MXLLS
Did you ever look at a person who committed a most heinous sin or crime and wonder "...but how? How could anyone do that??"
Let us learn two things: To guard our thoughts always and to remember that the gravest of sins always begin as the littlest. Let's take a look into "The Catechism Explained: An Exhaustive Exposition of the Christian Religion" by Francis Spirago to learn about the development of sin and how a simple temptation can evolve into the gravest of sins.
The stages of sin
1. First of all, an evil thought comes into the mind, which in itself is not sinful.
This is called temptation. Even the holiest of people will experience temptation. Temptation is not a sin. But when a temptation comes...
...a struggle immediately arises: conscience admonishes and holds us back, concupiscence incites and urges us to evil...We must instantly turn our thoughts elsewhere; by means of prayer, or the remembrance of death or of judgement. 'In all things remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin' (Sirach 7:36). Or we may recall to mind the terrible consequences of sin. What is of the great importance is to turn one's thoughts at once...slay your enemy while he is young and feeble. Stifle evil thoughts at their birth; banish them the moment they present themselves. [Catechism Explained, Sec B., Ch. III]
Temptation will come. It's no more avoidable than waves that dash against the shore, Spirago says. Pay attention to the thoughts in your mind. If they are sinful ones, turn your attention to God and say a prayer immediately. Seek to preoccupy your mind with an activity.
2. If thoughts are not instantly expelled, they awaken in the mind complacency in what is evil, and that is already a venial sin.
The evil thoughts which the devil puts into our mind may be compared to eggs; as after a period of incubation the young bird is produced from the egg, so sin is produced from evil thoughts if they are cherished in the breast and regarded with complacency. 'When concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin' (James 1:15). [ibid]
After the temptation is presented to a person's mind, the moment they take satisfaction in it, it becomes sinful. Venial sin is committed in the person's thoughts.
3. The evil desire next arises; this has a turpitude corresponding to that of the sinful action towards which it is directed.
An evil desire is an act of the will, or deliberate consent. That which proceeds from the heart (i.e. the will), that is sin (Matt. 15:19). Before God the will to sin counts as the deed of sin. He who entertains evil desires has committed the sin already in his heart (Matt. 5:28)....He who does not know how to tame his evil lusts, is like a rider whose horse takes fright and bolts, dragging him through bogs and morasses, for he will be drawn into mortal sin and finally cast into hell. How unhappy are you, if you cherish sinful desires in your heart! [ibid]
When the temptation in one's mind is allowed to fester by one finding satisfaction and pleasure in the thought, it motivates one's desire to commit the sin. Once that happens, it becomes equivalent to exteriorly committing the sin itself. We can recall the words of our Lord and how strong this association is as well as the vigilance in our thoughts that it demands:
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. [Matthew 5:28]
4. Finally comes the resolution to commit the sin.
The evil concupiscence was merely a wish or longing for the sinful object. The resolution is a final decision to adopt the means necessary to the attainment of that object. Up to this point the sin is still an interior sin. [ibid]
5. If occasion then presents itself for the sin, the exterior act is committed.
An exterior sin is attended by worse consequences than an interior sin; it augments the malice of the will, destroys the sense of shame, often gives scandal, brings misery on the sinner, and is more severely punished by God...If mortal sin committed, the soul is in a state of sin. When water is once frozen, it remains a block of ice until it is melted by heat. Thus it is with the man who falls into mortal sin; he continues in a state of sin until he is brought to repentance. [ibid]
Notice the effects of the commission of sin: It increases the malice of the will. The person becomes more intent on breaking God's law with every commission of sin.
It also "numbs" the guilt one ought to feel when committing sinful acts. That sense of shame diminishes as the person continues along their wayward path. In our culture today, we often see this with people who act proud of things that are grave sins - such as abortion and pornography. The sense of shame is diminished because of repeated commission of the sin and a longing to justify it to their pricking conscience.
We see that the commission of sin also often brings scandal and misery. While sin is often accompanied by a momentary pleasure of some sort, it never makes us happy.
Finally, we need to remember that Jesus revealed God as Father. God is a good, loving Father. So when we talk about God punishing, we need to remember that His motive is love and our eternal happiness:
My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.”
Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons.
For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?
[Hebrews 12:5-7]
6. By the repetition of the exterior sins the habit of sin, or vice, is contracted.
If mortal sin be repeated many times the habit of sin is formed; that is to say the sinner acquires a certain proficiency in wickedness, and the will is permanently inclined to evil. [ibid]
Now if I were to quote this entire paragraph, you would understand that he is not saying our wills are irredeemable and cannot be ordered rightly. Spirago is saying that when vice is contracted and we continue in committing the sin, it becomes that much more difficult to rise out of. You can compare it to a footpath. When a footpath is first made through the woods, it leaves an impression. When one continues to walk over it, back and forth, the path gets clearer and wider and deeper. So it is with vice on our soul; it gets "etched" on our soul the more we commit it and let it have its way; it becomes more difficult to "erase." Of course, nothing is impossible with God's grace!
With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. [Matthew 19:26]
7. Every outward sin and every vice brings, as its own punishment, other sins and vices of a different nature in its train.
The grace of departs from every man who has fallen into mortal sin...In fact the evil enemy bestirs himself the more to bind his captive more tightly. Now since temptation cannot be overcome without God's grace, the sinner falls lower and lower, from one sin to another. [ibid]
This is equivalent to the downward spiral effect. Let's use an example for clarity. If a married woman has started an affair with another man, she may contract the sin of not only adultery, but likely lying so as to cover up her sin. Perhaps it leads her to abandon her husband and children and file for divorce. Perhaps because of the state she is in, she takes up drinking a bit more, and finds herself getting drunk a little more often. So on and so forth. The important principle to remember here is that sin leads to more sin.
8. If any vice is firmly rooted in the soul, it oftentimes brings after it sins of the worst type, and those that are said to cry to Heaven for vengeance; finally it produces complete obduracy in the sinner.
He who has for a lengthened period been given over to a life of sin, does not shrink from the greatest excesses. And just as perfection in virtue procures for mortal man upon earth happiness which is almost that of heaven, and exalts him to union with God, so there are different grades in vice, by which the soul descends to the condition of the reprobate and her complete separation from God is consummated. Finally he who is the slave of vice is often inspired by a bitter hatred against God, and willfully and of set purpose resists the influence and action of the Holy Spirit; and at last by final impenitence commits the sin against the Holy Ghost which cannot be forgiven. [ibid]
From the previous stage of development, we learned the basic principle that sin leads to more sin. Now this reveals to us that not only does it lead to more sin and other types of sin, but graver and more serious ones. In fact, so low do we descend that Spirago makes a comparison: To the extent one practice virtues, they participate in the happiness of heaven and so experience a foretaste of heaven here on earth. We can also conclude the inverse: To the extent one lives in vice, they participate in the unhappiness of hell and so experience a foretaste of hell here on earth. Let us repeat that out loud to ourselves because this is a very important point.
So when you look around and gasp at the horrid sins and crimes happening in our midst, let us remember that sin begins first in our thoughts, and that they always begin so seemingly "small" and "harmless." But hopefully through this reading, we will have a better understanding of how one tiny thought can unravel into the most heinous of sins. So let us be vigilant first in our thoughts!
"Watch and pray that you may not fall into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak."
~ Matthew 26:41
*Painting titled St. Catherine of Siena besieged by demons, circa 1500 from Wikimedia Commons