Profanities Deserve God’s Vengeance
Here St. Alphonsus continues admonishing those who use obscene or immodest words. He speaks very strongly, warning those who think there is no harm in using a few profanities that those few words can send not only oneself, but others, to Hell. It is never clever or innocent to follow the faddish but always immoral
mode of speaking coarsely.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
All men are inclined to evil. The imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil. (Gen 8: 21) But, above all, men are prone to the sin of impurity, to which nature itself inclines them. Hence St. Augustine has said, that in struggling against that vice, "the victory is rare," at least for those who do not use great caution. Communis pugna et rara victoria [It is a common battle, but a rare victory].
Now, the impure objects of which they speak are always presented to the mind of those who freely utter obscene words. These objects excite pleasure, and bring them into sinful desires and morose delights, and afterwards into criminal acts. Behold the consequence of the immodest words which young men say they speak without malice.
Be not taken in thy tongue, says the Holy Ghost. (Eccl. 5:2-3) Beware lest by your tongue you forge a chain which will drag you to hell. The tongue, says St. James, defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature. (3:6.)
The tongue is one of the members of the body, but when it utters bad words it infects the whole body, and "sets on fire the course of nature:" that is, it inflames and corrupts our entire life from our birth to old age. Hence we see that men who indulge in obscenity cannot, even in old age, abstain from immodest language.
In the life of St. Valerius Surius relates that the Saint went one day while traveling into a house to warm himself. He heard the master of the house and a judge of the district, though both were advanced in years, speaking on obscene subjects. The Saint reproved them severely, but they paid no attention to his rebuke.
However, God punished both of them: One became blind, and a sore broke out on the other, which produced deadly spasms. Henry Gragerman relates (in Magn. Spec., dist. 9, ex. 58) that one of those obscene talkers died suddenly and without repentance, and that he was afterwards seen in Hell tearing his tongue into pieces, and when it was restored he began again to lacerate it.
But how can God have mercy on him who has no pity on the souls of his neighbors? Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy." (Jam 2:13) Oh! what a pity to see one of those obscene wretches pouring out his filthy expressions before girls and young married females! The greater the number of such persons present, the more abominable is his language. It often happens that little boys and girls are present, and he has no horror of scandalizing these innocent souls!
Cantipratano relates that the son of a certain nobleman in Burgundy was sent to be educated by the monks of Cluny. He was an angel of purity, but the unhappy boy having one day entered into a carpenter's shop, heard some obscene words spoken by the carpenter's wife, fell into sin and lost the divine grace.
Fr. Sabitano, in his work entitled Evangelical Light, relates that another boy, fifteen years old, having heard an immodest word, began to think of it the following night, consented to a bad thought, and died suddenly the same night. His confessor having heard of his death, intended to say Mass for him. But the soul of the unfortunate boy appeared to him, and told the confessor not to celebrate Mass for him – because by means of the word he had heard, he was damned and that the celebration of Mass would add to his pains.
O God! how great, if they could weep, would be the wailing of the Guardian Angels of these poor children who are scandalized and brought to Hell by the language of obscene tongues! With what earnestness shall the Angels demand vengeance from God against the author of such scandals!
That the Angels shall cry for vengeance against them, appears in the words of Jesus Christ: See that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say to you, that their Angels in heaven always see the face of my Father. (Mt 18:10.)
Continued
The Sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori For All the Sundays of the Year,
TAN Books, 1982, Sermon XL, pp 300-301
Posted on August 3, 2024
Related Topics of Interest
St. Alphonsus on Profanity in Speech
'Language Is the Dress of Thought'
Correcting a Vulgar Tone of Language
Good Curses & Bad Curses
'God Is Merciful for a Season & Then Chastises'
Meditation on Hell by St. Robert Bellarmine
Msgr. Jouin against the 'Mute Hounds' of the Church
Related Works of Interest
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