The Surest Way to Avoid Sin - Cardinal Bacci

The Surest Way to Avoid Sin

1. The surest way of never offending God is to love Him. If we love God sincerely, it will be impossible for us to offend Him. “Love”, says St. Paul, “is the fulfilment of the Law,” (Rom. 13:10) and charity “is the bond of perfection.” (Col. 3:14) If all our actions are inspired by the love of God, it will not matter how insignificant they are, for they will be pleasing to Him and will gain merit for ourselves. Then it will be impossible for us to sin.

If most of our actions, on the other hand, are dictated by an inordinate attachment to creatures and to ourselves, they will certainly not lead us to God. Our hearts need love and cannot live without it. But whom shall we love if we do not love God, Who is our Creator and Redeemer? We shall find love for a moment in beauty, in goodness, and in pleasure, but it will soon pass away and leave us with empty hearts. God is our highest good and only He can fully satisfy our hearts. But He wishes us to belong completely to Himself.

Our hearts are too tiny to be divided between God and creatures. We must belong entirely to God. If we love Him sincerely all created things will form a ladder which will help us to ascend to Him. Let us love God and remain united to Him in all our actions. Then sin will never find its way into our souls.

2. Another way of making sure that we shall never offend God is to love our neighbour. “Love does no evil to a neighbour,” (Rom. 13:10) St. Paul assures us. We are told that when St. John the Apostle was too old to be able to preach long sermons and had to be carried in to speak to his congregation, he was accustomed to repeat the same brief message: “Little children, love one another.” One day the faithful, who had grown tired of hearing the same phrase so often, asked him to say something else to them. “But this is God’s command,” St. John replied, “and if you obey it, that will be sufficient.”

If we love our neighbour as ourselves for the love of God, we could never sin. We could never be guilty of injustice, calumny, or indifference to the misfortunes of others. Rather should we be kind, compassionate and ready to help our fellowmen in their spiritual and temporal needs. Let us examine ourselves on the extent of our fraternal charity and let us resolve to see the person of Jesus Christ in our neighbour.

3. The third defence against sin is a spirit of prayer. A man who is constantly close to God cannot offend Him. The spirit of prayer keeps a man in supernatural contact with God. As in an electric current, when the contact is interrupted, the light goes out. If we wish to receive light from God, we must remain in contact with Him.

Christ told His disciples that “they must always pray and not lose heart,” (Luke 18:1) and St. Paul explains how we can always pray. “Whatever you do in word or in work,” he says, “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Col. 3:17) In this sense, therefore, all work becomes prayer, and since we are constantly praying we cannot offend God.