Sins Against Our Neighbour
In Thoughts.
Have you been deficient in point of charity towards your neighbour?
Have you judged rashly of him?
Have you willfully entertained thoughts of hatred, aversion, rancour, or a coldness and resentment against him?
Have you, on this account, endeavoured to avoid meeting or speaking to him?
Have you envied him in his merit, reputation, fortune or employments?
Have you conceived desires of revenge against him, and wished that harm might befall him?
Have you been hard-hearted, or without any feeling or compassion for him in his affliction?
Have you felt in yourself a secret pleasure and satisfaction when any disgrace happened to him, and discontent in seeing him thrive and flourish?
[These sins may vary in their malice, according to the length of time we were thus affected, or the relation we stand in to the different persons in question, or according to the greater or less importance of the matter under our consideration.]
In Words.
Have you spoken harshly to your neighbour; given him abusive language; railed at him; miscalled him; mocked and ridiculed him; exposed him to scorn; affronted him; censured his conduct; found fault with every thing he did; put wrong constructions upon his actions; calumniated or detracted him; been pleased to hear others speak ill of him; listened to and encouraged the calumny or detraction when you could prevent such discourses? [N.B.—The motive for speaking thus, the number of persons present, and the subject of this uncharitable language, must be specified, as we are bound to repair the injury to the best of our power.]
We also sin by ill-natured reports or insinuations, malicious expressions, whether true or false; by giving bad advice and bad example; by instilling bad or dangerous principles; by flattering others, or approving of evil; by giving false testimony; by discovering the secrets or the faults of others; by abusive words, reproaches, bad wishes or imprecations, &c.
In Actions.
Have you wronged, deceived, or circumvented your neighbour in buying or selling?
Have you injured him by stealing, cheating, usury, extortion, or any unlawful contract? by putting off false money, or using false weights or measures?
Have you bought or received stolen goods?
Have you contracted debts without design of paying them?
We also sin by wronging our creditors, or our own family, by prodigal expenses; by refusing to pay our just debts when able, or by culpable extravagance rendering ourselves unable to pay them by neglecting the work or business for which we were hired, and obliged by contract to perform; in fine, by unjustly taking or keeping any thing of value belonging to another; in which case it is impossible to obtain forgiveness without making restitution to the best of our power. [And here it is to be observed, that where two or more jointly injure another, in goods or reputation, they are jointly and severally obliged to restitution; that is to say, they are bound to contribute their respective proportions towards repairing the injury; and every individual of them is answerable before God for the whole injury, when either or any of the accomplices refuse to repair their portion thereof.]
In Omissions.
Have you neglected to succour, comfort and assist your neighbour in necessity?
Have you neglected to restore ill-gotten goods, or to repair injured characters?
Have you refused to be reconciled to an enemy, or to perform duties of obligation, such as respect and love towards parents, obedience to superiors, &c.
Sins Against Ourselves Are Committed
By Pride.
In having too great an esteem for ourselves, and haughtily despising others
In being too apt to speak of our own affairs, or in our own praise;
In aspiring to honours and preferment through vanity;
In affecting to be humble, or in deceiving others by hypocrisy
In being influenced in what we do by human respects, for obtaining the applause and esteem of men
In being too much wedded to our own opinions and inclinations;
In being too solicitous about our health;
In being too fond of the pleasures, comforts, and conveniences of life.
By Avarice.
In being backward in giving alms according to our ability;
In squandering away in gaming, or in vain and foolish expenses, the substance that Providence hath given for the relief of the poor and distressed;
In not only refusing them an alms which we can afford, but in refusing it with bitterness, reproaches, imperious, ill-natured language, or with an insulting air;
In being too much attached to the goods of this life; where it must be ever remembered, that whatever is really superfluous to us belongs of right to the poor; that where there is much, much should be given; and that where there is only a little, even some of that little should be cheerfully given; for “God loves the cheerful giver.”
By Envy.
In being sorry for the prosperity of others
Rejoicing at their misfortunes
In wishing with jealousy for what belongs to them.
By Impurity.
In willfully dwelling upon, or taking pleasure in unchaste thoughts.
[N. B.—The penitent must here mention whether these bad thoughts were entertained during a considerable time, and how long; whether they were accompanied with desires of committing the evil; whether they caused irregular motions; whether in a holy place; and, finally, whether the objects of these sinful desires were single or married, kindred or relations, or persons consecrated to God.]
By Words.
In speaking obscenely, or with a double meaning, which is as bad, if not worse; in listening with pleasure to such vile language. [N. B.—this sort of discourse is still more criminal, when it passes between two persons of a different sex. We also sin grievously this way, by singing unchaste songs, by giving toasts and sentiments contrary to modesty, or by permitting them to be given when we can prevent them, or by not retiring on such occasions.]
By Looks.
In viewing immodest objects;
In reading bad books;
In keeping indecent pictures;
In frequenting plays and public assemblies, which are but too often the schools of vice, where dangerous objects are held up to view, and where vice is represented, not in its native horrible colours or consequences, but as mere gaiety.
Comedies also are so full of indecent sentiments and indelicate allusions, as cannot but offend a modest ear, and have an immoral tendency. They are not only powerful incentives to this vice, but are besides evidently unlawful, for the following reason: viz. because we cannot assist at them without contributing, by our purse and our example, to maintain a set of people in a profession, or way of life, which was always deemed infamous by the Catholic Church. Under this head likewise may be classed, the tempting of others to sin, by dissolute glances, gestures, or immodesty in dress or behaviour.
By Actions.
In abusing and defiling the sanctity of marriage by such liberties and irregularities as are contrary to the order of nature;
in touching ourselves or others immodestly;
in permitting indecent liberties to be taken with us. [N.B.— It is necessary to explain every thing, in order to make known such circumstances as may increase or diminish the guilt, with as much modesty as possible; and also to declare, whether we have employed, or neglected to employ the necessary means of overcoming this vile passion. We should carefully distinguish what is wilful, from what is not; an effect of deliberation, from one of mere negligence; also the number of these bad actions, or at least the length of time we continued in the habit of committing them; with what sort of persons we have sinned, or desired to sin, but this without mentioning their names. And as it too often happens with young persons, who have miserably fallen into a certain sin of a lonely and abominable nature, either to conceal this crime, or not faithfully confess how often they have been guilty of it, we therefore earnestly beseech such to reflect seriously on the fatal evils in which they involve themselves. Let them consider, that all those confessions, and the communions which follow them, are only so many sacrileges, removing them still farther from God, and provoking his just indignation against them; that the longer they continue in this state of Hypocrisy, the more difficult it must be to overcome their bashfulness, and the more anguish they must feel in their own interior; that no practice is more destructive of health, beauty, or genius, than this; that it deforms and debilitates the wretched perpetrator; that it must, not only in a moral, but also in a physical sense, degrade him beneath the rank of the brute creation, and render him contemptible to mankind.]
By Gluttony.
In exceeding the bounds prescribed by temperance;
in eating or drinking to excess;
in exciting others to do so;
in not observing with due exactness the days of fasting and abstinence enjoined by the church;
in exceeding the quantity which is usually allowed at collation.
By Anger.
In abusing, quarrelling, striking, or wishing evil to others; in provoking others to quarrel or fight. Which sins are still more heinous when parents or superiors are the objects thereof.
By Sloth.
In neglecting our religious or moral duties;
in performing them carelessly;
in leading a life of idleness, voluptuousness, and dissipation;
in passing our time unprofitably, when the duties of our state call on us to labour.
We are also guilty by following the bent of our inclinations, and gratifying self-love;
by studying too much our own ease;
by too great a remissness in mortifying our passions or senses.