sin, and a zealous endeavour to avoid it.

These two points shall constitute the matter of this fourth article. We shall treat of them under the form of an examen, which method we will observe during the remainder of this work, in which, as a rule, the last article of each chapter shall be a particular examen on the subject of which it treats.

1. Of the efficacious hatred of venial sin

Knowing the malice of venial sin, considered in itself, in its effects, and in the dreadful chastisement it involves; let us examine ourselves, and see how far our detestation of all, but particularly of fully deliberate venial sin extends. “Do we firmly believe that the least sin can do us more injury than all the powers of hell?”¹⁰³103St. Teresa 25. p. 19“Are we fully persuaded that death and the loss of all temporal goods are less to be dreaded than the smallest stain of venial sin?”¹⁰⁴104St. Doroth. 20. Let us candidly examine our sentiments on this subject. Do we believe these truths? Do we believe them with a firm and unwavering faith? Would we prefer, with St. Anselm, to descend with a pure and innocent heart into hell than to enter heaven stained with the least sin? Should we have the misfortune to fall into venial sin, do we experience as much remorse as a good Christian, zealous for his salvation, feels when he permits himself to be seduced into mortal sin? If by a trivial lie we could avert a dangerous illness, prevent the loss of our reputation, escape severe sufferings, obtain an honourable and lucrative employment, would we not tell that lie?

If at the expense of a venial sin we could preserve something very dear and precious to us, how would we act? Let us interrogate our conscience, and let such questions be the touchstones whereby we may learn how far our hatred of venial sin extends. Let us afterwards exclaim with the venerable Eleazar: Yes, “I would rather die”¹⁰⁵1052 Machab. vi. 23. than commit such a fault. Should we not have the courage to make this resolution, “we shall not escape the hand of the Almighty, alive or dead, for even venial sin shall not remain unpunished.”¹⁰⁶106St. Prosper. Let us imprint deeply on our souls an abiding horror of venial sin, but particularly: 1st, of that which is most habitual, for it is the disease to which we are most liable that elicits the special attention of the physician; 2dly, that which is the source of all others, since if the root be destroyed the tree must inevitably perish; 3dly, that which leads directly to mortal sin, since, when we are p. 20really apprehensive of falling into an abyss, we sedulously shun the path which leads thereto. “He,” says St. Jerome, “who fears small faults is very far from committing great crimes.” St. Dorotheus says: “Do not commit venial sin under the pretext of its being such, since it may become mortal, for we pass with the utmost facility from light to great faults.”¹⁰⁷107Serm. “Light faults,” adds St. Gregory, “always precede great ones, and it is only by degrees that we arrive at the commission of crime.”¹⁰⁸108St. Greg. Moral.

2. Of the care we should take to avoid venial sin

It does not suffice that we hate it, we must always avoid it with the utmost care.

This care consists in a firm resolution, a constant vigilance and a prompt resistance joined to great fervour in prayer.

1. The firm resolution to avoid sin supposes in the soul a sincere regret for those which it has already committed. Had we been guilty of but one venial fault we should, after the example of Blessed Rodriguez, “weep over it during our whole life.”¹⁰⁹109Life of B. Alp. Rodrig. Is such our disposition? What regret do we feel for our sins? What uneasiness do they cause us? What contrition do we conceive for them at the evening examination of conscience, or at that made preparatory to our approaching the sacred Tribunal of Penance to obtain their pardon? Do we instantly deplore the infidelities into which we fall, crying out with David: “I have sinned;”¹¹⁰1102 Kings xii. 13. or with the blind man of the Gospel: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me;”¹¹¹111Mark x. 47. or else with the publican: “O God! be merciful to me a sinner”?¹¹²112Luke xviii. 13. Have we formed the firm and generous resolution to avoid venial sin in future? Have we resolved to guard with special vigilance against some particular fault from one confession to another? Have we renewed this good resolution in our visits to the Blessed Sacrament? How many venial faults have we corrected up to the present time? Woe to us should we convert so salutary a remedy into a poison! An excellent means of cherishing a sincere sorrow for our transgressions, and insuring the fulfilment of our resolutions, is to allow our minds to be deeply penetrated with the heinousness of venial sin which we have just been considering, and to recall the cause of it at the close of our meditation, and also frequently during the day. “All sin proceeds from some ignorance,”¹¹³113St. Thom. 1. 2, q. 77, a. 2. which conceals from us its deformity and malice; therefore, there could be no better shield against relapses than a perfect knowledge and frequent reflections on the dreadful consequences which venial sin entails. We recoil from the aspect of a venomous reptile, because we know its bite is poisonous; but did we understand how subtle and pernicious is the venom with which the least sin infects our soul, we would “flee from it as from the face of a serpent.”¹¹⁴114Ecclus. xxi. 2. It was his profound knowledge of sin that made St. Edmund of Canterbury say: “he would cheerfully consent to be cast on a burning pile rather than voluntarily commit even a light fault.”¹¹⁵115Life of St. Edmund. “We, on the contrary,” says St. John Chrysostom, “daily fall into venial sin, because we have no zeal to enlighten our souls”¹¹⁶116Hom. with the torch of faith which would discover to us its malice.

2. The strongest resolutions will not guarantee us against so great an evil unless we exercise a perpetual watchfulness not to displease God in any way. We learn from Fr. Maffée’s “Life of St. Ignatius,” that this illustrious servant of God “observed a constant vigilance over himself, to guard against the illusion of the senses, and dissipation of mind;” and as a man in costly attire treads cautiously on a road saturated with mud and rain, so he took extraordinary precautions to preserve his soul from the smallest stain. St. John Chrysostom admonishes us that “we have a restless and implacable enemy against whom we must exert exceeding watchfulness if we would elude his snares.”¹¹⁷117Hom.

Let us now examine ourselves. What guard do we keep over our senses and the faculties of our soul? Do we, as St. Macarius advises, turn away our eyes from all that could be suggestive of evil? close our ears to all dangerous discourses? restrain our tongue from vain, idle, and reprehensible words? watch over our heart that it yield not to the instability of its thoughts and desires? If we give free scope to our desires and imaginations, allow full liberty to our senses, above all if we place no restraint on our eyes, no bridle on our tongue, it is not surprising that obstacles arise at every step to impede our spiritual progress. “Our vices,” says Quintilian, “derive their vivacity from our eyes;” and St. Gregory Nazianzen adds, “unhappily our heart but too often obeys their concupiscence.” Our eyes are, as it were, the windows by which death most frequently enters our soul to rob it of the treasure of its virtue.

“The tongue,” says St. James, “is a fire, a world of iniquity . . . which defileth the whole body. . . . It is an evil which no man can tame; it is full of deadly poison.”¹¹⁸118St. James iii. 6. If, therefore, we desire to admit only pure and holy thoughts into our soul, we must (following the advice of St. Jerome) repress the curiosity of our eyes which would drag us into sin; we must “set a watch before our mouth, and a door round about our lips that our heart incline not to evil words,”¹¹⁹119Ps. cxl. 3. foolish mirth, murmurings, detractions, disputes, false reports, lying, or any of the suggestions of Satan.

It is very useful at the close of our meditation, also after confession and communion, to renounce and detest all our faults in anticipation; to foresee the occasions of venial sin, to recall the persons, the places, and the occupations most likely to prove a source of danger to us. This is an infallible preventive to our faults, for it is by seeing the snares which are laid for us that we avoid sin;¹²⁰120St. John Chrys. Homil. “but the soul which neglects to watch constantly over its heart with fear and self-distrust inevitably succumbs before the arrows of temptation.”¹²¹121St. Greg. Gt. Explan. Job. “Therefore it imports us much to anticipate the dangers that we fear and not to engage in the battle till we are sure of conquering!”¹²²122St. Theodore Stud. Let us examine whether we are faithful to this practice.

Do we promptly resist sin the moment it suggests itself? Let us interrogate our conscience. “Let us search Jerusalem with lamp in hand.”¹²³123St. Sophia i. 12. Do we not give a half consent to the temptation? Do we not hesitate before rejecting it? Do we not keep up a secret understanding with it in our heart? Ah, if we have any love left for our soul, if we would win heaven and secure our salvation, let us shun even the shadow of sin; let us fear the danger while it still seems remote; and should the p. 23enemy present himself, let him find us clothed in the arms of faith. Let us “crush the head of the serpent and his body will infallibly perish.” He who courageously sustains the first shock of the battle is sure of victory. “Our strength increases,” says St. Laurence Justinian, “and God sends us more powerful aid when we resolutely resist temptation the moment we perceive it.” Let us not procrastinate, therefore; a spark neglected may enkindle a great burning, and a shameful fall may follow a slight infidelity. “A dress,” says St. John Chrysostom, “once it is torn, is speedily reduced to shreds, if not promptly mended; and a torrent that has broken its dykes swiftly causes a great inundation.”¹²⁴124Homil. Thus it is with the infernal dragon—let him but obtain by force or fraud an entrance for his head into our heart, and he will soon contrive to introduce his body and make himself master of our soul. This wily serpent enters insidiously and eludes our grasp when we fancy we have captured him. Suffer him but to seize the finger, and soon the whole hand will be swallowed up. Our sole chance of escape lies in a manful resistance to his first assaults. “But we cannot successfully combat his diabolical suggestions,” says St. Isidore, “except by a sincere love of God and by fervent and constant prayer.” Prayer is an arsenal provided with irresistible arms wherewith to oppose the enemy, whilst divine love is the furnace whence we draw them glowing to temper them anew.

If not animated by charity, we shall but feebly sustain the combat. “Unless we attract grace by fervent prayer, in vain shall we endeavour to dissipate our errors and temptations; for our will alone, unaided by God, is unable to gain the victory.”¹²⁵125St. Innoc. Pope. Now this heavenly succour is only granted to prayer. Are we wont, like Judas Machabeus, “to conjure the Lord of heaven to send His good angel before us for the fear and dread of the greatness of His arm”?¹²⁶1262 Machab. xv. 23. Are we accustomed to make acts of charity at stated hours as a preservative against our most habitual and dangerous falls? saying, for instance, when the clock strikes: “My God, I love Thee above all things; I would rather die than displease Thee by the least venial sin, and by such a sin in particular;” or, you may make the following protestation: “Yes, Lord, though by a momentary impatience, a little lie, a slight detraction, I could avoid pain, sickness, and death, or the loss of my reputation, though I could thus obtain the love and esteem of men, still I would not commit that sin.” These holy affections are a powerful shield against our weakness.

“Once we love God with our whole heart,” says St. Prosper, “there shall no longer be anything in us which will obey the suggestions of sin.”

To conclude. Thrice happy shall we be, if our heart be deeply imbued with an abiding horror of venial sin, as it shall then be pure and spotless in the sight of God. Attachment to sin shall not predominate over us, neither shall we have any cause to fear its consequences, if we faithfully follow the four means just indicated for conquering it.