Dec 14 | Dec 15 | Dec 16 | Dec 17 | Dec 18 | Dec 20 | Dec 21 | Dec 22 | Dec 23 | Dec 26 | Dec 27 | Dec 28 | Dec 29 | Dec 30 | Dec 31
Of the Christian Life
In undertaking to form the life of a Christian person I am entering upon a full and varied subject, which could fill a great volume if I wanted to pursue it at length. For we see how prolix are the exhortations of the early church doctors which treat only one particular virtue. That prolixity does not come from excessive babbling, for whatever the virtue we want to praise and commend, the abundance of material means that it does not seem we have discussed it well if we have not used many words. Now my intention is not to extend the teaching about Christian life which I am offering to the point of discussing each individual virtue and making long exhortations. One can find that in other people’s books, and chiefly in the homilies of the early church doctors, that is, their sermons to the populace. It is enough for me to show by what order a Christian should be led and directed to the right end of ordering his life well. I will be content, I say, to show briefly a general rule by which he can measure all his actions. Perhaps we will sometime have the opportunity to make such orations as there are in the sermons of the early church doctors. The work which we have in hand now requires that we comprise a simple teaching with the greatest brevity possible.
Now the philosophers have some goals of decency and uprightness from which they deduce the particular duties and all the acts of virtue; and so scripture also has its way of doing that, which is much better and more certain than the practice of the philosophers. There is only this difference: since they are full of ambition, the philosphers have pretended to the most noteworthy perspicacity possible to demonstrate the order and arrangement which they practice, in order to show their own subtlety. On the contrary, because He teaches without pretense or pomp, the Holy Spirit has not always observed a certain order and method, or practiced it so strictly. Nevertheless, because He sometimes uses it, He lets us know that we should not despise it. Now this scriptural order of which we speak consists in two parts. One is to imprint on our hearts the love of righteousness, something to which we are not naturally inclined. The other is to give us a certain rule which does not allow us to wander here and there or to go astray in directing our life.
As for the first point, scripture offers many very good reasons to incline our hearts to love the good; we have noted a number of them in different places, and will touch on still others here. In warning and exhorting us that we must be sanctified and hallowed, what better foundation could it begin with than to say that “our God is holy” (Lev. 19[2]; 1 Pet. 1[16])? To this foundation it adds the reason that, as we were scattered like sheep gone astray and dispersed in the labyrinth of this world, He has gathered us to be united with Him. When we hear the mention of God’s uniting with us, we ought to remember that the tie of this union is holiness. Not that we come into the company of our God by the merit of our holiness, since we must first adhere to Him in order to be holy: adhering to Him so that He may pour out His holiness on us. But because it pertains to His glory that He have no association with iniquity or impurity, we must resemble Him because we are His. Therefore scripture teaches us that this is the goal of our calling, which we must always consider if we want to (cor)respond to our God (Isa. 35[7] and elsewhere). What purpose did it serve for us to be delivered from the filth and pollution in which we were plunged, if we want to roll in that filth our whole lives? Moreover, scripture warns us that if we want to belong to the company of God’s people we must live in Jerusalem, His holy city. He consecrated and dedicated it to His honor, so it is also not lawful for it to be contaminated and polluted by impure and profane inhabitants. That is the source of these sentences: “One who walks without stain and who strives to live well, will dwell in the Lord’s tabernacle” (Ps. 15[1-2]). Moreover, in order to arouse us, scripture shows us that as God reconciled us to Himself in Christ, so He has also established us in Christ for Him to be an example and model to whom we must conform [Rom. 8:29].
Check Point: Dec. 14, 2010
Let those who think that it is only the philosophers who have well and duly discussed moral teaching show me in their books a tradition as good as that which I have just recounted! When they want with all their power to exhort someone to virtue, they adduce nothing else but that we should live as is appropriate for our nature. Scripture leads us to a much better fountain of exhortation when it not only commands us to relate all our life to God who is its author but, after having warned us that we have degenerated from the true origin of our creation, it adds that Christ, reconciling us to God His Father, is given to us as an example of innocence; His image ought to be represented in our life (Rom. 6). Could anything more emphatic or efficacious be said? Particularly, what more could one ask? For if God adopts us as His children on condition that the image of Christ may appear in our life, if we do not devote ourselves to righteousness and holiness we not only abandon our Creator with a very negligent disloyalty, but we also renounce Him as our Savior.
Therefore scripture takes the grounds for exhorting us from all God’s benefits and all the parts of our salvation, as when it says: “Because God has given Himself to us as Father we are convicted of lazy ingratitude if we do not behave like His children” (Mal. 1[6]; Eph. 5[1]; 1 Jn. 3[1]). “Because Christ has purified us by the washing of His blood and communicated this purification to us by baptism, we must not stain ourselves with new filth” (Eph. 5[26]; Heb. 10[10]; 1 Cor. 6[11]; 1 Pet. 1[15, 19]). “Because He has united Himself with us and engrafted us into His body, we must carefully guard against being contaminated at all, since we are His members” (1 Cor. 6[15]; Jn. 15[3]; Eph. 5[23]). “Because He who is our Head has ascended to heaven, it is fitting for us to put aside all earthly affections, to aspire with our whole heart to the heavenly life” (Col. 3[1-2]). “Because the Holy Spirit consecrates us to be God’s temples, we must take care that God’s glory be exalted in us and, on the other hand, be on guard against accepting any pollution” (1 Cor. 3[16], 6[19]; 2 Cor. 6[16]). “Because our soul and body are destined to the immortality of God’s kingdom and to the incorruptible crown of His glory, we must strive to preserve both of these pure and immaculate until the day of the Lord” (1 Thess. 5[23]). Behold the good and appropriate foundation on which to establish our life; one will not find its like in all the philosophers. For when it is a question of showing people their duty they never ascend higher than to expound natural human dignity.
Here I must address those who, although they have nothing of Christ except the name, nevertheless want to be considered Christians. But how boldly they glory in having His holy name! — since the only person who has any acquaintance with Him is the one who has rightly learned from the word of the gospel. Now St. Paul denies that a person has received right acquaintance and knowledge unless “he has learned to strip off the old person who is depraved with disordered desires, in order to put on Christ” (Eph. 4[22, 24]). So it is clear that such people falsely claim the knowledge of Christ and greatly insult Him, whatever lovely babble they may have on their lips. For the gospel is not a teaching of the tongue but of life, and it ought not to be grasped only by understanding and in memory like the other disciplines, but it should possess the entire soul and have its seat in the depth of the heart; otherwise it has not been properly accepted. Therefore, either let them cease to boast of being what they are not, to the disgrace of God, or let them show themselves Christ’s disciples.
We have indeed given the first place in religion to the teaching, since that is the beginning of our salvation. But for that teaching to be useful and fruitful for us, it must enter completely into the interior of the heart and show its power in our life, indeed even transform us into its nature. If the philosophers have good reason to be angry with those who profess their art (which they call the mistress of life) and yet still convert it into a sophistical talkativeness, how much better reasons do we have to detest these babblers who are satisfied to have the gospel in their mouth while despising it in their whole lives, since the gospel’s effectiveness ought to penetrate to the heart and be rooted in the soul a hundred thousand times more than all philosophical exhortations, which by comparison do have not much strength!
I do not ask that the morals of the Christian person be only pure and perfect gospel. Although that would be desirable and we must strive to make it so, nevertheless I do not so strictly and rigidly ask for Christian perfection that I will not recognize as Christian anyone who has not attained that. For by this means all people in the world would be excluded from the church, since no one will be found who is not still far indeed from that, even though he has profited well in the gospel, and the majority have still made little progress; and yet they must not be rejected because of that. What then? Certainly we must have before our eyes the goal of aiming at the perfection which God commands, and all our actions should be directed to that. We must, I say, strive and aspire to reach that. For it is not lawful for us to divide things with God, accepting a part of what is commanded in His word and ignoring the other part according to our fancy. For, in the first place, He always commends to us integrity (Gen. 17[1] and elsewhere). By that word He means a pure simplicity of heart which is empty and clean of all pretence, which is the contrary of a double heart.
Check Point: Dec. 15, 2010
But while we live in this earthly prison none of us is so strong and well disposed as to hasten along this path with such ease as he ought, and especially the majority are so weak that they waver and limp so that they cannot advance much. Because that is so, let us each one go along according to his little ability and let us not cease to pursue the path that we have begun. No one will make such poor progress that he will not each day advance a little and gain some ground. So let us not cease to aim there, let us continually profit in the way of the Lord, and let us not lose heart even if we only advance a little. For although the progress does not correspond to our wish, it is still not all lost when today we are further along than yesterday. Only let us consider our goal with a pure and upright simplicity, and let us strive to reach our goal, not flattering ourselves with vain adulation and not pardoning our vices, but striving unceasingly to act so that we may become day by day better than we were. Let us do this until we are come to the sovereign goodness which we must seek and follow the whole of our life, so that we may grasp it when, having been stripped of the infirmity of our flesh, we are made full participants of it, that is, when God receives us into His company.
Let us come now to the second point. Although God’s law has a very good method and well ordered arrangement for organizing our lives, nevertheless it has seemed necessary to this good heavenly Master to form His own by a more perfect teaching than the rule which He gave them under His law. The beginning of the way He does that is like this: the duty of the faithful is to offer their bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and in that consists the lawful service which we must render Him. From that follows this exhortation: that “the faithful not conform themselves to the shape of this age but be transformed by a renewal of their understanding to seek and know God’s will” (Rom. 12[1-2]). It is already a great point advanced, to say that we are consecrated and dedicated to God in order from now on no longer to think, speak, meditate, or do anything except for His glory. For it is not lawful to apply something sacred to a profane use. Now if we are not our own but belong to the Lord, we can see what we must do lest we go astray, and where we ought to direct all the actions of our life.
We are not our own; therefore let our reason and will not rule in our counsels and what we have to do. We are not our own; therefore let us not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient to us according to the flesh. We are not our own; therefore let us forget ourselves as much as possible, and all that is about us. Next, we belong to the Lord; let us live and die to Him. We belong to the Lord; let His will and wisdom preside in all our actions. We belong to the Lord; let all the parts of our life be referred to Him as their unique Goal.
O how that person has profited when, knowing that he is not his own, he has taken away the lordship and rule of himself by his own reason, to give them over to God! For as pleasing themselves is the worst plague that people have to destroy themselves, so the unique protection of salvation is not to be wise in oneself, not to will anything by oneself, but only to follow the Lord. Therefore let it be our first step on the ladder to withdraw ourselves from ourselves in order to apply the entire strength of our understanding to God’s service. I call “service” not only what consists in obedience to His word but that by which the human understanding, when it is emptied of its own sense, entirely converts and submits itself to God’s Spirit. None of the philosophers has known this transformation, which St. Paul calls “the renewal of the mind” [Eph. 4:23], although it is the first way into life. For they teach that reason alone ought to rule and moderate a person, and they think that one should listen to and follow reason alone and refer the government of life to it. On the contrary, the Christian philosophy desires to cede, and withdraw itself, in order to give place to the Holy Spirit and be subject to His leading, so that a person may live no longer to himself but may have and allow Christ to live and rule in him.
From that follows the next point which we have set out: that we should not seek the things which please us, but those which are pleasing to God and which pertain to exalting His glory. It is also a great power that, having practically forgotten ourselves or at least not worrying about ourselves, we may apply and devote ourselves faithfully to our effort to follow God and His commandments. For when scripture forbids us to have particular concern for ourselves, it not only wipes out of our heart greed, a passion to rule or attain great honors or alliances, but it also wants to extirpate all ambition and appetite for human glory and other hidden plagues. Certainly the Christian person must be so disposed that he will think that he has to do with God in all his life.1 If he considers this, he thinks that he will render Him an accounting of all his works, so also he will align all his plans with Him and regard them as fixed on Him. For whoever considers God in all his works may easily turn his spirit away from all vain thoughts.
Check Point: Dec. 16, 2010
This is the denial of ourselves which Christ asks so carefully of all His disciples as their first apprenticeship (Matt. 16[24]). When the human heart is once occupied with this, first pride and display are destroyed; then also greed, intemperance, excess, and all pleasures, along with the other vices which the love of self engenders. On the contrary, everywhere that self-denial does not reign, people either shamelessly overflow with all baseness or, if there is some appearance of virtue, it is corrupted by a wicked desire for glory. You cannot find a person who practices gratuitous kindness toward people, unless he has renounced himself according to the Lord’s command. Even the philosophers (who have fought the most to show that virtue is to be sought for its own sake) have been so much puffed up with pride that one can see that they sought virtue for no other reason than to have grounds for being proud of themselves. Now the ambitious who seek worldly glory, or such people as are dying of an inward presumption: so little can they please God that He proclaims that the former have received their reward in this world and the second are further from the kingdom of God than the publicans and prostitutes.
Nevertheless we have not yet clearly explained how many hindrances hold a person back from devoting himself to doing good unless he has renounced himself. It has truly been said long ago: there is a world of vices in the human soul. We will find no other remedy than when, renouncing ourselves and having no regard for what pleases us, we direct and devote our understanding to seeking the things which God asks of us and seeking them only because they are pleasing to Him. We must note that this self-denial partly has reference to people, partly and principally to God. For when scripture commands us “to act toward others as we would like them to act honorably toward us” and to try faithfully to advance their benefit, it gives commandments which our heart cannot do if it is not first emptied of its own natural feeling [Matt. 7:12; Lk. 6:31].
For we are all so blind and transported with love for ourselves that everyone thinks he has good reason to elevate himself above others and to despise the whole world by comparison with himself. If God has given us some grace which can be esteemed, our heart immediately lifts itself up under pretext of that grace, and we are not only puffed up but practically dying of pride. We carefully hide from others the vices which fill us, and we make believe that they are small and light or even, sometimes, we count them as virtues. As for the graces, we believe we have them in an astonishing degree. If virtues appear in others, indeed greater virtues than ours, we obscure or despise them as much as possible so that we are not obliged to cede place to them. On the contrary, whatever vices our neighbors may have, we are not satisfied to take sharp note of them but we hatefully enlarge them.
That is the source of our insolence — as if we were exempt from the common condition: each of us seeks preeminence above all others and, without exception, we despise all others as our inferiors. The poor indeed cede to the rich, the base to the noble, servants to their masters, ignorant people to learned ones, but there is no one who does not have in his heart some fantasy that he deserves to be superior to all others. Thus each one in his place flatters himself and nurtures a kingdom in his heart. For ascribing to himself what he pleases, he criticizes the spirits and morals of others. If it comes to a fight, then out comes the poison. There are more than a few people who have some appearance of kindness and moderation, as long as they see nothing happening except as they please. But how few there are who maintain gentleness and moderation when they are goaded and irritated!
Indeed, it cannot be otherwise unless the deadly plague of self-love and exalting oneself is torn out of the depths of the heart; and scripture does that. For if we listen to its teaching, we must remember that all the graces which God has given us are not our own possessions but free gifts of His generosity. Therefore if someone becomes puffed up, he shows his ingratitude. On the other hand, we must continually recognize our vices and humble ourselves. So there will remain nothing in us which can puff us up, but instead there will be great reason for us rather to abase ourselves. Moreover, we are commanded to honor and revere all God’s gifts which we see in our neighbors so that, because of these gifts, we may honor the persons in whom we see them. For it would be too great rudeness for us to want to strip a person of the honor which God has done him. We are also commanded not to note the vices but to cover them over; this is not to maintain them by flattery, but so that we may not do harm to someone who has committed some fault, since we ought to bear him love and honor. So it comes about that no matter with whom we have to do, we will not only bear ourselves modestly and moderately, but also with kindness and affection. On the contrary one never arrives at true kindness by any other way than by having the heart disposed to abase itself and honor others.
As for doing our duty of seeking what is useful for our neighbor, how difficult that is! If we do not leave behind consideration of ourselves and strip ourselves of all carnal affection, we will do nothing in this matter. For who will accomplish what St. Paul requires in love/charity unless he has renounced himself in order to devote himself completely to his neighbors? “Love/charity,” he says, “is patient, generous, it is not irritable or insolent; it has no pride or hate; it does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13[4-5]), etc. If there were only the instruction that we should not seek what is useful to us, still it would require doing some violence to our nature, which so draws us to love of ourselves that it does not easily allow us to neglect what is good for us in order to care about what is beneficial to others, or rather to cede our own right to our neighbors. Now to lead us to this reasoning, scripture exhorts us that “all we have received from God’s grace is committed to us on the condition that we use it for the common good of the church” [1 Cor. 12:7]. Therefore the lawful use of it of it is a loving and liberal sharing and communication with our neighbors. To carry out such a sharing, one could not find a better or more certain rule than when it is said that all the good we have has been given to us by God in trust, on condition that it be distributed for the profit of others.
Check Point: Dec. 17, 2010
Nevertheless scripture goes beyond this in comparing the graces which each of us has to the characteristics that each member of a human body has [Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-31]. No member has his ability for himself or to apply for his personal use but to use for the benefit of the others; and the only use which he has for it is that which comes from the benefit extended in common to all the body. In this way the faithful person ought to offer all his ability to his brothers, not providing for himself in particular except while always having his intent directed to what is of common use to the church. Therefore, let us keep this rule in doing good and practicing humanity: that we are stewards and distributors of all which the Lord has given to us by which we can help our neighbor, and some day we will have to give an accounting of how we have carried out our responsibility. Moreover, there is no other good or upright distribution than that which is regulated by the rule of love/charity. With this as our basis not only will we join together care to benefit our neighbor with care for what we do for our profit, but we will also subordinate our benefit to the benefit of others. Indeed, to show us the way of well and rightly administering what He has given us, the Lord long ago commanded the people of Israel that for the least benefit which He gave them, they should offer Him the first new fruits, so that the people might testify that it was not lawful to gather any fruit from good things which had not been dedicated to Him. Now if God’s gifts are finally hallowed for us only after we have consecrated them to Him, it is clear that what is not related to this consecration is a damnable abuse. On the other hand, it would be madness to try to enrich God by offering Him the things which we have in our hands. So since “our beneficence cannot reach to Him,” as the prophet says, “we must practice it toward His servants who are in the world” (Ps. 16[2-3] Vg.).
Moreover, in order that we may not become tired in doing good (which otherwise would happen all the time) we must remember likewise what the apostle adds: that “love/charity is patient and is not easily angered” (1 Cor. 13[4-5]). The Lord commands us to do good to all without exception; most of them are not deserving if we measure them according to their own merit. But scripture goes before us and exhorts us not to consider what people deserve in themselves but rather to consider God’s image in all; we owe all honor and love to that image. Especially we should recognize it in the household of faith, since it is renewed and restored in them by Christ’s Spirit. So whatever the kind of person who needs our help and presents himself to us, we have no cause to refuse to busy ourselves for him. If we say that he is a stranger, the Lord imprinted on him a mark which ought to be familiar to us. If we allege that he is despicable and worthless, the Lord replies, remonstrating with us that He has honored this person by making him reflect His image. If we say that are not obligated to him in any way, the Lord says to us that He substitutes him in His place so that we may acknowledge toward him the benefits which He has done for us. If we say that he is unworthy of our taking a single step, the image of God which we must contemplate in him is indeed worthy of our putting ourselves out for him, along with everything that we own.
Even when it is a person who not only deserves nothing from us but who also has done us much harm and many insults, still that is not sufficient cause for us not to love him and do what is pleasing and good for him. For if we say that he has not deserved that from us, God could ask us what we have deserved from Him. For when He commands us to pardon people for the offenses which they have done to us, He takes these offenses to His own account. This is the only way that one can arrive at what is not only difficult to human nature, but completely contrary to it: that “we love those who hate us, that we render good for evil, that we pray for those who speak evil of us” [Matt. 5:44; Lk. 6:28]. We will come to this point, I say, if we remember that we ought not to stop short with human malice but rather to contemplate the image of God in these people, an image which by its excellence and dignity can and ought to arouse us to love them and wipe out all the vices which could turn us from that.
This mortification or dying-to-self will take place in us when we have fulfilled love/charity. That consists in not only carrying out all the duties which pertain to love/charity but in doing them with a true feeling of affection. For it can happen that someone can do everything that he ought to do for his neighbor as regards external duty and nevertheless be far indeed from doing his duty as he ought. We see many who want to be seen as very generous, and nevertheless they do not give anything which they do not make into a reproach by a proud expression or haughty word. At the present time we have come to the unhappy state that the majority of the world only give alms in an insulting way. That perversity ought not to be tolerated even among pagans.
Check Point: Dec. 18, 2010
But the Lord asks something quite different of Christians from just a happy and cheerful face so that they may make their beneficence friendly by humanity and gentleness. First, they must take to themselves the person who needs help, they must have compassion for his misfortune as if they felt it themselves, and they must be touched with the same feeling of mercy for helping him as themselves. One who has such a heart in doing what is pleasing for his brothers, not only does not contaminate his beneficence with any arrogance or reproach, but he does not despise the person to whom he does good because he is poor, and does not want to subjugate him by putting him under obligation. Just as we do not attack one member of our body because of the restoration for which all the rest of the body is working, and we do not think the sick member is particularly obligated to the others because they have taken more pains to help it than it has for them. For what the members share among themselves is not considered free but rather payment and satisfaction of what is owed by the law of nature. This example adds another point in this proof of what is owed by love: we will not think that we are free and count it quits when we have done our duty in one matter, as people commonly think is true. For when a rich man has given something away, he abandons and neglects all other responsibilities as if they did not pertain to him at all. On the contrary, each person will think that he owes his neighbors all that he has and all he can do, and that he should not limit his obligation to do them good except when the means are lacking, and the (only) limit for those means, however far they can extend, is love/charity.
Let us now discuss the other part of self-denial, which has to do with God. We have already spoken of it here and there and it would be superfluous to repeat all that has been said. It will suffice to show how self-denial ought to bring us into line with patience and kindness. First then, in seeking the means of living or resting at our ease, scripture always brings us back to this: that, entrusting ourselves and all that belongs to us to God, we may submit the affections of our heart to Him for Him to overcome and subjugate them. We have a mad intemperance and unbridled passion for desiring benefits and honors, seeking powers, amassing riches, and gathering all that we think is proper for pomp and magnificence. On the other hand we have an amazing fear and hatred for poverty, lowliness, and ignominy; therefore we flee them as much as we can. For that reason we see the restless spirit of all those who order their lives by their own counsel: all the means they try, all the ways they torment themselves, in order to achieve their ambition or get where their greed transports them, so as to avoid poverty and a lowly state.
Therefore, in order not to entangle themselves in these traps, the faithful must keep to this way. First, they must not desire or hope or imagine any other means of prospering than God’s blessing, and therefore they ought to rest on that securely. Although it may well appear that the flesh is sufficient of itself to achieve its intention, when it aspires to honors and riches by its industry (either when it puts its effort into that or when it is helped by human favor), nevertheless it is certain that all those things are nothing and that we could never profit at all either by our ability or by our labor unless the Lord made these profit. On the contrary, His blessing alone will find a path through the middle of all hindrances to give us a good outcome in all things. Moreover, if without His blessing we could acquire some honor or wealth (as we see every day that the wicked come to great riches and high estate), nevertheless, because God’s curse is there we could not have a single drop of happiness; anything we obtain will turn to our misfortune unless His blessing is upon us. Now it would be a great madness to desire what can only make us miserable. Therefore if we believe that the only means of prospering consists in God’s blessing alone, and that without this every misery and calamity awaits us, our duty is not to aspire to riches and honors with too great passion, trusting in our ability or diligence or the favor of people or fortune, but always to look to God so that by His leading we may be led to such a condition as seems good to Him. The result of this is that we will not strive to attract riches, to chase and steal honors rightly or wrongly, by violence or trick, and other indirect means, but only seek the goods which will not turn us away from innocence. For who hopes that God’s blessing ought to help him in committing fraud and robbery and other wickedness? Since His blessing does not help any but those who are upright in their thoughts and acts, so the person who desires such blessing ought to be drawn back by this desire from all wickedness and evil thought. Moreover, it ought to be like a bridle to restrain us from burning with a disordered passion to enrich ourselves, and from trying ambitiously to raise ourselves up. For what impudence it would be to think that God ought to help us obtain the things we desire against His word! Far be it from us to think He promotes by the grace of His blessing what He curses by His mouth!
Check Point: Dec. 20, 2010
Finally, when things do not happen according to our hope and wish, this consideration will keep us from overflowing with impatience and hating our condition. For we will know that acting this way would be murmuring against God, by whose will poverty and riches, contempt and honor are distributed. In summary, whoever rests on God’s blessing (as has been said) will not seek by wrong or indirect means for any of the things which people desire with mad passion, since he will know that such means will profit nothing. If some prosperity comes to him, he will not attribute it to his diligence or industry or to fortune but he will recognize that it comes from God. On the other hand, if he can scarcely advance while others rise as high as they wish, indeed if he falls behind, he will still bear his poverty more patiently and moderately than an unbeliever would bear moderate riches which were simply not as great as he wanted. For the faithful person will have a comfort, where he can rest firmly better than in all the riches and honors of the world if he had gathered them together in a pile: that is, he will consider that all things are ordained by God as is necessary for his salvation. However, it is not only necessary that the faithful keep such patience and moderation in this matter, but they should also extend that patience to all the fortunes to which the present life is subject. Therefore no one has duly denied himself unless he has so entrusted himself to God that he willing allows all his life to be governed at God’s pleasure. Whatever may happen to him, this person will have such a feeling that he will never consider himself wretched and will not complain about his condition as if to criticize God indirectly.
Now how necessary this feeling is will be clear if we consider how many unhappy things we are subject to. There are a thousand illnesses which attack us continually, one after the other. Now it is the plague, now war; now freezing weather or hail causes barrenness and as a result threatens us with poverty; now we lose wife, children, and other relatives to death; sometimes fire burns our house. These things cause people to curse their lives and hate the day of their birth, to hate heaven and its light, to speak ill of God, and (as they blaspheme with no lack of words) to accuse Him of injustice and cruelty. On the contrary, even in these things the faithful person must contemplate God’s mercy and His paternal kindness. Therefore, even if he sees himself desolate because of the death of all his neighbors, and his house deserted, he will not cease to bless God but rather he will turn to this reflection that, because God’s grace dwells in his house, it will not leave the house desolate. If his wheat and vines are destroyed by freezing weather, hail, or other storm, and by that he foresees danger of famine, still he will not lose heart and will not be discontent with God but rather will persist in firm confidence, saying in his heart: “We are nevertheless in the Lord’s care, we are the sheep of His pasture; whatever barrenness there may be, He will always give us what we need to live.” If he endures the affliction of illness, he will not be destroyed by unhappiness so as to overflow with impatience and complain about God but rather, he will bring himself to patience by reflecting on the righteousness and goodness of the heavenly Father in His chastising. In short, whatever may happen, knowing that everything comes from the hand of the Lord, he will receive it with a peaceful and not ungrateful heart, in order not to resist the commandment of the One to whom he once entrusted himself.
Chiefly, let this mad and wretched comfort of the pagans be far from the Christian heart: to attribute adversities to fortune in order to bear them more patiently. For the philosophers use this reasoning: that it would be madness to be angry with fortune which is capricious and blind and casts its darts by chance to wound the good and the bad without distinguishing. On the contrary, this is the rule of piety: that God’s hand alone guides and governs good fortune and bad, and it does not move with unreflective heedlessness but distributes good as well as evil by a well-ordered justice.
Check Point: Dec. 21, 2010
The affection of the faithful person should rise still higher, to the place where Christ calls His own: that “each one is to bear his cross” (Matt. 10[38]; [16:24]). For all those whom the Lord has adopted and received in the company of His children ought to prepare themselves for a hard, laborious life, full of travail and countless kinds of evils. It is the good pleasure of the heavenly Father to exercise His servants this way in order to give them experience. He began this order with Christ His first-born Son, and He pursues it with all the others. For although Christ was “His beloved Son, in whom He was always well pleased” (Matt. 3[17]), we see nevertheless that He did not treat Him gently or delicately in this world — so much so that one can say that He not only put Christ in continual affliction but that Christ’s whole life was nothing but a kind of perpetual cross. How then will we exempt ourselves from the condition to which our Head, Christ, had to submit Himself, especially since He submitted to it for our sake in order to give us an example of patience? Therefore the apostle proclaims that God has destined this goal for all His children, to make them “conformed to His Christ” (Rom. 8[29]).
From that we get the special comfort that, in bearing all the miseries which one calls adversities, we communicate and share in Christ’s cross so that, as He has passed by an abyss of all evils to enter into the heavenly glory, we also may come there through various tribulations. For St. Paul teaches us that “when we feel in ourselves a participation in His afflictions, we will grasp at the same time the power of His resurrection, and when we are made participants in His death it is a preparation for coming to His glorious eternity” (Phil. 3[10-11]). How effective that is in softening all the bitterness which there could be in the cross! That is, by so much as we are afflicted and bear wretchedness, by that much is our association with Christ certainly confirmed. When we communicate and share in Him, not only are adversities blessed for us but they also serve as helps greatly to advance our salvation.
Moreover, the Lord Jesus had no need to bear the cross and endure tribulations except in order to testify and prove His obedience to God His Father. But for a number of reasons we need to be perpetually afflicted in this life. First, we are too inclined by nature to exalt ourselves and ascribe all things to ourselves; unless our weakness is demonstrated to us visibly, we immediately consider our power to be beyond its true measure, and we do not hesitate to consider it invincible in the face of all the difficulties which could come to us. That is why we lift ourselves up in a vain and mad confidence in the flesh, which next incites us to puff ourselves up against God as if our own ability were sufficient without His grace. He cannot crush this presumption better than by showing us by experience not only how weak we are but also how fragile. Therefore He afflicts us either by disgrace or by poverty or sickness or by loss of relatives or other calamities to which, when they touch us, we at once succumb because we do not have the power to bear them. Then when we are humbled we learn to implore His power which alone can make us hold firm under the weight of such burdens.
Even the most holy people, although they know that their firmness is founded on the Lord’s grace and not on their own power, nevertheless still imagine too great security in their own strength and constancy unless the Lord leads them to a more certain knowledge of themselves, testing them by crosses. Therefore, although they flatter themselves and conceive some opinion of their great firmness and constancy while all things remain peaceful, when they have been upset by tribulations they know that this was hypocrisy. See then the way the faithful must be warned about their sickness, in order to benefit in humility and to strip themselves of all perverse confidence in the flesh, so as to come into line completely with God’s grace. Now after they have been so brought into His way, they feel that His power is present and in it they have protection enough. That is what St. Paul indicates, saying that “tribulation engenders patience, and patience, a proven character” (Rom. 5[3-4]). For the faithful will feel the truth of the Lord’s promise to help His faithful in tribulations when they rest firmly in patience and are supported by His hand, something they could not do by their own strength. Patience, then, is a proof to the saints that when there is need God truly gives the help which He has promised. By that also their hope is confirmed, because it would be excessive ingratitude not to anticipate the future continuation of God’s trustworthiness which has already been proved to be firm and unchangeable.
We see already what profit comes like interwoven threads from the cross. For, overturning the false opinion that we naturally conceive of our own power, and uncovering our hypocrisy which seduces and deceives us by its flatteries, the cross beats down the confidence of our flesh which is very dangerous for us. Next, when we have been so humbled, it teaches us to rest in God who, since He is our foundation, does not allow us to succumb or lose heart. From this victory comes hope, since by accomplishing what He promised, the Lord establishes His trustworthiness for the future. Certainly even if there were only these reasons it is clear how necessary the practice of the cross is for us. For it is not a small benefit for the self-love which blinds us to be take away, so that we may rightly know our weakness; to have a right feeling of that weakness, in order to learn not to trust in ourselves; to distrust ourselves, so as to transfer our trust to God; to rest on God in certain trust of heart, so that by means of His help we may persevere to the victorious end; to rest firmly in His grace; to know that He is true and faithful in His promises; to have the notable certainty of His promises, so that our hope may be confirmed by that.
Check Point: Dec. 22, 2010
The Lord also has another purpose in afflicting His servants, which is to test their patience and to instruct them in obedience. Not that they could have any other obedience than what He has given them, but it pleases Him thus to show and witness to the graces which He has put in the faithful so that they may not remain passive and hidden within. Therefore when He brings out the power of patience which He has given to His servants, it is said that He tests their patience. That is the origin of the statement that “He tested Abraham and knew his piety since Abraham did not refuse to sacrifice his son to satisfy God” [Gen. 22:1; Heb 11:17]. Therefore St. Peter says that “our faith is tested by tribulation no less than gold is tried in the furnace” (1 Pet. 1[7]). So who will deny that it is expedient for such an excellent gift as this, which the Lord has given to His servants, to be put to use in order to be made known and manifest? For otherwise it would never be valued as it ought. If the Lord has good reason to give occasion for the powers which He has given to His faithful to be exercised, so that they may not remain hidden and especially so that they may not be useless, we see that it is not without cause that He sends afflictions, without which the patience of the faithful would be nothing. I say also that by this means He instructs them in obedience, since by this they learn to live not according to their wishes but according to His pleasure. Certainly if all things came to them as they asked, they would not know what it is to follow God. Now Seneca, a pagan philosopher, says that it was an ancient proverb, when one wanted to exhort someone to endure adversity patiently, to use these words: “You must follow God.”2 By that the people who used this phrase meant that a person finally submits himself to the Lord’s yoke when he allows himself to be chastised and willingly offers his hand and back to the rod. Now if it is a reasonable thing that in every way we make ourselves obedient to the heavenly Father, we must not refuse to let Him train us for this obedience in every way possible.
Nevertheless we still do not see how much this is necessary unless we consider the unbridled way our flesh immediately rejects the Lord’s yoke if it is treated with somewhat unreasonable demands. For it acts like rebellious horses which, after being idle and well fed in the stable for some time, cannot be tamed or made to recognize the master whom they had previously allowed to command them. In short, what the Lord laments had happened to the people of Israel, is habitually seen in all people: “when they are fattened on too sweet food they kick out at the one who has fed them” (Deut. 32[15]). It is indeed true that it would be fitting for God’s beneficence to attract us to consider and love His goodness. But because our ingratitude is such that we are corrupted rather than incited to good by His generosity, it is more necessary for Him to keep us on a tight rein and hold us in some discipline lest we overflow with such insolence. For that reason, so that we may not become proud by a very great abundance of good, and that the honors which He gives us may not puff us up, and that the adornments we have in body or soul may not engender some insolence in us, the Lord comes forward and puts things in order, reining in and taming the madness of our flesh by the remedy of the cross. He does this in different ways, as He knows is expedient and salutary for each one. For we are not all equally sick nor are we sick of the same illness, and therefore it is not necessary that the cure be the same for everyone. That is the reason why He exercises some in one kind of cross, others in another. Nevertheless, although in desiring to provide for the health of all He uses a gentler medicine for some and a harsher and sharper one for others, still He does not exempt anyone since He knows that the whole world is sick.
Moreover, our good Father not only has to take precautions against our future weakness, but He must also often correct our past faults in order to draw us back into obedience to Him. Therefore as soon as some affliction comes to us we should remember our past life and when we do so we will doubtless find that we have committed some fault worthy of such punishment. However, we do not have to find the chief grounds for exhorting ourselves to patience from the recognition of our sin, for scripture offers us a much better reflection when it says that “the Lord corrects us by adversities in order not to condemn us with this world” (1 Cor. 11[32]). So we must recognize the mercy and kindness of our Father in the midst of the greatest bitterness of the tribulations, since even in these tribulations He does not cease to advance our salvation, for He does not afflict us in order to destroy us but to deliver us from the condemnation of this world. This thought will lead us to what scripture teaches us elsewhere, saying: “My child, do not reject the correction of the Lord and do not be angry when He tests you; for God corrects those whom He loves and keeps them as His children” (Prov. 3[11-12]). When we hear that these corrections are fatherly rods, is it not our duty to make ourselves teachable children, rather than by resisting to follow those despairing people who are hardened in their wrong doing? When we fell into sin the Lord would destroy us, if He did not draw us back by His corrections, as the apostle says: “We are bastards and not legitimate children if He does not keep us under discipline” (Heb. 12[8]). So we are too perverse if we cannot bear the Lord when He declares His benevolence and the care He has for our salvation. Scripture notes this difference between the unbelievers and the faithful: the former, like serfs long ago who were of perverse nature, only get worse and harden themselves to the whip; the latter profit for repentance and amendment, like legitimate children. Let us choose now which we would rather be. But because this argument has been discussed in another place,3 it is enough here to touch on it briefly.
But the sovereign comfort is when we endure persecution for righteousness. For we ought then to remember what an honor the Lord does us in giving us the signs of His soldiers. I call it “persecution for righteousness” not only when we suffer for defending the gospel, but also when we suffer for maintaining every just cause. Whether in defending God’s truth against Satan’s lies, or indeed supporting the innocent against the wicked and preventing wrong and insult being done to them, we must risk the world’s hatred and anger which can endanger our honor or our fortunes or our life, let us not regard it as evil to engage to that point for God, and let us not consider ourselves unhappy when with His own mouth He proclaims that we are blessed [Matt. 5:10].
Check Point: Dec. 23, 2010
It is indeed true that when valued in itself poverty is wretched, and likewise exile, scorn, shame, prison, and finally death is a very severe calamity. But where God breathes His favor, there is not one of these things which does not turn to our good and happiness, so let us be content with Christ’s testimony rather than with our flesh’s false opinion. Then it will be that, according to the apostles’ example, “we will rejoice whenever we are counted worthy to suffer insult for His name” (Acts 5[41]). For if, while we are innocent and have a good conscience, we are stripped of our goods by the wickedness of the wicked, we are indeed impoverished in human sight, but by this we will gather the true riches before God. If we are cast out and banished from our country we are so much the more received into the Lord’s family. If we are vexed and attacked, we are so much the more confirmed in our Lord, to have recourse to Him. If we accept insult and ignominy, we are so much the more exalted in the kingdom of God. If we die, entrance is made for us into the blessed life. Would it not be a great disgrace for us to esteem those things, which the Lord has valued so much, less than we do the pleasures of this world which at once pass away like smoke? So since scripture comforts us in every disgrace and calamity that we must endure for the defense of righteousness, we are too ungrateful if we do not bear these patiently and with a light heart, particularly since this kind of cross is more appropriate for the faithful than all others, and that by this Christ wants to be glorified in them, as St. Peter says (1 Pet. 4[12-14]).
However, God does not require of us such a joy as takes away all bitterness of sorrow, because the patience of the saints in their crosses would be nothing unless they were tormented with sorrows and felt anxiety when they were attacked. Likewise if poverty were not hard and bitter for them, if they did not suffer some torment in illness, if disgrace did not pierce them, if death did not frighten them, what strength or moderation would there be in despising all these things? But as each of these has a bitterness joined with it, by which it naturally pierces the hearts of all of us, the strength of the faithful person is demonstrated if, when he is tested by the feeling of such sorrow, although he labors severely he nevertheless resists and conquers. Patience is made known if, being urged on by this same feeling, he is nevertheless held back by the fear of God as by a bridle, so that he does not overflow in some indecency. Joy is clear if, being wounded by sadness and pain, he nevertheless rests in God’s spiritual consolation. This struggle against the natural feeling of sorrow which the faithful endure in practicing patience and moderation, is very well described by St. Paul in these words: “We endure tribulation in all things, but we are not in distress. We endure poverty but we are not destitute. We endure persecution but we are not abandoned. We are as if crushed but we do not perish” (2 Cor. 4[8-9]).
We see that bearing the cross patiently does not mean being completely senseless or feeling no pain — as the Stoic philosophers have in past time madly described a person of great heart who, being stripped of his humanity, was not affected more by adversity than by prosperity, or by sad things than joyous ones: or rather, he was without feeling, like a stone. How did they benefit from this so-lofty wisdom? They have painted a representation of patience which never was and never can be found among people; especially, in wanting to have too perfect a patience, they have taken the use of it away from people. There are also now similar people among Christians who think that it is a vice not only to groan and weep but also to be sad and have cares. These uncivilized views come practically from lazy people who, practicing speculation rather than putting their hand to the task, can engender only such fantasies. For our part we have nothing to do with such a hard and rigid philosophy which our Lord Jesus condemned not only with words but also by His example. For He groaned and wept for His own sorrow as well as for pity for others, and He did not teach His disciples to do otherwise: “The world,” He says, “will rejoice and you will be sorrowful; it will laugh and you will weep” (Jn. 16[20]). In order that no one should make this into a vice, He proclaims that “those who weep are blessed” [Matt. 5:4]. That is no surprise. For if all tears were censured, what would we think of the Lord Jesus, from whose body there were squeezed out drops of blood? If one accuses all fearfulness of being unbelief, what would we think of the terror by which He was so wondrously frightened? If all sadness displeases us, how will we approve it when He confesses that “His soul was sad to the point of death” [Matt. 26:38]?
I wanted to say these things in order to draw all good hearts back from despair, so that they might not renounce their efforts at patience even though they are not completely free of the natural feeling of sorrow. Now it is fitting that those who regard patience as senselessness, and consider a person strong and constant who is a block of wood, should lose heart and despair when they would like to devote themselves to patience. Scripture, on the contrary, praises the saints for their fortitude when they are afflicted by the hardness of their sufferings but are not broken so as to be crushed or defeated; when they are pierced with bitterness but yet have a spiritual joy with it; when they are squeezed with anxiety but still do not cease to breathe, rejoicing in God’s comfort [2 Cor. 1:4-7]. Meanwhile this contradiction remains in their hearts: that is, the natural sense flees and is terrified by all that is opposed to it, but on the other hand the feeling of piety draws them in obedience to God’s will through the midst of these difficulties. Jesus Christ expressed that contradiction to St. Peter in this way: “When you were young you girded yourself as you pleased, and walked where you pleased; when you are old you will be girded and led where you do not want to go” [Jn. 21:18]. It is certainly not likely that since he needed to glorify God by his death, St. Peter was led to do this by constraint and against his will; otherwise his martyrdom would not be very praiseworthy. Nevertheless even though he obeyed God’s ordinance with a sincere and cheerful heart, because he had not put off his humanity he was torn by a double will. For when he considered the cruel death that he had to suffer, being frightened with horror of it, he would willing have escaped it. On the other hand, when he considered that he had been called to it by God’s command, he presented himself willingly and even joyously, treading under foot all fear.
Check Point: Dec. 26, 2010
Therefore, if we want to be disciples of Christ we must take care that our hearts are filled with such reverence and obedience for God as can tame and subjugate all contrary affections to His good pleasure. From that it will come about that no matter what our tribulation, if we experience the greatest possible distress of heart, we will not cease constantly to maintain patience. For adversities always have their severity which eats us up. For that reason, when we are afflicted with illness we groan and lament and desire health; when we are pressed by poverty we feel goads of confusion and worry. Likewise disgrace, scorn, and all other insults wound us to the heart. When one of our relatives dies, we render to nature the tears which it deserves. But we will always return to this conclusion: “Nevertheless God wanted this, so let us follow His will.” Especially this reflection must intervene in the midst of the piercing feelings of sorrow, tears, and groaning in order to guide our hearts to bear joyously the things by which it is grieved.
Because we have taken the principal reason for bearing the cross well from a consideration of God’s will, we must briefly define what difference there is between Christian patience and philosophical patience. There have been very few philosophers who have ascended so high as to understand that it is by God’s hand that people are exercised by afflictions and that therefore we must obey His will in this. But even those who have reached that point offer no other reason except that it is necessary. Now what else is that but to say that we must submit to God because it would be futile to strive to resist Him? For if we obey God only because it is necessary, when we could flee from Him we would cease to obey Him. But scripture prefers that we consider something else in God’s will: which is first His righteousness and equity, next the care He has for our salvation. Therefore Christian exhortations are like this: whether poverty or banishment or prison or insult or sickness or loss of relatives or some other adversity torments us, we must think that none of these happens except by the will and providence of the Lord. Furthermore, we must think that He does nothing except by a well-ordered justice. Why? Do the sins we commit daily not deserve to be chastised a hundred thousand times more sharply and with greater severity than He employs? It is not indeed right that our flesh be tamed and accustomed to the yoke, so that it may not intemperately go astray, according to its nature? Are God’s righteousness and truth not indeed worthy of our bearing suffering for them? If God’s equity clearly appears in all our afflictions, we cannot murmur or rebel without sin. We do not listen to this cold song of the philosophers: “we must submit since it is necessary,” but we hear an exhortation which is lively and very effective: “we must obey because it is not lawful to resist, we must have patience because impatience is obstinacy against God’s justice.”
Now because there is nothing rightly worth loving except what we know to be good and salutary, the Father of mercy also comforts us in this matter, affirming that in afflicting us with the cross He is providing for our salvation. So if tribulations are salutary for us, why should we not receive them with a peaceful and not ungrateful heart? Therefore in enduring them patiently we do not submit to necessity but we acquiesce for our own good. These reflections, I say, will act so that our hearts will be enlarged with spiritual joy as much as they are squeezed by the natural severity of the cross. From this also will follow thanksgiving, which cannot exist without joy. Now if thanksgiving and the praise of the Lord can come forth only from a joyous and cheerful heart, and they must not be hindered by anything in the world, it is clear how necessary it is that the bitterness which is in the cross be tempered with spiritual joy.
In addition, no matter what kind of tribulation afflicts us, we must always consider this goal, so that we may become accustomed to despising the present life in order to be incited to meditate on and prepare ourselves for the future life. For since the Lord knows very well how we are inclined to a blind and even animal love of this world, He employs a very appropriate reasoning to draw us back and awaken our laziness, so that our heart may not attach itself too much to such a mad love. Every one of us wants to be seen to aspire to the heavenly immortality throughout his life, and to strive to arrive there. For we are ashamed not to be superior to the beasts in anything; their condition would be in no way less than ours if we did not hope for eternity after death. But if we examine the counsels, deliberations, undertakings, and works of each person, we will see nothing except what is earthly. Now this stupid insensitivity comes from the fact that our understanding is obscured by the futile brightness of the external appearance of riches, honors, and powers, and so we cannot see further than that. Likewise our heart, being occupied with greed, ambition, and other wicked desires, is so attached to these things that we cannot look upward on high. Lastly, the whole soul, enveloped and as if possessed with carnal pleasures, seeks its happiness on earth.
Check Point: Dec. 27, 2010
Therefore to avoid this evil, the Lord teaches His servants the vanity of this present life and gives them continual practice in different miseries. In order that they may not promise themselves peace and repose in the present life, He often allows this life to be troubled and attacked by wars, tumults, brigandage, or other harm. In order that the faithful may not aspire to empty riches with too great a passion, or rest in those which they possess, He reduces them to poverty, sometimes by the barrenness of the earth, sometimes by fire, sometimes in another fashion, or He holds them in a moderate or middle state. In order that they may not take too much pleasure in marriage, He either gives them rough and contrary wives who torment them, or He gives them bad children to humble them, or He afflicts them by taking away their wives and children. If He treats them gently in all these matters, nevertheless, so that they may not be puffed up with vain glory or elevated with disordered confidence, He warns them by illnesses and dangers, and practically sets before their eyes how fragile and short-lived all these goods (which are subject to death) are. Therefore we profit very well in the discipline of the cross when we learn that the present, when regarded in itself, is full of unrest and troubles and completely wretched, and is not happy in any way; and that all the goods of this life which we value are transitory and unsure, frivolous and mixed with countless miseries. And so we conclude that we must not see or hope for anything here except struggle, and when it is a question of our crown we must raise our eyes to heaven. For it is certain that our heart will never really be directed to desire and meditate on and prepare for the future life without first being moved by a disdain for the earthly life.
There is no way between these two extremes: that we must despise the earth or that it must hold us bound to it with an immoderate love. Therefore, if we have some concern about immortality, we must carefully strive to free ourselves from these wicked ties. But because the present life always has strong pleasures to charm us, and a great appearance of attractiveness and sweetness to seduce us, we have the job of drawing back hour by hour, so that we are not deceived and as if bewitched by such blandishments. For what would happen, I ask you, if we enjoyed a perpetual happiness here, since when we are continually pricked with so many goads we cannot be sufficiently awakened to consider our wretchedness? Not only the learned know that human life is like a shadow or smoke, but it is also a common proverb among the populace. Because it is recognized as something very useful to know, it is celebrated by more than a few fine sayings.
Nevertheless there is nothing in the world that we neglect more, or which we remember less, for we carry out all our undertakings as if we were establishing our immortality on earth. If a dead person is buried or we are in a cemetery among graves, I admit that then we philosophize very well about the fragility of this life, because we have an image of death before our eyes. However, even that does not always happen, for sometimes these things scarcely move us at all. But when it happens, it is a transitory philosophy which vanishes as soon as we turn our backs, so that not even a memory of it remains. For, having forgotten not only death but also our own mortality as if we had never heard it mentioned, we fall back into a security and mad confidence of earthly immortality. If someone meanwhile cites for us the ancient proverb that a person is a being who lives one day, we indeed admit it, but do so without thinking about it, so the idea that we will live here forever remains always fixed in our hearts. So who will deny that it is very necessary for us not only to be warned, but also to be convinced by as many experiences as possible, how wretched the human condition is with regard to worldly life? Since even when we are convinced, we scarcely cease to have such regard for this life that we are practically completely heedless, as if it contained all happiness in itself. Now if it is necessary for the Lord to instruct us this way, our duty is to listen to His exhortations and remonstrances by which He awakens our nonchalance so that, despising the world, we may aspire with all our heart to meditate on and prepare for the future life.
However, the faithful must accustom themselves to the kind of disdain for the present life which does not engender hatred for it or ingratitude toward God. For although this life is full of countless miseries, nevertheless it is rightly numbered among God’s blessings which are not to be despised. Therefore if we do not recognize any of God’s grace in this life, we are guilty of great ingratitude. Especially this life ought to be a testimony to the faithful of the Lord’s benevolence, since it is completely destined to advance our salvation. Before plainly revealing the heritage of immortal glory to us, the Lord wants to make Himself known to us as Father in lesser things, that is, the benefits which we daily receive from His hand. So since this life serves us as a way to understand God’s goodness, will we not fail to take that goodness into account if we regard this life as having nothing good in it? Therefore we must have the feeling and affection of considering it a gift of divine kindness which is not to be refused. For if the testimonies of scripture were lacking (which they are not), still nature itself exhorts us that we ought to thank God since He has created us and put us in this world, since He preserves us in it and ministers to us all the things necessary to exist in it. Moreover, there is an even greater reason for thanks if we consider that He is preparing us here for the glory of His kingdom. For He once ordained that those who should be crowned in heaven should first struggle on earth, in order not to triumph until after they have overcome the difficulties of the war and obtained victory.
Check Point: Dec. 28, 2010
The other reason also has weight: that here we begin to taste the sweetness of His kindness in His benefits, so that our hope and desire may be incited to hunger for the full revelation of them. After we have fixed on the fact that the earthly life is a gift of divine mercy for which we are obligated to Him and which we must also acknowledge, then it will be time to descend to considering the unhappy condition of this life in order to disentangle ourselves from the excessive passion for it to which we are all naturally inclined (as we have shown). So all that we take away from the disordered love of this life must be transferred to the desire for the heavenly life.
Indeed I admit that those who have judged that our sovereign good would be never to be born, and the second good would be to die very soon, have had a good view according to their human sense. For since they were pagans, destitute of God’s light and of the true religion, what could they see in the earthly life except complete poverty and terror? It was also not without reason that the Scythian people wept at the birth of their children and when one of their relatives died they rejoiced and made a solemn feast. But they did not benefit at all from that for, since they lacked the true teaching of faith, they did not see how what is indeed neither happy nor desirable in itself might turn to salvation for the faithful. Therefore the end point of their conclusion about this life was despair. So in evaluating this mortal life, let God’s servants always follow this goal: since they see that there is only misery in it, let them be more free and disposed to meditate on and prepare for the future and eternal life. When they have compared the two, then not only can they neglect the first but they will also despise it and put no value on it by comparison with the second. For if heaven is our country, what else is earth but an exile and banishment? If departure from this world is entrance into life, what else is this world but a grave? What else is it to remain here than to be plunged into death? If it is freedom to be delivered from this body, what else is the body but a prison? If our sovereign happiness is to enjoy God’s presence, is it not misery not to enjoy it? Now until we leave this world, it is as if we are at a distance from God. Therefore if the earthly life is compared to the heavenly one, there is no doubt that it can be despised and practically considered as dung.
It is indeed true that we ought never to hate this life except inasmuch as it holds us in subjection to sin — although properly that should not be imputed to this life. However it may be, we must be weary or irritated in desiring to see the end of this life, but in such a way that we are meanwhile prepared to live in it at God’s good pleasure, so that in our affliction here we may be far from any murmuring or impatience. For it is like a station in which the Lord has placed us and in which we must remain until He recalls us. St. Paul indeed laments his situation of being detained as if “bound in the prison of his body” longer than he would like, and he sighs with ardent desire to be freed (Rom. 7[24]). However, to obey God’s will, he protests that “he is ready for either one” (Phil. 1[20-24]), because he knows that he is debtor to God to glorify His name, whether by life or death. Now it is the Lord’s business to determine what is expedient for His glory. Therefore if it is fitting for us to live to Him and die to Him, let us leave both our life and our death to His good pleasure, in such a way nevertheless that we always desire our death and continually meditate on and practice for it, despising this mortal life in comparison with the future immortality and desiring to renounce it whenever the Lord pleases, because it holds us in bondage to sin.
But this idea is like a monster to a number of people who boast of being Christians but who, instead of desiring death, are so terrified of it that as soon as one speaks of it they tremble as if it were the greatest unhappiness which could happen to them. It is no surprise if the natural feeling is moved and terrified when we hear it said that our bodies must be separated from our souls, but it is intolerable that there should not be such a light in a Christian’s heart as can overcome and crush this fear (such as it is) by a greater comfort. For if we consider that this tabernacle of our body, which is weak and frail, subject to vice and corruption, is unmade and practically demolished in order afterward to be restored in a perfect glory, firm, incorruptible, and heavenly, does not faith constrain us to desire ardently what nature flees and finds terrifying? If we think that by death we are recalled from a miserable exile in order to live in our country, indeed our heavenly country, must we not conceive a special consolation in that? But someone will object that all things want to continue to exist. I admit it. For this reason I maintain that we must aspire to the future immortality where we will have a settled situation which will never be found on earth. Is it reasonable that the animals and even the insentient creatures, the wood and stones, because they have some feeling of their vanity and corruption, are awaiting the day of judgment to be delivered from these things (Rom. 8[19]), while on the contrary we who have first some light of nature and more, are illumined by God’s Spirit, when it is a matter of our being, do not lift our eyes up above this earthly rottenness?
Check Point: Dec. 29, 2010
But it not my intention to argue at length here against such a great perversity. Indeed, I have protested from the beginning that I do not want to discuss each point with a formal exhortation. I would advise the people of such timid heart to read the book of St. Cyprian which he entitled On Mortality4 — if they did not deserve to be sent back to the philosophers in whom they will find a scorn of death which ought to make them ashamed. Nevertheless we must hold to this proverb: “no one has profited properly in Christ’s school except the one who awaits with joy the day of death and the last resurrection.” For St. Paul describes all the faithful by this mark (Tit. 2[13]), and scripture has the habit of calling us back to this when it wants to offer us grounds for rejoicing: “Rejoice,” says the Lord, “and lift up your heads on high, for your redemption is near” (Matt. 5[12]; [Lk. 21:28]). What kind of statement is it, I ask you, that what Jesus Christ thought was appropriate to make us rejoice only engenders in us sadness and fear? If that is so, why do we glory in being His disciples? Let us return to a better mind; and although the passion of our flesh which is blind and senseless may fight against it, let us not hesitate to hope for the coming of the Lord as a very happy thing, and not only simply desire it but groan and sigh for it. For He will come as our Redeemer to introduce us into the heritage of His glory after He has withdrawn us from this pit of all evils and miseries.
While they live on earth all the faithful must be as sheep destined for the butcher shop in order to be conformed to their Head Jesus Christ [Rom. 8:36]. They would be hopelessly unhappy, then, unless they directed their minds on high to overcome all that is of the world and pass beyond considering present matters. On the contrary, if they have once raised their thoughts above earthly matters, when they see the wicked flourish in their riches and honors, and be at rest, and have everything as they wish, and live in pleasures and pomps: when they themselves are even treated inhumanely by the wicked and endure insult and are pillaged or afflicted in whatever kind of abuse it may be, still it will be easy for them to comfort themselves in such evils. For they will always have before their eyes the last day, when they know the Lord must gather His faithful to rest in His kingdom, wipe the tears from their eyes, crown them with glory, robe them with joy, satisfy them with the infinite sweetness of His pleasures, exalt them in His highness: in summary, make them participants in His happiness. On that day, on the contrary, He will cast into extreme disgrace the wicked who are glorified on earth, change their pleasures into horrible torments, their laughter and joy into weeping and gnashing of teeth, upset their rest with terrible troubling of conscience: in summary, plunge them into eternal fire and make them subject to the faithful whom they have treated wickedly. Behold our unique comfort! If that is taken away, either we must lose heart, or indeed flatter and seduce ourselves by vain and frivolous pleasures which will turn to our destruction. For the prophet himself confesses that “he wavered and his feet were practically slipping while he fixed too much attention on the present happiness of the wicked, and he could not rest firmly until he brought his mind to contemplate God’s sanctuary” (Ps. 73[2-3, 17]), that is, to consider what will one day be the end of both good and wicked.
To conclude in one word, I say that Christ’s cross will finally triumph in the hearts of the faithful against the devil, flesh, sin, death, and the wicked, if they turn their eyes to regard the power of His resurrection.
By this same lesson scripture instructs us as well what the right use of earthly goods is, which is something not to be neglected when it is a question of ordering our life well. For if we must live, we must also use the helps which are necessary to life, and we cannot even abstain from those things which serve pleasure more than necessity. Therefore we must keep some limits so that we use them with a pure and wholesome conscience, for our need as well as our pleasure. God shows us this limit and measure when He teaches that for His servants the present life is like a pilgrimage by which they go toward the heavenly kingdom. If we must only pass through the earth, there is no doubt that we ought to use its good things in such a way that they advance rather than retard our going.
But because this matter is doubtful and uncertain, and there is as much danger of falling into one extremity as the other, let us take care to give a certain teaching by which a person can surely resolve the question. There have been some good and holy persons who, seeing human intemperance always overflow very quickly unless it is severely restrained and desiring to correct such a great evil, have not permitted people to use the physical goods except inasmuch as necessary. They did that because they saw no other remedy. Their advice indeed came from a good affection but they pursued it with too great rigidity, for they did one very dangerous thing: which is they bound consciences more strictly than God’s word binds consciences. On the contrary, there are a number of people who want to seek a pretext to excuse all immoderation in the use of external things and to give unbridled freedom to the flesh — which is already only too quick to overflow bounds. They take as a given something which I do not accept, which is that we must not restrain this freedom by any moderation but rather ought to allow each person’s conscience to use things as it considers lawful. Indeed I admit that in this matter we ought not and cannot constrain consciences by certain formulas and precepts. But since scripture gives general rules of lawful use, why not limit the use according to those?
Check Point: Dec. 30, 2010
For the first point we must hold to this: that the use of God’s gifts is not out of order when it is directed to the goal for which God created and destined them, since He created them for our good and not for our harm. Therefore no one keeps to a better way than one who carefully considers this purpose. Now if we reflect on the purpose for which God created foods, we will find that He not only wanted to provide for our necessity but also for our pleasure and comfort. So also with clothing: besides necessity He considered what was proper and fitting. As for grasses, trees, and fruits, besides the different ways these are useful to us, He wanted to delight our sight with their beauty and to give us still another pleasure in their fragrance. For it that were not true, the prophet would not recount it among God’s benefits that “wine delights the human heart and oil makes the face shine” (Ps. 104[15]); and scripture would not mention here and there, to commend God’s kindness, that “He made all these good things for people.” Even the good qualities which all things have by nature show us how we ought to enjoy them and for what purpose and to what extent. Do we think that our Lord gave to flowers such beauty as they present to our eyes, and it is not lawful to be moved with some pleasure in seeing it? Do we think that He gave them such a good fragrance and did not want people to delight in it? Moreover, did He not distinguish the colors in such a way that some have more grace than others? Did He not give some grace to gold, silver, ivory, and marble to make them more precious and noble than other metals and stones? Finally, did He not give us many things which we ought to appreciate without our needing them? So let us rid ourselves of that inhumane philosophy which does not allow a person to use any of God’s creatures except to satisfy his needs. It not only deprives us without reason of the lawful fruit of the divine beneficence, but it also cannot exist without stripping a person of all feeling and making him like a block of wood.
But also, on the other hand, we must not be less careful to prevent the wicked desires of our flesh, which overflow without limit if they are not bridled. Moreover, there are some people (as I have said) who, under pretext of liberty, allow a person any and everything. So we must first bridle liberty with this rule: that all the goods which we have, were created in order that we might acknowledge their Author and magnify His kindness by thanksgiving. Now where will the thanksgiving be if by gluttony you so fill yourself with wine and food that you become senseless and useless for serving God and doing what your calling entails? Where is the acknowledgment of God if the flesh, incited to base wicked desires by too much abundance, infects the mind with its filth to the point of blinding it and taking away its ability to distinguish good and evil? How will we thank God for giving us the clothing we wear if it has a sumptuousness which puffs us up and makes us despise others? If there is an ostentation or elegance which is an instrument of wantonness — how, I say, will we acknowledge our God if we have our eyes fixed on contemplating the magnificence of our clothes? The same can be said about all other kinds of goods. It is clear then that license to abuse God’s gifts is already in some way restrained by this reflection.
But there is no more certain or short way than when a person is brought to despise the present life and to mediate on and prepare for the heavenly immortality, for two rules follow from that. The first is that “those who use this world ought to have as little affection for it as if they did not use it; those who marry, as if they did not marry; those who buy as if they had nothing” (1 Cor. 7[29-31]), according to St. Paul’s precept. The other rule is that we should learn to bear poverty patiently and with a heart as peaceful as if we employed abundance moderately. The one who commands us “to use this world as if not using it,” not only cuts off all intemperance in drinking and eating, all pleasures, excessive ambition, pride, inappropriate discontent, in buildings as well as clothing and way of life; but he also reforms all care and affection which might turn us away or hinder us from thinking about the heavenly life and adorning our souls with its true ornaments. Now long ago it was truly said by Cato that “where there is a great care for elegance there is great neglect of virtue,” as also the old proverb says that “those who spend much time in soft treatment and ornament for their bodies have scarcely any concern for their souls.” Therefore, even though the freedom of the faithful in external matters ought not to be restricted by certain formulas, nevertheless it is subject to this law: that they allow themselves only the least possible; and on the other hand that they be vigilant to cut off all superfluity and empty display of abundance — much less allow themselves to be immoderate — and carefully guard themselves against making hindrances of things which ought to be helps.
Check Point: Dec. 31, 2010
The other rule will be that those who are poor learn patiently to do without what they lack, lest they be tormented by very great anxiety. Those who can keep this moderation have profited not a little in the Lord’s school; as on the other hand one who has not profited in it can scarcely show anything to prove that he is Christ’s disciple. For besides the fact that more than a few other vices follow the passion for earthly things, it practically always happens that one who bears poverty impatiently shows the contrary vice if he has abundance. By that I mean that one who is ashamed of a bad set of clothing will glory in a costly one; one who is not content with a meager meal and torments himself with desire for a better one, will not maintain sober use when he finds himself well supplied; one who cannot keep himself in a lowly or private situation but is irritated and upset by it, cannot keep himself from pride and arrogance if he comes to honor. Therefore all those who want to serve God without pretense ought to follow the apostle’s example and strive to be able “to bear abundance and poverty” (Phil. 4[12]): that is, to keep themselves moderately in abundance, and to have good patience in poverty.
Scripture has still a third rule to govern the use of earthly things, one which we briefly touched on in discussing the precepts of love/charity.5 For scripture shows that all the things which are given to us by God’s kindness and destined for our use, are like a deposit for which we will have to give an accounting [Matt. 25:14-30; Lk. 12:42-48]. Therefore we must employ them in such a way that we always bear in mind this sentence: that we must render an accounting of all that our Lord has given into our charge. Moreover, we must think about who it is who calls us to account, that is, God — who, as He has so much commended to us abstinence, moderation, temperance, and modesty, also hates all intemperance, pride, ostentation, and vanity; who does not approve any other use except that which is measured by love/charity; who has already explicitly condemned all pleasures by which the human heart is turned away from chastity and purity, or by which its understanding is made senseless.
We must also carefully observe that God commands each one of us to look to his vocation in all the actions of his life. For He knows how the human understanding burns with disquiet, He knows with what ease it is carried about here and there, and with what ambition and passion it is provoked to embrace a number of different things at once. Therefore, lest we disturb everything by our madness and wantonness, by distinguishing different estates and ways of living He has ordained for each one what he has to do. In order that no one may lightly go beyond his limits, He has called such ways of living “vocations.” Each one in his place ought to think that his estate is for him like a station assigned by God, so that he may not turn around in circles here and there without reflection, the whole course of his life. Now this distinction is so necessary that before God all our works are evaluated by it, and often evaluated differently than the judgment of human reason or philosophical reason would do. Not only the common people but also philosophers think that it is the noblest and most excellent act they know to deliver their country from tyranny. On the contrary, every private person who has violently attacked a tyrant is clearly condemned by God’s voice. However, I do not want to stop here to repeat all the examples which one could cite.
It suffices that we know that God’s calling is for us like a principle and foundation for us to govern ourselves well in all matters. One who does not govern himself by God’s calling will never keep to the right path to carry out his duty properly. He can indeed do some act which is in some way praiseworthy in external appearance but, however people may value it, it will not be accepted before God’s throne. Moreover, if we do not have our vocation as a perpetual rule, there will be no sure tie or relationship among the parts of our life. Therefore one who has directed his life to this goal will have it well ordered. From that we receive a special comfort: that there is no work so lowly that it does not shine before God and is not very precious, provided we are serving our vocation in it.
the end.