On the Relapse Into Sin

First Point - Why do you fall continually into the same sins? Is it not because you do not take the means to prevent it? But why do you not take the means to prevent it? If you were to answer truthfully would you not say that you have not an earnest desire to break away from sin? If your desire were earnest you would surely take the means. You are satisfied with a vague and general desire to renounce sin - which accomplishes nothing. A desire of this kind is no desire at all; or at least it is not a desire sufficient for the sacrament of Penance. Do you believe that a sick man speaks the truth when he says that he desires to be well, if, at the same time, he refuses to take the medicine that will make him well? But is not this case similar to yours? Can any one believe that you earnestly desire the health of your soul, if you do not take the means to procure that health?

Second Point - Perhaps you resolve to take certain means to avoid sin, but are they the proper means? The means proposed by your confessor appear difficult to you; you say they are too irksome, and thus it is obvious that your resolution to avoid sin is inefficacious. Do you require a proof of it? If you were in ill-health and certain means were proposed which would make you well and strong again, would you hesitate for a moment to make use of them? Would any means in this case be too irksome? Then why do the means proposed for your conversion appear irksome to you? Is it not because your desire for the one is efficacious, and your desire for the other is inefficacious? Now, to desire your conversion in this faint-hearted way is not to desire it at all, because if you really and earnestly desired it, you would take the means necessary to obtain it.

Third Point - But there are certain obstacles, you say, that are stronger than the means proposed, and this is the reason why you fall continually into the same sins. But what are these obstacles? This or that passion, intercourse or occasion? But have you taken any measures to over come these obstacles? Have you manfully resisted your tendency toward this or that object that places you in the occasion of sin? Have you not allowed yourself to be drawn into that occasion without any resistance on your part? These obstacles are difficult to surmount, it is true, but if it were necessary to surmount them in order to prevent the loss of your earthly goods or your health, you would not refuse to take the proper means; yet you refuse, when it is a question of avoiding sin. Whence comes this inconsistency? Is it not due to your efficacious desire for the one and your inefficacious desire for the other? Now if your desire to avoid sin is inefficacious, is your repentance sincere?

Take the resolution to make use of the means proposed by your confessor to enable you to avoid sin and to prevent your relapse into it.

How exceeding base art thou become, going the same ways over again. - Jeremiah 2:36

It is a sign that your repentance is not sincere when it is quickly followed by a relapse into sin. - Saint Augustine of Hippo

- text taken from Meditations for Every Day in a Month, by Father François Nepveu