ON THE NUMBER OF SINS BEYOND WHICH GOD PARDONS NO MORE
"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" – Matt., 4:7
A sermon by St. Alphonsus Mary De Ligouri
(1696-1787), Bishop and Doctor of the Church. St. Francis Jerome, when
he visited the parents of St. Alphonsus shortly after his birth, made
this prophecy: "This child will be blessed with length of days; he shall
not see death before his ninetieth year; he will be a bishop and will
do great things for Jesus Christ." This prophecy certainly came true.
One of the most accomplished of all the saints is Alphonsus Liguori. He
was a lawyer in both civil and Church law before he dedicated his whole
life to serving God. He was founder of a religious order, author of more
than a hundred books, originator of modern moral theology, renowned
preacher and confessor, bishop, musical composer and painter. For all of
his 91 years on earth, he was also a man of prayer and deep personal
holiness. He gives an example of true Christian living that all of us
would do well to follow. Now his sermon:
In this day's Gospel we read that having gone into the desert, Jesus Christ permitted the Devil to set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and say to Him: "If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down"; for the angels shall preserve Thee from all injury. But the Lord answered that in the Sacred Scriptures it is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist
temptations, or without at least asking God's help to conquer them, and
hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice, tempts God
to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy not
extended to the generality of Christians.
God, as the Apostle says, "will have all men to
be saved" – I Tim. 2:4; but He also wishes us all to labor for our own
salvation, at least by adopting the means of overcoming our enemies, and
of obeying Him when He calls us to repentance. Sinners hear the calls
of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does
not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as
the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed
arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict
chastisement. I intend to show in this discourse that when sins reach a
certain number, God pardons no more. Be attentive.
1. St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom,
St. Augustine and other fathers, teach, that as God according to the
words of Scripture, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and
number, and weight" – Wis. 11:21 has fixed for each person the number of
the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He
will give him, so He has also determined for each the number of sins
which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon
no more.
2.
"The Lord hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart" – Isa. 61:1 God
is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but
cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He
cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. Nor can we demand
from God a reason why He pardons one a hundred sins, and takes others
out of life and sends them to Hell, after three or four sins. By His
Prophet Amos, God has said: "For three crimes of Damascus, and for four,
I will not convert it" – 1:3. In this we must adore the judgments of
God, and say with the Apostle: "O the depth of the riches, of the
wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His
judgments" – Rom. 11:33. He who receives pardon, says St. Augustine, is
pardoned through the pure mercy of God; and they who are chastised, are
justly punished. How many has God sent to Hell for the first offense?
St. Gregory relates, that a child of five years, who had arrived at the
use of reason, for having uttered a blasphemy, was seized by the Devil
and carried to Hell. The divine Mother revealed to that great servant of
God, Benedicta of Florence, that a boy of twelve years was damned after
the first sin. Another boy of eight years died after his first sin, and
was lost. You say: I am young; there are many who have committed more
sins than I have. But is God on that account obliged to wait for your
repentance if you offend Him? In the Gospel of St. Matthew (21:19), we
read that the Savior cursed a fig tree the first time He saw it without
fruit. "May no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. An immediately
the fig tree withered away." You must, then tremble at the thought of
committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been
guilty of mortal sins.
3. "Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and
add not sin to sin" – Eccl. 5:5. Say not then, O sinner: "As God has
forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it."
Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add
another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to
your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that
you shall be abandoned. Behold how the Scripture unfolds this truth more
clearly in another place. "The Lord patiently expecteth, that when the
day of judgment shall come, He may punish them in the fullness of sins" –
II. Mac. 6:14. God waits with patience until a certain number of sins
is committed but, when the measure of guilt is filled up, He waits no
longer, but chastises the sinner. "Thou hast sealed up my offenses as it
were in a bag" – Job 14:17. Sinners multiply their sins without keeping
any account of them; but God numbers them, that, when the harvest is
ripe, that is, when the number of sins is completed, He may take
vengeance on them. "Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe" Joel
3:13.
4.
Of this there are many examples in the Scriptures. Speaking of the
Hebrews, the Lord in one place says: "All the men that have tempted Me
now ten times. . . .shall not see the land" – Num. 14:22, 23. In another
place, He says, that He restrained His vengeance against the
Amorrhites, because the number of their sins was not completed. "For as
yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full" – Gen. 15:16.
We have again the example of Saul who, after having disobeyed God a
second time, was abandoned. He entreated Samuel to interpose before the
Lord in his behalf. "Bear, I beseech thee, my sin, and return with me,
that I may adore the Lord" – I Kings 15:25. But, knowing that God had
abandoned Saul, Samuel answered: "I will not return with thee, because
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected
thee," etc. – 5:26. Saul, you have abandoned God, and He has abandoned
you. We have another example in Balthassar, who, after having profaned
the vessels of the Temple, saw a hand writing on the wall, Mane, Thecel, Phares.
Daniel was requested to expound the meaning of these words. In
explaining the word Thecel, he said to the king: "Thou art weighed in
the balance, and art found wanting" – Dan. 5:27. By this explanation, he
gave the king to understand that the weight of his sins in the balance
of divine justice, had made the scale descend." The same night
Balthassar, the Chaldean king, was killed" – Dan. 5:30. Oh! how many
sinners have met with a similar fate! Continuing to offend God till
their sins amounted to a certain number, they have been struck dead and
sent to Hell! "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go
down to Hell" – Job 21:13. Tremble, brethren, lest if you commit another
mortal sin, God should cast you into Hell.
5. If God chastised sinners the moment they
insult Him, we should not see Him so much despised. But, because He does
not instantly punish their transgressions, and because through mercy He
restrains His anger and waits for their return, they are encouraged to
continue to offend Him. "For, because sentence is not speedily
pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evil without any
fear" – Eccles. 8:11. But it is necessary to be persuaded, that though
God bears with us, He does not wait, nor bear with us forever.
Expecting, as on former occasions, to escape from the snares of the
Philistines, Samson continued to allow himself to be deluded by Delilah.
"I will go out as I did before, and shake myself" – Judges 16:20. But
"the Lord departed from him." Samson was at length taken by his enemies,
and lost his life. The Lord warns you not to say: I have committed so
many sins, and God has not chastised me. "Say not: I have sinned, and
what harm hath befallen me; for the Most High is a patient rewarder" –
Eccl. 5:4. God has patience for a certain term, after which He punishes
the first and last sins. And the greater has been His patience, the more
severe His vengeance.
6. Hence, according to St. Chrysostom, God is
more to be feared when He bears with sinners, than when He instantly
punishes their sin. And why? Because, says St. Gregory, they to whom God
has shown most mercy shall, if they do not cease to offend Him, be
chastised with the greatest rigor. The saint adds that God often
punishes such sinners with a sudden death, and does not allow them time
for repentance. And the greater the light which God gives to certain
sinners for their correction, the greater is their blindness and
obstinacy in sin. "For it had been better for them not to have known the
way of justice, than, after they had known it, to turn back" – II Pet.
2:21. Miserable the sinners, who, after having been enlightened, return
to the vomit. St. Paul says, that it is morally impossible for them to
be again converted. "For it is impossible for those who were once
illuminated-have tasted also the Heavenly gifts. . . and are fallen
away, to be renewed again to penance" – Heb. 6:4, 6.
7. Listen, then, O sinner, to the admonition of
the Lord: "My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former
sins pray that they may be forgiven thee" – Eccl. 21:1. Son, add not
sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray
for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit
another mortal sin, the gates of divine mercy may be closed against you,
and your soul may be lost forever. When then, beloved brethren, the
devil tempts you again to yield to sin, say to yourself: If God pardons
me no more, what shall become of me for all eternity? Should the Devil
in reply, say: fear not, God is merciful; answer him by saying:
What certainty or what probability have I that, if I return again to
sin, God will show me mercy or grant me pardon? Behold the threat of the
Lord against all who despise His calls: "Because I have called and you
refused,...I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock
when that shall come to you which you feared" – Prov. 1:24, 26. Mark the
words "I also"; they mean that, as you have mocked the Lord by
betraying Him again after your confession and promises of amendment, so
He will mock you at the hour of death. I will laugh and will mock.
But, "God is not mocked" – Gal. 6:7. "As a dog," says the Wise Man,
"that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly" –
Prov. 26:11. Bl. Denis the Carthusian gives an excellent exposition of
this text. He says that, as a dog that eats what he has just vomited, is
an object of disgust and abomination, so the sinner who returns to the
sins which he has detested and confessed, becomes hateful in the sight
of God.
8. O folly of sinners! If you purchase a house,
you spare no pains to get all the securities necessary to guard against
the loss of your money; if you take medicine, you are careful to assure
yourself that it cannot injure you; if you pass over a river, you
cautiously avoid all danger of falling into it: and for a transitory
enjoyment, for the gratification of revenge, for a beastly pleasure,
which lasts but a moment, you risk your eternal salvation, saying: I will go to confession after I commit this sin. And when, I ask, are you to go to confession? You say: On tomorrow.
But who promises you tomorrow? Who assures you that you shall have time
for confession, and that God will not deprive you of life as He has
deprived so many others, in the act of sin? "Diem tenes" says St. Augustine, "qui horam non tenes." You cannot be certain of living for another hour, and you say: I will go to confession tomorrow.
Listen to the words of St. Gregory: "He who has promised pardon to
penitents, has not promised tomorrow to sinners" – Hom. 12 in Evan. God
has promised pardon to all who repent; but He has not promised to wait
until tomorrow for those who insult Him. Perhaps God will give you time
for repentance, perhaps He will not. But, should He not give it, what
shall become of your soul? In the meantime, for the sake of a miserable
pleasure, you lose the grace of God and expose yourself to the danger of
being lost forever.
9. Would you, for such transient enjoyments, risk
your money, your honor, your possessions, your liberty, and your life?
No, you would not. How then does it happen that, for a miserable
gratification, you lose your soul, Heaven, and God? Tell me: do you
believe that Heaven, Hell, eternity, are truths of faith? Do you believe
that, if you die in sin, you are lost forever? Oh! what temerity, what
folly is it, to condemn yourself voluntarily to an eternity of torments
with the hope of afterwards reversing the sentence of your condemnation!
"Nemo," says St. Augustine, "sub spe salutis vult aegrotare."
No one can be found so foolish as to take poison with the hope of
preventing its deadly effects by adopting the ordinary remedies. And you
will condemn yourself to Hell, saying that you expect to be afterwards
preserved from it. O folly! which, in conformity with the divine
threats, has brought, and brings every day, so many to Hell. "Thou hast
trusted in thy wickedness, and evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt
not know the rising thereof" – Isa. 47:10, 11. You have sinned,
trusting rashly in the divine mercy: the punishment of your guilt shall
fall suddenly upon you, and you shall not know from whence it comes.
What do you say? What resolution do you make? If, after this sermon, you
do not firmly resolve to give yourself to God, I weep over you and
regard you as lost.