Wisdom of the Saints about Sin (part 6)

“Let no one lead you astray; the most pernicious kind of sin is the failure to realize one’s own sinfullness.” St. Caesarius of Arles (5th-6th centuries)

“Nor did demons crucify Him, it is you who have crucified Him and crucify Him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.” St. Francis of Assisi (12th-13th centuries)

“There are two sides to every sin: the turning of the will toward fleeting satisfaction and the turning away from everlasting value. As regards the first, the principle of all sins can be called lust – lust in its most general sense, namely, the unbridled desire for one’s own pleasure. As regards the second, the principle is pride – pride in its general sense, the lack of submission to God.” St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century, Doctor of the Church)

“From the price thy Redeemer had to pay, learn the value of His gifts and the gravity of thy sin.” St. Laurence Giustiniani (14th-15th centuries)

“Nothing makes more visible how much He hates sin than what He has done to destroy it. Is it not too much to say that He wanted to descend from heaven and die Himself to wipe it out?” St. Claude la Colombiere (17th century)

“When we see a God dead on a cross, we ought to consider the great gift which He has made us in giving us His Blood to redeem us from hell, and at the same time to understand the malice of sin, which made the death of a God necessary to obtain pardon for us.” St. Alphonsus Liguori (17th-18th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“I don’t fear death; I fear sin.” St. Maximilian Kolbe (19th-20th centuries)

“To reject the Redeemer is to prefer evil to good. The crucifix is an autobiography in which man can read the story of his own life, either to his own salvation or his own condemnation. So long as sin was regarded only from a psychological point of view, the cross of Christ appeared as an exaggeration. The sand of the desert, the blood of a beast, or water could just as well purify man. But once sin was seen under the sight of Infinite Holiness, then the cross of Christ alone could equal and satisfy for this tragic horror.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)

“[In the Garden of Gethsemane] Once this pure, sinless mind of our Savior had brought all of this iniquity of the past upon His soul as if it were His own, He now reached into the future. He saw that His coming into the world with the intent to save men would intensify the hatred of some against God; He saw the betrayals of future Judases, the sins of heresy that would rend Christ’s Mystical Body; the sins of the Communists who could not drive God from the heavens but would drive His ambassadors from the earth; He saw the broken marriage vows, lies, slanders, adulteries, murders, apostasies – all these crimes were thrust into His own hands, as if he had committed them. Evil desires lay upon His heart, as if He Himself had given them birth. Lies and schisms rested on His mind, as if He Himself had conceived them. Blasphemies seemed to be on His lips, as if He had spoken them. From the north, south, east, and west, the foul miasma of the world’s sins rushed upon Him like a flood; Samson-like, He reached up and pulled the whole guilt of the world upon Himself as if He were guilty, paying for the debt in our name, so that we might once more have access to the Father. He was, so to speak, mentally preparing Himself for the great sacrifice, laying upon His sinless soul the sins of a guilty world.” Ven. Fulton Sheen

“Sin is not the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the world is the denial of sin. If I am blind and deny that there is any such thing as light, shall I ever see? If I am deaf and deny that there is any such thing as harmony, will I ever hear? If I deny that there is any such thing as sin, how shall I ever be forgiven? The denial of sin is the unforgivable sin, for it makes redemption impossible.” Ven. Fulton Sheen

“The most terrible consequence of the loss of the sense of sin…is that it destroys the yearning for redemption, for a man who does not know cancer is devouring him, feels no need of a physician.” Ven. Fulton Sheen

“There is only one thing more dangerous than sin – the murder of man’s sense of sin.” Pope St. John Paul II (20th-21st centuries)