By Barbara Kralis

©Barbara Kralis 2005
Catholic Online
www.catholic.org

An ancient tradition tells us that Our Lord appeared to St. Jerome, priest and doctor of the Church, asking,

"Jerome, what have you to offer me?"

The Saint replied, "I can offer you my writings, Lord."

Christ indicated that this was not enough. Jerome asked,

"What can I offer you then…my life of mortification and penance?"

"No, that is not enough either."

St. Jerome finally asked straight out,

"Lord, what then is left for me to offer you?"

Christ’s immediate answer was,

"You can offer me your sins, Jerome."[1]

It has become increasingly more difficult for us to recognize our own sins, let alone offer them to God. What has caused this loss of the sense of sin by mankind?

Why, when we try to recognize our sins, society, as well as some Church leaders, wrongly tells us that we are far too critical of ourselves and we should not appear to others as being scrupulous. The professional esteem builders in our workplaces, schools and universities encourage us to deny our sins because, they say, there is no longer any sin.

The reason for our denying our sins might be summed up in this way: there is a great loss in the belief of sin upon the immortal soul, and unreasonable concerns for what others think of us [human respect].

When man has lost belief in sin [and he has], he therefore no longer believes in ‘The Last Four Things:’ death, judgment, heaven, and hell.[2]

When men no longer believe in sin, their thinking and their laws become worldly and man-centered, seeking human respect and a false peace. The examples of this humanism are hundredfold.

"Do you know what the first temptation the devil presents to someone who has begun to serve God better?" asks St. Jean-Baptise-Marie Vianney, the Curé d’Ars.[3]

"It is human respect."[4]

One useful illustration of this confusion is the bad model some Church hierarchy gives to the faithful laity. What is most excruciating are Catholic bishops allowing the reception of Holy Communion by persons persistently, obstinately and manifestly living in mortal sin. Sacrilegious reception of Holy Communion under the guise of ‘keeping peace among humans,’ albeit a false peace, leads the confused and scandalized laity to question the Church’s Divine Laws, asking,

"Why should we acknowledge and confess our sins when evil legislators are allowed to receive the Eucharist each Sunday, even at the bishops’ own Cathedrals? Does this mean God isn’t offended by sin anymore?"

St. Paul exhorted St. Timothy, bishop of Ephesus, to remain firm in his priestly vocation, to preach the truth without being inhibited by human respect:

"I am reminding you to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control." [5]

To add to the confusion, many of our clergy speak to us only of a loving, forgiving Jesus and not of the ‘just’ Jesus who will be our Adjudicator at our ‘dies irae’ – our Day of Judgment [or wrath].

If there is no sin, there is no need for the Sacrament of Confession. If there is no need for Confession, then, as the modernists teach, there is no hell and everyone goes merrily to heaven.

Nothing is distorted and twisted more today than the teaching of ‘universalism.’[6] In many places, we hear that everyone is saved, that everyone who dies goes to heaven. This is the result of our denying our sins and it is very difficult to resist this tempting flattery.

How many Funerals Masses have we attended wherein the celebrating priest wrongly allows members to eulogize the deceased into heaven. In addition, the priest, in his homily, subtly conveys the false theology that everyone goes to heaven. Is there no one left who will pray the poor soul out of purgatory, just when he needs us, the Church Militant, the most?

We often hear ‘universalists’ canonize their loved ones as someone we now ‘can pray to,’ not pray for. The pious practice of requesting a set of ‘Gregorian Masses’ ...