Chapter III. On the vices and sins against theological hope

547. Just as one sins against faith, so also one sins against hope by omission and by commission; but by commission one sins in a twofold way, namely, through defect, i.e. by desperation, or through excess, i.e. by presumption. Therefore three sins are usually enumerated against the virtue of hope, namely: 1. omission of the act of hope when it is commanded, 2. desperation, 3. presumption.

1. Concerning omission of the act of hope, the faithful who have a fearful conscience ought not be anxious, because already in any devout prayer there is an act of hope. But the faithful who lead an irreligious life are rarely to be questioned in confession about omission of the act of hope, because they are not accustomed to know the grave obligation of that act, and moreover because the confessor can judge sufficiently concerning their state when he knows that the penitent has omitted prayer for a rather long time and has lived in full forgetfulness of God. For then he has also violated the obligation of faith, hope, and charity.

To omission of the act of hope is also reduced excessive adherence given to earthly goods, by which temporal things are preferred to eternal things, so that someone desires to remain perpetually in this life. This excessive adherence chiefly occurs in those who abound in riches and pleasures; it is very pernicious, because it diminishes, and indeed even takes away, the desire of the future life, and consequently renders a man languid and unarmed for conquering temptations and for tending strenuously toward Christian perfection. Death suddenly overtakes such men, not rarely wholly unprepared.

548. 2. Desperation sins against hope by defect. But desperation is either positive and perfect, or privative and imperfect.

a) Positive desperation is a voluntary diffidence of attaining beatitude, or better: it is a voluntary withdrawal from pursuing eternal beatitude, which is judged impossible of attainment. Therefore a twofold element (one presupposed, the other formal) must be distinguished in this desperation. The first pertains to the intellect, which judges that beatitude is impossible of attainment (whether because God does not give sufficient helps, or because one's own cooperation is too difficult). The other and formal element is the withdrawal or flight of the will, by which a man turns himself away from pursuing beatitude. For just as hope essentially consists in the confident pursuit of beatitude, so, from the opposite side, desperation is essentially a voluntary flight from this beatitude. Wherefore the Angelic Doctor says:⁶⁷ "Desperation does not imply the mere privation of hope, but implies a certain withdrawal from the thing desired on account of an estimated impossibility of acquiring it." And so desperation is an act of the will fleeing God as beatifying and assisting, but it supposes a false judgment of the intellect by which a man judges eternal beatitude to be impossible of attainment for himself. Such a judgment can indeed arise from unbelief, but it does not necessarily arise so; for a man can, without unbelief, form the false judgment that he is in so bad a state that he will never attain beatitude.⁶⁸

b) Privative desperation is a certain pusillanimity of soul, by which someone, either from a temptation of the devil or from a melancholic or other morbid bodily disposition, loses heart and is tormented by an excessive fear of losing eternal salvation. This privative desperation is (for the most part) no sin, but a mere temptation or scrupulosity. Penitents who labor under such scruples are to be treated with great patience and charity. It is not always easy in practice to discern whether privative or positive desperation is present. Yet it is a sufficiently clear sign that positive desperation is not present if the penitent has not omitted, at least totally, his accustomed exercises of piety and religion.

Its malice. Positive desperation is a mortal sin from its whole genus, so that it does not admit smallness of matter. For it inflicts the greatest injury upon God, because it either denies His mercy or calls it into doubt. Nothing is preached so frequently and fervently in the books of the Old and New Testament as divine mercy; hence a man who nevertheless doubts concerning that divine attribute, despairing of his own salvation, commits a sin against the Holy Spirit, because he makes little of divine mercy, which is the most efficacious means of obtaining salvation. Once voluntary desperation has been admitted and hope removed, a man now rushes headlong into vices and does not seriously strive to accomplish good works. Hence St. Augustine⁶⁹ says: "Sin with desperation is certain death," and St. Thomas⁷⁰ teaches: "Hatred (of God) and unbelief, if they are compared with desperation, are found to be graver in themselves, i.e. according to the notion of their proper species ... but if desperation is compared with the other two sins [unbelief and hatred of God] on our part, thus desperation is more dangerous, because through hope we are called back from evils and induced to pursue goods, and therefore, hope having been removed, men fall unrestrainedly into vices and are drawn back from good labors. Hence ... Isidore says: To perpetrate any wicked deed is the death of the soul, but to despair is to descend into hell."

Contempt or total neglect of beatitude can be reduced to desperation, such as is usually found in Rationalists and especially in those who deny another life after bodily death.

The causes of desperation are chiefly: a) Lust and other disordered desires.⁷¹ For a man who is given over to lust and bodily desire loathes spiritual goods and cares little about eternal beatitude. b) Acedia, which is a certain dejective sadness of the spirit. Beatitude is an arduous good, which cannot be obtained without strenuous labor, which the languid man flees, and consequently he despairs of obtaining beatitude. c) Defect of faith. For a man cannot efficaciously intend and hope for beatitude unless he firmly believes the existence of such beatitude, of divine help, and of graces. Therefore it is necessary that a man weak in faith be also weak in hope, and that he who has suffered shipwreck in faith fall into the abyss of desperation.

The confessor, choosing remedies against desperation, must first see from what cause it has been produced. If it has arisen from inveterate vices, from an irreligious life, from acedia, then let him command works of piety and especially meditation on the parables of Sacred Scripture in which divine mercy shines forth, e.g. concerning the lost sheep, concerning the prodigal son. But before all else let him take care that the penitent be drawn back from vices and approach frequently the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist. But if desperation and pusillanimity have arisen from a morbid bodily disposition, or from fixed ideas (which happens not rarely), then those remedies are to be applied which were indicated above, n. 95 and 322, against fixed ideas and against scruples.

⁶⁷ S. theol. 1, 2, q. 40, a. 4 ad 3.

⁶⁸ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 20, a. 2.

⁶⁹ Enarr. in Ps. 50, n. 5 (Migne, Patr. lat. 36, 588).

⁷⁰ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 20, a. 3.

⁷¹ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 20, a. 4.

549. 3. Presumption sins against hope by excess⁷² and against the (servile) fear of God by defect. For a presumptuous man hopes too much from God as good and merciful, and does not sufficiently fear God as justly punishing. Presumption can be defined: a rash confidence of obtaining beatitude by means not ordained by God.

One can sin by presumption in diverse ways, namely, a) by him who wishes to obtain beatitude by his own powers alone, which is at the same time the Pelagian heresy; b) by him who relies on divine mercy alone and presumes to obtain beatitude without his own cooperation; c) by him who expects divine help for illicit things, or who expects wholly extraordinary divine help without a sufficient reason, which presumption is called tempting God and often had place in the Middle Ages in the so-called "ordeals"; d) by him who takes divine mercy as an occasion for sinning more freely or for persevering in the state of mortal sin. In this last case, however, it must be seen whether the vice of presumption is truly present; for if someone sins from frailty or from passion, at the same time hoping that afterward he will obtain pardon, and consequently at least implicitly already now proposes his conversion from sin, he does not commit the sin of presumption, but rather sins more lightly, since such a sinner seems to have a will less firmly set upon sinning.⁷³ But if someone sins with the proposal of persevering in sin under hope of pardon, he commits the sin of presumption, and indeed also a sin against the Holy Spirit, because it is contempt of the help of the Holy Spirit, by which man is called back from sin.

Resolves: 1. A penitent who confesses: I committed such a sin thinking that afterward I could confess it, has not yet certainly committed the sin of presumption. Nevertheless he must be carefully admonished concerning the falsity of his opinion, since he is in no way certain that he can confess the sins committed and so obtain pardon. For this depends on divine grace and not on his will alone. But if the penitent confesses: I committed 20 sins, thinking that I could obtain from God pardon for 20 sins as easily as for 2, he seems truly to have committed the sin of presumption, because he sinned frivolously against divine mercy.

2. It is not the sin of presumption if a man in no way avoids venial sins, because these sins of themselves do not impede beatitude. Nevertheless such a man commits himself to grave danger of perdition, since venial sins often repeated pave the way to mortal sin.

3. It is not properly speaking the sin of presumption if someone has neglected the sacraments for a rather long time.

The malice of presumption. a) Heretical presumption, or that which includes error in faith, is a mortal sin from its whole genus, because it is opposed both to faith and to hope and to the gift of fear, and inflicts a great injury upon divine justice. Four heretical presumptions are distinguished by theologians, namely, Pelagian presumption, Lutheran presumption, Calvinist presumption, and pietistic presumption, according as someone presumes to obtain beatitude either by his own powers without grace, or by faith alone without works, or by absolute predestination alone, or by circumcision alone and the faith of Abraham. But since many Lutherans and Calvinists are in good faith, their presumption is only a material sin.

b) Simple presumption is a mortal sin from its genus, and it admits smallness of matter. The reason is that even this presumption of itself inflicts a grave injury upon divine justice and causes great harm to man. But this sin is lighter than the sin of desperation; for presumption contemns divine justice, but desperation divine mercy. Now, according to our mode of conceiving, mercy is more fitting to God than justice and the avenging of sins.⁷⁴

The causes of presumption, besides the errors in faith recounted above, are pride and vainglory. St. Thomas writes to the point:⁷⁵ "Presumption is twofold: one which relies on one's own power, namely attempting something as possible for oneself which exceeds one's own power; and such presumption manifestly proceeds from vainglory; for from this, that someone greatly desires glory, it follows that he attempts something beyond his powers.... But the other is presumption which relies inordinately on divine mercy or power, by which someone hopes that he will obtain glory without merits, or pardon without penance; and such presumption seems to arise directly from pride, as though he esteems himself so highly that, even when he sins, God will not punish him or exclude him from glory."

Remedies against presumption are all those things which were brought forward above, n. 415, as remedies against pride, since pride is the mother of presumption, as was said; namely, intimate knowledge of oneself, contemplation of the humility of Christ, the exercise of humility.

⁷² Presumption is taken in diverse senses; for it can be referred either to the intellect or to the will. As referred to the intellect, it signifies: a) an excessive estimation of one's own excellence; b) judgment concerning the deeds of others taken from conjectures, and then presumption is usually distinguished as vehement or violent, probable, and light, according to the gravity of the motives which cause the conjecture or presumption (legal presumption or also proof by indicia). In this sense there was discussion above, n. 216, about a law founded upon a false presumption. - As presumption is referred to the will, although sometimes it is taken in a good sense to designate excellent confidence (cf. Judith 6, 15; 9, 17), nevertheless ordinarily it is used in a bad sense and signifies: a) a certain movement of the soul of one who, without fear and force, but knowingly and willingly and with a certain contempt, transgresses the law; in this sense it is often said in law: "If anyone shall presume," "if anyone with rash daring," "if anyone knowingly"; b) a movement by which someone undertakes a work which exceeds his powers; in this sense it is the same as rashness or daring and is opposed to the virtue of fortitude or magnanimity (cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 127 and 130; Bouquillon, De virt. theol. l. 2, c. 2); c) the vice opposed to the virtue of hope.

⁷³ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 21, a. 2 ad 3.

⁷⁴ Ib. a. 2.

⁷⁵ Ib. a. 4.

550. Scholion. On cultivating hope. It is of great importance that a Christian man have the firmest hope. For this is necessary both for the continual exercise of virtues and for patience in so many hardships of this life. Hope is increased just as faith is; for he who has a vivid faith in divine omnipotence, goodness, and fidelity also hopes firmly in God, whom he has believed. Concerning the means of advancing in faith it was said above, n. 508. Moreover, a good conscience greatly contributes to the increase of hope. Hence St. John says: "If our heart does not reprehend us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing before Him."⁷⁶ Concerning the same matter St. Augustine says:⁷⁷ "As an evil conscience is wholly in desperation, so a good conscience is wholly in hope." - Hope is to be cultivated not only in adverse things, but also in prosperous things. For when all things happen prosperously for us, we are prone to forgetting God. But this we must wholly avoid, always breathing after heavenly goods.

⁷⁶ 1 Jo. 3, 21 sq.

⁷⁷ In Ps. 31, n. 5 (Migne, Patr. lat. 36, 261).