Case LXXII: A Zealous Penitent Discouraged by Imperfections and Venial Sins

Case.—Anna has a great desire for Christian perfection. Accordingly she goes to confession every week, and receives Holy Communion daily, whenever possible, hoping thus to attain by sacramental graces a steadily increasing purity of heart. The results, however, do not meet her expectations, she is conscious of still possessing many faults, hence she loses courage and weakens in her efforts.

Question.—How should a confessor treat his penitent in order to encourage her faithful adherence to the practice of daily Communion?

Solution.—In the well-known decree of December 20, 1905, hope is expressed that Communicants who receive daily, with the right dispositions and in the state of grace, may also gradually avoid venial sins. Anna desires to be freed of her faults, hence her zeal in receiving the Sacraments. She had hoped to draw this fruit quickly from daily Communion, but she is disappointed in her expectations. The confessor, as a wise physician of the soul, must, before all things, inquire into the causes of this disappointment. Possibly it is brought about by the fact that her expectations were exaggerated, or even presumptuous. Anna believed that she would be freed not only from all sins, but even from all imperfections. As imperfections, the moralists designate either acts or omissions contrary, not to a positive commandment, but to a counsel; another definition classes them as violations of the moral law which are quite involuntary, such as distraction in prayer, involuntary emotions of anger, envy, etc., and, in general, all faults that proceed from guiltless ignorance or inattention. This latter definition, where there is discussion of the difference between imperfections and venial sins, is to be preferred to the former, since imperfections in the first sense are not always free from real sin, while, as defined in the other sense, they never include guilt. To free one’s self by degrees from such imperfections, in as far as this is possible to human beings, should be the endeavor of every Christian, but he should not forget that he can never achieve this perfectly in this life. Perfect purity is exclusively the privilege of the spirits dwelling in Heaven; on earth even the just have always occasion to accuse themselves of moral shortcomings, and to lament with the Apostle: “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”

It would be presumptuous to insist on the gift of angelic purity, and it would surely lead to various errors. To a penitent with such aspirations St. Francis of Sales gave the admonition, “Often we take pains to become good angels, and in our zeal we neglect to be good men and good women.” He pointed out the importance of being patient with oneself: “Patience is that virtue which most assures us perfection. We must practice it in dealing with others, but it is equally necessary to exercise it with ourselves. Those who aspire to a perfect charity, must have more patience with themselves than with others. We must endure our imperfections in order to gain perfection.”

With venial sins it is different. These are more or less voluntary violations of the moral law, for this reason they offend God, and in this aspect they are to be abhorred as a positive evil. While in this life it is not possible to avoid always even the least of venial sins, yet it is possible to lessen their number, or to keep oneself entirely free from a certain species of them. That the penitent may never become lax in this endeavor, should be the special solicitude of the confessor. He will, in order to avoid the rock of extreme severity, and in order to discourage neither himself nor his penitent, clearly distinguish between sins of frailty and sins that result from a perversity of the will, or from bad habits. Even the saints were not wholly free from sins of frailty; they, too, had to confess with St. James: “In many things we all offend.” Such faults enter only too easily into our minds, actions and omissions; they can, however, be just as easily wiped out again, especially through prayer, as St. Augustine teaches: “For the daily, brief, and light sins without which this life is not led, the daily prayer of the faithful makes satisfaction... this prayer completely wipes away slight and daily sins,” Ench. 71. As a matter of fact these very faults of weakness work for the good of those who truly love God; for as they are thus continually reminded of their frailty, they are more firmly imbued with an humble self-knowledge. P. Scupoli tell us how advantageous is this knowledge of our faults: “O happy knowledge (of our frailty) which sanctifies us in this world, and uplifts us to the glory of Heaven! O splendid light, proceeding from the darkness and flooding the soul with celestial clarity! O hidden pearl, shining forth from our obscurity! O nothingness that uplifts us to the possession of all things!” If the saints received extraordinary graces from God, not a little of this was due to the fact that they chose to give themselves up to the contemplation of their own nothingness, and fostered within themselves the spirit of humility and contrition.

Upon this important point Anna must be enlightened so that what should really inspire confidence and courage may not become a cause for discouragement.

When, however, there is question of faults arising from perversity of will, and deliberately committed, then the case assumes another aspect. A spiritual condition of this kind requires careful treatment on the part of the confessor.

How harmful such faults are to our striving for virtue is aptly told by P. Lancicius. He writes, in the introduction to an exhaustive treatise upon venial sins: “During the forty-seven years of my priesthood, I have been at different times the spiritual director of lay persons and of Religious. In this work I was made aware that many persons received great graces from the Lord, but with the greater number I saw that they received lesser graces than the Divine bounty would have poured out upon them if they had been more diligent in avoiding numerous venial sins, especially those committed with deliberation.”

Should the confessor perceive that Anna is enmeshed in faults of this kind, that she commits certain faults from habit, then he will, first of all, prescribe the remedies needed against her shortcomings, and impress upon her the conscientious use of the same. Some pious, but little instructed, persons fall into the error that sacramental grace will do all and that it will suffice to receive Communion frequently in order to attain the heights of Christian perfection. If Anna sincerely desires to be cured of moral ills she will assuredly show her good will by a diligent use of the prescribed remedies, and thus gradually attain the desired goal. Should Anna, however, manifest a lack of good intention, by neglecting to cooperate with sacramental grace by her own suitable effort, then the prudent confessor will regard her case as critical, and, if necessary, treat her with warranted severity. Such souls are frequently in grave danger of straying afar from the path of virtue. In the case of such persons the question arises: Have they, indeed, the pious disposition, which is before all things requisite for daily Communion? Are they, indeed, in the state of grace? Admittedly they will not commit any sin which they regard as a grievous sin. Yet, what security is there, in their deplorable condition, that their supposedly venial sins are not really mortal sins, or at least will not soon lead to such? In judging sinful acts, which Moralists hold to be grievous sins ex genere suo, which, however, may be slight on account of parvitas materiae, it is often very difficult to define the borderline that divides venial sins and grievous ones, and, since even the most skilled Casuists often admit their inability to distinguish in this matter, how can a person, less well-informed, without conscious self-deception claim that this borderline has not been overstepped, when she has over and over again sinned deliberately against charity, justice, etc.? Moreover the neglected grace is gradually withdrawn from the tepid soul, and the Divine warning is being fulfilled which was pronounced upon the Bishop of Ephesus: “Because thou art tepid I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” There is, finally a particular point to be taken into consideration regarding such persons. Not infrequently the habitual faults of those avowing the aspiration to a devout life are yielding scandal. Their lack of charity, of fidelity to duty, of humility, meekness, etc., casts not seldom a dark shadow upon piety itself and brings it into discredit. The scandal which the world takes at the devout is surely often a pharisaical scandal-taking, their malice gleefully making small faults the occasion for vilification of all religion. Unfortunately, however, there is sometimes real scandal of this sort which the confessor must combat with energy. Should all his endeavors fail, then he must not hesitate to keep such persons, who evidently misuse the sacraments, from approaching them until they are induced to make a better use of the same.