title: A Line Through the Human Heart: On Sinning and Being Forgiven
author: James V. Schall S.J.
description: "Fr. Schall offers us a 21st century syllabus of errors all too common in our culture and country: errors about who and what man is as a rational creature in a fallen world; errors about the reality of sin and the need for forgiveness and mercy. Here, as in his other books, Fr. Schall shows that true happiness for man consists in knowing who he is and 'what is'--that he find the truth about God, man, and the world."--<b>Fr. Kenneth Baker</b>, <b>S.J.</b>, editor emeritus of <i>Homiletic &amp; Pastoral Review</i><br /><br />"At a time when sin and forgiveness--as well as the related roles of punishment, mercy, and compassion--are widely misunderstood, Fr. Schall draws on the Great Philosophical Tradition and Christianity to illuminate the connection between sin and free will. With his customary clarity, logical rigor, and concision, he explains why justice requires the acknowledgment of wrongdoing and punishment, demonstrating that any attempt to define sin away results, ironically, in a world at war with reality, in which forgiveness would be impossible."--<b>Anne Carson Daly</b>, scholar and educator, former president of Mount Saint Mary College
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  Forgiven
  
  
  
  
  
  By
  
  
  
  
  
  S.J. West
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  Chapter 1
  
  Can any sin be forgiven?
  
  
  As I looked at the three fallen angels around me, I had to wonder. I knew
  Brand, the love of my life and soon to be husband, yearned to be forgiven by
  God for going against His law. Yet, knowing what he did now, would Brand have
  chosen a different path or did he feel as though he made the right decision
  all those years ago?
  
  
  If he hadn’t fallen in love with Abby’s mother, I knew for a fact we wouldn’t
  be together now. As selfish as it might sound, I was glad he had fallen out of
  God’s grace because I couldn’t imagine living my life without him. I would
  have been left living a half existence not knowing why I felt so incomplete.
  
  
  People say we each have a soul mate: that one person whose ethereal essence
  matches the ragged edges of our own. I guess when I was younger I always
  thought that person would be Will for me, one of my best friends since
  childhood. It wasn’t until I met 