The misery of relapsing into sin

St. Jerome says that many begin well but few persevere. The Holy Ghost declares that he who perseveres in holiness to death, and not he who begins a good life, shall be saved. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved (Matt. xxiv. 13). The crown of Paradise, says St. Bernard, is promised to those who commence, but it is given only to those who persevere.

Since, then, you have resolved to give yourselves to God, listen to the admonition of the Holy Ghost: Son, when thou earnest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation (Ecclus. ii. 1). Do not imagine that you will have no more temptations, but rather prepare yourself for the combat, and guard against a relapse into the sins you have confessed; for, if you lose the grace of God again, you shall find it difficult to recover it.

When you rise from sin by a sincere Confession, Jesus Christ says to you what He said to the paralytic: Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee (John v. 14). By the Confessions you have made your soul is healed, but not yet saved; for, if you return to sin, you will be again condemned to hell, and the injury caused by the relapse will be far greater, says St. Bernard, than that which you sustained from your former sins. If a man recovers from a mortal disease, and afterwards falls back into it, he will have lost so much of his natural strength that his recovery from the relapse will be impossible. This is precisely what will happen to relapsing sinners; returning to the vomit — that is, taking back into the soul the sins vomited forth in Confesson — they shall be so weak that they will become objects of derision to the devil. St. Anselm says that the devil acquires a certain dominion over them, so that he makes them fall, and fall again as he pleases. Hence the miserable beings become like birds with which a child amuses himself. He allows them, from time to time, to fly to a certain height, and then draws them back again when he pleases, by means of a cord that binds them. Such, says the Saint, is the manner in which the devil treats relapsing sinners.

St. Paul tells us that we have to contend not with men like ourselves, made of flesh and blood, but with the princes of hell. Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers (Ephes. vi. 12). By these words he wishes to admonish us that we have not strength to resist the powers of hell, and that, to resist them, the Divine aid is absolutely necessary: without it, we shall always be defeated; but, with the assistance of God's grace, we shall, according to the same Apostle, be able to do all things, and shall conquer all enemies. I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me (Phil. iv. 13). But this assistance God gives only to those who pray for it. Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find (Matt. vii. 7). They who neglect to ask do not receive. Let us, then, be careful not to trust in our resolutions: if we place our confidence in them, we shall be lost. When we are tempted to relapse into sin, we must put our whole trust in the assistance of God, Who infallibly hears all who invoke His aid.

He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall (1 Cor x. 12). They who are in the state of grace should, according to St. Paul, be careful not to fall into sin, particularly if they have been ever guilty of mortal sin; for a relapse into sin brings greater evil than ever on the soul. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first (Luke xi. 26).

We are told in the holy Scriptures that the enemy will offer victims to his drag, and will sacrifice to his net; because through them... his meat is made dainty (Habac. i. 16). In explaining this passage St. Jerome says that the devil seeks to catch in his nets all men, in order to sacrifice them to the Divine justice by their damnation. Sinners who are already in the net he endeavours to bind with new chains; but the friends of God are his dainty meats. To make them his slaves, and to rob them of all they have acquired, he prepares stronger snares. "The more fervently," says Denis the Carthusian, "a soul endeavours to serve God, the more fiercely does the adversary rage against it." The closer the union of a Christian with God, and the greater his efforts to serve God, the more the enemy is armed with rage, and the more strenuously he labours to enter into the soul from which he has been expelled. When, says the Redeemer, the unclean spirit is gone out of a man .. seeking rest, and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house, whence I came out (Luke xi. 24). Should he succeed in re-entering, he will not enter alone, but will bring with him associates to fortify himself in the soul of which he has again got possession. Thus, the second fall of that miserable soul shall be greater than the first. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first (Luke xi. 26).