"Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity."
Anything that offends God is necessarily a source of sorrow to the charitable, for as charity consists in loving God above all things for His own sake and is accompanied by a yearning desire to see Him honored more and more, that which detracts from His honor cannot cause charity any satisfaction. On the contrary, it pains charity that corresponds to the offense committed against God. Do I share this personal sorrow and pain when any wrong is done to His Divine Majesty or is it a matter of comparative indifference to me?
The saints would gladly have given their lives to prevent sin. It was intensely painful to them to think how continually God is offended. Many saints laid down their lives to prevent sin from being committed. The saints all devoted themselves, with generous self-sacrifice, to the furtherance of God's glory and the hindrance of sin against Him. By prayer, by active zeal, by word, by work, and by personal penance, the saints fought against iniquity. What do I do to check all the sin and vice in this wicked world?
Above all, the saints feared and dreaded any sin in themselves. They avoided with the utmost care anything that could lead to sin. No spectacle however magnificent, no honor however brilliant, no pleasure however intense, caused them anything but disgust and horror, if it was in any way mingled with iniquity. Is this true in my case? Do I relish things questionable or dangerous, or perhaps not altogether unmixed with positive sin.
- text from Charity, Meditations for a Month by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ