Malice of sin

S. Alfonso M. De Liguori

POINT I
Which is committing a mortal sin? Insult God, the shame, the bitter. For the first mortal sin is an insult, which is an insult to God with malice, says S. Thomas, is measured by the person who receives it, and the person doing it. An injury that becomes a villain, is bad, but it's more crime, if it is a noble, higher then, if you for a monarch. Who is God? God is the King of Kings is an infinite majesty, in respect of which all the princes of the earth and all of the saints and the angels of heaven are less of a grape of sand. "Like a drop of a bucket, as dust on the scales." (Is. 40. 15) Indeed Hosea says that in the face of the greatness of God all creatures are so small, as if there were. This is God who is man? S. Bernard bag of worms and worm food, soon to have to devour. The man is a worm that cannot put anything blind who cannot see anything, poor and naked and has nothing. And this miserable worm wants to insult a God! He says the same S. Bernardo. Therefore the angel is right in saying that man's sin i1 contains an almost infinite malice. Indeed S. Augustine calls the sin at all "malum infinitum." In order that if all men and angels were to offer to die, and even annihilate, could not meet for one sin. God punishes mortal sin with the great pain of hell, but what the punishment, they say that all theologians always punish "citra continuum," that is less than it should be punished. And what punishment can never come to punish as he deserves a worm, that if he seizes her with his Lord? God is the Lord of all, because he created everything. And, in fact, all creatures obey God: "Who is this, that they obey the winds and the sea?" (Matt. 8. 27) "Fire, hail, snow, ice, running his word" (Ps. 148. 8), but the man when he sins, he is doing? He says to God: Lord, I do not want to serve. "You have broken my yoke, you said: I will not serve." The Lord says, do not avenge themselves, and the man answered, and I want revenge, do not take the property of others and I want to take me, deprived of the taste dishonest, and I do not want to deprive me. The sinner says to God, as Pharaoh said, when Moses brought him the command of God he left his people in freedom, "said the reckless," Who is the Lord, that I should listen to his voice? ". The same says the sinner, Lord, I do not know you, I want to do what I like. In short, loses respect in the face and turns his back, and this itself is a mortal sin, once it is back to God what he complains of the Lord. You have been the ungrateful, says God, you left me since I left I would never have: thou hast turned their backs.
God has declared that he hates sin, so cannot be less than those who commit hate. God is that powerful, with a nod from nothing created heaven and earth. And if you want, with another nod can destroy everything, and when you i1 sinner to sin against God stretches out his hand.

POINT II
II sinner not only insult God, but the dishonor. "By the transgression of the law dishonor God" (Romans 1.23.) Yes, because renunciation of his grace, and a taste for miserable it is put under the feet of God's friendship if the man loses the divine friendship, gain a kingdom, the whole world, yet it would be a great evil, because God's friendship is worth more than the world and thousands of worlds. But because someone offends God? For a bit of land, for an outburst of anger, for a taste of the beast, for a smoke, on a whim. "I dishonored by a handful of barley and for a piece of bread" (Ezek. 13. 19). When the sinner gets to decide whether or not to give consent to sin, then (so to speak) picks up the scale, and wants to know what weighs more, if the grace of God, or the vent, the smoke, the taste, and when he gives consent, then says to himself as worth more than that outburst, the taste, not worth the divine friendship. Here's the shameless sinner God. David considering the size and majesty of God said: Who is like You, Lord? But God in the meeting, when you see the sinners and subordinate place in comparison to a miserable satisfaction, he told them: "Who do you have compared to those who have done me the same?" (Isa. 40. 25). So (says the Lord) was worth more than the taste vile, that my grace? "I've thrown behind him" (Ezek. 23. 35). You would not have done this sin, if I had to lose a hand, if ten ducats, and perhaps much less. So only God, says Save, is so vile in your sight, that deserves to be postponed to a vent, to a poor satisfaction.

In addition, when the sinner for a taste offends God, then what does that taste becomes his God, making him its ultimate end. Says S. Jerome: "What every craving, whether the worship is for him a defect in the heart of God is an idol on the altar." Waves say S. Thomas: "If you love the pleasure, the pleasure is your God." E S. Cipriano: "Everything that man prefers to God, he does his God." When Jeroboam revolted from God, endeavored to pull him even the people to idolize, and therefore presented him with his idols and said to him: "Behold, O Israel, your gods" (1. King 12. 28). So does the devil, the sinner has the satisfaction and say: What do you want to make God? Here is your God, this taste, this outburst, take this and let God and the sinner, when he agreed, so does, for God loves in his heart that satisfaction. At least, if the sinner dishonors God, do not dishonor in his presence, no, the insult and dishonor in the face of him, because God is present everywhere. And this already knows the sinner, and in spite of everything does not stop God continue to cause her eyes.

POINT III
Sin II insult God, and thereby dishonors the supremely bitter. There is no bitterness, more sensitive, the ingratitude paid by seeing a loved one and benefit. With whom if he seizes the sinner? Insult a God who created and loved so much that has come to give blood and life for his love, and he committed a mortal sin banish him from her heart. In a soul that loves God, God is to live there. But, Lord, You already know that ungrateful wretch among you shall chase another time already, why do not you go now? What do you expect he will just Throw? Let departed before he will face this great injustice. No, says God, I do not want to leave, till it does not just dismiss me.

So, when the soul can sin, says to God: Lord, Depart from me, his mouth does not say, but the fact, says S. Gregory. Already knows the sinner that God cannot be with sin, that sin ought to depart already seen God's order says: Since you cannot stay there with my sin and you party issues, a good trip. And expelling God from his soul, the devil does that come immediately to take possession. For the same door, so God leaves, comes the enemy, "So runs to take seven spirits more wickedly than him and go to settle there" (Mt. 12. 45). When a child is baptized, the priest shall intimate to the devil "out of him, unclean spirit, and surrender the place to the Holy Spirit." Yes, because that soul, receiving the grace of God becomes a temple But when the man you to sin, does just the opposite: it says that God is in his soul. Complained of what exactly the Lord with St. Bridget, saying he is a sinner by the King driven from his throne. What punishment would you, if you received an insult from someone that you have very serious benefited? This is the trouble you have given to your God, who came to give their lives to save. The Lord calls the heavens and the earth almost to pity him, for the ingratitude that use the sinners. In short, the sinners with their sins afflict the heart of God: "But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit" (Isa. 63. 10). God is not capable of pain, but if it ever was capable, a mortal sin is enough to make him die of pure sadness.