Occasions of Sin

[TerrorDæmonum]

The Sacrament of Penance

61 Q. What conditions should a resolution have in order to be good?
A. A resolution, in order to be good, should have three principal conditions: It ought to be absolute, universal, and efficacious.

62 Q. What is meant by an absolute resolution?
A. It means that the resolution ought to be without any restrictions of time, place or person.

63 Q. What is meant by a universal resolution?
A. It means that we should avoid all mortal sins, both those already committed as well as those which we can possibly commit.

64 Q. What is meant by an efficacious resolution?
A. It means that there must be a determined will to lose everything rather than commit another sin; to avoid the dangerous occasions of sin; to stamp out our bad habits; and to discharge the obligations that may have been contracted in consequence of our sins.

67 Q. What is meant by dangerous occasions of sin?
A. By dangerous occasions of sin are meant all those circumstances of time, place, person, or things, which, of their very nature or because of our frailty, lead us to commit sin.

68 Q. Are we strictly bound to shun dangerous occasions?
A. We are strictly bound to shun those dangerous occasions which ordinarily lead us to commit mortal sin, and which are called the proximate occasions of sin.

69 Q. What should a person do who cannot avoid a certain occasion of sin?
A. A person who cannot avoid a certain occasion of sin should lay the matter before his confessor and follow his advice.

Of Shunning Too Much Familiarity

"Open not thy heart to every man" (Ecclesiasticus 8:22), but treat of thine affairs with a man that is wise and feareth God. Keep not much company with young people and strangers. Be not a flatterer with the rich, nor willingly appear before the great.

Associate thyself with the humble and simple, with the devout and virtuous; and treat of those things which edify. (Romans 14:19) Be not familiar with any woman; but recommend all good women in general to God. Desire to be familiar only with God and His angels, and fly the acquaintance of men.

We must have charity for all, but familiarity is not expedient. It sometimes happens that a person, when not known, shines by good reputation, who, when he is present, is disagreeable to them that see him. We think sometimes to please others by being with them, and we begin rather to disgust them by the evil behaviour which they discover in us.

Practical Reflections

Avoid worldly company, useless conversations, and those overflowings and attachments of the heart which are neither regulated nor governed by the love of God. For all these things dissipate the soul, withdraw it from God, hinder it from being recollected, and deprive it of the interior spirit which is so necessary for salvation, they expose it to many dangers, and insensibly subvert all interior discipline. Let your friends be persons of piety, whose lives are regular and irreproachable, that their good example may withdraw you from sin, and lead you to virtue. Happy the Christian who is attached only to Jesus Christ, to his duties, and to his salvation, who lives in God and for God, and thus commences in time that which shall be his continual occupation for eternity.

Therefore let us follow after the things that are of peace; and keep the things that are of edification one towards another.