Question(s) about "Despair"

[Jaypeeto4]

It is said in Catholic theology that Despair is a mortal sin,
a sin against the Spirit,
because Despair denies that God wants to save you and/or is willing to do so.

I don’t understand this. Please give me some insight.

Look at King Saul. He had sinned against the LORD and disobeyed Him.
The Lord LEFT Saul, and sent evil spirits to torment him.
Plus, Saul would inquire of the Lord and inquire of the Lord,
and the LORD would NOT answer him.
So Saul fell into despair.
Now, of course, he had angered the Lord,
but the fact remains that the Lord would NOT answer his cries.
Scripture even says so.
So why is Saul’s “despair” considered to be sinful?
After all, if God rejects you, and won’t answer your prayers,
wouldn’t it be presumptuous to continue to pray???

What if you have a seeming abundance of evidence
that God has rejected you?? Wouldn’t it be unreasonable
NOT to despair in such a situation? I just don’t understand this.
Thanks

 

[Iron_Donkey]

After all, if God rejects you, and won’t answer your prayers,
wouldn’t it be presumptuous to continue to pray???

What if you have a seeming abundance of evidence
that God has rejected you?? Wouldn’t it be unreasonable
NOT to despair in such a situation?

There is no evidence sufficient to show that God has rejected you. This is the whole point of hope vs despair, really, that no matter how far you fall God will always take you back.

Take for example the reading from last Sunday’s gospel: the woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, and He more or less blows her off, even calling her a dog. If it were at all possible to conclude that God has rejected you, this would be it. The actual incarnated Lord Himself - literally the Word by which all that is good and Holy was created- calling you a dog to your face would, if anything can do so, tell you to go away and shut up. Yet this is not the message we get: the woman persists, and Jesus grants her prayer.

Or think also of Job. That man had every reason to think that the Lord had given up on him as well. Yet it turned out that something entirely different was going on.

If despair never seemed like a tempting option, it wouldn’t be worth mentioning at all. But temptation is, unfortunately, always around and it never seems unreasonable at the time. Also note that God may put, or allow us to be put, in these sorts of situations that tempt us towards despair for our own ultimate benefit, or the benefit of others. The Jews wondered in the desert, Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own son - an act that at first glance seems not just abandonment by God, but attack by Him - and even Christ Himself was left to die on a cross surrounded by His tormentors and with His grieving mother watching.

Yet in every case, where the person in question perseveres, we see that hope was the correct choice. As for the examples of those that do give into despair, Saul and even Judas among them, who knows what good could have come of it had they held onto hope?

For instance, if Judas had repented and been cleansed of his sin rather than despaired and committed suicide, think of the power his witness could have had in the early Church - our God is a God who would heal and forgive even the one who betrayed Him to His death.

That did not occur, but think of Paul, who persecuted Christians. Christ appeared to him and struck him blind (temporarily, but that could not have been known to him) after admonishing him, but rather than turn to despair he turned his zeal to his new mission.

 

[LittleFlower378]

I think its a serious problem when you believe your sin is greater than Gods mercy. For you to get rid of God you would have to write a bill or divorce which is something that hopefully no one would want to do.

 

[Jaypeeto4]

Thanks for your kind and insightful replies !!

Some observations:
Job was a RIGHTEOUS man (at least relatively-speaking), and he knew it.
St. Paul acted sinfully out of a misguided zeal for what he thought was truth.
And Jesus Christ was and is God the Son, and always knew it.
Scripture even says that Jesus
endured the Cross because of “the joy that was set before him.”
So even in his darkest hour, Jesus knew he could never be lost, how COULD he???
Abraham, despite a few flaws, was a righteous man.

If a person has sinned willfully and repeatedly since baptism,
even if he or she repented every time, wouldn’t the frequently repeated offense(s)
indicated possible reprobation? Just asking, especially in light of Hebrews 10:26-31 ??
What if that same sinner, discovers to his or her horror
that God has been letting him or her make a series of fatal and
unhealable mistakes for two decades, without even knowing or being aware of it?
Wouldn’t that possibly indicate that God has REMOVED his providential care
from that person’s life? Would that not possibly indicate that God has rejected that
person? Especially if the mistakes were of such magnitude that the person can NEVER
recover from them, nor make up for them, without the assistance of a
SERIES of dramatic Divine Miracles?? And he never even suspected that he might
even possibly be making such deadly mistakes, and God never once opened his eyes to it for all those years???
Would it be the “Sin” of Despair to despair in such a situation,
or would it be perfectly reasonable???
I ask because I find myself in just such a situation.
I don’t want to despair, but it sure seems unreasonable not to…
Love,
Jaypeeto4