There is but one evil on earth, but one thing to dread, and that is sin. All creation pleases God, even those beings which to us appear hurtful. Neither the worm nor the mire of the earth offends God's sight, for those things are in their natural state. Sin, on the contrary, is a perversion of the divine will, a degrading of His work, a contradiction of His nature and of His divine Being. Sin tends to annihilate God, for it denies and attacks His attributes. Now, those attributes are His nature itself.
--St. Peter Julian Eymard
