Category: 11.ix.22 XIV Post Pentecost

God desires all men to be saved, and He gives His graces to all, but many will not use these means of salvation and are lost, for “Heaven is not for the slothful.”

Speaking of those who live in the habit of sin, St. Augustine says: “The very habit itself does not allow them to see the evil they do.” The habit of sin blinds sinners, so that they no longer see the evil which they do, nor the ruin which they bring upon themselves; hence they live in blindness as if there was neither God, nor Heaven, nor hell, nor eternity. “Sins,” adds the Saint, “however enormous, when habitual, appear to be small, or not to be sins at all.” How, then, can the soul guard against them when she is no longer sensible of their deformity, or the evil which they bring upon her?

God desires all men to be saved, and He gives His graces to all, but many will not use these means of salvation and are lost, for “Heaven is not for the slothful.”

A General Confession is a powerful help to a change of life. When the tempest is violent the burden of the vessel is diminished, and each person on board throws his goods into the sea in order to save the ship and save his life. O folly of sinners, who, in the midst of so great dangers of eternal perdition, instead of diminishing the burden of the vessel — that is, instead of unburdening the soul of her sins — load her with a greater weight. Instead of flying from the dangers of sin, they fearlessly continue to put themselves voluntarily into dangerous occasions; and, instead of having recourse to God’s mercy for the pardon of their offences, they offend Him still more, and compel Him to abandon them.

“No security is too great where Eternity is at stake,” says St. Bernard. We should, therefore, resolve: “I will save my soul, cost what it may!” Perish all things else — property, friends, even life itself, if I can but only save my soul!

A boat on the waves of the sea represents man in this world. As a vessel on the sea is exposed to a thousand dangers — to pirates, to quicksands, to hidden rocks, and to tempests, so man in this life is encompassed with perils arising from the temptations of hell — from the occasions of sin, from the scandals or bad counsels of men, from human respect, and, above all, from the bad passions of corrupt nature, represented by the winds that agitate the sea and expose the vessel to great danger of being lost.