The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 19
Nineteenth Day
Relapses. — Luke xi. 21, 26; Heb. vi. 4-9; 2 Pet. ii. 20-22.
TO strengthen ourselves against relapses we may dwell on what is said in St Luke about the 'strong man armed.’[1] 'The strong man armed ’ is the devil. Consider these words: ‘ what he possesses is in peace.’ Think of the unhappy peace enjoyed by sinners. Conscience asleep, we see ourselves perishing, unmoved and in cold blood; the pleasures of sense bewitch us, and the devil reigns tranquilly in our souls. When Jesus Christ rouses the hardened heart and we do penance, the ' strong man ’ is driven away; but he has not done with us, and will not give up his possession. He returns with seven devils worse than himself. Weigh well what then follows. These impure spirits sully afresh the dwelling purged by penance, and there establish their home: — ‘and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.’ Now, if after each relapse our state becomes worse, if the devil’s yoke grows heavier, if we plunge deeper and deeper into evil, and our strength incessantly diminishes, where shall we be at last, and how come forth from the abyss? God can draw us out: — that we know; but if there is nothing to be despaired of, there is everything to be feared.
It is impossible to man, in the ordinary course of things, to save himself from such a state. God alone can do it by an effort — so to speak — of His omnipotence. ' It is impossible,’ St Paul says, ‘for those who were once illuminated, having tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.... and are fallen away, to be renewed again to penance.’ [2] If St Paul speaks thus of those who have profaned the sanctity of Baptism, what should not those fear who have added to this the profanation of the Sacrament of Penance, so often repeated and so often despised? ‘ The
earth that drinketh in the rain which cometh often upon it.... but which bringeth forth thorns and briars, is reprobate, and very near unto a curse, whose end is to be burnt.’ [3]
There is nothing here that needs to be explained. The words are clear enough, and we have only to reflect on them attentively, one after the other.
When we have been filled with fear by these words, we may arouse hope within us by the following ones, remembering that the whole Church tells us with St Paul: ' We hope for better things from you.' [4]
Then, having heard St Paul, we may listen to St Peter: — ' For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. For that of the true proverb has happened to them: the dog is returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.’ [5]
Merely to hear such expressions horrifies and even sickens us; but the thing itself is much more horrible; and animals in the condition described are not nearly so degraded as the penitent who has fallen away again.