The first effect of the Sacrament of Penance is the complete obliteration of mortal sin. This idea, so familiar, is exceptional in the economy of the universe, and is a reversal of the dominant law of cause and effect. In virtue of the law of the transformation of energy, every cause has its adequate effect. Some actions are fatal and final, and can never be reversed. Man can destroy life, and all the immense forces of the universe cannot restore it. God alone can recreate as He alone can create. Mortal sin is one of those fatally destructive forces; and its effect is irrevocable, except by a direct intervention of Omnipotence, to which there is no parallel in the simply natural order. Mortal sin sets up a permanent change in the soul, destroying the last germs of spiritual energy and life, as though a living tree were suddenly converted into charcoal. Without the God- Man, Jesus Christ, there could be no rehabilitation after original sin, or after one single act of mortal sin. Through Him, God has implanted a new source of energy and life in the human race; a new and dominant law comes into effect, which overrides the ordinary law of the universe for the sake of our happiness, which recalls the past, and undoes the fatal action of evil. Praise God for the mercy which surpasseth judgment and all His works (Ps. cxliv. 9).
