The evil effects of a bad habit - 3

3. IT DIMINISHES SPIRITUAL STRENGTH.

He hath torn me with wound upon wound; he hath rushed in upon me like a giant (Job. xvi. 15). On this text St. Gregory reasons thus: A person assailed by an enemy is rendered unable to defend himself by the first wound which he receives; but, should he receive a second and a third, his strength will be so much exhausted, that death will be the consequence. It is so with sin: after the first and second wound which it inflicts on the soul, she will still have some strength, but only through the Divine grace. But, if she continue to indulge in vice, sin, becoming habitual, rushes upon her like a giant and leaves her without any power to resist it. St. Bernard compares the habitual sinner to a person who has fallen under a large rock, which he is unable to remove. A person in such a case will rise only with difficulty. "The man on whom the weight of a bad habit presses, rises with difficulty."

St. Thomas of Villanova teaches that a soul which is deprived of the grace of God cannot long abstain from new sins. In expounding the words of David: O my God, make them like a wheel, and as a stubble before the wind (Ps. lxxxii. 14), St. Gregory says that the man who contracts the habit of sin yields and yields again to every temptation with as much facility as a straw is moved by the slightest blast of wind. Habitual sinners, according to St. John Chrysostom, become so weak in resisting the attacks of the devil, that, dragged to sin by their evil habit, they are sometimes driven to sin against their will. Yes; because, as St. Augustine says, "a bad habit in the course of time brings on a certain necessity of falling into sin."

St. Bernardine of Sienna says that evil habits become part of one's very nature. Hence, as it is necessary for men to breathe, so it appears it becomes necessary for habitual sinners to commit sins. They are thus made the slaves of sin. I say the slaves. In society there are servants, who serve for wages, and there are slaves, who serve by force, and without remuneration. Having sold themselves as slaves to the devil, habitual sinners are reduced to such a degree of slavery that they sometimes sin without pleasure, and sometimes even without being in the occasion of sin. St. Bernardine compares them to the wings of a wind-mill, which continue to turn the mill even when there is no corn to grind; that is, they continue to commit sin, at least by indulging bad thoughts, even when there is no occasion of sin presented to them. The unhappy beings, as St. John Chrysostom says, having lost the Divine aid, no longer do what they wish themselves, but what the devil wishes.

Listen to what happened in a city in Italy. A certain young man, who had contracted a vicious habit, though frequently called by God, and admonished by friends to amend his life, continued to live in sin. One day he saw his sister suddenly struck dead. He was terrified for a short time; but she was scarcely buried when he forgot her death and returned to his abominations. In two months after he was confined to bed by a slow fever. He then sent for a confessor and made his Confession. But after all this, on a certain day, he exclaimed: Alas! how late have I known the rigour of Divine justice! And turning to his physician, he said: Do not torment me any longer with your medicines, for my disease is incurable. I know for certain that it will bring me to the grave. And to his friends, who stood around, he said: As for the life of this body of mine there is no remedy, so, for the life of my poor soul there is no hope of salvation. I expect eternal death. God has abandoned me; this I see in the hardness of my heart. Friends and Religious came to encourage him to hope in the mercy of God; but his answer to all their exhortations was: God has abandoned me. The writer who relates this fact says that, being alone with the young man, he said to him: Have courage; unite yourself to God and receive the Viaticum. Friend, replied the young man, speak to a stone! The Confession I have made has been null for want of sorrow. I do not wish for a confessor, nor for the Sacraments. Do not bring me the Viaticum; for, should you bring it, I will do that which must excite your horror. The friend then went away quite disconsolate; and returning next day to see the young man he learned from his relatives that he expired during the night without the aid of a priest, and that near his room frightful howlings were heard.

Behold the end of habitual sinners! If you have had the misfortune to contract a habit of sin make a General Confession as soon as possible; for your past Confessions can scarcely have been valid. Abandon instantly the slavery of the devil. Attend to the advice of the Holy Ghost. Give not... thy years to the cruel (Prov. v. 9). Why will you serve the devil, your enemy, who is so cruel a master — who makes you lead a life of misery here, to bring you to a life of still greater misery in hell for all eternity? Lazarus, come forth (Jo. xi. 43). Go out of the pit of sin! Give yourself immediately to God Who calls you, and is ready to receive you if you turn to Him. Tremble! this may be for you the last call, to which, if you do not correspond, you shall be lost!