The sinner despises God

Contemplating the greatness and majesty of God, David cried out: Lord, who is like to thee! But God, seeing sinners compare and prefer a miserable grati-fication to His friendship, exclaims: To whom have ye likened me or made me equal! The sinner declares that his passion, his vanity, his pleasure, is of greater value than God's friendship. They violated me among my people, for a handful of barley and a piece of bread. (Ezech. xiii. 19).

I. The sinner despises God. By the transgression of the law thou dishonourest God. (Rom. ii. 23). Yes; because the sinner renounces God's grace, and for the sake of a miserable pleasure he tramples upon His friendship. If a man were to lose the friendship of God to gain a kingdom, or even the whole world, still he would do a great wrong, because the friendship of God is of greater value than the world — and a thousand worlds. But for what do we offend God? Wherefore hath the wicked provoked God? (Ps. ix. 13). For a little earth, for a fit of anger, for a filthy pleasure, for a mere vapour, for a caprice: They violated me for a handful of barley and a piece of bread. (Ezech. xiii. 19). When the sinner deliberates whether he shall consent or not to sin, he then, as it were, takes the balance in his hands, and examines which weighs most—the grace of God, or that fit of rage, that vapour, that pleasure; and when he afterwards consents, he declares, as far as he is concerned, that his passion and his pleasure are of greater value than the friendship of God. Behold God dishonoured by the sinner! David, reflecting upon the greatness and majesty of God, said: Lord, who is like to thee? (Ps. xxxiv. 10). But God, on the other hand, when He sees a miserable gratification compared by sinners and preferred to Himself, says to them: To whom have you likened me, or made me equal? (Is. xl. 25). Therefore, says the Lord, that vile pleasure was of greater value than My grace: Thou hast cast me off behind thy back. (Ezech. xxiii. 35). You would not have committed that sin if you were, in consequence, to lose a hand, or ten ducats, or perhaps even much less. God, then, says Salvian, is so contemptible in thy eyes, that He deserves to be despised for a momentary passion or a miserable gratification: "God alone was esteemed vile by thee in comparison of all things else."

Thou, then, O my God, art an infinite Good; and I have often exchanged Thee for a miserable pleasure, which was hardly obtained ere it vanished. But although despised by me, Thou dost now offer me pardon if I desire it; and dost promise to restore me to Thy grace if I repent of having offended Thee. Yes, O my Lord, I repent with all my heart of having thus insulted Thee; I detest my sin above every evil.

II. Moreover, when the sinner for the sake of some pleasure offends God, that pleasure then becomes his god, inasmuch as he makes it his last end. St. Jerome says: "That which each one desires, if he worship it, it is to him a god. A vice in the heart is an idol on the altar." Therefore St. Thomas says: "If thou lovest delights, delights are thy god." And St. Cyprian: "Whatever man prefers to God, he makes his god." When Jeroboam rebelled against God, he endeavoured to draw the people with him into idolatry, and therefore he presented his idols to them, saying: Behold thy gods, O Israel. (3 Kings xii. 28). Thus does the devil present to the sinner some gratification, saying: What hast thou to do with God? Behold thy god in this pleasure, this passion; take this, and leave God. And the sinner, when he consents, adores in his heart that pleasure as his god: "A vice in the heart is an idol on the altar."

If the sinner dishonours God, he will not, at least, do so in His presence? Ah, he insults Him to His Face, because God is present everywhere: I fill heaven and earth. (Jer. xxiii. 24). And this the sinner knows, and yet shrinks not from provoking God even before His eyes: They continually provoke me to anger before my face. (Is. lxv. 3).

Behold, I now return, as I hope, to Thee, O my God; and Thou dost already receive and embrace me as Thy child. I thank Thee, O Infinite Goodness. But help me now, and do not permit that I ever again banish Thee from me. Hell will not cease to tempt me; but Thou art more powerful than hell. I know that I shall never more separate myself from Thee if I always recommend myself to Thee; this, then, is the grace that Thou must grant me, that I may always recommend myself to Thee, and always pray to Thee, as I now do, saying: O Lord, assist me; give me light, give me strength, give me perseverance, give me paradise; but above all, grant me Thy love, which is the true paradise of souls. I love Thee, O Infinite Goodness, and desire always to love Thee. Hear me, for the love of Jesus Christ. Mary, thou art the refuge of sinners; succour a sinner who desires to love thy God.