Day: October 17, 2024

Thought for the Day – 17 October – Meditations with Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787) Bishop, Confessor, Most Zealous Doctor of the Church

“Preparation for Death”
By St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787)

CONSIDERATION XV

On the Evil of Deadly Sin
“I have nourished and brought up children
and they have rebelled against me.”
(Isa 1:2)

FIRST POINT: “”
WHAT does he do who commits a deadly sin?
He insults God, he dishonours God, he embitters God.

In the first place, by the deadly sin he commits, he insults God.
As St Thomas observes, the malice of an injury is measured
according to the person who does it and the person who receives it. It is very wicked to insult a peasant but it is worse to insult a nobleman and still much worse, to insult a king.
Who is God ? He is the King of kings: “Lord of lords and King of kings.” (Apoc xvii: 14).
God is of Infinite Majesty, with respect to Whom, all the princes of the earth, the Saints and the Angels in Heaven, are less than a grain of dust.
Nay, says Isaiah, compared with the greatness of God all creatures are as the smallest things, even as though they had never been: “All nations before Him are as nothing.” (Isa xl:17).

Even such is God and who is man? St. Bernard answers,
even a sack of worms and food for worms, who, in a short time, will be devoured by worms: “Miserable and poor and blind and naked.” (Apoc iii: 17).
Man is a miserable worm who can do nothing; he is blind and can see nothing and poor and naked and has nothing. And this miserable worm dares to insult God!

… The Angelic Doctor is right when he says: “the sin of man contains a malice almost infinite.
Sin has a certain infinity of malice from the infinity of the Divine Majesty.”
Nay, St Augustine calls sin absolutely an “infinite evil!”
Therefore it is, that if all men, and all Angels, were to offer themselves to die and to annihilation, they would not be able to make satisfaction for one single sin!

God punishes deadly sin with the great punishment of hell but, however much God punishes the sinner, all theologians agree that God punishes it “Citra condignnm” that is, with less punishment than deadly sin deserves.
And what punishment can be great enough for a worm who tries to set himself against his Lord? God is Lord of all, because He has created all things.
And in fact, all creatures obey God: “The winds and the sea obey Him” (Matt viii: 27).
“Fire and hail, snow and vapours, wind and storm, fulfilling His word.” (Ps cxlviii: 8).

But what does man do when he sins?
He says to God, Lord, I do not wish to serve Thee …
“Who is the Lord that I should obey His Voice ….. I know not the Lord.” (Exod v: 2).
Even thus does the sinner say: “Lord, I know Thee not ; I wish to do what pleases me.”
In short, he despises God and turns away from Him and, it is indeed committing a deadly sin, to turn away from God. “A turning away from the unchangeable good,” as St Thomas observes.

Of this does the Lord complain.
… Thou hast been ungrateful, says God, thou hast left Me, since I would never have left thee, thou hast turned away from Me.
God has declared that He hates sin, therefore, He cannot do otherwise than hate him who sins: “For the ungodly and his ungodliness, are both alike, hateful unto God.” (Wisd xiv: 9). When man sins, he is bold enough to declare himself the enemy of God. “He stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.” (Job xv: 25).
… And when the sinner consents to sin, he stretches out his hand against God. He stretches out his neck, that is to say, pride and flies in the Face of God; he arms himself with a thick shield, with ignorance! and says: “What have I done ? what harm is there in the sin I have committed? God is merciful; He pardons sinners.”
O my God, keep me from such boldness and blindness!

Affections andPrayers

Behold, O my God, at Thy Feet the rebellious one; the bold
one, who has had the boldness to insult Thee so many times
and to turn away from Thee but now I seek for mercy from
Thee.
For Thou hast said: “Call unto Me and I will answer thee.” (Jer xxxiii: 3).
I know that hell is a fitting punishment for me but Thou knowest that I feel very sorry for having offended Thee, O Thou Infinite Goodness, more sorry than if I had lost everything I possess and my life even.
Ah, my
Lord, pardon me and never let me offend Thee more. Thou
hast waited for me, so that I may forever bless Thy mercy and
love Thee. Yes, I do bless and love Thee and hope because of.
the merits of Jesus Christ, never more to be separated from Thy Love. … Ah, take me entirely into Thy possession, my soul, my body,
my powers, my senses, my will and my liberty.
… Thou Who art my only good, my only adorable One, be also my only love. Give me zeal in loving Thee.
1 hope for it from Thee, O Thou, Who art Omnipotent.