(_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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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_.