But anyone who would approach this gracious sacrament while guilty
of deadly sin would receive no grace from it, even though such a person
would really be receiving me as I am, wholly God, wholly human. But do
you know the situation of the soul who receives the sacrament
unworthily? She is like a candle that has been doused with water and
only hisses when it is brought near the fire. The flame no more than
touches it but it goes out and nothing remains but smoke. Just so, this
soul brings the candle she received in holy baptism and throws the water
of sin over it, a water that drenches the wick of baptismal grace that
is meant to bear the light. And unless she dries the wick out with the
fire of true contrition by confessing her sin, she will physically
receive the light when she approaches the table of the altar, but she
will not receive it into her spirit.
If the soul is not disposed as she should be for so great a mystery,
this true light will not graciously remain in her but will depart,
leaving her more confounded, more darksome, and more deeply in sin. She
will have gained nothing from this sacrament but the hissing of remorse,
not because of any defect in the light (for nothing can impair it) but
because of the water it encountered in the soul, the water that so
drenched her love that she could not receive this light.
The DialogueSt. Catherine of Siena