"Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance?" Rom. 2:4

FIRST POINT
God is Merciful, but He is also Just

 We read in the parable of the cockle, that the servants of the good man of the house, seeing that it had grown up in the field along with the wheat, wished to pluck it up. Wilt thou, said they, that we go and gather it up? [Matt. 13:24] No, replied the master; suffer it to grow up, and then it shall be gathered and cast into the fire. In the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it in bundles to burn. [Ibid. 30] In this parable we see, on the one hand, the patience with which the Lord treats sinners; and on the other, the rigor with which He chastises the obstinate. St. Augustine says that the devil deludes men in two ways, by despair and hope. After the sinner has offended God, the enemy, by placing before his eyes the terror of Divine justice, tempts him to despair; but before he sins, the devil encourages him to sin with the hope of Divine mercy. Hence the Saint gives to all the following advice: "After sin, hope for mercy; before sin, fear justice." He who abuses God's mercy to offend Him, is undeserving of mercy. God shows mercy to those who fear Him, but not to those who avail themselves of His mercy to banish the fear of God from their hearts. Abulensis says that he who offends justice may have recourse to mercy; but to whom can he have recourse, who offends mercy itself?

It is hard to find a sinner so sunk in despair as to wish for his own damnation. Sinners wish to sin, without losing the hope of salvation. They sin and say: God is merciful, I will commit this sin, and will afterward confess it. They say. observes St. Augustine, "God is good, I will do what I please." Behold, the language of sinners: but, O God, such too was the language of so many who are now in Hell.
 
Say not, says the Lord, that the mercies of God are great; that however enormous your sins may be, you will obtain pardon by an act of contrition. And say not: The mercy of the Lord is great: He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins. [Ecclus. 5:6] Say it not, says the Lord; and why? For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looketh upon sinners. [Ibid.] The mercy of God is infinite; but the acts of His mercy, or His mercies are finite. God is merciful, but He is also just. "I am just and merciful," said our Lord to St. Bridget; "but sinners regard Me only as merciful." St. Basil writes that sinners wish to consider God only as good and merciful. To bear with those who avail themselves of the mercy of God to offend Him, would not, says Father M. Avila, be mercy, but a want of justice. Mercy is promised, not to those who abuse it, but those who fear God. And His mercy, said the Divine Mother, to those that fear Him. [Luke 1:50] Against the obstinate, threats of just retribution have been pronounced; and, says St. Augustine, as God is not unfaithful to His promises, so He is not a liar in his threats.
 
Beware, says St. John Chrysostom, when the devil, not God, promises you Divine mercy, that he may induce you to commit. sin. "Never attend to that dog that promises to you the mercy of God." "Woe," says St. Augustine. "to him who hopes in order to sin." Oh! how many, says the Saint, has this vain hope deluded and brought to perdition! "They who have been deceived by this shadow of vain hope cannot be numbered." Miserable the man who abuses the mercy of God to offer new insults to His majesty! St. Bernard says that Lucifer's chastisement was accelerated, because he rebelled against God with the hope of escaping punishment. King Manasses sinned; he afterward repented, and obtained pardon. His son Ammon, seeing that his father's sins were so easily forgiven, abandoned himself to a wicked life with the hope of pardon: but for Ammon there was no mercy. Hence, St. John Chrysostom asserts that Judas was lost because he sinned through confidence in the benignity of Jesus Christ. In fine, God bears, but He does not bear forever. Were God to bear forever with sinners, no one would be damned: but the most common opinion is that the greater part of adults, even among Christians, are lost. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are that go in thereat. [Matt. 7:13] According to St., Augustiue, he who offends God with the hope of pardon is a scoffer, not a penitent." THE IMMACULATE HEART But St. Paul tells us that God does not allow Himself to be mocked. [Gal. 6:7] To continue to offend God as often and as long as the sinner pleases, and afterward to gain Heaven, would be to mock God. For what things a man shall sow, those also he shall reap. [Ibid. 8] He that sows sin, has no reason to hope for anything else than chastisement and Hell. The net with which the devil drags to Hell almost all Christians who are damned, is the delusion by which he leads them into sin with the hope of pardon. Sin freely, he says to them; for, after all your iniquities, you will be saved. But God curses the man that sins with the hope of mercy. The hope of sinners after sin is pleasing to God, when it is accompanied with repentance; but the hope of the obstinate is an abomination to the Lord. [Job. 11:20] As the conduct of a servant who insults his master because he is good and merciful, irritates the master, so such hope provokes God to inflict vengeance.

Affections and Prayers

Ah, my God! I have been one of those who have offended Thee because Thou wert bountiful to me. Ah, Lord! Wait for me, do not abandon me. I am sorry. O infinite Goodness! for having offended Thee, and for having so much abused Thy patience. I thank Thee for having waited for me till now. Henceforth I will never more betray Thee, as I have hitherto done. Thou hast borne with me so long. that Thou mightest one day see me a lover of Thy goodness. Behold, this day has, I hope, arrived: I love Thee above all things, and esteem Thy grace more than all the kingdoms of the world: rather than lose it, I am ready to forfeit life a thousand times. My God! for the love of Jesus Christ, give me holy perseverance till death, along with Thy holy love. Do not permit me ever again to betray Thee, or to cease to love Thee. Mary! thou art my hope: obtain for me this gift of perseverance. and I ask nothing more.

"Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance?" Rom. 2:4

SECOND POINT
The Sinner Abandoned by God

 Some will say: God has hitherto shown me so many mercies, I hope He will treat me with the same mercy for the future. But I answer: And will you insult God again, because He has been so merciful to you? Then, says St. Paul, do you thus despise the mercy and patience of God? Do you not know that the Lord has borne with you to this moment, not that you may continue to offend Him, but that you may weep over the evil you have done? Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and patience and long-suffering? Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? [Rom. 2:4] If through confidence in the Divine mercy you continue to sin, the Lord will cease to show mercy. Except you be converted, says David, He will brandish His sword. [Ps. 7:13] Revenge is mine, and I will repay thee in due time. [Deut. 32:35] God waits; but when the time of chastisement arrives, He waits no longer, but executes vengeance.

Therefore the Lord waiteth, that He may have mercy on you. [Isa. 30:18] God waits for sinners, that they may amend: but when He sees that the time given to bewail their sins is employed in multiplying crimes, He then calls the very time to judge them. He hath called against me the time. [Lam. 1:15] "The very time," says Gregory, "comes to judge." Thus the very time given, and the very mercies shown to sinners, will serve to make God chastise them with greater rigor, and abandon them sooner. We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed; let us forsake her. [Jer. 2:9] And how does God abandon sinners? He either sends them a sudden death, and makes them die in sin, or He deprives them of His abundant graces, and leaves them with the sufficient grace, with which they can, but will not, save their souls. The blindness of their understanding, the hardness of their heart, the evil habits which they have contracted, will render their salvation morally impossible; and thus they will be, if not absolutely, at least morally abandoned. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted. [Isa. 5:5] Oh! what a chastisement! When the master of the vineyard takes away its hedges, and leaves it open to men and to beasts, does he not show that he abandons it? It is thus that God acts when He abandons the soul: He takes away the hedge of holy fear, and of remorse of conscience, and leaves it in darkness. And then all the monsters of crime will enter the soul. Thou hast appointed darkness, and it is night: in it shall all the beasts of the wood go about. [Ps. 103:20] And the sinner, abandoned in that obscurity, will despise the grace of God, Heaven, admonitions, and excommunications; and will make a jest of his own damnation. The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sins, contemneth.  [Prov. 18:3] THE IMMACULATE HEART

God will not chastise the sinner in this life; but, not to be punished in this world will be the greatest chastisement of the wicked. Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice. [Isa. 26:10] On this passage St. Bernard says, "This mercy I do not wish for: it is above all wrath." Oh! what a chastisement is it when God abandons the sinner into the hands of his sins, and appears not to demand any further account of them! According to the multitude of His wrath He will not seek him. [Ps. 9:4] God appears not to be enraged against sinners. My jealousy shall depart from you, and I will cease and be angry no more. [Ezek. 16:42] --- He appears to allow them all that they desire in this life. I let them go according to the desires of their heart. [Ps. 80:13] Miserable the sinner that prospers in this life! His prosperity is a sign that God waits to make him a victim of His justice for eternity. Why, said Jeremias, doth the way of the wicked prosper? He answers: Gather them together as sheep for a sacrifice. [Jer. 12:1] There is no punishment greater than that which God inflicts, when He permits a sinner to add sin to sin. Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity ... let them be blotted out of the book of the living. [Ps. 68:28] In explaining these words, Bellarmine says that there is no punishment greater than when sin is the punishment of sin. It would be a smaller punishment to be struck dead by the Lord after their first sin; for, by dying afterward they will suffer as many hells as they have committed sins.

Affections and Prayers

My God! I know that in my miserable state I have deserved to be deprived of Thy grace and light: but seeing the light which Thou now givest me, and feeling that Thou now callest me to repentance, I have just reason to hope that Thou hast not as yet abandoned me. And since, O Lord! Thou hast not abandoned me, multiply Thy mercies on my soul. increase Thy light, increase my desire to serve and love Thee. Change me, O omnipotent God! and from being a traitor and rebel, make me a great lover of Thy goodness, that I may one day enter Heaven to praise Thy mercies for all eternity. Thou dost then wish to pardon me, and I desiree nothing but the pardon of my sins and the gift of Thy love. I am sorry O infinite Goodness! for having so often offended Thee. I love Thee, O Sovereign Good! because Thou commandest me to love Thee; I love Thee, because Thou well deservest my love. Ah, my Redeemer, through the merits of Thy Blood, give Thy love to a sinner whom Thou hast loved so ardently, and whom Thou hast borne with so patiently for so many years: I hope for every grace from Thy mercy. I hope to love Thee always till death, and for eternity. The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever. [Ps. 88:2] I will praise Thy mercy, O my Jesus, I will forever praise thy mercy. O Mary! who hast obtained for me so many graces; I acknowledge that I have received them all through thine intercession. Continue, O my Mother! to assist me by thy prayers, and to obtain for me holy perseverance.

The Delusions of the Devil

CONSIDERATION XXIII.

(Although the preceding considerations contain many of the sentiments contained in this, it will be useful to collect them all together, in order to dissipate the usual illusions by which the devil succeeds in inducing sinners to relapse.)

FIRST POINT
 I will Go to Confession --- I Cannot Resist

LET us imagine a young man who has fallen into grievous sins, which he has already confessed, and who is restored to the friendship of God. The devil again tempts him to relapse: the young man resists for a while; but, in consequence of the delusions suggested by the enemy, he begins to vacillate. Tell me, young man, I say to him, What will you do? Will you now, for this miserable pleasure, forfeit the grace of God, which you have just acquired, and which is more valuable than the whole world? Will you, yourself, write the sentence of eternal death, and condemn yourself to burn forever in Hell? No, you answer, I do not wish to damn myself, I wish to be saved: If I commit this sin, I afterward confess it. Behold the first delusion of the devil! Then you say that you will afterward confess it; but in the mean time you lose your soul. Tell me. if you had a jewel worth a thousand crowns, would you throw it into a river, saying, I will make a diligent search for it, and hope to find it? You hold in your hand the precious jewel of your soul, which Jesus Christ has purchased with His Blood, and you voluntarily cast it into Hell (for in punishment of every mortal sin, you are condemned to eternal fire), and say; I hope to recover it by a good confession. But should you not recover it, what will be the consequence? To recover the Divine grace, true repentance, which is the gift of God, is necessary. Should God not give you the grace of repentance; should death overtake you, and not allow you time to go to confession, what will become of you?
 
You say that you will go to confession before the lapse of a week. And who promises you that you will live for a week? You then say that you will go to confession tomorrow. And who promises you tomorrow? St. Augustine says: "God has not promised tomorrow: perhaps He will give it, and perhaps He will not." Perhaps He will deny it to you, as He has denied it to so many others who have gone to bed in good health, and have been found dead in the morning. How many have been struck dead in the act of sin, and sent to Hell? And should the same happen to you, how will you be able to repair your eternal ruin? Be assured that by this delusion ---I will afterward go to confession --- the devil has brought thousands and thousands of Christians to Hell. It is difficult to find a sinner so abandoned to despair as to wish for his own damnation. In committing sin, all sinners hope to repent and go to confession; it is thus that so many miserable souls are lost: and now there is no remedy for their damnation.

But you say: At present I cannot resist this temptation. Behold the second delusion of the devil, who makes it appear to you that at present you have not strength to resist your passions: First, it is necessary to know that, as the Apostle says, God is faithful, and never permits us to be tempted above our strength. [1 Cor. 10;13] Moreover, I ask, if you are unable to resist your passions, how will you be able to resist them hereafter? After you have yielded to one temptation, the devil will tempt you to other sins, and by your consent to sin he will have gained an increase of strength against you, and you will have become weaker. If, then, you are now unable to extinguish the flame of passion, how can you expect to extinguish it when it has grown stronger? You say: God will give me His aid. But this aid He gives you at present. Why, then, do you not correspond with His grace and conquer your passion? Perhaps you expect that God will give you more abundant helps and graces after you have multiplied sins. If at present you wish for greater help and strength, why do you not ask them from God? Ask, and it shall be given you. [John 16:24] God cannot violate His promise. Have recourse to Him, and He will give you the strength which you require in order to resist every temptation. God does not command impossibilities; but by His commands He admonishes us to do what we can with the actual aid which He gives us; and when this aid is not sufficient to enable us to resist temptations, He exhorts us to ask additional help, which He gives whenever we pray for it.
THE IMMACULATE HEART

Affections and Prayers

Then, my God! why hast Thou been so bountiful to me, and I so ungrateful to Thee? We have been engaged in a mutual contest. I fled away from Thee, and Thou didst seek after me. Thou didst confer benefits on me, and I offered insults to Thee. Ah, Lord! the goodness alone which Thou hast shown me ought to enamor me of Thee; for, when I multiplied sins, Thou didst multiply Thy graces. And when have I merited the light which Thou now givest me? My Lord! I thank Thee for it with my whole heart, and I hope to thank Thee for it eternally in Heaven. I hope in Thy Blood for eternal salvation, and I hope for it with certainty, since Thou hast treated me with so much mercy. I hope that Thou wilt give the grace never more to betray Thee. I purpose, with Thy grace, to die a thousand times rather than ever again offend Thee. I have offended Thee sufficiently. During the remainder of my life I wish to love Thee. And how can I but love a God Who, after having died for me, has waited for me with so much patience, in spite of the numberless injuries I have done Him. O God of my soul! I repent of all my sins with my whole heart; I would wish to die of sorrow for them. But if I have hitherto turned my back upon Thee, I now love Thee above all things; I love Thee more than myself. Eternal Father! through the merits of Jesus Christ, assist a miserable sinner, who wishes to love Thee. Mary, my hope! assist me; obtain for me the grace always to have recourse to thy Son and to thee-- as often as the devil tempts me to offend God again.

SECOND POINT
God is Merciful

God is merciful. Behold the third delusion of sinners by which an immense number are lost! A learned author says, that the mercy of God sends more souls to Hell than His justice; for sinners are induced, by a rash confidence in the Divine mercy, to continue in sin, and thus are lost. God is merciful. Who denies it? But great as is His mercy, how many does He send to Hell every day? God is merciful: but He is also just; and therefore He is obliged to punish those who offend Him. He shows mercy; but to whom? To them who fear Him. He hath strengthened His mercy toward them that fear Him. As a father hath compassion for his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him. [Ps. 102:11, 13] But He executes justice on those who despise Him, and abuse His mercy to insult Him the more. God pardons sin; but He cannot pardon the will or the determination to sin. St. Augustine says, that he who sins with the intention of afterward repenting, is not a penitent, but a mocker of God's majesty. But the Apostle tells us that God does not allow Himself to be mocked. Be not, deceived. God is not mocked. [Gal. 6:7] It would be a mockery of God to insult Him as often and as much as you please, and afterward to expect Heaven.

But as God has shown me so many mercies hitherto, so I hope He will treat me with mercy hereafter. Behold the fourth delusion! Then, must the Lord, because He has had compassion on you, show mercy forever, and never chastise you? No: the greater have been His mercies to you, the more you have reason to fear that, if you offend Him again, He will pardon you no more, but will
take vengeance on your sins. Say not: I have sinned and what harm hath befallen me? for the Most high is a patient rewarder. [Ecclus. 5:4] Say not: I have sinned; and have not been punished; for though God endures, He will not do so forever. When the number of mercies which He has resolved to show to the sinner is exhausted, He then punishes all his sins together. And the longer God has waited for his repentance, the more severe will be his punishment, says St. Gregory.
 
If then, O my brother, you see that you have often offended God, and that He has not sent you to Hell, you should say: The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed. [Lam. 3:22] Lord! I thank Thee, for not having sent me to Hell as I deserved. Consider how many have been damned for fewer sins than you have committed. and labor to atone, by penance and other good works, for the offences you have offered to God. The patience which He has had with you, and the great mercies which He has shown to you, and not to others, ought to animate you not to offend Him again, but to serve and love Him.

Affections and Prayer

My crucified Jesus, my Redeemer and my God! behold a traitor at Thy feet. I am ashamed to appear before Thee. How often have I mocked Thee! How often have I promised to offend Thee no more! But my promises have been so many treasons; for when the occasion of sin was presented to me I have forgotten Thee, and have again turned my back upon Thee. I thank Thee that I am not now in Hell, but at Thy feet, where Thou enlightenest me, and callest me to Thy love. Yes; I wish to love Thee, my Saviour and my God! and I wish never more to despise Thee. Thou hast. borne with me long enough. I see that Thou canst bear with me no longer. Unhappy me, if after so many graces, I offend Thee again! Lord, I sincerely wish and resolve to change my life; I wish to love Thee as much as I have offended Thee. It consoles me to have to deal with Thee, Who art infinite goodness: but I am sorry above all things for having so much despised Thee, and I promise Thee all my love for the future. Pardon me through the merits of Thy Passion; forget the injuries I have done Thee, and give me strength to be faithful to Thee during the remainder of my life. I love Thee, O my Sovereign Good! and I hope to love Thee forever. My dear God! I will never more abandon Thee. O Mary, Mother of God! bind me to Jesus Christ, and obtain for me the grace never again to depart from His feet. In Thee I trust.

THIRD POINT
I am Young --- Perhaps

But I am young. God compassionates youth. I will hereafter give myself to God. We are now at the fifth delusion. But do you not know that God counts, not the years, but the sins of each individual? You are young! But how many sins have you committed? There are many persons of very advanced age who nave not been guilty of the tenth part of the sins which you have committed. And do you not know that God has fixed the number and measure of sins which He will pardon each? The Lord waiteth patiently, says Holy Scripture, that when the day of judgment shall come, He may punish them in the fullness of their sins. [2 Mach. 6:14] That is, God has patience, and waits for a certain time; but when the measure of the sins which He has resolved to pardon is filled up, He pardons no more, but chastises the sinner by sending him a sudden death while in the state of damnation, or He abandons him in his sin --- a chastisement worse than death.  I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be  wasted. [Isa. 5:5] If you had encompassed a field with a hedge, and cultivated it many years, and found that after all your labor and expense it produced no fruit, what would you do with it? Would you not take away the hedge and abandon it? Tremble, lest God should treat you in a similar manner. If you continue to offend Him, you will gradually lose remorse of conscience --- you will cease to think of eternity, or of the salvation of your soul --- you will lose all light and fear: behold the hedge taken away: behold your soul already abandoned by God.

Let us come to the last delusion. You say: It is true that if I commit this sin, I shall lose grace of God, and shall be condemned to Hell; it may be that in punishment of il I shall be damned; but it may also happen that I shall afterward make a good confession, and save my soul. Yes, it may, I admit, happen that you will be saved; for I am not a prophet, and therefore I cannot say for certain, that, if you commit this sin, God will show you no more mercy. But you cannot deny that, if, after the great graces God has bestowed upon you, you offend Him again, you will expose yourself to very great danger of being lost forever. Attend to the language of Scripture. A hard hard heart shall face evil at the last. [Ecclus. 3:27] Evil-doers shall be cut off. [Ps. 36:9] The wicked will in the end be cut off by Divine justice. What things a man shall sow, those also he shall reap. [Gal. 6:8] He that sows sins, will reap nothing but pains and torments. I called and you refused. ... I  will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared. [Prov. 1:24] I have called you, says the Lord, and you have mocked Me; but I will mock you at the hour of death. Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time. [Deut. 32] To Me belongs the punishment due to sins: I will inflict it when the time of vengeance arrives. Such are the threats of the Scriptures against obstinate sinners; such is the chastisement which reason and justice demand. You say: It may happen, after all, that I shall be saved. I again admit that this may happen; but is it not the height of folly to trust the eternal salvation of your soul to a perhaps? --- to a possibility of escaping Hell when your salvation is so very improbable? Is eternal life an affair to be exposed to such imminent danger.

Affections and Prayers

My dear Redeemer! prostrate at Thy feet, I thank Thee for not having abandoned me --- after I had committed so many sins. How many who have offended Thee less than I have will never receive the light which Thou now givest me! I see that Thou earnestly desirest my salvation. and I wish to be saved, principally for the sake of pleasing Thee. I wish for Heaven that there I may eternally sing the mercies which Thou hast shown me. I hope that Thou hast already pardoned me. But should I still be Thy enemy in consequence of not repenting as I ought of the offences I have offered to Thee. I am now sorry for them with my whole soul; they displease me above all things. Pardon me for Thy mercy's sake, and increase continually my sorrow for having offended Thee, Who art so good a God. Give me sorrow --- give me love. I love Thee above all things, but I love Thee too little. I wish to love Thee ardently. This love I ask and hope for from Thee. Hear me, O my Jesus! Thou hast promised to hear all who pray to Thee. O Mary, Mother of God! all tell me that thou never allowest a soul that recommends itself to thee to go away disconsolate. I trust in thee; recommend me to thy Son, and obtain for me eternal life.