The evil effects of a bad habit - 1

I.-IT BLINDS THE UNDERSTANDING.

Speaking of those who live in the habit of sin, St. Augustine says: "The very habit itself does not allow them to see the evil they do." The habit of sin blinds sinners, so that they no longer see the evil which they do, nor the ruin which they bring upon themselves; hence they live in blindness as if there was neither God, nor Heaven, nor hell, nor eternity. "Sins," adds the Saint, "however enormous, when habitual, appear to be small, or not to be sins at all." How, then, can the soul guard against them when she is no longer sensible of their deformity, or the evil which they bring upon her?

St. Jerome says that habitual sinners "are not even ashamed of their crimes." Bad actions naturally produce a certain shame; but this feeling is destroyed by the habit of sin. St. Peter compares habitual sinners to swine wallowing in mire. The sow that was washed is returned to her wallowing in the mire (2 Pet. ii. 22). The very mire of sin blinds them; and, therefore, instead of feeling sorrow and shame at their uncleanness, they revel and exult in it. A fool worketh mischief as it were for sport (Prov. x. 23). They are glad when they have done evil (Prov. ii. 14). Hence the Saints continually seek light from God; for they know that, should He withdraw His light, they may become the greatest of sinners. How, then, do so many Christians, who know by Faith that there is a hell, and a just God Who cannot but chastise the wicked, how, I say, do they continue to live in sin till death, and thus bring themselves to perdition? Their own malice blinded them (Wis. 21). Sin blinds them, and thus they are lost.

Job says that habitual sinners are full of inquities. His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth (Job xx. 11). Every sin produces darkness in the understanding. Hence the more sins are multiplied by a bad habit, the greater the blindness they cause. The light of the sun cannot enter a vessel filled with clay; and a heart full of vices cannot admit the light of God, which would make visible to the soul the abyss into which she is running. Bereft of light, the habitual sinner goes on from sin to sin, without ever thinking of repentance. The wicked walk round about (Ps. xi. 9). Fallen into the dark pit of evil habits, he thinks only of sinning, he speaks only of sins, and no longer sees the evil of sin. In fine, he becomes like a brute beast, devoid of reason, and seeks and desires only what pleases the senses. And man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them (Ps. xlviii. 13). Hence the words of the Wise Man are fufilled with regard to habitual sinners. The wicked man when he comes into the depth of sins, contemneth (Prov. xviii. 3). This passage St. John Chrysostom applies to habitual sinners, who, shut up in a pit of darkness, despise sermons, calls of God, admonitions, censures, hell, and God, and become like the vulture that waits to be killed by the fowler, rather than abandon the corrupt carcass on which it feeds.

Let us tremble, as David did when he said: Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me (Ps. lxviii. 16). Should a person fall into a pit there is hope of deliverance as long as the mouth of the pit is not closed; but as soon as it is shut, he is lost. When a sinner falls into a bad habit, the mouth of the pit is gradually closed as his sins are multiplied; the moment the mouth of the pit is shut he is abandoned by God. If you have contracted a habit of any sin, endeavour instantly to go out of that pit before God deprives you entirely of His light, and abandons you; for, as soon as He abandons you by the total withdrawal of His light, all is over and you are lost.