By Henry Aloysius Barry
St. Gregory says, "The very remedy of grace is turned into increase of culpability—and in so far as man does not care to renounce evil so that he may live injustice, so far does he augment it with the consequences of his death." This penalty of obstinacy is strange and terrible. Before this dreadsome point is reached in the sinner's course God prompts the sinner to appreciate His wonders and warnings.
Now God withdraws at last and leaves him, as it were, to his own resources. The result is the sinner's utter lack of appreciation whilst the favors still flow on till the cup is full, — then vengeance! The lesson of all this is that we should fear God and tremble lest we should dishonor His grace or grow audaciously familiar with His mercy. Our daily study, especially before slumber, should be to reckon our conduct during the day, our correspondence with the mercy reached out to us and our poor miserable return. Phthisis may be a hereditary disease, but, a bad cold neglected or a series of colds may bring it about. In the same way a stubborn sinner who errs, for the most part, through weakness, may turn out a blasphemer. Men and women high up in holiness, by negligence in checking little faults—sat as it were in a draught, got wet feet habitually—have entered upon a decline that has had its ending in a fatal consumption of the soul. Some of these people were converted; many were not. Holy Writ is sufficiently clear to the effect that God becomes very much incensed against a stubborn sinner and deals with him in a manner particularly rigorous. It is worthy of a high place in our memory— the thought that if one is faithful in the minor things of life and makes the most of the little graces, one is then in no danger of obstinacy or practically of any heavy sin. Preservation and cure in this class of evils is found in the Holy Ghost,—"I will give a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your breast, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in the midst of you, and I will cause you to walk in My commandment, and to keep My judgments and to do them." (Ezech. xxxvi, 26, 27.)
