The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-09-25
THE GRAVITY or SIN.

old and wicked course, otfendlng God,
careless of the malice of sin, as well
as of the dreadful punishments which
have been melted out to sinners in all
ages. Yet we're people only to con-
slider a moment in their hearts, they
would easily see that mortal or griev-
Gus sin is thing to be avoided at all
costs of mental or bodily pain or
trouble. For consider who is the sub
ject of the attack made by the sinner.
He is God, the almighty Deity, Who
created the world, and Who made man
out of the slime of the earth, He it is
Who made all. the wonders of the
world for the use and for the pleasure
of man. The vast seas, the towering
mountains, the rivers, and the plains,
with their products in the animal,
mineral and vegetable kingdoms, all
we're freely bestowed on man by this
beneficent Maker. All his faculties Of
seeing, hearing, feeling, ETC., so adj
mirably adapted to the uses for
which they are inteded, are gifts
from the same Divine Benefactor.
This God Who has done all this for
man is infinite in His power and ins
finitely to be revered. Sins COM
mitted against Him therefore are of
infinite malice. But what we owe to
God is made more manifest when we
consider what the Son has done for
us. He has come down from Heaven
and has for our sake lived in poverty
and misery. He has faced humilia-
ton and suffering, and wounds and
death, in order that we might be re-
deemed and might not suffer the pains
of hell. Consider His agony in the
garden, His most cruel scourging, His
carrying of the cross, and finally His
Cruciixion between two thieves, and
then think how wicked and how dia
bolic is the action of the sinner who
sins grievously and makes void the
Sayior's shedding of His Precious
Blood. And who is it that thus dares
to raise his guilty hand against the
Almighty? A. miserable creature,
destined to live but few short days
and afterwards to die and his body
become again the dust of the earth
A creature full of weaknesses and un
worthiness, feeble of intellect and I'M
stable as water. This creature of an
hour dares to rebel, against the Gre
ator Who is to be his judge at the end
of the world. All, how severe shall
be that judgment if the sinner does
not do penance!
How terrible to think that the God
Who so loves that sinner must con
denim him to pain and Punishment for
ever. People say, God is too merci-
full to punish sinners, and they shall
all be saved as we'll as the just" Fool
and vain sayingi Good would not be
true to His own very essence il He
did not Danish impenitent sinners
from His presence forever. The re-
lation of the human soul to God is
fairly well Illustrated by the analogy
of the relation of the eye to the sun
and its light. AS long as the eye is
healthy and normal it loves to see the
rays of the sun and the scene illumi-
mated by his beams, just as the soul
in sanctifying grace loves to contem
plate God land the things connected
with His worship. But let the eye
become hurt or diseased, or let the
soul lose grace by falling into mortal
sin and change comes over the
scene. The sun has not changed a
particle, but suddenly its rays become
hurtful and painful to the diseased
eye and in paroxysm of fear it seeks
the darkness where his rays can not
penetrate. To that diseased eye the
sun has now become thing of fear
and terror, forever threatening pain
and destruction. So it is also with
the soul that is diseased by sin. God
has not changed, but it has itself
changed, and because of this change
the countenance of God is terrible to
it and fills it with fear and consterna-
ton! That soul no longer loves the
presence of God or seeks for His
glory. That soul flies in terror from
God, as the diseased eye fees the
ardent and unbearable rays of the
sun. God Whom the soul so loved be-
fore becomes intolerable to it now,
ana 1t, is driven away from the luster
Of His face to dwell in that exterior
darkness where the binding rays of
His love and mercy never shine. Sin
therefore is terrible and an un-
mitigated evil, and nothing in this
world can compensate us for the loss
OF sanctifying grace in the soul. Sin
is the one thing in the world to be
avoided and Stunned as one would
shun some terrible leprosy. We all
love God, and do not wish to offend
Him Who has done SO much for us.
We should therefore seek to realize
more and more the gravity and enor-
nifty of sin that we may sincerely re-
pent Of it and ever afterwards walk
in the newness of His grace and love.
AGNus DEL.