The Sin of Assumption?

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ATeutonicKnight

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Recently my conscience has been bothered by the realization that I have a spirit of assumption about my salvation. I have a good and regular prayer life, I attend daily Mass, and I am almost always in the state of grace, and I subconsciously assume that since I am in the state of grace and am trying to do God’s will in my life the best that I can, if I were to die at this moment, I would go to heaven. But my conscience tells me this is the wrong way to go about it, as Saint Paul says to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” On the same token, however, Saint Therese was certain of her salvation and never doubted for a moment that she would go to heaven.

So the question is:

How do I get from a spirit of assumption to a spirit of trust in God’s mercy? What is the fine line to determine which one you have?

This realization has, thankfully, given me a good slap in the face to remind me that I’m not the perfect saint I’m sometimes tempted to view me as, and that I’m just as weak as anyone else. However, the question still stands: How do we determine if we are assuming that we are saved, or merely trusting in God much like Saint Therese?
 
+JMJ+

You mean the sin of presumption, right?

Well first of all nobody, except with a special grace, is sure of whether he is in the state of grace or not. You can have, however, a sure hope of being in the state of sanctifying grace.

Second, the main difference between presumption and hope lies in how you see of yourself. Hope is a balance of extremes, meaning you must have extreme views and ways of living for hope to exist. One extreme is God’s Infinite Goodness and Love for you and for all mankind. The other extreme is the sheer wretchedness of man.

Oh don’t worry, the Catholic view of this wretchedness of man is not like that of some Protestants, in which they see that man cannot do anything good or praiseworthy without the influence of God. But, in a way the Catholic view of man’s wretchedness is worse than that view: we believe man can do good alone, but only in the natural order, therefore alone man cannot do anything by himself to save him from damnation.

This is why there are many saints who cannot see anything good in themselves but only see the sins they have done and thus seem to conclude that only sin and no goodness come from them, since their outlook is solely on the salvation of their souls. All the goodness that come from them they attribute to God’s grace, and make themselves blind to their own goodness (“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” Matthew 6:3).

You can infer that in here to solely focus on God’s Love for you without looking at your own wretchedness is presumption, and to focus solely on your own wretchedness without looking at God’s Love is despair.

Hope is when you let your wretchedness and God’s Love meet, so that God’s Love goes to your wretchedness as Divine Mercy, and your wretchedness goes to His Love as repentance.

Now St. Therese of Lisieux’s outlook and way of life, the so called “Little Way”, is so revolutionary because it perfectly models this virtue of hope. The Little Way is so called because it makes the practitioner small in one’s eyes and therefore in God’s eyes, knowing how small his actions are, but nevertheless gives those small actions to God, and lets God do the heavy lifting of things like salvation, full of trust in His Love and Mercy.
 
nuntym said:
+JMJ+

You mean the sin of presumption, right?

Well first of all nobody, except with a special grace, is sure of whether he is in the state of grace or not. You can have, however, a sure hope of being in the state of sanctifying grace.

Second, the main difference between presumption and hope lies in how you see of yourself. Hope is a balance of extremes, meaning you must have extreme views and ways of living for hope to exist. One extreme is God’s Infinite Goodness and Love for you and for all mankind. The other extreme is the sheer wretchedness of man.

Oh don’t worry, the Catholic view of this wretchedness of man is not like that of some Protestants, in which they see that man cannot do anything good or praiseworthy without the influence of God. But, in a way the Catholic view of man’s wretchedness is worse than that view: we believe man can do good alone, but only in the natural order, therefore alone man cannot do anything by himself to save him from damnation.

This is why there are many saints who cannot see anything good in themselves but only see the sins they have done and thus seem to conclude that only sin and no goodness come from them, since their outlook is solely on the salvation of their souls. All the goodness that come from them they attribute to God’s grace, and make themselves blind to their own goodness (“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” Matthew 6:3).

You can infer that in here to solely focus on God’s Love for you without looking at your own wretchedness is presumption, and to focus solely on your own wretchedness without looking at God’s Love is despair.

Hope is when you let your wretchedness and God’s Love meet, so that God’s Love goes to your wretchedness as Divine Mercy, and your wretchedness goes to His Love as repentance.

Now St. Therese of Lisieux’s outlook and way of life, the so called “Little Way”, is so revolutionary because it perfectly models this virtue of hope. The Little Way is so called because it makes the practitioner small in one’s eyes and therefore in God’s eyes, knowing how small his actions are, but nevertheless gives those small actions to God, and lets God do the heavy lifting of things like salvation, full of trust in His Love and Mercy.
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No, I did not mean that. I was using a play on words.

Secondly, I have it on pretty high authority that such thinking that we can never know if we’re truly in the state of grace is not in keeping with Church tradition or teaching whatsoever. Firstly, the Church is very clear that if you’re not aware something you’re committing is mortally sinful, then it’s not. Therefore, if you are not conscious of mortal sin on your soul, then you are in the state of grace, particularly if you’ve recently gone to confession. Secondly, if we can’t be sure that we’re in the state of grace, then we should never receive the Eucharist, plain and simple. Doing so would be a huge gamble, because receiving the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin is simply too high a price to risk. And thirdly, using the example of Saint Therese, she herself said she had never committed a mortal sin in her life, thus meaning she knew she was in the State of Sanctifying Grace.

But I digress. I do not want this thread to become a debate about that, so I would like to kindly ask that all mention of it on one side or the other to cease from this point.

So essentially, The Little Way is simply doing your best to become as holy as possible and leaving the worry of your salvation to God?
 
+JMJ+

So let me get this straight: you want to discuss whether you are wrongly assuming about sanctifying grace, but you do not want to talk about what you know about it? Really? Especially when I see some errors about what you know about it, like the Catechism itself saying that you cannot have absolute certainty of the presence of sanctifying grace (CCC 2005), nor is there any requirement for anybody to have sanctifying grace to receive Holy Communion, only that one should have (among other requirements) no conscious knowledge of grave sin without previous Sacrament of Reconciliation (Code of Canon Law, CIC 916).

Besides how about mortal sin that you are not aware of, like pride? Pride is dangerous in that it blinds you from your own sinfulness. Remember the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14)?

I do not know about St Therese not being conscious of any mortal sin in her life, but this is what she said: “Make it clear, Mother, that if I had committed all possible crimes, I would still have the same confidence. I would feel that this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water cast into a blazing fire.”
 
nuntym said:
+JMJ+

So let me get this straight: you want to discuss whether you are wrongly assuming about sanctifying grace, but you do not want to talk about what you know about it? Really? Especially when I see some errors about what you know about it, like the Catechism itself saying that you cannot have absolute certainty of the presence of sanctifying grace (CCC 2005), nor is there any requirement for anybody to have sanctifying grace to receive Holy Communion, only that one should have (among other requirements) no conscious knowledge of grave sin without previous Sacrament of Reconciliation (Code of Canon Law, CIC 916).

Besides how about mortal sin that you are not aware of, like pride? Pride is dangerous in that it blinds you from your own sinfulness. Remember the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14)?

I do not know about St Therese not being conscious of any mortal sin in her life, but this is what she said: “Make it clear, Mother, that if I had committed all possible crimes, I would still have the same confidence. I would feel that this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water cast into a blazing fire.”
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2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved.56 However, according to the Lord’s words "Thus you will know them by their fruits"57 - reflection on God’s blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.

That doesn’t say we can’t know that we are in the State of Sanctifying Grace, it says we cannot rely on our feelings or works to conclude that we are justified and saved. That is completely different. In fact, it’s saying we can know by Faith. The basis of this entire passage is essentially “Don’t be Pelagian”.

And you are wrong. The Church explicitly states that if we receive the Eucharist in mortal sin, that is a grave sacrilege. Saint Paul says if you eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Lord unworthily (I.e., in mortal sin) you eat and drink damnation unto yourself. Therefore, you must be in a state of sanctifying grace in order to receive communion. If that’s not enough, this is Catholic Answers itself saying you must be in the state of sanctifying Grace to receive communion: catholic.com/tracts/who-can-receive-communion

"First, you must be in a state of grace. “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor. 11:27–28). This is an absolute requirement which can never be dispensed. *To receive the Eucharist without sanctifying grace in your soul profanes the Eucharist in the most grievous manner. *

A mortal sin is any sin whose matter is grave and which has been committed willfully and with knowledge of its seriousness. Grave matter includes, but is not limited to, murder, receiving or participating in an abortion, homosexual acts, having sexual intercourse outside of marriage or in an invalid marriage, and deliberately engaging in impure thoughts (Matt. 5:28–29). Scripture contains lists of mortal sins (for example, 1 Cor. 6:9–10 and Gal. 5:19–21). For further information on what constitutes a mortal sin, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church."

As for mortal sin we are not aware of, that is impossible. The Catechism explicitly states that three things are necessary for mortal sin: Grave matter, consent, and knowledge that it is a mortal sin. Therefore, you cannot commit a mortal sin and not realize it. Every mortal sin is purposefully committed with full knowledge and consent. If either of those two things are not present, it is not mortally sinful and you are in the state of sanctifying grace.
 
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