Thursday, November 21, 2013

Fr. John Hardon, S.J., On The Capital Sins


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3 comments:

Maria said...

"I’ve been a priest for forty-seven years, by now, because of God’s mysterious will in my life, I’ve dealt with some thousands of souls. I’ve struggled with some saintly people, but I have surely struggled with sinners. One thing I’ve learned as a priest, whatever else sinners need, you name it and they need it, but whatever else they need, it is trust, trust in God. Why, why did I make such a fool of myself, maybe for years? We better, all of us, had better be able to answer, and answer affirmatively, whether God has a providential purpose in allowing us to sin. We better say, yes indeed He does. But notice, in dealing with matters of the faith it is not merely a question of yes or no, as we’ve been saying, we have a duty to understand what we believe. Here a correct, and as far as we can with God’s help, a deeper grasp of how our own sins have been, and are, and will be, part of the mysterious providence of God. I dare say, on our properly understanding this mystery depends in large measure our profiting, hear the verb, our profiting if God wants us to, from the sad fact that we have so often disobeyed God because we want to do our will in preference to His divine will. I sure hope I’m clear, God wants us to benefit, that’s the word, God wants us to benefit from the mysterious providential purpose He has in having allowed us to sin. Faith allows us to say that God has permitted us to offend Him so that we might be more generous in the future than, humanly speaking, we might have been had we not sinned. Did you catch the word, more, more generous? When everything is said and done, who are the people who are generous with God? Are they not the persons who have an extraordinary awareness of God’s goodness and God’s goodness to them? To recognize how good God is, is to want to love Him. And to have a deep awareness of His goodness is to have a deep desire to love Him, and love Him and grow in loving Him in return. Very well, in His ordinary providence God lets us fall into sin, you name it, selfishness, and obstinacy, self-will and self-indulgence of all kinds. Then we come to our senses and suddenly it dawns on us how ungrateful we are in resisting God’s will to have our own. How mad, how mad for a creature that would not even exist except for the love of God. How mad for that creature to say, ‘no’ to God. And we are sorry, “my God”, we pray, “what an ingrate I am. You have been so good to me and I have been so disobedient to you. Have mercy, have mercy on me a sinner.” In His mercy God forgives us, and like the son in the parable of the prodigal, God embraces us and takes us back into His friendship. What follows? Or better, what does God want to follow? He expects us to be, watch the words again, to be more responsive to His grace, not only more than we had been but more than we would have been had we not realized the merciful goodness of God to us ungrateful but repentant sinners".

Servant of God John A. Hardon SJ

November 26, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Maria said...

"I’ve been a priest for forty-seven years, by now, because of God’s mysterious will in my life, I’ve dealt with some thousands of souls. I’ve struggled with some saintly people, but I have surely struggled with sinners. One thing I’ve learned as a priest, whatever else sinners need, you name it and they need it, but whatever else they need, it is trust, trust in God. Why, why did I make such a fool of myself, maybe for years? We better, all of us, had better be able to answer, and answer affirmatively, whether God has a providential purpose in allowing us to sin. We better say, yes indeed He does. But notice, in dealing with matters of the faith it is not merely a question of yes or no, as we’ve been saying, we have a duty to understand what we believe. Here a correct, and as far as we can with God’s help, a deeper grasp of how our own sins have been, and are, and will be, part of the mysterious providence of God. I dare say, on our properly understanding this mystery depends in large measure our profiting, hear the verb, our profiting if God wants us to, from the sad fact that we have so often disobeyed God because we want to do our will in preference to His divine will. I sure hope I’m clear, God wants us to benefit, that’s the word, God wants us to benefit from the mysterious providential purpose He has in having allowed us to sin. Faith allows us to say that God has permitted us to offend Him so that we might be more generous in the future than, humanly speaking, we might have been had we not sinned. Did you catch the word, more, more generous? When everything is said and done, who are the people who are generous with God? Are they not the persons who have an extraordinary awareness of God’s goodness and God’s goodness to them? To recognize how good God is, is to want to love Him. And to have a deep awareness of His goodness is to have a deep desire to love Him, and love Him and grow in loving Him in return. Very well, in His ordinary providence God lets us fall into sin, you name it, selfishness, and obstinacy, self-will and self-indulgence of all kinds. Then we come to our senses and suddenly it dawns on us how ungrateful we are in resisting God’s will to have our own. How mad, how mad for a creature that would not even exist except for the love of God. How mad for that creature to say, ‘no’ to God. And we are sorry, “my God”, we pray, “what an ingrate I am. You have been so good to me and I have been so disobedient to you. Have mercy, have mercy on me a sinner.” In His mercy God forgives us, and like the son in the parable of the prodigal, God embraces us and takes us back into His friendship. What follows? Or better, what does God want to follow? He expects us to be, watch the words again, to be more responsive to His grace, not only more than we had been but more than we would have been had we not realized the merciful goodness of God to us ungrateful but repentant sinners".

November 26, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Anonymous said...

Sad really--to be spending time lauding Fr. Hardon. Please know that he advised his superiors to allow an admitted child sex abuser to remain in active ministry. He did not report him to local law enforcement.

December 1, 2013 at 2:56 AM

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