The young man's guide/Part 2: Defeat
Defeat
LXIX. What a Misfortune!
1.If, MY dear young friend, you desire to incite and encourage yourself to persevere in the war you are waging on behalf of the pearl of virtues, you should reflect what a terrible misfortune it is to be defeated in this conflict, and what lamentable consequences such a defeat entails.
2. Rarely has a mother loved her child so tenderly as Blanche, the holy Queen of France, loved her son Louis, who subsequently occupied the throne of France, and became known to posterity as the saint of that name. One day when this good mother had been giving to her pious son, who was still a boy, many wise counsels, she said in conclusion, with a heart brimming over with maternal solicitude: "O my darling child, you are the most precious, thing I have upon earth, more precious than all the gold and jewels which surround us in our palace. Yet I would a thousand times rather see you lying dead at my feet, than know you to have committed one single mortal sin."
Thus also may parents, and those, who have the care of souls, thus may I more especially, say to you: You are dear and precious to us, but we would far rather that you should die this very instant in the grace of God, than that you should be conquered by the enemy of innocence, and fall into mortal sin.
I would fain imbue you with a wholesome horror of the vice which is opposed to chastity; therefore I will now depict the consequences of it.
3. To be vanquished by the enemy of innocence, and given up to the sin of impurity, what consequences does such a state of things entail. It is sad, my friend, but only too true, that when a young man has yielded to temptation, and become acquainted with vice, when after his grievous fall he does not at once arise and break with an iron will the fetters which habit is beginning to forge, the unhappy victim will fall again and again, sinking ever deeper and deeper, until ere long he will despair of being able to extricate himself from the slavery of impurity. Only too many examples of this kind are to be seen. Many a young man, who as a boy was innocent and good, blossoming like a lily in the garden of the Lord, the joy and hope of his parents and confessor, has got into bad ways, because he has become careless about transgressing the sixth commandment.
4. The first consequence of repeated sins of unchastity is the weakening of the will. " Vice has a will of iron," St. Augustine tells us. This means that passion, the propensity to sin, paralyzes the human, will, binds it in fetters of iron. Shall I mention one or two instances?
One young man always had attacks of epilepsy whenever he sinned against purity; of this be was fully aware. Did he seek to amend? No I One day he was found, stretched on the carpet beside his bed - a corpse!
Another young man, a medical student, led an impure life; he knew only too well how unchastity was undermining his constitution and destroying his health. Did he seek to amend? No, he died, and died in despair!
5. There are certain terrible diseases, which are always, or almost always brought about only by this accursed sin of impurity. In the hospitals of our cities there are entire wards filled with such sufferers. They are mostly young people. Formerly they were strong and healthy, blooming as the sweet-scented roses in June. There they now lie, offensive to all who approach them, their countenances disfigured, their whole body racked by burning pain. There they lie, shunned as if they were suffering from smallpox, their mind tormented by the thought that they might have been quite strong, healthy, and happy. Alas! how pure and innocent I was, how pious and joyful on the day of my first communion I Now my heavenly crown is tarnished, my soul loaded with guilt, my health ruined. My parents and brothers and sisters are overwhelmed with shame and grief through me, perhaps my waywardness brought them to an untimely grave, and then what an awful account I shall have to render to the strict Judge, who has power to condemn me to eternal torments.
6. The fire of hell, everlasting condemnation, such is the last awful consequence of the vice of unchastity! And who says that this is so? Holy Scripture, the word of God Himself, which teaches that all the unchaste who die in their sins will have to enter a wretched, horrible place, and there be tortured throughout eternity by fierce and devouring flames.
How will the unfortunate creatures curse their sins, how will they wish they had followed the counsels of their confessor, for then they will say to themselves, I might have been happy forever in heaven I But now, condemned and accursed, I am doomed to endure the most horrible torments to all eternity!
7. But enough has been said! It is well that you should be filled with holy horror by such serious reflections. But if you have already fallen grievously, and are still assailed by fierce temptations, O then never, never lose courage! But under all circumstances say to yourself; "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me." And bear constantly in mind these lines:
How short-lived the pleasure, how lasting the
pain,
Which sinful enjoyments will bring in their
train!
Oh, turn a deaf ear to the treacherous voice
Which bids thee in what is illicit rejoice.