God is perfect. The scriptures inform us that we too must be morally perfect, and the very hairs on our head are numbered.
The molecules, the atoms… everything… He sees and knows…
And to get to Heaven, we must be perfect.
And truly, actually, many people see many sins as trivial that are in fact not, because they are habituated to them. In other words, if you swim in filth long enough you no longer smell it or quite realize how bad you look as you’re wallowing in it.
We are held account to for every idle word we say. And our words reflect our interior soul, our hearts. If there is no evil in our hearts, nothing evil will come forth from our mouths. It’s simply filthy to have a filthy mouth, and a filthy mind. We know better. And we can overcome it, and the benefits of doing so are immense both in our outward lives and interior life.
‘Saint James says, “If any man offend not in word, the same is, a perfect man.” Beware most watchfully against ever uttering any unseemly expression; even though you may have no evil intention, those who hear it may receive it with a different meaning. An impure word falling upon a weak mind spreads its infection like a drop of oil on a garment, and sometimes it will take such a hold of the heart, as to fill it with an infinitude of lascivious thoughts and temptations. . . Our Lord, Who knoweth the hearts of men, has said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” And even if we do mean no harm, the Evil One means a great deal, and he will use those idle words as a sharp weapon against some neighbour’s heart. . . As to unclean and light-minded talk, St. Paul says such things should not even be named among us, for, as he elsewhere tells us, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.”’
St. Francis de Sales
'You have heard an angry father using bad language, uttering imprecations and curses. Very well, then. Listen to his children when they are angry – the same vile words, the same imprecations, and all the rest of it. Thus the vices of the parents – like their good qualities – pass to their children, but in more pronounced fashion. Cannibals kill only strangers, to eat them, but among Christians there are fathers and mothers who, in order to gratify their passions, desire the death of those whom they have given life and who consign to the Devil those whom Jesus Christ redeemed with His Precious Blood. How many times does one not hear those fathers and mothers who have no religion saying: “This cursed child. . . You make me sick. . . I wish you were miles away. . . This so-and-so of a child. . . These little brats. . . This demon of a child. . .” And so on.
O, dear Lord, that such ugly and evil phrases should fall from the lips of fathers and mothers who should desire nothing but benedictions from Heaven upon their poor little children. If we encounter so many children who are wild and undisciplined, without religion, bad tempered and stunted in their souls, we need not – at least in the majority of cases – search for the cause beyond the curses and bad tempers of the parents.’
What, then, must we think of the sin of those who curse themselves in moments of worry or difficulty? This is an appalling crime which is contrary to nature and grace, for both nature and grace inspire us with love for ourselves. Those who curse themselves are like insane people who die by their own hands. It is even worse than that. Often they lay the blame upon their own souls, saying: “Let God damn me! I wish the Devil would carry me off! I’d rather be in Hell than the way I am.”
Oh, miserable creature, says St. Augustine, may God not take you at your word, for if He did, you would go to vomit the poison of your spleen in Hell. Oh, Lord, if a Christian but thought of what he said. . . How wretched indeed is the man who is the victim of anger! Will anyone ever be able to understand his mentality?’
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars
