By mortal sin we lose God’s friendship, ‘sanctifying grace’, inheritance of the beatific vision, and all privileges received in Baptism. In a state of mortal sin we are God’s enemies; the devil’s children and slaves. We are under a curse.
Perhaps we have spent days in this miserable state; or even a great part of our lives. This bitter thought caused such deep grief to St Augustine, that his only consolation was to do constant penance daily.
During these days of universal penance, let us imitate the saint. If God’s mercy has preserved us from frequent mortal sin, recall those numerous venial sins, a sufficient cause for penance. Venial sin does not deprive us of God’s love but certainly diminishes it.
Mortal sin also deprives our soul of ‘supernatural life’: our union with God, bonded by love. Mortal sin breaks this tie. While separated from God, the soul is dead -- incapable of a meritorious action. Our best works are inert. Every day, every month, passed in this state, is lost forever.
Venial sin does not ‘destroy’, but weakens this supernatural life. The soul is less fruitful in good works which are less pleasing to God and less meritorious. Moreover, our human imperfection is so great that it always deforms and diminishes the merit of our best works.
The saints tried to compensate for all this by great penance and constant mortification. We, who have sinned so much and repented so little must imitate them.
Mortal sin robs the soul of its ‘beauty’, and renders it ugly in the eyes of God and his holy angels. As the Scriptures say, ‘They are become abominable’. One mortal sin changed an angel into a demon, and cast him down to hell.
How, then, must a soul, defiled by numerous mortal sins, appear to God? What will be its destiny in eternity, when the punishment will be in proportion to sins committed?
We might have incurred this penalty. If so, we have a strong motive to accept hardship and penance; and persevere till the end. For, although it may be certain that we have sinned grievously, our penance could not have been sufficient.
The Church also tells us that the slightest venial fault leaves a stain upon the soul; and ‘nothing defiled can enter heaven’ are the words of the Holy Spirit. We have daily stained our souls, and made few efforts to cleanse them. Therefore, our purgatory will last much longer.
If we could but understand what for one moment is to endure the pain of purgatory, to be deprived of the beatific vision, the greatest penance would seem light.
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp124-6
Arms with which to conquer temptations
If we are to overcome temptation we will have to repeat confidently over and over the petition in the ‘Our Father’: “and lead us not into temptation ...” Since it is our Lord himself who puts such a petition on our lips, it would be good for us to repeat it continually ...
“We struggle against temptation by speaking openly about it to our spiritual director; making it thus known is almost overcoming it. He who reveals his own temptations to his spiritual director can be certain that God grants the spiritual director the grace needed to direct him well.” (Dom Benedict Baur, “In Silence with God”)
We can always count on God’s grace. “But do not forget, my friend, you need weapons in this spiritual battle. And your weapons have to be: continuous prayer; sincerity and frankness with your spiritual director; the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance; a generous spirit of Christian mortification which will bring you to flee from the occasion of sin and to avoid idleness; humility of heart, and a tender and filial devotion to Our Lady, ‘Comforter of the afflicted’, ‘Refuge of sinners’.
"Always turn confidently to Our Lady and say: ‘My Mother, I trust in you’." (Salvatore Canals, “Jesus as Friend”, 72)
Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:30
The Return to the Father’s House
Lent is the time for a particularly loving meeting on our Father’s part with each and every one of us, so that even the most prodigal son may still take account of the waste he has perpetrated, call his sin by its name, and finally make his way with complete sincerity back to God, to the Father’s house.
The way is through ‘examination of conscience, repentance, and resolve to improve; need for confession’ arises in him.
Our reconciliation with God, the return to the Father’s house, is accomplished through Christ. His suffering and death on the cross stand between every human conscience, every human sin, and the Father’s boundless Love. Such Love is prompt to raise and pardon; nothing else than Mercy.
In personal conversion, in repentance, in firm resolve to reform, and finally in confession, each of us agrees to perform a personal spiritual labor. This labor is an extension and prolonged reverberation of the labor of salvation which our Redeemer undertook.
As the Apostle of reconciliation with God said: “For your sakes God made him who did not know sin, to be sin, so that in him we might become the very holiness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
So let us undertake our labor of conversion and penitence for Him, with Him and in Him. Unless we undertake it, we are not worthy of the name of Christ; we are not worthy of the inheritance of the Redemption.
Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p137
• Our Lady “de la Breche”, at Chartres, where a procession takes place every year, in thanksgiving for Our Lady’s having delivered the city, when besieged by heretics, in the year 1568. It was during this siege that not a cannon or musket ball fired by the besiegers at the image of Our Lady, placed upon the Drouaise gate, struck it, although the marks of them are still seen two or three inches from it. — Sebastien Rouillard, Parthenie, o. 3. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of the Breach (“Notre Dame de la Breche”). Chartres, France. 1568. Picture of the church. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady “de la Breche”, Chartres, France (1568). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• Our Lady of the Breach (Chartres, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Our Lady of Kostrama (Russia). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
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