Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italian English Spanish Portuguese

Good morning Father Angelo,

I wanted to ask you a question about a thought I read. It is said that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, can manifest to the world in each of us with different charisms. In fact if we live in a state of grace and practice His thoughts, the world will see Jesus going through the streets of our modern towns, dressed as anybody else, working in office, in schools, in different places amongst everyone; bringing love, peace, mercy, forgiveness, courage…. . But at the same time we can decide to satisfy our evil inclinations and in the most severe cases we can make evil spirits enter us. The person will manifest in ordinary cases: slander, hatred, division, grudge, fornication, adultery, idolatry… . But I ask myself when one lives in state of grace but for weakness and full awareness they make venial sins (fits of rage, acts of selfishness, vanity, attachment to material things, laziness…), satisfying just in part the temptations endured and not in a severe way or evil inclinations, in what aspect the spirit acts in that moment? Maybe their own? How can you not make venial sins when we naturally are creatures, in the image of God, helped by His grace, but imperfect, with limits (physical, psychological, human…)? 

Thank you 

Priest’s answer

Dear,

1.San Thomas writes: “God is the universal principle of all inward movements of man; but that the human will be determined to an evil counsel, is directly due to the human will, and to the devil as persuading or offering the object of appetite. (Somma Theologiae, I-II, 80, 1, ad 3; aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org).

2. Furthermore he claims that “he is not, however, the direct cause of all the sins of men, as though each were the result of his suggestion. Origen proves this from the fact that even if the devil is no more, men would still have the desire for food, sexual pleasures and the like;  which desire might be inordinate, unless it were subordinate to reason, a matter that is subject to the free-will” (Ib., 80, 4; aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org).

3. All that remains is to claim that in the venial sins the initiative is ours, even if the devil can intervene by urging. That’s why Saint Thomas says, “on one side the only human free-will is the direct cause of sin” (Ib. 80,2; edited by the translator). And: ” The devil is the cause of sin not in a direct and efficient way, rather as a patron or presenter of the appetible object ” (Ib., edited by the translator).

4. As regards to the venial sin you ask if man necessarily falls. Saint Thomas claims that man before the original sin “in the state of perfect nature, man, without habitual grace, could avoid sinning either mortally or venially” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, 109,8,www.newadvent.org).

5. Instead after the original sin “in the state of corrupt nature man needs grace to heal his nature in order that he may entirely abstain from sin. And in the present life this healing is wrought in the mind, the carnal appetite being not yet restored. Hence the Apostle says in the person of one who is restored: “I myself, with the mind, serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin (RM 7,25)”.

6. And in this state man can abstain from all mortal sin, which takes its stand in his reason, as stated above; but man cannot abstain from all venial sin on account of the corruption of his lower appetite of sensuality. For man can, indeed, repress each of its movements (and hence they are sinful and voluntary), but not all, because whilst he is resisting one, another may arise, and also because the reason is always alert to avoid these movements” (Ib.). 

7. Therefore in the current state, after the original sin, without grace, man cannot avoid all of the mortal sins. With grace instead, he can avoid them all. Whilst, even enriched by the sanctifying grace, cannot avoid all of the venial sins, except for the blessed Virgin Marybecause of the fullness of grace she had since the first moment of her existence and somehow also the ones who were confirmed in grace, such as Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist and the Apostles after the Pentecost.

Wishing you could benefit from the confirmation of the grace, I bless you and remember you in the prayer.

Padre Angelo