Keeping the Law Not Impossible
By Rev. Francis A. Baker
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
I
A
If I am not mistaken, a very great number of the sins that men commit, are committed through hopelessness. The pleasures of sin are no means unmixed. Indeed, sin is a hard master; and all who practice it find it so. I never met a man who said it was a good thing, or that it made him happy. On the contrary, all lament it, and say that it makes them miserable. Why, then, do they commit it?
B
Very often, I am persuaded, because they think they have no power to resist it. They feel in themselves strong passions; they have yielded to them in times past, they see that others yield to them. The law of God is too difficult, they say. It is impossible to keep it. It may do for priests or nuns who are cut off from the world, or for women, or for the old, or for children, but for us who mix in the world, whose blood is warm, and whose passions are strong, it is too high and true.
C
It is all very well to talk about; it is all very well to hold up a high standard to us, but you must not expect us to attain it. The utmost that you can expect of us is to stop sinning, now and then, and make the proper acknowledgments to God by going to confession; but actually to try not to sin, to keep on endeavoring not to sin at any time, or under any circumstances, that is impossible, or at least so extremely difficult that, practically speaking, it is impossible.
D
Are there none of you, my brethren, who recognize this as the secret language of your hearts? Is there not an impression in your minds that the law of God is too strict, or at least that it is too strict for you, and that you cannot keep it? If so, do not harbor it. It is a fatal error. No; it is not impossible to keep God’s law. It is not impossible to keep from mortal sin.
E
It is, I admit, impossible to keep from every venial sin, though even here we can do a great deal, if we try. Such is the frailty of human nature that even the best men, as time goes on, fall into some slight faults, only the Blessed Virgin having been able, as we believe, to pass the whole life without even in the smallest thing offending God.
F
But it is possible for all of us to keep from mortal sin, at all times and under all circumstances. This, I think, you will acknowledge when you consider the character of God, the nature of God’s law, and the power of God’s grace which is promised to us.
II
A
I say the character of God is a pledge of our ability to keep from mortal sin. God requires us to be free from mortal sin, and He requires it under the severest penalties, and therefore it must be possible for us. You may say, “God requires us to be free from venial sin too, and yet you have just said we cannot avoid every venial sin.” But the case is far different.
B
A venial sin does not separate us from God, and does not receive extreme punishment from Him – nay, those venial sins which even good men commit, and which are only in small part voluntary, are very easily forgiven – but a mortal sin cuts us off entirely from God, and deserves eternal punishment.
C
You know, one mortal sin is enough to damn a man – one single sin of drunkenness, for instance, or impurity; a cherished hatred, a false oath, or an act of grave injustice. One such sin is sufficient to sink a man in hell, and although we know very little in particular of the torments of hell, we have every reason to believe that they are most bitter, and we know that they are eternal.
D
Now, can it be thought that a being of justice and goodness, as we know God to be, would inflict so extreme a punishment for an offence which was unavoidable, or could only be avoided with the utmost difficulty? Holy Scripture sends us to an earthly parent for an example of that tenderness and affection which we are to expect from our Heavenly Father. “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him.” (Matthew 7:11)
E
What would be the thought of an earthly father who laid upon his son a command which it was all but impossible for him to comply with, and then punished him with the utmost rigor for not fulfilling it? You would not call that man a father, but a tyrant; a tyrant like Pharaoh, who would not give straw to the children of Israel, and yet set taskmasters over them to exact of them the full measure of bricks as when straw had been given them.
F
Why, if you were going along the street and saw a man whipping unmercifully an overloaded horse, you would not bear it patiently. And would you attribute conduct so disgraceful among men to our Father in heaven? God forbid! Far be such a thought from us! It is not so. We must not think it. At least we cannot think it as long as we remain Catholics; for when the earlier Protestants proclaimed the shocking doctrine that though God punished men for disobeying his law, man was really unable to obey it, the Church branded the doctrine as a heresy to be abhorred of all men, as most false in itself, and most injurious to God.
G
No; God loves his creatures far more than we conceive of. He does not desire the death of a sinner. He wills truly the salvation of all men. His goodness and mercy, His truth and justice, are all so many infallible guarantees of our ability to keep His law. He would not have given us His law unless He had meant us to keep it. He would not punish us so severely for breaking it, unless our breaking it was an act of deliberate, willful, determined rebellion.
III
A
But there is another source from which I draw the conclusion that it is possible to keep the law of God – from the nature of the law itself. The law of God is of such a nature that, for the most part, in order to commit mortal sin, it is necessary to do or to leave undone some external act, which of its own nature it is entirely in our power to do or not to do. For instance, the law says, “Thou shall not steal;” now, to steal, you have got to put your hand into your neighbor’s pocket The law says:. “Thou shall not murder;” to murder, you must stretch out your hand against your neighbor’s life.
B
Nay, it requires ordinarily several external actions before a mortal sin is consummated. Thus the thief has his precautions to take, and his plans to lay. The drunkard has to seek the occasion. He seeks the tavern. Every step he takes is a separate act. When he gets there, it is not the first glass that makes him drunk. He drinks again and again, and it is only after all these different and repeated actions that he falls into the mortal sin of drunkenness. Now, what you see are external acts – acts in which the hand, the foot, the lips, are concerned, and which, therefore, it is perfectly in our power to do or to let alone.
C
This requires no proof, but admits of a striking illustration. You have heard of the great sufferings of the martyrs; how some of them were stoned to death, others flayed alive, others crucified, others torn to pieces by wild beats, others burned to death. Now, what was it all about? You answer, “They suffered because they would not deny Christ.”
D
Very well; but how were they required to deny Christ? What was it they were required to do? I will tell you. Sometimes they were required to take a few grains of incense and throw it on the altar of Jupiter; that would have been enough to have saved them from their sufferings. They need not have said, “I renounce Christ;” only to take the incense would have been sufficient. Sometimes they were required to tread on the cross. Sometimes to swear by the genius of the Roman emperor; that was all. And the fire was kindled to make them do these things; but they would not.
E
The flames leaped upon them, but not a foot would they lift from the ground. Their hands were burnt to the bone, but no incense would they touch. The marrow of their bones melted in the heat, and forced from them a cry of agony, but the name of the emperor’s tutelary genius did not pass their lips. Now will you tell me that you cannot help doing what the martyrs would not do to save them from death?
F
They had a fire before them and a scourge behind them, and they refused; and you say you cannot help yourself when you are under no external violence whatever! They died rather than lift a hand to do a forbidden thing; have you not the same power over your hand that they had? They died rather than utter a sinful word; have you not as much power over your tongue as they? Indeed you have, for you control both one and the other whenever you will. I say there is no sinner whose conduct does not show that his actions are perfectly in his own power.
G
The thief waits for the night to carry on his trade; during the day he is honest enough. The greatest libertine knows how to behave himself in the presence of a high-born and virtuous female. And even that vice which men say it is most difficult of all to restrain when once the habit is formed – profane swearing – you know how to restrain it when you will, for even the heaviest curser and swearer ceases from his oaths before the priest, or any other friend whom he greatly respects.
H
Now, if you can stop cursing before the priest, why can you not before your wife and children? If you can be chaste in the presence of a virtuous female, why can you not be chaste everywhere? If you can be honest when the eye of man is on you, why can you not be honest when no eye sees you but that of God?
IV
A
“But,” someone may say, “There is a class of sins to which the remarks you have made do not apply, that is, sins of thought. You must admit that they are of such a nature that it is all but impossible not to commit them.” No, I do not admit it. I acknowledge that sins of thought are more difficult to guard against than sins of action; but I do not acknowledge that it is impossible to guard against them.
B
To prove this, I have only to remind you that an evil thought is not sin until we give consent to it. To keep always free from evil thoughts may be impossible, because the imagination is in its nature so volatile, that but few men have it in control; but, though it be not possible to restrain the imagination, it is always possible to restrain the will.
C
In order for the will to consent to evil it is necessary both to know and to choose, and therefore from the nature of the thing one can never fall into sin either inevitably or unawares. And besides, the will has a powerful ally in the conscience, whose province it is to keep us from sin and to reproach us when we do sin – so that it is scarcely possible, for one who habitually tries to keep free from mortal sin, to fall into it without his conscience giving a distinct and unmistakable report.
D
And this is so certain that spiritual writers say that a person of good life and tender conscience, who is distressed with the uncertainty whether or not he has given consent to an evil temptation, ought to banish that anxiety altogether and to be sure that he has not consented. But suppose these evil temptations are importunate, and remain in the soul even when we resist them, and try to turn from them? No matter. They do not become sins on that account; nay, they become the occasion of acts of great virtue.
E
It is related in the life of St. Catherine of Sienna that on one occasion that pure virgin’s soul was assailed by the most horrible temptations of the devil. They lasted for a long time, and after the conflict our Savior appeared to her with a serene countenance. “O my Divine Spouse,” she said, “where were you when I was enduring these conflicts?” “In your soul,” he replied. “What, with all these filthy abominations?” “Yes, they were displeasing and painful to thee; this therefore was your merit, and your victory was owing to My presence.” So that we see even here, where the danger is greatest, the law of God exacts of us nothing but what in its own nature is in our power to do or not to do.
V
A
But if you wish another proof of your ability to keep God’s law, I allege the power of His grace. I can imagine an objector saying: “You have not touched the real difficulty, after all. The difficulty is not on God’s side; no doubt He is good and holy. Neither are the requirements of his law so very hard. The difficulty is in us. We are fallen by nature. We have sinned after baptism. We are so weak, so frail, that to us continued observance of the divine commandments is impossible.”
C
No, my brethren, neither is this true. It is not true from the mouth of any man; least of all from the mouth of a Christian. “No temptation,” says the Apostle, “has taken hold of you but such as is human. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will also with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) The weakest and frailest are strong enough with God’s grace, and this grace He is ready to give to those that need it. At all times and in all places He has been ready to give His grace to them that need it, but especially is this true under the gospel.
D
The Holy Scriptures make this the distinguishing characteristic of the times of the gospel, that they shall abound in grace. “Take courage, and fear not,” the prophet says, in anticipation of the time when Christ should come in the flesh, “Behold, God will come and save you. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free; for waters are broken out of the desert, and streams in the wilderness. And that which was dry land shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.” (Isaiah 35:4-7)
E
Such was the promise, hundreds of years before Christ, of a time of peace, of happiness and grace; and when our Lord was come, He published that the good time had indeed arrived: “The spirit of the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the contrite of heart. To preach deliverance to the captive, and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18,19)
F
Yes, the great time has come; the cool of the day; the evening of the world; the time when labor is light and reward abundant. O my brethren, you know not what a privilege it is to be a Christian! You enter a church. You see a priest in his confessional. A penitent is kneeling at his feet. The sight makes but little impression on you, for you are accustomed to it, but this is that “fountain” promised by the prophet “to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the washing of the sinner;” a fountain that flows from the Savior’s side, and not only cleanses, but strengthens and makes alive.
G
You pass an altar. The priest is giving communion. Stop! It is the Lord himself! The bread of angels! The wine of virgins! The food “whereof if a man eat he shall live forever.” And not only in the church do you find grace; it follows you home. You shut your door behind you, and your Father in heaven waits to hear and grant your prayer.
H
Nay, at all times God is with you, for you are the temple of God, and He sits on the throne of your heart to scatter His grace on you whenever and wherever you ask Him. Do not say, then, Christian, that you are unable to do what God requires of you. It is a sin of black ingratitude to say so. Even if it were impossible for others to keep the law of God, it is not for you. He has not done to every nation as he has done to you.
I
When the patriarch Jacob was dying, he blessed all his children, but his richest blessing was for Joseph. So God has blessed all the children of His hand, but you, Christian, are the Joseph whom He has loved more than all His other sons. To others He has given of “the dew of heaven,” and “the fatness of the earth,” but you, “He has blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ.”
VI
A
Away, then, with the notion that obedience to the commandments of God is impracticable – a notion dishonorable to God and to ourselves. It is possible to keep free from mortal sin – for all – at all times, under all temptations. Nay, I will say more. It is, on the whole, easier to live a life of Christian obedience, than a life of sin. I say “on the whole,” for I do not deny that here and there, in particular cases, it is harder to do right than wrong; but taking life all through, one who restrains his passions will have less trouble than one who indulges them.
B
Heroic actions are not required of us every day. In order to be a Christian, it is not necessary to be always high-strung and enthusiastic. It is not necessary to be a devotee, to adopt set and precise ways, to take up with hypocrisy and cant – in a word, to be unmanly.
C
It is just, for the most part, the most matter of fact, the most practical, the most simple and straight forward thing in the world. It is to be a man of principle. It is to have a serious, abiding purpose to do our duty. It is to be full of courage; not the courage of the braggart, but the courage of the soldier – the courage that thrives under opposition, and survives defeat, the courage that takes the means to secure success – vigilance, humility, steadfastness, and prayer.
D
Before this, all difficulties vanish, and this is what we want most of all. It is amazing how little courage there is in the world. We are like the servant of Elisha, the prophet, who when he awoke in the morning, and saw the great army that had been sent by the King of Syria to take his master, said, “Alas, alas, alas, my lord; what shall we do!” But Elisha showed him another army – the army of angels ranged on the mountain, with chariots of fire and horses of fire, ready to fight for the servants of God, and he said, “Fear not: for there are more with us than with them.” (2 Kings 6:15-17)
E
Why should we fear? Christianity is no new thing. The path of Christian obedience is not an untried path. Thousands have trod it and are now enjoying their reward. God, and the angels, and the saints, are on our side. And there are multitudes of faithful souls in the world who are fighting the good fight, and keeping their souls unsullied. We cannot distinguish them now, but one day we shall know them.
F
Oh! let us join them. Yes, we will make our resolution now. Others may guide themselves by pleasure or expediency; we will adopt the language of the Psalmist: “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths.” (Psalm 19:105) We will be Christians, not in name, but in deed. Not for a time only, but always. One thought shall cheer us in sadness and serve us in weakness: “I have sworn and am determined to keep the judgments of Thy justice.” (Psalm 19:106)