If I can quit smoking, I can quit sinning althogether?

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some might view smoking as a sin . I’m not sure I do but anyhow.
I used to smoke a pack a day until I quit 10 years ago. I just went cold turkey. I was turning 50 and had smoked for 20 years. My mother died of lung cancer at 66. And I was having friendly rivalry with my brother who would quit first. There was more than one motivation. Unfortunately I’ve put on some weight since then.

I’ve heard it said that if you can quit smoking, you can quit anything. So why cant I apply it to all my sins? Laziness, fault-finding in others, negativity, self-pity, lack of faith, hope and love. These are the ones I need to address. Smoking is addictive. maybe all these sins are addictive too. Yes of course they are. Sin is addictive. That is why it is so hard to give up!
 
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Smoking is both internal and external to the self. You must have the desire, the craving (internal), but also do several external things in sequence, before you smoke. Go to the store or market, buy the smokes, obtain the lighter or matches, open the pack, light up and then ponder the wisdom of it all as you watch your money go up in smoke. Yet, depending on your physical environment, you might not smoke at all.

However, due to concupiscence, we naturally incline toward sinfulness. From the Confiteor: “In my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do”

Our ability to sin is our nature. Our choice lies within the freedom which God granted us. Our opportunities omnipresent. Our struggle is intended to be continuous. Fortunately, our God knows what we are made of. He greatly desires that we sin no more, knowing full well that we will.

He loves us anyway and offers the Sacrament to us. We are not absolutely expected to triumph over sin. God is pleased when we struggle against it. In fact, the worse the sin, the more we struggle - even though we fail - the greater is God’s pleasure. We struggle against sin, falling and rising, just as Jesus struggled with His cross, falling and rising.

As Archbishop Fulton sheen said, “We have a God Who stumbled to His throne!”

And from all of this comes hope.
 
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Great question.

I don’t have an answer, only the following thought…

There’s a saying that if we quit one vice a year, we would all be saints in a few years.

One priest advised me of that in the confessional, and suggested it as serious plan.

Another priest mentioned the saying in a homily, and told the congregation: “Don’t even try”.

Both were good, experienced priests.

I personally agree with the second, without disrespect to the first.

Addictions (eg. smoking), do seem to be a different matter to vices, eg “self centredness”, however there is some overlap. Ideally we would be able to quit one a year, but we can’t (IMHO) and it is probably better not go about it like that.
 
Edmundus1581 said:
There’s a saying that if we quit one vice a year, we would all be saints in a few years.
Click to expand...
Twenty years ago I smoked, drank alcohol and gambled. I managed to quit all of them over the years. Now I’m just a pain in the neck. 🙂
 
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