No sin can be allowed, none. We are not called to keep sinning less and less but to stop sinning completely. That many of us cannot do this has nothing to do with the radical call of Christ but with out own weakness of conscience, the false shaping of our minds, imaginations and memories, and the result of Original Sin, concupiscence.
God has called us to be saints, not to be lame sinners. His call has always been radical, showing us the perfection He draws us to. That the Protestants, for example, have accepted contraception, reveals the enemy of the soul, compromise. There is absolutely no compromise in the following of the Gospel.
The enemies of the Church, who think like Protestants, settling for a status quo and not for perfection, have pushed the media this week.
Matthew 11:12Douay-Rheims
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.
Christ demands suffering, violence, the violence we do to ourselves in accepting the Dark Night, in turning away from the tiniest of sins.
Modernist heresies as well as Protestantism deny the necessity of the soul, mind, will to do violence to one's self in order to be made perfect.
The acceptance of the Cross of Christ is the acceptance of suffering, not compromise.
Suffering in giving up that live-in partner; suffering in giving up alcohol or even ill-gained money; suffering; suffering in having and raising a child out of wedlock rather than aborting life; suffering is standing up for truth on a job and getting fired; suffering which may lead to the giving of one's life for the truth, for the Church, as did SS. Thomas More, Edmund Campion, Oliver Plunkett, and so on.
Gradualism denies two basics of Revelation and Tradition: one that the Law is from God, and that natural law is reflected in the Ten Commandments, which were never abrogated by Christ.
And, two, that the Law becomes a work not out of sheer obedience, but out of love.
Mark 12:28-34Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
28 And there came one of the scribes that had heard them reasoning together, and seeing that he had answered them well, asked him which was the first commandment of all.
29 And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
32 And the scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth, that there is one God, and there is no other besides him.
33 And that he should be loved with the whole heart, and with the whole understanding, and with the whole soul, and with the whole strength; and to love one's neighbour as one's self, is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices.
34 And Jesus seeing that he had answered wisely, said to him: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
Love becomes the impetus for complete obedience to the laws of God, of the Church. The saints did not do a run around the goal concerning the law. No, they fulfilled the law perfectly, which is why they are recognized as holy. But, that fulfillment of the law came from love, not a sterile legalism.
The opposite of legalism is not gradualism but the perfect love of God.
to be continued...