SACRED LOVE RETURNING INTO THE SOUL BRINGS BACK TO LIFE ALL THE WORKS WHICH SIN HAD DESTROYED
The works then which a sinner does while he is deprived of holy love are never profitable for eternal life. For this they are called dead works. On the contrary, the good works of the just man are said to be living because divine love animates and enlivens them with its life. If afterwards they lose their life and worth due to sin, they are said to be works that are deadened, extinguished or mortified but not dead works, especially with regard to the elect. Just as the Saviour speaking of the little Talitha, the daughter of Jairus, said: she is not dead but sleeping only (Mt 9:24). Since she was about to be raised to life, her death would be of such short duration that it would resemble sleep rather than a true death. Similarly, the works of the just, and especially of the elect, which the coming of sin causes to die, are not called dead works but only deadened, mortified, stupefied or drowsy. This is because on the next return of holy love, they will or at least they can, quickly revive and return to life again. The return of sin takes away life from the heart and from all its works. The return of grace gives life to the heart and to all its works.
A harsh winter deadens all the plants of the countryside. If it were to last always, they also would always continue in this state of death. Sin, which is the sad and very frightful winter of the soul, deadens all the holy works it finds therein. If it continued always, nothing would ever recover either life or energy. At the return of the bright spring, the new seeds, which we scatter on the earth in favour of this beautiful and fertile season, germinate and blossom pleasantly, each one according to its quality. Also the old plants which the vigour of the preceding winter had withered, dried and deadened, grow green and vigorous again and take up their strength and their life. The same happens when sin is removed and the grace of God’s love returns to the soul. The new affections, which the return of this spiritual spring brings, blossom and produce an abundance of merits and blessings, Also the works dried up and withered by the rigour of the winter of past sin, freed from their moral enemy, regain their powers. They grow vigorous and, as if risen from the dead, flourish once more and bring forth fruit of merits for life everlasting.
Such is the omnipotence of heavenly love, or the love of heavenly omnipotence. When a wicked person turns away from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall save his life... Be converted and do penance for all your iniquities, and iniquity shall not be your ruin, says the Lord almighty (Ezek 18: 27, 30). What does it mean to say that iniquity shall not be your ruin if not that the ruins which it had made shall be repaired? So also, besides the thousand caresses which the prodigal son received from his father, he was reestablished with advantage in all his privileges, and in all the graces, favours and dignities which he had lost (Lk 15:22). Job, innocent image of the repentant sinner, received in the end twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10). In fact, the most holy Council of Trent desires that we should encourage penitents who have returned to the sacred love of the eternal God with these words of the Apostle: Abound in every good work, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58). For God is not unjust, that he should forget your work and the love which you have shown in his name (Heb 6:10). God then does not forget the works of those who having lost love by sin recover it by repentance. Now God forgets works when they lose their merit and sanctity by the entry of sin. And he remembers them when they return to life and vigour by the presence of holy love. So much so that for the faithful to be rewarded for their good works, as much by the increase of grace and future glory as by the actual enjoyment of eternal life, it is not necessary that they should never again fall into sin. It is sufficient according to the Sacred Council [of Trent] that they die in the grace and love of God.
God has promised eternal rewards for the works of a just person. But if the just person turns away from his justice by sin, God will no more remember his justice and good works which he has done (Ezek 18:24). Neverthless, if this poor person fallen into sin afterwards rises and returns into God’s love by repentance, God will no more remember his sin. If he no longer remembers the sin, he will then remember the former good works and the reward which he had promised them. This is because sin, which alone had removed them from the divine memory, has been wiped out, taken away, completely destroyed. So then the justice of God obliges his mercy, or rather the mercy of God obliges his justice to look once again at the former good works as if he had never forgotten them. Otherwise the holy penitent would not have dared to say to his Master: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and strengthen me with your perfect spirit (Ps 51:12). As you see, he not only asks for a newness of spirit and of heart but he expects to have given back to him the joy which sin had taken away. This joy is nothing else than the wine of heavenly love which gladdens the heart of people (Ps 104:15).
In this matter, it is not with sin as with works of charity. The works of the just person are not wiped out, taken away or destroyed by the coming of sin; they are only forgotten. But the sin of the wicked person is not only forgotten. It is wiped out washed away, removed, destroyed by holy repentance. That is why the sin committed by the just person does not cause the sins previously pardoned to live again. This is because they were entirely destroyed. But love returning into the soul of the penitent makes his former good works come to life again, since they were not abolished but only forgotten. This forgetting of the good works of the just, after they have left their justice and charity, consists in this, that they are made unprofitable to us as long as sin makes us incapable of eternal life which is their fruit. Therefore, as soon as by the return of charity we are put back in the rank of God’s children, and consequently made capable of immortal glory, God remembers our good works of the past and they are again made fruitful for us. It is not reasonable that sin should have as much power against charity as charity has against sin. Sin proceeds from our weakness and charity from God’s power. If sin abounds in malice to ruin us, grace abounds all the more (Rom 5:20) to restore us. God’s mercy, by which he wipes away sin, is constantly exalted and becomes gloriously triumphant over the rigour of the judgment (Jas 2:13) by which God has forgotten the good works that preceded sin. So also our Lord, by the bodily cures which he worked miraculously, always not only restored health but added new blessings making the cure far excel the illness, so full of kindness is he to humankind.
That wasps, horse flies and such other little harmful insects when dead can come back to life and rise again is a thing I have never seen or read or heard about. However, that the dear bees, those wonderful insects, can come to life again [after being dead] everyone says, and I have often read about it. Here is what Pliny writes: “It is said that if one keeps the dead bodies of drowned honeybees indoors all winter and places them in the sun the following spring, covered with the ashes of the fig tree, they will live again," and be as good as ever. That sins and evil deeds can return to life after they have been drowned and taken away by repentance, indeed my Theotimus, never has Scripture or any theologian I know of said it. Rather, the contrary is authorised by Holy Writ and by the common consent of all Doctors. But that good deeds which like sweet bees produce the honey of merit, after being drowned by sin can revive when covered with the ashes of repentance and exposed to the sun of grace and charity, is held and clearly taught by all theologians. So we should not doubt that they become profitable and fruitful as before the sin was committed.
When Nabuzardan destroyed Jerusalem and the Israelites were led away into captivity, the sacred fire of the altar was hidden in a well. There it turned into mud. After the return from captivity, when this mud was drawn out of the well and exposed to the sun, the dead fire kindled again and the mud was changed into flames. When someone who is just becomes a slave to sin, all the good works which he had done are miserably forgotten and turned into mud. But being set free from captivity, and when by repentance he returns into the grace of heavenly charity, his former good works are drawn out of the well of oblivion. Touched with the rays of heavenly mercy they return to life and are changed into flames as clear as ever. They are to be replaced on the sacred altar of divine approbation, to have their original dignity, their original price and their original value.