The Gravity of sin comes from its being an offense against God, but its effect on the soul is to be measured neither by the guilt nor by the temporal punishment inexorably affixed, but by that deep sense of lonliness it brings with it. Sin makes a man realize as nothing else does the terrible lonliness of life. It is possible that, after a while, this perception wears off and the soul becomes in this way, as in others, hardened to the sense of sin, but at first, when the conscience is still delicate and refined, after an offense against God human nature feels itself to shrivel up and become cut off from the rest of the world.
Notice children when they have done wrong - how difficult it is for them to face their fellows again; they seem to have severed themselves from the companionship of those with whom they are wont to play.
God is the most intimate neighbor of the soul; no other power can creep so close to the heart and tangle itself so cunningly with the roots of our desire.
Man, in other words, was made for love, the diviner part of him for divine love. By sin is all this love dried up. The parched and thirsty soul feels, therfore, the need of the dew of God, and rushes madly as the beasts wander the jungle looking for the water they cannot find. The soul by sin is thus made solitary. When I am feeling particularly the lonliness of life, perhaps the cause is that I lean too little upon God; perhaps it is that my sins will not let me feel that inward presence that is the sole real source of peace here below. I was created by Love for love, and when by sin I act contrary to Love, my heart must necessarily feel His absence.
