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Show 186: THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN · The Uncensored Catholic

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Speaker 1: A Hey, y'all, welcome today's ship. We are continuing our
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series on sin, which is, of course like not a
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very popular topic these days, so we have to go
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to the old books and Father Spiago's exhaustive explanation of
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the Catechism from eighteen ninety is perfect. And I guess
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we've really only got about two more sections on this one,
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so hopefully I can wrap it up this week. But
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first of all, we'll turn to radio replies, where the
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questioner asks or states, I suppose I don't see how
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the fact that your church has stood for so long
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proves its truth. Other religions have stood longer and have perished,
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And they answer, the mere fact that the Catholic Church
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has stood for so long does not prove its truth.
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The fact considered in the light of her teachings, moral obligation,
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and obstacles, does indefectibility can be claimed as a proof
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for the Catholic Church alone. She demands humility, mortification, rigid duty,
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and subject to God things human nature, dislikes Protestantism abolished
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most of the difficult things for human nature, and is
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content with a more or less sentimental religion. Nor has
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any pagan religion demanded the consistent virtue demanded by the
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Catholic Church. Finally, reasons can be found for the life
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of non Catholic religions and for their death. But no
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natural reasons can be found for the continued vitality of
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the Catholic Church, despite her difficult doctrines and her enemies
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with the un and without the protection of God alone
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accounts for her persistence. And a person says, how do
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you account for the perseverance of older pagan religions? And
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they answer, religion is natural demand, almost as natural as breathing.
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Men are therefore naturally inclined to cling to the religion
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they already possess until the truth is put before them
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and clearly apprehended by them. But these old religions have
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gone through many changes and are essentially vague and imperfect.
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Nor can they be compared to Catholicity, which is so
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definite and which makes such concrete demands upon the whole man.
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The person continues, will not the Catholic Church have to
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part with many of its doctrines in deference to modern
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thought if it is to last to the end of time?
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So I guess we're talking to a modernist here obviously,
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you know, atheist and agnostic whatever. And the answer, no,
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the Catholic Church is living today precisely because she has
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ever refused to part with her doctrines, which are the
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doctrines of Christ. The heresies of the centuries parted with
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doctrines of the Catholic Faith in deference to human opinions,
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and they died in turn through the ages. Protestantism is
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dying visibly today. And this was written in the nineteen thirties,
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early forties, and already they were seeing a decline in Protestantism.
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It is so pronounced now, you know, I've talked about
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this so many times, but it's amazing. You know, when
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I was a kid, Sunday morning, the parking lot at
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a Baptist church or a Methodist church or a Presbyterian
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church was packed. It was like a high school football game.
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You could not get er out, and if you didn't
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get there early, you weren't going to find a space.
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That has declined dramatically with a couple of generations of
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you know, divorce and people moving away from their families
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and all that. But really, you know, COVID did a
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lot and now I drive past a mainline Protestant church
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on a Sunday morning, and those parking lots are pretty sparse,
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mostly older people, mostly like your grandparents, you know, that
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still attend that church. Now you may say that the
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Evangelical churches, the big mega churches, are growing, but way
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maybe a mile wide, but they're an inch deep. And
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I do believe within the next one hundred years most
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Protestant churches will essentially functional, ceased to exist. Now why
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would I say that, Well, since nineteen seventy the Lutheran
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Church in America has lost about seventy five percent of
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its members. Well that's sink Yain, the founder of Protestantism.
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Since the same time nineteen seventies, Presbyterian Church has lost
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about half. The Anglican Episcopal has lost a good seventy
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five percent, maybe even eighty. You know a lot of
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people left when they started ordaining female priests and supporting
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gay marriage. The Methodist Church is down about thirty forty percent.
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And until COVID, really the only mainline Protestant church that
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was really holding on and growing was the Baptist Church.
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But post COVID its numbers have begun dropping fairly dramatically.
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As well. I think it's sound about twenty percent, but
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I don't have those numbers right in front of me,
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like it or not, and it's going to be awful
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for us, especially here in America, which is a you know,
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a Protestant nation. My ancestor, Charles Carroll was the only
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Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. This nation was
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founded by Protestants. For Protestants outside of Maryland, it was
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basically illegal to be Catholic for about the first hundred
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years of this country. So well, we're going to have
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a great cultural decline and we're experiencing it now, violence, crime, immorality,
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you name it, and that's not a good thing. But
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I do believe that within the next hundred years or so,
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mainline Protestantism will have essentially ceased to exist, you know,
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kind of like the Anglican and Episcopals now that still
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have churches and still have colleges, but there's basically no
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one in them, not in the churches, and the colleges
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become essentially secular. You know. It's not going to disappear
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that quickly, but attendance, and at that point it's going
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to be incumbent upon every Catholic to do everything they
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can to bring and from now until then, I mean,
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we're not gonna wait till that point. That's the whole
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purpose of this radio show, this podcast. It is incumbent
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upon us to say, yes, this is the true Catholic
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Christian this is the true Christian religion is Catholicism. And
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you're welcome to attend Mass with me, and I'll talk
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with you about things. I'll explain everything, and we hope
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you will join us in the Catholic Church. And I'm
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a convert to Catholicism. A lot of converts to Catholicism
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are happening these days on Twitter. Probably I'm going to
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say thirty forty percent of the Catholics that I communicate
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with the at least a couple thousand people on a
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weekly basis, are converts, and a lot of them are young,
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a lot of them converted in college, just like I did.
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Catholicism is growing, and not necessarily well, I mean, if
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you look at the numbers of America, that's different, you know,
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but we can look at Catholicism growing in Africa and Asia,
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and yeah, I mean, once Protestantism dies out and the
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Catholic Church is the last church standing, and we know
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it will be because Jesus promised us that if people
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are going to be Christian, they're going to have to
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be Catholic. And it's they're not going to find it
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on their own. It's hard to convert to Catholicism. We
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do have to go through our CIA classes and all that.
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It's not like just you know, joining a Protestant church
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where you just basically walk in or maybe sign a
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membership card. No, it's hard to become Catholic, and it's
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going to take informed Catholics of I mean, you could
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say intelligent beginning. You don't have to be intelligent necessarily
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to be a great witness for Christ and his church.
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Some of the greatest saints have not been people very
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high IQs. I mean many times I say the best
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among us are often those with Down syndrome. You know,
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perfectly innocent and if no one is going to insult,
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you know, a good, big hearted, well meaning, sincere Downs
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person who's inviting them to come to church with them.
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And if actually, if we could be more like that
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and maybe a little less intellectual, sometimes probably get a
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lot further. Really with most people well, anyway, As he said,
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Protestantism is dying visibly today. Any attempt to adjust Christianity
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to men's fallible speculations is suicidal. The Catholic Church adjusts
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men's ideas to Christian doctrine, and she stands and will stand.
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Catholic doctrines are offensive to modern thought only because modern
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thought has ceased to be Christian, and the Catholic Church
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refuses to cease to be Catholic. If men insists on
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walking along the wrong track, the only way the Catholic
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Church could keep in their company would be to take
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the wrong track with them, But she prefers the right track.
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If modern thought does not harmonize with the Catholic Church,
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so much worse for modern thought. However, modern thought, as
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you call it, is chiefly the result of not thinking.
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It is. Its authors are only too prone to ignore
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evidence and to take that to be true which way
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they would like to be true. The person says, do
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you maintain that one is obliged to join your infallible, one, holy, Catholic,
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Apostolic and indefectible Church if he wishes to be saved?
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And they answer, if a man realizes that the Catholic
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Church is the true church. He must join it if
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he wishes to save his soul. That is the normal law.
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But if he does not realize this obligation, it is
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true to his conscience. Even though he be erroneous and
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dies repenting of any violations of his conscience, he will
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get to heaven. In such a case, it would not
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have been his fault that he was not Catholic. And
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God makes every allowance for good faith. And the person
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respired applies, so I deserve hell because I'm an non Catholic.
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And they answer if you say, I know quite well
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that the Catholic Church is the true Church, which God
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obliges me to join. But what of that? Then yes
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you do deserve hell. That would be a serious sin.
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But apparently you do not realize this obligation. Your position
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is based upon insufficient or false information, and this leads
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you to a wrong, if sincere conclusion. And it's a
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really good explanation of the Catholic position on you know,
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Protestant denominations and even people of other religions. It's, you know,
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God judges the heart, and he judges people on their
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sincere belief. People who are fully ignorant of being wrong
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can't be held accountable for being wrong. Someone who's mentally deficient,
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who commits a grave sin, cannot be held accountable. That's
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our law. You know. People are not guilty for reasons
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of insanity or whatever. And that law comes originally from
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the laws of God and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
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So we must always be charitable when talking with other
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Christians and people of other religions and no religion at all.
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But we also must be firm in saying, this is
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the church Jesus founded, this is the true Church. And
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if you believe that, if you come to believe that,
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and you were convicted of it, come join us. And
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if you're just curious, come join us and check it
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out and find out what's true or not. But we're
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gonna have to do that a lot in the coming decades. Now,
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let's get to the consequences of sin from Father Spirago.
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Mortal sin makes man supremely unhappy. Many are the scourges
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of the sinner that salms I guess thirty one to ten.
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God calls to the sinner, saying, know thou and see
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that it is an evil and bitter thing. For thee
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to have left the Lord Thy God Jeremiah two nineteen.
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A man who has forsaken God meets with a similar
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fate to the man who went from Jerusalem, the dwelling
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place of the Living God, down through the ways to Jericho.
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The punishment of sin follows immediately upon it all the day,
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although the day of judgment is not yet come. Mortal
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sin deprives a man of sanctifying grace and delivers him
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into the power of the devil. The Holy Ghost departs
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immediately from one who has committed mortal sin. As the
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dove will not remain in unclean places, so the Holy
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Ghost will not remain in the heart that is denied
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by mortal sin. The ungodly say to God, depart from us,
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it's job twenty two seventeen. Mortal sin is a thief.
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Where it gains access to the soul. It robs of grace,
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its precious treasure. It is the death of the soul.
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A man killeth indeed through malice Wisdom sixteen fourteen. And
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as always say, if your Bible does not contain the
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Book of Wisdom, you have a faith counterfeit bible, get
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a real one. I eat a Catholic Bible sin, when
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it is completed, begetteth death James one point fifteen. Thus
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there are men who live and yet are dead sinner,
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says Saint John Christostom, are dead while they live, and
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the just live after they are dead. Thou dost weep,
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said Saint Augustine, over a body from which the soul
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has departed, but not over a soul from which God
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has withdrawn himself. When God abandons his soul, the devil
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enters into it by mortal sin. The temple of the
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Holy Ghost is transformed into a den of robbers, the
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sister of the angels into the companion of fallen spirits.
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A ship that has lost or rudder is driven about
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at the mercy of the current. So the soul that
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has lost divine grace is driven by satan into perdition.
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Sin gives the devil power over the soul. For through sin,
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man places himself under the servitude to obey the devil.
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That's Roman six sixteen. As everyone thinks, he may treat
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to widow as he chooses, as she has no one
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to protect her. So the demons do not hesitate to
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set upon the sinner. They cry God hath forsaken him,
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pursue him, and take him, for there is none to
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deliver him. Psalms. Oh, I don't even know what that
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one is. Somewhere in Psalms. The loss of sanctifying grace
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entails upon the sinner the following terrible consequences. One he
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loses the supernatural beauty of the soul and becomes unclean
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before God. Two he loses charity toward God and his neighbor. Three,
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his understanding is completely darkened and his will immensely weakened.
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Four he loses the merit of all the good works
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he had previously performed, and none of those which he
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does in a state of mortal sin gain him a
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reward hereafter. Five. Finally, he is liable to fall into
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other mortal sins. Through mortal sin, we lose the supernatural
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beauty of the soul and become unclean before God. Mortal
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sin is to the soul what decay is to apples.
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The rottenness destroys the color, the sin, the flavor of
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the fruit, all in short, that gives it worth and beauty.
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So sin robs the soul of all that makes it
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fair and precious. It would be a sore blow to
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a bride if she were to be so much disfigured
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by severe illness as to become an object of a
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repulsion to her betrothed. It is much the same with
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the soul that is guilty of mortal sin. She is
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thereby so much disfigured that Christ's re spouse regards her
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with aversion through mortal sin. Charity to God in one's
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neighbors lost when the earth travels away from the sun,
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winter sets sin. So the heart of man becomes cold
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when it is estrained from God by mortal sin. The
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flame of charity is then extinguished. The understanding is completely
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darkened by mortal sin. As heavy clouds hide the light
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of the sun from our sight and involve us in darkness,
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so mortal sin obscures the eye of reason and renders
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us incapable of perceiving the brightness of the Sun's justice.
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A man who has fallen into mortal sin perceiveth not,
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as the apostles say, the things that are the spirit
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of God First Corinthians two fourteen. A mirror covered with
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mildew no longer reflects the objects presented in it. To it,
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I should say so the soul, which is sunken sin
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can no longer receive the impressions of divine grace. The
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center is blinded and fails as fully to see the
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misery and danger of his condition as one who wanders
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in darkness of night beside a quarry with a center
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and a state of grace. And we're the center, a
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state of grace and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. He
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would be no less startled and alarmed in his spiritual
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condition than the traveler would be, unperceiving in daylight what
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a perilous path he had trodden. By reason of this blindness,
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centers are often gay and light hearted in spirit of
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their deplorable state. And of course he meant gay isn't happy,
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but perhaps even more applicable today in the modern use
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of the term, as the maniac lasts frantically, why he
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tears his own flesh so our erring brother and may
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make mary, while in the madness they inflict serious injury
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on their soul. A living body fills the prick of
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the needle, not so a corpse. Thus it is with
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the soul as long as it preserves its life. It
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is sensitive to the least sin. But if it be dead,
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it experiences no sing of conscience, even if it be
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guilty of grievous crimes, no mortal sin. Through mortal sin,
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the will is immensely weakened. When the cold is extreme,
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one's limbs are benumbed and paralyzed. So by mortal sin,
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a man loses the power to do what is good.
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He is held captive by mortal sin, as a bird
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is by birdlime, Birdlime's of old way, these trapped birds.
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It's a sticky substance. You could put on a limb
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with maybe a few seeds, and the bird would go
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to the limb and get stuck and trapped. Through mortal sin,
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we lose the merit of all good works we have performed.
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God says by the mouth of his prophet. If the
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just man turns himself from justice and do iniquity, all
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his justice which he has done shall not be remembered.
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Ezekiel Auguess seven, eighteen twenty four. The just man who
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falls into mortal sin may be compared to a merchant
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who has accumulated great treasures and whose vessels, whose vessel's
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ship founders just as he enters the harbor. Mortal sin
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sweeps away at one stroke all our good works and
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our merits, as a sharp frost cuts off the fair
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flower in one night, or a hell storm ruins the
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crops of a whole year. He who falls into mortal
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sin earns no reward in heaven for the good works
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he performs while in a state of sin, As a
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branch cut off from the vine withers away and bears
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no fruit. So a man who has lost sanctifying grace
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can do no works that are meritorious. The apostles labored
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all night and took nothing. So the sinner during the
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night of sin can, in spite of his utmost exertions, can,
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in spite of his utmost exertions, gain any merit in heaven.
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The soul of a sinner is like a desert where
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nothing grows, but which is the haunt of reptiles and
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beasts of prey. How desolate is the spot where God
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is not, How parched without thedo of heaven, How sterile
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without the vivifying son of grace, life giving. In other words,
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our mortal sin makes it easy to commit others. When
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the soul has left the body, decomposition begins, and spiritual
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decay soon sets in when the soul has depart when
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the Holy Spirit has departed from the soul. A grievous
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sin which has not been effaced by penance is the
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precursor of many others which follow it. As punishment, the man,
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says Saint Augustine, who persists in iniquity, adds sin to sin.
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Mortal sin brings down upon the ciner both eternal damnation
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and temporal chastisement. By mortal sin, we incur eternal damnation
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as one throws away an apple that is rotten throughout.
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So God repudiates the soul that is stained with mortal sin.
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He who has fallen into mortal sin has lost the
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wedding garment, i e. The sanctifying grace. He would be
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cast into exterior darkness Matthew twenty two thirteen. Mortal sin
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is an act of high trees and against the king
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of kings, the crime of high trees and is punished
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on earth by a long term of imprisonment. As the
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majesty of God is infinitely exceeds that of any earthly monarch,
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the punishment of mortal sin is eternal duration. The man
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who commits mortal sin is as foolish as Esau, who,
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for one mess sold his birthright Hebrews twelve sixteen. Yes,
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he traded his entire inherents for a bowl of lentils.
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I love lentils, but even that's a little too far
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from me, since for the sake of momentary gratification, he
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relinquishes his title to the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed Thomas Moore,
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when sentenced to death, would not be persuaded to acknowledg
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the royal supremity, For he said supremacy before he said,
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how fools should I be were I to barter everlasting
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honor and felicity for the transient happiness of a fleeting
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few years. And I've talked a lot about Saint Thomas
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Mory's one of my favorite saints. He was the greatest
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attorney in England and a counselor to the king, and
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then King Henry decided to form his own church and
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insists everybody give up being Catholic or get their heads
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cut off, and he refused to become Anglican and was beheaded.
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Mortal sin brings temporal chastisement upon the center. God sends
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earthly punishments to restore the spiritual health of the sinner.
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The temporal penalty most certain to follow upon a mortal
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sin is interior disquietude. You feel disturbed. In other words,
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mortal sin destroys the serenity and cheerfulness of the soul,
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as a high wind disturbs and ruffles the smooth surface
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of a lake. The wicked are like the raging sea
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that cannot rest Isaiah. Somewhere in Isaiah. Apprehension and terror
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follow mortal sin like a shadow. He who lives in
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mortal sin carries hell about him, said Saint John Christostum.
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Remember the fate of the fratricide of King. That's when
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Cain killed his brother. That's what fratricide means, Gins four fourteen.
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The sinner's evil conscience daily calls to him, where is
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that God? That's Psalms? Somewhere in Psalms, and that's also
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from Psalms. What peace can the sinner enjoy when he
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knows that an almighty arm is uplifted against him? A
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flash of lightning appeal of thunder affects the sinner as
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much as the devout prayers of the faithful. In every
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sound he thinks he hears his sentence of condemnation. God
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is there day that an ordered passion should be their
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own punishment. Spiritual consolations and sensual gratifications can no more
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coexist than fire mingle with water. Those who delight in
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worldly vanities are not capable of tasting spiritual joice. Mortal sin, moreover,
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brings temporal misfortunes on the ciner of this. Our first
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parents afford a striking example. They were driven out of paradise,
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condemned a labor of the sweat of their faces, and
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made subject to death because of their sin. The most
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ordinary consequence of sin is sickness. Hence our Lord said
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to the man whom he had cured sin, no more
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unless something worse happen to you John five point fourteen.
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What is sometimes punishment of sin? Witness a prodigal son
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in Luke fifteen. The loss of property and reputation are
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also consequences of sin, As is the case with thieves
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and drunkards. The guardian angels cease to protect those who
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give themselves up to sin. Saint Basil says that as
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smoke drives away bees, so sin causes our good angel
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to depart. If a slave betrays his master, not his
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master alone, but all the members of the master's household
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are enraged with him. As David's servants were angry with
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Samuel with Semi, who threw stones at the king. So
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the Holy Angels are displeased with the sinner who offends God.
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How great is man's folly. He is afraid of eating
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anything deadly, but he does not fear deadly sin, which
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causes the death of the soul. So we'll wrap this
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one up here. Y'all have it going, remember the words
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of Saint Padre Pio, pray, hope and don't worry, and
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I'll talk to you next time.