SERMON XX. PALM SUNDAY.
ON THE EVIL EFFECTS OF BAD HABITS.
"Go ye into the village that is over against you, and immediately you shall find an ass tied." MATT. xxi. 2.
WISHING to enter Jerusalem, to be there acknowledged as the promised Messiah sent by God for the salvation of the world, the Saviour said to his disciples: “Go to a certain village, and you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them to me." “The ass which was tied," says St. Bonaventure, "denotes a sinner." This exposition is conformable to the doctrine of the Wise Man, who says, that the wicked are bound by the chains of their own sins. "His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the rope of his own sins." (Prov. v. 22.) But, as Jesus Christ could not sit on the ass before she was loosed, so he cannot dwell in a soul bound with her own iniquities. If, then, brethren, there be among you a soul bound by any bad habit, let her attend to the admonition which the Lord addresses to her this morning. ”Loose the bond from off thy neck, captive daughter of Sion." (Isa. lii. 2.) Loose the bonds of your sins, which make you the slave of Satan. Loose the bonds before the habit of sin gains such power over you, as to render your conversion morally impossible, and thus to bring you to eternal perdition. This morning I will show, in three points, the evil effects of bad habits.
First Point. A bad habit blinds the understanding.
Second Point. It hardens the heart.
Third Point. It diminishes our strength.
First Point. - A bad habit blinds the understanding.
1. Of those who live in the habit of sin, St. Augustine says: ”Ipsa consuetudo non sinit videre malum, quod faciunt." The habit of sin blinds sinners, so that they no longer see the evil which they do, nor the ruin
