Abuse of divine mercy

God has pity on those who fear Him, but not on sinners who despise Him. To offend God because He shows us mercy, is to provoke Him in the highest degree to chastise us.

I. God has pity on those who fear Him but not on sinners who despise Him. To offend God because He shows us mercy is to provoke Him in the highest degree to chastise us.

Again, to offer an insult to God, because God is a forgiving God, is to deride Him; but God is not mocked (Gal. vi. 7).

The devil will say to you: "But who knows? Even with this other sin it may be that you shall yet be saved." But meanwhile, if you sin, you yourself may condemn your soul to hell. Who knows? It may be that as yet you shall be saved; but it may also happen, and more easily happen, that you may be lost. And is the affair of eternal Salvation to be risked on a who knows? If in the meantime death should come upon you! If God should abandon you after that other sin! What would then become of you?

No, my God, I will never more offend Thee. How many are now suffering in hell for fewer sins than mine? I will no longer be devoted to self, but will be Thine and entirely Thine. To Thee I consecrate my whole liberty and my will. I am thine; do thou save me (Ps. cxviii. 94). Save me from hell, but first save me from sin. I love Thee, my Jesus, I will never more forsake Thee.

The Fathers of the Church say that God has determined the number of sins He will forgive each one. Hence, as we know not this number, we ought to fear lest with every one more additional sin God should abandon us. This dreadful thought—Who knows whether God will any more pardon me?—ought to be a great restraint upon us and keep us from again offending God: with this fear we should be secure.

II. He who has been the more favoured by God with lights and graces ought to be the more afraid of being abandoned by Him. The Angelic Doctor says that the grievousness of sin increases in proportion to the ingratitude with which sin is committed. Woe, then, to the Christian who, after having been enriched with the graces of God, offends Him mortally!

O my Jesus, while Thou hast shown me numberless mercies, I have repaid them by multiplied offences! Thou hast bestowed favours upon me, and I, in return, have despised Thee! But now I love Thee with my whole heart, and I desire to make amends by my love for all the offences I have committed against Thee. Oh, do Thou enlighten and strengthen me!

Sister Mary Strozzi says that "sin in a religious person strikes Heaven with horror, and obliges God to turn away from that soul."

He who has not a great dread of mortal sin is not far from falling into it. Hence it is necessary to fly from dangerous occasions as much as possible.

It is necessary also to fly from all deliberate venial sins. Father Alvarez used to say: "Little voluntary faults do not kill the soul, but they so weaken it that, when there comes a grievous temptation, it will not have strength to resist, and will fall."

St. Teresa has written: "From wilful sin, however small it be, may God deliver us!" Because, as the Saint says, a deliberate venial sin does us more harm than all the devils in hell.

No, my Jesus, no, I will no more offend Thee; neither in great things nor in small. Thou hast done too much to oblige me to love Thee. I desire rather to die than to give Thee the least offence. Thou dost not deserve insult; but rather all my love, and I desire to love Thee with all my strength. Give me Thy assistance.