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.
All sin is a violation of God's Commandments, and God is a righteous
Judge Who will call every man to account for what he has done; but
not only _will_ He do so, He _does_ so now; and in this present life,
to some extent, does punishment come on the man who sins. We see
this in actual life, how that certain acts do bring with them their
condemnation and their chastisement on the doer of them.
We see the same in nations that transgress God's laws. God visits it
upon these nations, and brings them down, till by suffering they have
come to recognize their guilt.
3. Sin _alienates_ from God. God hates sin, and he who is in sin is at
enmity with God, is separated from God, and God's favour is withdrawn
in a large degree from him. Jesus Christ, by His merits, brought us
into reconciliation with the Father, blotting out the handwriting of
offences that was against us. The merits of Christ's atonement were
_applied_ to us at our Baptism. Then we who were aliens were made nigh
by the blood of Christ. Every sin after Baptism separates us from God,
darkens the light that shines on us, checks the flow of Divine grace
that nourishes our spiritual life.
4. We can, indeed, _return to the favour of God_, through the merits of
the death of Christ; but every return from mortal sin is a revival from
the dead, a special call back out of the state of transgression into
which we have thrown ourselves, into the way of salvation. To obtain
this we must _realize_ that we have sinned, _repent_, be sincerely
sorry for what we have done, and _resolve_ never to do the same again.
Then, and not till then, does God for Christ's sake forgive us. No
repentance is sufficient that has not the character of recognition of
the gravity of the offence, sorrow for having offended God, and sincere
desire for amendment.
When there is true repentance, then God _pardons the guilt_, but He
does not remove the consequences of the act. The punishment must still
be undergone. Thus, a man may have ruined his constitution by his
excesses, or squandered his patrimony. He may bitterly deplore his sin,
and sincerely resolve to avoid all occasions of sin for the future,
but, though God on his true repentance blots out his iniquity, He does
not restore robustness to his constitution, nor does He return to him
his wasted patrimony.
[Illustration]
Fifth Saturday in Lent.
_THE EFFECTS OF SIN._
(CONTINUED.)
We will now further consider the effects of Sin, and these the
particular effects.
We live three lives; as we are made up of Body, Mind, and Soul, each
has its special life. The Body lives an animal life, the Mind an
intelligent life, and the Soul a spiritual life.
Sin produces a disturbing and poisoning effect on all these lives.
1. _The life of the Body._ God made man healthy, vigorous, and
immortal. The introduction of Sin into the world has produced disease,
infirmity, and death.
Sin is the cause of hard and exhausting toil, of the many hardships,
privations, troubles to which we are exposed in this life, and it is
the cause of the separation of soul and body in death, and of the
corruption that ensues in the grave.
Sin has a certain deteriorating effect on the body when indulged in, at
all events those sins which are sins of the flesh, such as drunkenness,
gluttony, sensuality. They bring their condemnation with them on the
body that sins.
2. _The life of the Mind._ The true illumination of the mind is God.
An intellectual life is willed by God. No man may lawfully neglect to
cultivate his understanding by neglecting to acquire knowledge, or his
reason, by neglecting to use his rational power. If man does, he sins,
he is wasting a precious gift of God, and the light that is in him is
darkened, he becomes a prey to superstition, ignorance, stupidity. The
life of his mind becomes stunted and extinguished. Sin acts on the
mind as well as on the body, it distorts its perception of the truth,
narrows its view, and leads it to mistake falsehood for truth.
3. _The life of the Soul._ This is the most important life of all, and
it is the life usually least regarded. This is the life that is divine
in us, the breath of God. It has a double aspect (_a_) as to God, and
(_b_) as to man. That is to say, it lives in two relations, one to God,
the other to man.
This spiritual life is the life of the spiritual faculty in man which
enables him to see God, to delight in His presence, to love and to fear
Him, to find pleasure in prayer and in meditation on the things that
are invisible. It enables him to look beyond time into eternity, and to
desire those things that God has promised.
Sin, when it has touched the soul, weakens its faculties. Its power of
vision is affected. "Blessed are the pure in heart," said our Lord,
"for they shall see God," but impurity is like a film over the eye,
clouding its vision. As the soul ceases to see God, it ceases also to
love Him, it takes less delight in prayer; the body, or the mind, gains
advantages over it, the compound life is no longer maintained in due
balance, but one factor or other overlaps, and chokes the spiritual
life.
Again, the spiritual life is the life of the spiritual faculty in
man which enables him to observe God's law, and Sin lames and weakens
man's moral powers. As long as the spiritual life is healthy, man's
moral life is also healthy, for indeed the moral life is only another
aspect of the same divine life in man. But if man delivers himself up
to Sin, then this moral power in him is weakened, it ceases to speak
distinctly, it becomes confused, and finally ceases to speak altogether.
It is possible by continuance in sin to extinguish the spiritual life
altogether. If the mind be not employed, then it sinks into inertness
and death of the rational and intellectual faculties, and unless the
soul be allowed to grow and expand, it also will languish. And if by
continuance in Sin the soul be subjected to wound after wound, and its
voice be never listened to, then finally it will die.
[Illustration]
Fifth Sunday in Lent.
_THE DEADLY VICES._
1. Certain Vices go by the name of Capital or Deadly Vices, because
they lie at the head or source of all sin; and because they mortally
affect the soul.
But they are not in themselves acts, but principles or springs out of
which sins issue.
They are reckoned as seven in number, but neither does Scripture
indicate this number, nor has the Church come to any decision on this
point. It is rather common sense, and common observation, that have
led to this classification, and it is a classification simple and
intelligible, and of practical use.
These seven Capital Vices are seven mothers who, when taken into the
heart, settle there, and produce large families of sins. They are
_Vices_, that is to say, they are dispositions towards evil, disordered
inclinations left in us by original sin, whence spring up in us, _by
the consent of the will_, large crops of bad actions, _i.e._, of
sins. Vice is a habitual disposition towards evil. Sin is the action
produced by this disposition when it has seduced the heart into giving
consent to it. Vice may exist without sin, and sin can exist without
vice. That is to say, there may be a vicious inclination which cannot
manifest itself in act, because the opportunity is wanting. A sin
may be committed without vicious inclination, out of carelessness, or
against the inclination which is towards good, through the weakness of
the nature and debility of the will.
Everyone has, more or less, the roots of vices in him, though in some
they are far stronger than in others, and in some individuals certain
vicious propensities are stronger than other vicious propensities.
One man may have a natural proclivity towards pride, and this very
inclination towards pride may neutralize in him the inclination towards
indolence.