continue to live! Your heart does not burst with grief! Nay more, you do not shed even a tear! not a sigh escapes your lips! CONSIDERATION. On the twofold root of sins. It is not enough to abhor sin with an intense sorrow and detestation, but this detestation must extend itself also to the root of sin; otherwise, the soul will not be perfectly purified, the fountain of vices will not be dried up, we shall not acquire that golden spirit of indifference after which we are striving, and we shall not advance in the proper manner towards our last end. For this reason, I observed in the Spiritual Lecture, § 1, n. 3, if you remember, that the sorrow and detestation for our sins, which we are striving to stir up within ourselves to-day, should be such as to include a detestation of the roots from which they spring, and that this is the fruit which we should endeavour to gather from the Exercises of this day. This twofold root consists principally, 1, In a desire of our own excellence-that is to say, in pride; and 2, In a thirst for pleasures, that is sensuality. From these ordinarily spring all sins, both mortal and venial-even those of which the parent is avarice; for we only desire riches in so far as they serve to second our ambitious projects, or to gratify our desires of pleasure. Of the first of these vices the Scriptures testify that "from it all perdition took its beginning" (a); and S. Thomas says, "the cause of (a) Tobias iv. 14. all evil begins from it" (a). The same, according to S. Ambrose, may be said of sensuality; for being, as S. Thomas explains, the desire of what pleases our senses- -that is, of pleasure which reaches the soul through the medium of the organs of the body, as sight, taste, touch, &c.—it follows that it is the filthy source whence flow all those sins which are committed by means of the senses (b). The consideration of the effects produced by sin will be of much assistance towards eradicating this twofold root, to which it owes its origin. I. Consider, then, in the first place, the deformity of a soul defiled with sin. If you reflect upon it attentively, you cannot fail to be inspired with feelings of hatred and disgust for yourself. And yet, who can fully realise the horrible deformity of a soul in mortal sin? Collect from the hospitals, the prisons, and the dead-houses of the world, all that is most noisome, and revolting within their walls; bring together the most horrible monsters which have yet been discovered on land or in the sea; add to these whatever is most detestable, most abominable, most hateful in the entire of hell—and, alas! all these are but a dim shadow, a mere nothing, in comparison with the horrible defilement which deforms a soul stained with even a single mortal sin. A single mortal sin of thought changed the exceeding great beauty of Lucifer into such hideous ugliness, that the very sight of him constitutes one of the greatest torments of the damned; and so repulsive is it, that some saints who saw him merely in a passing glance, declared that they would prefer (a) 1. 2. q. 84, a. 2. (b) 1. 2. q. 3, a. 1. to walk upon burning coals until the day of judgment rather than see him again, even though it were but for a moment. Now, if a single sin of thought, committed in an instant, makes the most beautiful of the seraphim so hideous, oh! what a horrible spectacle must your soul present, stained as it is with so many and such enormous sins of word, of deed, and of omission! Oh, what a hideous monster must you be in the eyes of God, defiled as you are by so many crimes! Pause here a little while, and endeavour to picture to yourself in imagination, what I am unable to paint in words. Ugh! how black your soul is how hideous! So great is the abyss of your deformity that, if there were neither devil nor fire in hell, and if it were emptied of all its torments, the mere sight of you (be horrified at the thought!) would in itself be sufficient to make a most terrible hell. Since, then, you are so infamous, it follows, as a consequence, that you are deserving of all possible contempt, yet, nevertheless, "the pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up" (a). You-the very off-scouring of hell-desire to be honoured, praised, and preferred to others! You, who are more vile than the devil himself, are indignant at being blamed, despised, or thought less of than others! Truly "you are exceeding proud" (b), if all these considerations fail to persuade you to be humble. The peacock which, in its pride, delights to unfold to view the painted glories of its gorgeous plumage, and, swollen with vanity, struts about in the full belief that its beauty far surpasses that of all other birds, no sooner casts (a) Abdias 3. (b) Isaias xvi. 6. a glance at the ugliness of its legs, than it at once becomes crest-fallen. And will you not humble your pride, at sight of the abominations with which you are defiled! In truth, you ought not only to humble yourself, but, in a spirit of holy indignatiou, to hate your own flesh, which has been the unhappy cause of such repulsive deformity. This is that powerful motive, which has inspired even the greatest saints with sentiments of the most profound humility, and has filled them with a most bitter hatred of themselves. And justly so. For we despise what is vile; we detest what is disgraceful; and since by sin we are both the one and the other, it clearly follows that the deformity of a sinful soul is a most powerful incentive to humility, and to the mortification of our flesh. : and, and II. The second powerful motive to incite us to the practice of humility and of mortification, is the remembrance of hell which we have merited. For, you have sinned, unhappy wretch! Your guilty conscience reproaches you with this, perhaps you have sinned many times, sinned grievously. In that case you have merited hell you have deserved eternal punishment. Many (perhaps less guilty than you) are now burning, and shall for ever burn in those flames. Therefore, you also, as being more guilty, deserve eternal punishment amid those terrible torments. Now, reason with yourself thus: he who has merited hell is deserving of every possible insult and affliction in this world also; for he who deserves the greater punishment, merits much more a lighter one. Therefore, since the pain of hell immeasurably surpasses the greatest degree of insult and affliction which can fall to one's lot in this life, it is evident that, on this score, you are also deserving of every possible insult and trial which the world can inflict upon you. Having already merited hell, then, there is no indignity, no punishment in this world fully proportionate to your guilt; since it will be always true to say that you deserve still greater indignities, and punishments still more severe, on account of your sins. No matter, then, how much you humble and chastise yourself, you will always humble and chastise yourself less than you have deserved by the commission of even a single mortal sin. You know all this, and yet you are proud! You believe all this, and yet you pamper your flesh! O sinner! even though all the insults, all the indignities, all the calamities, and all the ailments to which man is subject were centered in your person, you would still be treated better than you deserve. You know this; and yet, for the mere shadow of an insult, for the slightest annoyance, you become sad, indulge in complaints, and give way to feelings of indignation. Bear in mind that you have merited all the eternal torments of hell, and that instead of them the infinite goodness of God is content to visit you with that slight insult, that trifling pain. And yet, in your impatience, you murmur, and give way to angry feelings! Nay, more, you grow proud, and pamper yourself! O hell! is not the remembrance of thee sufficient to humble that pride of ours, and to induce us to hate our sinful flesh ! III. The third motive to incite us to humility, is to be found in that strong inclination to evil which we feel within us. For, reader, you may, possibly, again commit mortal sin. This, unfortunately, is a |
