Sin; what is it?

I feel like I have to apologize for how long it takes me to get these out.  It seems like God, each time, has to overcome this huge obstacle inside of me that quails at the thought of even attempting to do this.  As for the subjects, it's funny, I'm really not sure how they come about.  I always want to examine one subject but end up having to do others before I can ever get there and then get sidetracked into something else entirely different from what I had intended.  This is the case today and it will probably take a few posts to cover all that I've found.


What is sin?  In the Volumes there are many different passages which deal with sin from many different angles:  voluntary vs. involuntary, original, venial, an act contrary to God's expressed Will, sin against the Holy Spirit, sin of pride, of passion.  But what is sin at it's core?  In it's basest form it is an act of the human will in opposition to God Will.

“My daughter, do you know what forms sin?  An act of the human will opposite to the Divine.  Imagine two friends who are in opposition; if the thing is light, you would say that their friendship is not perfect and loyal.  Be it even in little things, how can they love and yet oppose each other?  True love is to live in the will of the other, even at the cost of sacrifice.  If then the thing is grave, not only are they not friends, but they are fierce enemies.  Such is sin.  Opposing the Divine Will is the same as making God one’s enemy; be it even in little things, it is always the creature that puts herself in opposition to the Creator.”

Vol. 5, October 18, 1903

Sin is withdrawing from the Will of God to try to take something from our own will wanting to attribute something to ourselves separate from God.  It is in fact the creature attempting to make a god of herself in God's place.  This is the result of pride, the forerunner of the other sins.

    “My daughter, not only my hands and feet were nailed to the cross, but all the particles of my Humanity, soul and Divinity were all nailed in the Will of the Father.  In fact, the crucifixion was the Will of the Father, therefore I was nailed and transmuted completely in His Will.  This was necessary because, what is sin but withdrawing from the Will of God, from everything that is good and holy which God has given us, believing to be something of one’s own, and offending the Creator?  And I, in order to repair for this audacity and for this self idol which the creature makes of herself, wanted to dissolve my will completely and live from the Will of the Father at the cost of great sacrifice.”

Vol. 7, February 23, 1906

“My daughter, pride corrodes grace.  In the hearts of the proud there is nothing but a void all full of smoke, which produces blindness.  Pride does nothing but render oneself an idol, and so the proud soul does not have her God with her.  By sin, she has tried to destroy Him in her heart, and raising an altar within her heart, she places herself on it, and she adores herself.”
Vol. 3, November 19, 1899




But what we see as sin is only the very tip of the iceberg.  The far larger portion resides in the interior of man where only God can truly see it completely.




So, sin is formed first in the interior of man, and then comes outside; even more, many times what comes outside is the minimum part - the greatest remains in the interior. 
Vol. 12, May 8, 1919

“My daughter, sin is not just ugly, but horrible.  It is the black point of man!  As he sins, he undergoes a brutal transformation:  all the beauty I gave him is covered with such ugliness as to be horrible to the sight - and not only the particular sense that sins, but the whole of man runs along with it.  So, sin is his thought, his heartbeat, his breath, his motion, his step.  His will has dragged man to one single point, and from his whole being he emits thick darkness that blinds him, and a poisonous air that poisons him.  Everything is black around him - everything is deadly.  And whoever approaches him puts himself in a state of danger.  Horrible and frightening - such is man in the state of sin.”

Vol. 13, October 6, 1921

The only true image we have to help us understand how we are transformed by sin is in the wounded, crucified Humanity of our Jesus.

“My beloved daughter, look well at Me, that you may know my pains in depth.  My Body is the true portrait of the man who commits sin.  Sin strips him of the garments of my grace; and I let Myself be stripped of my garments so as to give grace back to him once again.  Sin deforms him, and while he is the most beautiful creature that came out of my hands, he becomes the ugliest one - disgusting and repugnant.  I was the most beautiful of men, and I can say that, in order to give beauty back to man, my Humanity took on the ugliest form.  Look at Me - how horrid I am.  I let my skin be torn off by dint of lashes, to the point that I could no longer recognize Myself.  Not only does sin take beauty away, but it forms deep wounds, rotten and gangrenous, which corrode the most intimate parts; they consume his vital humors, so everything he does are dead - skeletal works.  They snatch from him the nobility of his origin, the light of his reason - and he becomes blind.  And I, in order to fill the depth of his wounds, let my Flesh be torn to shreds; I reduced all of Myself to a wound, and by shedding my Blood in rivers, I made the vital humors flow in his soul, so as to give life back to him once again.  Ah! Had I not had the fount of the life of my Divinity within Me, which, since my Humanity died at each pain they gave Me, substituted for my life - I would have died from the very beginning of my Passion.

Vol. 14, February 9, 1922        




Sin has different effects but at it's core it places distance between God and the creature breaking off communication and trust.  It is as if someone would want to hide from the sun and in doing so only hurts themselves. 




In fact, sin alone is what puts distance between Creator and creature, breaking love, dispersing trust, and striking fear.
Vol. 15, December 8, 1922

A man can hide or place shelters so as not to enjoy the light of the sun and its beneficial effects, but he does nothing to the sun – the sun remains as it is, while all the evil will fall upon man.  In the same way, by sin, the sinner can move away from God and no longer enjoy His beneficial effects, but he does nothing to God – the evil is all his own.

Vol. 2, February 28, 1899




All of Creation was made as so many doors and ways to be with God and enjoy each others presence.  With sin we are the ones who shut the doors and bar the ways preferring our own company to that of God's.

“My daughter, created things were made by us in order to form so many ways (so that) man might be able to make use of them in order to come to us, because we left them all open, so that when he wanted to come he might not have need of knocking to open them in order to come to us.  He was our child, it was just and reasonable that he might hold all the ways open in order to go to his Celestial Father and stay together in order to love him and to be loved, and as child to ask graces and favors.  But do you know what the ungrateful child did?  He himself closed the ways, formed the bars, and with sin formed the doors, closing the correspondences with whom had given him life.

Vol. 31, September 8, 1932





Each time we sin we commit a triple transgression.  The first is the affront against God's love.  Lack of love is always the first step away from God.  The second is the affront against God's glory.  We rob him of his due fruits.  The third affront is the reality of what we have made of ourselves, degraded humanity itself which lacks the seed of the Divine destroying his work.  I think of it as a great artist, who for love alone, makes a magnificent work only to have it vandalized and ruined.  He has become robbed of the reciprocation of love he put in his work, robbed of the acclaim he would have received from it and robbed in the destruction of work itself.  We do this each and every time we sin, destroy God's work in one degree or another.

“My daughter, my first Passion was of love, because the first step with which man, in sinning, gives himself to evil is the lack of love; so, since love is missing, he falls into sin.  In order to be repaid through Me for the lack of love of the creatures, love made Me suffer more than anyone; It almost crushed Me, more than if I were under a press.  It gave Me as many deaths for as many creatures receiving life. 

“The second step that occurs in sin is defrauding God of His glory.  So, in order to be repaid for the glory taken away by the creatures, the Father made Me suffer the Passion of sin, such that each sin gave Me a special Passion.  Although there was one Passion, I suffered for sin as many Passions as there would be sins committed until the end of the world.  So, the glory of the Father was restored.

“The third effect produced by sin is weakness in man.  Therefore, I wanted to suffer the Passion from the hands of the Jews - my third Passion - to restore in man his lost strength. 

Vol. 11, January 22, 1913




Sin then also is what is responsible for Justice being forced to act.  Justice acts to try to defend the rights of God's offended Love attempting to repair and reunite the Creator and the creature.

“My daughter, between Creator and creature there is nothing but currents of Love.  Sin breaks these currents and opens the current of Justice.  My Justice defends the rights of my offended Love, of my Love broken between Creator and creature; and making Its way into their midst, It would want to reunite this broken Love.  Ah! If man did not sin, my Justice would have nothing to do with the creature.  But as guilt begins, my Justice places Itself on the way.  Do you think that I wanted to strike man?  No, no; on the contrary, it grieves Me - it is hard for Me to touch him.  But he himself forces Me to, and induces Me to strike him.  You, pray that man may mend his ways, so Justice, quickly reuniting the current of Love, will be able to withdraw.” 

Vol. 14, April 12, 1922





Without love sin enters.  This is what happened to Adam and continues to happen with all sin.  Without love of God first and foremost there can be no true love, to God, to others or even to ourselves.

In fact, do you want to know why Adam sinned? Because he forgot that I loved him, and he forgot to love Me. This was the first seed of his fall. Had he thought that I loved him very much and that he was obliged to love Me, he would never have decided to disobey Me. So, love ceased first, and then sin began; and as he ceased to love his God, true love toward himself also ceased. His members and powers rebelled against him; he lost dominion, order, and became fearful. Not only this, but true love toward other creatures ceased, while I had created him with the same love which reigned among the Divine Persons, by which one was to be the image of the other, the happiness, the joy and life of the other. This is why, in coming upon earth, the thing on which I placed greatest importance was that they love one another as they were loved by Me, in order to give them my first love, to let the love of the Most Holy Trinity hover over the earth.

Vol. 16, September 6, 1923




God has made it so that creatures can perceive true sin.  The soul becomes agitated and loses it's peace which leads to impatience and anger.

...when there is true sin, it is not necessary for Me to say it; the soul already perceives it by herself, because sin, when it is voluntary, upsets the natural humors:  man undergoes as though a transformation in evil, he feels as though soaked with the sin he has voluntarily committed.  Just as true virtue transforms the soul in good, her humors remain all in harmony among themselves, and her nature feels as though soaked with sweetness, with charity, with peace – so it is with sin.  So, have you perceived this turmoil?  Have you felt as though soaked with impatience, with anger, with disturbances?”

Vol. 9, August 3, 1910

Recognizing sin for what it is leads to sorrow which leads to forgiveness and renewal.  Sorrow is a gift from God and Jesus shared in each sorrow in order to bring about forgiveness for each unique sin.





On hearing sin being mentioned, I said:  ‘Lord, tell me a little bit:  why are You so pleased when a soul feels sorrow for having offended You?’  And He:  “Sin is a poison that poisons the soul completely and renders her so disfigured as to make my image disappear from within her; sorrow destroys this poison and restores my image in her.  True sorrow is a counterpoison, and since sorrow destroys the poison, it forms a void in the soul, and this void is filled by my grace.  This is why I am pleased – I see the work of my Redemption risen again by means of sorrow.”
Vol. 4, February 22, 1903




“My daughter, I had a special sorrow for each sin, and upon my sorrow hung the pardon for the sinner. Now, this sorrow of mine is suspended in my Will, waiting for the sinner when he offends Me, so that, as he feels sorrow for having offended Me, my sorrow may descend to feel sorrow together with his, and immediately grant him forgiveness. But, how many offend Me and do not feel sorrow?
Vol. 18, October 21, 1925





Jesus did not just simply share in each sorrow over sin with the creature.  He cried each and every tear every creature would cry in sorrow to tie each one to the Divine forgiveness he held out to them and to lead them to tears of love.

See, then, how much I had to cry. I had to shed from my eyes the tears which creatures shed out of passion, so that mine might extinguish their passions. I had to shed the tears which are needed after sin, to give them the sorrow for having offended Me and the conviction of the evil they had done, preparing, with my tears, the resolution not to offend Me any more. I had to shed the tears in order to move souls to compassion, to make them comprehend the pains of my Passion; and I also shed abundant tears of love, in order to electrify souls to love Me, to draw their sympathy and their hearts, all for Me. It is enough to tell you that there is not one tear that arises on the human eye, which I did not shed from my eyes. No one knew of my many tears, of my much crying, hidden and secret. How many times, even as a tender Child, I flew from earth up to Heaven, and leaning my little head upon the knees of my Celestial Father, I cried and cried, and, sobbing, I said to Him: ‘My Father, You see, I am born in the world to tears and to sorrow, just like my brothers, who are born to tears, and die amidst crying. And I love these brothers so much, that I want to shed all of their tears from my eyes. Not even one do I want to let escape, so as to give to their tears, tears of love, of sorrow, of victory, of sanctification and of divinization.’ How many times my dear Mama, in looking at Me, was pierced in seeing Me all wet with crying; and because of the pain of seeing Me cry, She united Her tears to mine, and we cried together. And sometimes I was forced to hide Myself to give vent to crying, so as not to always pierce Her maternal and innocent Heart. Other times, I waited for the moment when my Celestial Mama, out of necessity, had to occupy Herself with housework, to give vent to my tears, in order to complete the number of tears of all creatures.”

Vol. 18, December 20, 1925




Sorrow works to purge voluntary sin however there are also involuntary defects in each soul for which simple resignation to the Divine is necessary in order purge the soul of this state.

Then, when the confessor came, I told him everything, and he said to me that it was not right - that it is sorrow that purges the soul and that resignation has nothing to do with this.  So, after I received Communion, I said:  ‘Lord, father told me that what You told me was not right.  Explain Yourself better and let me know the truth.’  And He, benignly, added:  “My daughter, when it is about voluntary sin, then it takes sorrow; but when it is about imperfections, weaknesses, coldnesses and the like, and the soul has added nothing of her own, then a perfect act of resignation is enough; and if needed, she is also purged of this state, because in doing this act, the soul first encounters my Divine Will, which purges her human will and embellishes it with Its qualities, and then she identifies herself with Me.”

Vol. 6, April 9, 1904





Luisa was given a true understanding of how ugly sin is and what an affront to God it is.  This knowledge gave her true sorrow, a gift from God, which brings about forgiveness and Confession renews, heals and restores life to the soul and vigor to the virtues.  After this we should not dwell on it anymore or we once again try to attribute something to ourselves but instead we should focus on loving God. 

He made me understand how ugly sin is – the affront that this miserable little worm had made to Jesus Christ, the horrendous ingratitude, the enormous wickedness, the harm caused to my soul.  I was so dismayed, that I did not know what to do in order to repair.  I did some mortifications, I asked for some more from the confessor, but few were given to me, so they all seemed shadows to me, and I did nothing but think about my sins, though clinging more and more to Him.  I had such fear of moving away and of doing worse than before, that I myself cannot express it.  When I was with Him, I did nothing but tell Him of the pain I felt for having offended Him.  I kept asking for His forgiveness, I thanked Him for having been so good to me, and I said to Him from the heart:  ‘See oh Lord, the time I have lost, while I could have loved You.’  I was unable to say anything but the grave evil I had done. 
Finally, one day, reprimanding me, He told me:  “I do not want you to think about it.  When a soul has humbled herself, being convinced of having done wrong, and has cleansed her soul in the Sacrament of Confession, and is ready to die rather than offend Me - it is an affront to my mercy, it is a hindrance to drawing her close to my love, because her mind is always trying to wrap itself with the mud of the past.  She also prevents Me from letting her take flight toward Heaven, because she is always with those ideas wrapped within herself, as she tries to think about it.  And then, see, I no longer remember anything; I have perfectly forgotten about it.  Do you see any rancor or shadow on my part?”

And I said to Him:  ‘No Lord, You are so good.’  But I felt my heart split with tenderness.

“So, are you the one who wants to carry these things on?”

And I:  ‘No, no, I don’t want to.’

And He:  “Let us think about loving and contenting each other.”

Vol. 1, The soul is sorry for the sins it committed in the past, but Jesus does not want it to lose its time thinking about them.

 

“My daughter, sin is a poisonous and deadly embrace to the soul, if it is grave; and not only to her, but also to all the virtues present in the soul.  If then it is venial, it is a wounding embrace, which renders the soul very weak and infirm, and together with her the virtues which she had acquired also become infirm.  What a deadly weapon sin is!  Sin alone can wound and give death to the soul!  Nothing else can harm her, nothing else but sin alone renders her opprobrious and odious before Me.”

While He was saying this, I comprehended the ugliness of sin and I felt such pain that I cannot even express it.  And Jesus, seeing me all contrite, raised His blessed right hand and pronounced the words of the absolution.  Then He added:  “Just as sin wounds and gives death to the soul, so does the Sacrament of Confession give life, heal the wounds, and give back vigor to virtues; and this, more or less, according to the dispositions of the soul – so does the virtue of the Sacrament operate.” 

Vol. 3, January 5, 1900


  

But even beyond sorrow it attention to not committing sin is better.  Being proactive draws grace to help the soul not to fall into sin.

“My daughter, attention on not committing sin makes up for the sorrow; and even if one were sorry, but in spite of this he committed sins, his sorrow would be vain and fruitless.  On the other hand, a continuous attention on not committing sins not only takes the place of sorrow, but pushes grace continuously to help the soul in a special way not to fall into sin, and it maintains the soul always purged.  Therefore, continue to be attentive on not offending Me even slightly, for this will make up for all the rest.”

Vol. 6, September 7, 1904