Part 1, lesson 2. Of the loss of grace after baptism, and of the labor of penance necessary to re cover it

Q. Can he, who has once lost the grace of the Holy Spirit after baptism, ever recover it?

A. He can by penance; but with great labor and toil.

Q. It is for this reason, per haps, that the sacrament of periance is called a laborious bap tism ?

A. It is, undoubtedly; for in baptism, in which we are re generated in Christ, God, our Father, infuses into us the life of his beloved Son, without his divine justice exacting any pen alty from us; but it is not so with penance.

Q Why?

A. Because we must now toil and labor, to recover the virtues that God had given us in bap tism, and planted in our soul with his own omnipotent hand; and it is only by the sweat of our brow that the Holy Spirit will now fertilise the barren and unfruitful soil of our heart, in which grace had before caused virtues to germinate without toil or labor on our part.

Q. The loss of the grace of baptism is then a great loss ?

A. Yes, inexpressibly great; and how can this master-piece of grace and mercy be restored ?

Q. Is not this loss retrieved by penance ?

~ A. Not perfectly; for, by penance, we generally do what an inferior artist does, who tries to restore the original of a great painter, already much defaced; the last work would not approach the first.

Q. Why is so much trouble necessary to recover the grace of Baptism?

A. Because it has been lost by an enormous sin and a mons trous ingratitude, in trampling upon the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and stifling the gifts of the Holy Ghost which we had received in baptism.

Q. What! does he who of fends God after baptism by a mortal sin, trample upon the blood of Christ?

A. Yes, he does.

Q. How ?

A. First, because he outrages his blood and merits, which purchased for us the Holy Ghost and all his graces. Secondly, because he becomes one spirit with Satan, who tramples upon the blood of Christ in the soul of the sinner, and triumphs over our Lord on his own throne.

Q. It is, perhaps, for this reason that St. Paul says* that the sinner crucifies to himself the Son of God ?

A. Yes.

Q. But how can one crucify Christ?

A. As the Jews, actuated by the rage of devils, bound, and nailed, and fastened our Lord upon the cross, so that he had no use of his limbs; so by sin we bind and fasten him in our hearts, and deprive him of the power of acting in us.

• Crucifigentes sibimetipsis Filiurn Dei. Hebr. vi 6.

Q. Explain this more fully, if you please.

A. Our avarice binds his charity, our anger his mildness, our impatience his patience, our pride his humility; and thus, by our vices, we chain, and bind, and tear to pieces, as much as we can, our Lord dwelling in us.