The nature of sin and its consequences. The book is very helpful in understanding the nature of sin and what it does to your soul and your relationship with our Lord.
What is the enemy of man: the world, the flesh, or the devil? Sin is the ultimate enemy of man, since it is the only thing that can ultimately keep us from God, our beatitude. This traditional understanding of the Church’s wisdom has led to the development of an elaborate theology of sin and its consequences, detailed here in full by Henry Cardinal Manning.
He reveals in characteristic style:
- How venial sin leads to mortal,
- How sins of omission to sins of commission, and
- Why sin is worse than disease.
Far from causing scruples and fear, Cardinal Manning’s emphasis is on the healing and pardon that God’s grace and appropriate penance can bring to the soul. Ultimately, sin does not have the last say; God’s grace, through our cooperative repentance, does.
Sin and Its Consequences – Table of Contents
THE NATURE OF SIN
It is expedient for you that I go ; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him to you ; and when He is come, He shall convince the world of sin. S. JOHN xvi. 7.
MORTAL SIN
If any man shall see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and life shall be given unto him that sinneth not unto death. There is a sin unto death : I do not say for that any man shall ask. All iniquity is sin ; and there is a sin unto death. 1 S. JOHN v. 16, 17.
VENIAL SIN
He that knoweth his brother to sin a sin which is not unto death, let him ask, and life shall be given to him who sinneth not to death. There is a sin unto death : for that I say not that any man ask. 1 S. JOHN v. 16.
SINS OF OMISSION
Who can understand sins? From my secret sins cleanse me, God. PSALM viii.
THE GRACE AND WORKS OF PENANCE
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. S. JOHN xx. 22, 23.
TEMPTATION
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to he tempted by the devil. S. MATT. iv. 1.
THE DERELICTION ON THE CROSS
From the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour ; and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying : Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani ? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? S. MATT, xxvii. 45.
THE JOYS OF THE RESURRECTION
Jesus said unto her : Mary. She saith unto Him : Rabboni : that is to say, Master. S. JOHN xx.
Henry Cardinal Manning was one of the most important converts to come out of the Oxford Movement in mid-19th-century England. Initially an Archdeacon in the Anglican Church, Manning converted to Catholicism at 43 and became a staunch priest of the true Church in England. He eventually became the second Archbishop of Westminster, the head of the renewed Catholic Church in England. He acquired the land for Westminster Cathedral in London and was instrumental in the First Vatican Council and influencing the social doctrine of the Church under Pope Leo XIII.
Sin and Its Consequences by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning.
