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As a result, many people have no horror of the evil of sin or its consequences. For that matter, many do not even believe in sin at all. Moral relativism is so common that any concept of sin is generally accepted, rationalized, ignored, or excused. Sin is disobedience to God’s laws, an infinite offense against Him. Every sin is followed by guilt and punishment. The grievousness of sin is determined by its malice and how seriously the evil thought, desire, deed, word, or omission offends God. Sadly, due to a lack of religious instruction, people tend to minimalize the evil of sin and do not avoid the persons, places and things that easily lead them into sin. Even when they know something is seriously wrong, they commit the sin anyway by justifying and excusing it. This makes about as much sense as if someone offered them a delicious dessert saying, “Oh, it only has a little poison in it, but it is so delicious. Try it anyway; it won’t hurt you.” Such are the tactics of Satan when he tries to get you to commit sin. There are many things in your life that make it hard for you to love God and obey His commandments. Primarily, there are evil tendencies that exist in every person that can lead him into sin. You must gain control over these or they will control you, leading you into one sin after another. The Seven Capital Sins are: • Pride, an exaggerated love of oneself; an excessive desire to have your own way. • Covetousness (Greediness), an excessive love of material things. This sometimes leads to theft, fraud, usury, and other sins against justice. • Lust, a sinful desire and/or actions for illicit carnal pleasure. This includes impure and immodest looks, thoughts, words, and actions, whether alone or with another. • Anger, a disordered passion that inclines you to repel with violence whatever displeases you and leads you to seek revenge. • Gluttony, an inordinate love of eating and drinking. Sins of intemperance produce disastrous effects including destroying health and shortening life. • Envy, a sadness, jealousy and/or resentment because of someone else’s good fortune, in so far as you regard this prosperity to be your own loss. • Sloth, (Laziness), an inordinate love of rest that leads you to omit or neglect your duties. Each person has a predominant sin, one of these capital sins, which they must work tirelessly to overcome and conquer. You must be vigilant, prayerful, and run away from those things that easily lead you into sin. You must battle against your predominant sin by using the remedies that God provides. The remedies for pride are: 1) prayer and self-denial 2) true knowledge of self 3) consider the vanity and the transitory nature of those things of which you are proud of 4) meditate on how God punishes the proud and blesses the humble 5) strive to imitate Christ, the perfect Model of humility 6) humbly accept the humiliations of life The remedies for covetousness are: 1) prayer and self-denial 2) think about the fact that at death you must give up everything you own 3) remember that Christ taught that it is very difficult for a rich person to be saved 4) meditate on the poverty of Christ 5) give alms to the poor and contribute to the support of the Church The remedies for lust are: 1) humility 2) custody of the eyes, temperance, and self-denial 3) vigilance and avoiding occasions of sin 4) mediation on Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell 5) prayer Prayer includes humble and immediate recourse to God when tempted, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the daily recitation of the rosary, recalling the omnipresence of God, and frequent Confession and Holy Communion. The remedies for excessive anger are: 1) prayer, especially when your heart is troubled 2) the habit of never doing or saying anything while you are under the influence of anger 3) humility and meekness 4) mediation upon the patience and meekness of Christ, especially during His Sacred Passion The remedies for gluttony are: 1) prayer 2) self-denial and temperance 3) avoidance of the occasions of gluttony The remedies for envy are: 1) humility 2) prayer and self-denial 3) blessing God for whatever good is done, no matter who may be the instrument of that good 4) empathy or taking part with a Christian spirit in the joys and sorrows of others 5) realizing that envy takes nothing from another and bestows nothing on him who envies The remedies for sloth are: 1) prayer and self-denial 2) mediation on the labors and sufferings of Christ 3) the conviction that idleness is the devil’s workshop and work is imperative 4) the thought of eternal rest which will be your reward in Heaven In order to conquer any of these capital sins, you must sincerely repent and be sorry for your sins. Do not excuse yourself by saying you will do it later. Otherwise, you will keep committing those sins because you are not really determined to give them up. If you are sincerely sorry for them, you should firmly resolve, with the help of God’s grace, to amend your life. In order to overcome temptation, you should first humble yourself and then immediately ask God’s help by repeating the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, while running away from the spiritual danger. Prayer provides strength, light, grace, and God’s assistance. Prayer is the medicine that expels spiritual sickness; it is as essential to the spiritual life as breathing is to the body. If you do not pray or do not pray enough, you are like a fish out of water, gasping for life. The daily recitation of the rosary will protect you from sinning. God gives the graces necessary to conquer sin to those who pray with humility and perseverance, who strive to overcome temptation, and who place their trust in Him. No one’s life is in such a mess that God cannot straighten it out, but you must want to change and give Him the reins. Holy Scripture admonishes you that now is the time for repentance. “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day, for His wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee.” (Eccles. 5: 8-9) Delay no longer, for it is certain that you must die, but you know not how, when, or where. Further, you do know that if you die with even one mortal sin on your soul, you will remain in Hell for eternity. You will be given no second chance. Alternatively, if you die in the state of grace, you will enjoy everlasting happiness in Heaven forever. You must constantly be aware of the fact that you are not guaranteed tomorrow. The only thing that you have is the limited time that God has determined for you. This is why it is necessary to that you remain in the state of sanctifying grace and avoid all mortal sin. In order to help you understand what mortal sin is and its deadly consequences, I will briefly review the Church’s teaching regarding it as explained in the Baltimore Catechism. • What is mortal sin? Mortal sin is a grievous offense against the law of God. • Why is this sin called mortal? It deprives the sinner of sanctifying grace, the supernatural life of the soul. [Just as a mortal wound kills the body, this sin is called mortal because it kills the life of God in the soul.] • Besides depriving the sinner of sanctifying grace, what else does mortal sin do to the soul? Mortal sin [also] makes the soul an enemy of God, takes away the merit of all its good actions, deprives it of the right to everlasting happiness in Heaven, and makes it deserving of everlasting punishment in Hell. • What three things are necessary to make a sin mortal? First, the thought, desire, word, action or omission must be seriously wrong or considered seriously wrong; Second, the sinner must be mindful of the serious wrong; Third, the sinner must fully consent to it. (Fr. Connell, Baltimore Catechism 3, p. 39.) Be vigilant, prayerful, and avoid mortal sin at all costs. It is leprosy of the soul, the greatest of all evils. At the time of Christ, the horribleness and contagion of the disease of leprosy led to the seclusion of lepers apart from society, leaving them to eventually die from its horrors, since there was no cure for it at that time. The disease of leprosy is mentioned throughout the Bible since it was commonly held that lepers were justly punished for their sins. Christ used its existence and the fear that people had of it to convey lessons of spiritual and moral guidance. During His Public Life, Our Lord cured twelve lepers to show us His infinite love and mercy. He also expressed the power of the sacrament of Penance to heal the leprosy of sin and restore souls to the life of sanctifying grace. Leprosy is a repulsive, painful, and dreadful disease. The symptoms include a constant, but intermittent fever, red or livid small abnormal lumps of various sizes on the face, ears and extremities. The skin becomes thick and scaly; there is an eventual loss of feeling in the hands, feet, arms, and legs due to inflammation of the nerves; hair falls off except on the scalp; a hoarse nasal or lost voice occurs; there is a foul-smelling nasal discharge; open wounds erupt on the surface of the body. In addition, dysentery ensues along with an extreme stench and a feeling of impending disaster. When the disease is advanced, hands, and feet generally start to peel off in layers or fall off entirely. Eventually, leprosy leads to a miserable death. As disgusting as this sounds, even though mention of it incites fear, you should be even far more terrified of something worse than this that can attack the soul—MORTAL SIN. If a person could see the state of a soul in mortal sin, he would drop dead immediately. The rotten state of such a soul is far more disgusting and terrible than the disease of leprosy. There are no words to describe it. If any one of you came in contact with leprosy, you would immediately rush to the doctor for treatment. Leprosy is now curable with a combination of three antibiotics. However, early diagnosis and treatment is crucial; otherwise there can occur complications and disabilities. If this is true of something that only affects the life of the body, why are there so many who live serenely when there soul is in mortal sin? They do not go to confession in order to receive the cure for it. How foolish are those who do not care about the state of their immortal soul. Some think they live in the state of mortal sin and then, at the last moment, repent on their deathbed! If they had leprosy, the case would be far different. If you commit a mortal sin, you should implore God’s pardon and grace at once, make an act of perfect contrition and go to confession as soon as possible. God will not forgive any sin unless you have true contrition for it. “Contrition is sincere sorrow for having offended God and hatred for the sins we have committed, with a firm purpose of sinning no more… The firm purpose of sinning no more is the sincere resolve not only to avoid sin, but to avoid as far as possible the near occasions of sin.” (Fr. Connell, Baltimore Catechism 3, p. 227, 230.) After confession you express your repentance by putting God first in your life. You should be vigilant so that you do not get sidetracked by thinking a lot of things are more important than they are. When you choose money, popularity, friends, sports, phone, computer, pornography, drugs, alcohol, entertainment, travel, etc. or anything else to come first in you life, you have chosen that item or person to be your false god. Even if you think, “Just this one time,” you have entered the devil’s slippery road, leading your immortal soul away from God. Whatever you care most about becomes your god. On this feast of Christ the King, make sure that He is truly your King and number one in your life. Nothing should be more important to you than your relationship with God. In your life, Christ is either King of All or He is not King at all.
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Queen of Angels Catholic Church is located in Santa Clarita, California and draws parishioners to the Traditional Latin Mass (Tridentine Mass) from all over Southern CA and the Greater Los Angeles areas.
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