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Dear Father Angelo,

starting from the premise that God is love and it is His will for all men to be saved, why did he set such stringent rules for salvation?
It takes only one mortal sin for somebody to compromise eternal salvation.
Don’t misunderstand me, Father, I’m not criticizing our Lord – I would never. I’m just trying to understand why it has to be this way!
After all, we are only human, we are full of weaknesses, subject to every kind of conditioning and pressure, especially in the sexual realm.
I hope you’ll give me an answer, Father, and I thank you for everything you do for the people of the Church.
Pierangelo

Dear Pierangelo,
1. Committing a mortal sin isn’t the same as breaking a traffic law.
Sometimes we break a traffic law without causing any real problem, for example when we drive over the speed limit.
The police officer does his job when he fines us because, even though we didn’t cause any problems, he knows that the purpose of the speeding ticket is to teach us prudence and safety when driving.

2. Committing a mortal sin, on the other hand, means excluding God from the center of our life and not being pointed towards Him.
This can happen while keeping our faith. But when we mortally sin our faith becomes dead and incapable of giving life at the supernatural level.
Rather, from that moment on, we find ourselves divided and as if chained.

3. It’s almost like saying: why should I have not to ingest poison or unhealthy things in order to keep my health?
Poison is not compatible with health.
In the same way, sin is not compatible with being united with God.
Every person who has the tiniest bit of Christian spiritual life can tell that mortal sin breaks something deep inside them.

4. It should also be noted that God knows man’s weakness and for this exact reason he has provided ways to repair the fracture caused by sin.
These are the Sacraments.
They allow Christ to embrace once again those who go to Him and infuse the sinner with divine life, which purifies, brings back to health and sanctifies.

5. Those who live apart from the Lord don’t know what grace is (the heart-to-heart union with God) and see everything as a sort of pricing fee or a list of rules to follow, exactly like traffic laws.
He doesn’t understand what a Christian gets from living in observance of the Lord’s precepts. He sees everything as a burden, as a limitation.
John Paul II was right when he said that those who live according to the flesh experience God’s law as a burden, but those who live according to the spirit (meaning in communion of grace and already enjoying the treasures of Heaven in this life) experience it as a need of the heart.

I wish for you to always live according to the spirit, I recommend you to the Lord and bless you.
Father Angelo