Venial sin is the great evil in the world next to mortal sin, and therefore it deserves a punishment: greater than any of the miseries of earth. God has taught us what sort of an evil it is by one or two instances of the way in which He punishes it in this life.

Moses, the friend of God, the chosen ruler of His people, the meekest of men, to whom God conversed as friend with friend, once committed a venial sin. He gave way to momentary impatience. For this God sent him up to die on Mount Nebo before the Jordan was crossed. All the forty years of weary travel did not avail him; the venial sin cut him off before the goal was reached.

David, the man after God's own heart, in a moment of vanity determined to number the people, boastfully priding himself on the strength of his fighting men. In punishment of this God sent a pestilence, which in less than three days destroyed seventy thousand of the Israelites. Jerusalem itself would have been decimated had not David entreated God to avert His destroying hand. How God must hate venial sin!

After death there will remain for most a debt for venial sin still to be paid. It is in Purgatory that we shall see its true character. No earthly agony even approaches the agony of the purgatorial fire. The souls that God loves must be tormented there till they have paid the last farthing. Alas! what do I still owe? Am I doing my best to pay the debt and avoid adding to it?

Beg for an intense dread of venial sin.