Explanation of Catholic Morals | Page 9

well as by commission.
It is well to bear in mind that a thought, as well as a deed, is an act,
may be a human and a moral act, and consequently may be a sin.
Human laws may be violated only in deed; but God, who is a searcher
of hearts, takes note of the workings of the will whence springs all
malice. To desire to break His commandments is to offend Him as
effectually as to break them in deed; to relish in one's mind forbidden
fruits, to meditate and deliberate on evil purposes, is only a degree
removed from actual commission of wrong. Evil is perpetrated in the
will, either by a longing to prevaricate or by affection for that which is
prohibited. If the evil materializes exteriorly, it does not constitute one
in sin anew, but only completes the malice already existing. Men judge
their fellows by their works; God judges us by our thoughts, by the
inner workings of the soul, and takes notice of our exterior doings only
in so far as they are related to the will. Therefore it is that an offense
against Him, to be an offense, need not necessarily be perpetrated in
word or in deed; it is sufficient that the will place itself in Opposition to
the Will of God, and adhere to what the Law forbids.
Sin is not the same as vice. One is an act, the other is a state or
inclination to act. One is transitory, the other is permanent. One can
exist without the other. A drunkard is not always drunk, nor is a man a
drunkard for having once or twice overindulged.
In only one case is vice less evil than sin, and that is when the
inclination remains an unwilling inclination and does not pass to acts.
A man who reforms after a protracted spree still retains an inclination, a
desire for strong drink. He is nowise criminal so long as he resists that
tendency.
But practically vice is worse than sin, for it supposes frequent wilful
acts of sin of which it is the natural consequence, and leads to many

grievous offenses.
A vice is without sin when one struggles successfully against it after
the habit has been retracted. It may never be radically destroyed. There
may be unconscious, involuntary lapses under the constant pressure of
a strong inclination, as in the vice of parsing, and it remains innocent as
long as it is not wilfully yielded to and indulged. But to yield to the
ratification of an evil desire or propensity, without restraint, is to doom
oneself to the most prolific of evils and to lie under the curse of God.

CHAPTER VI.
SIN.
IF the Almighty had never imposed upon His creatures a Law, there
would be no sin; we would be free to do as we please. But the presence
of God's Law restrains our liberty, and it is by using, or rather abusing,
our freedom, that we come to violate the Law. It is for this reason that
Law is said to be opposed to Liberty. Liberty is a word of many
meanings. Men swear by it and men juggle with it. It is the slogan in
both camps of the world's warfare. It is in itself man's noblest
inheritance, and yet there is no name under the sun in which more
crimes are committed.
By liberty as opposed to God's law we do not understand the power to
do evil as well as good. That liberty is the glory of man, but the
exercise of it, in the alternative of evil, is damnable, and debases the
creature in the same proportions as the free choice of good ennobles
him. That liberty the law leaves untouched. We never lose it; or rather,
we may lose it partially when under physical restraint, but totally, only
when deprived of our senses. The law respects it. It respects it in the
highest degree when in an individual it curtails or destroys it for the
protection of society.
Liberty may also be the equal right to do good and evil. There are those
who arrogate to themselves such liberty. No man ever possessed it, the

law annihilated it forever. And although we have used the word in this
sense, the fact is that no man has the right to do evil or ever will have,
so long as God is God. These people talk much and loudly about
freedom--the magic word!--assert with much pomp and verbosity the
rights of man, proclaim his independence, and are given to much like
inane vaunting and braggadocio.
We may be free in many things, but where God is concerned and He
commands, we are free only to obey. His will is supreme, and when it
is