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I think it has now been explained how the spiritual
person may find as great imperfection in the
accidents of images, by setting his pleasure and
rejoicing upon them, as in other corporeal and
temporal things, and perchance imperfection more
perilous still. And I say perchance more perilous,
because, when a person says that the objects of his
rejoicing are holy, he feels more secure, and fears
not to cling to them and become attached to them in a
natural way.
And thus such a person is sometimes greatly
deceived, thinking himself to be full of devotion
because he perceives that he takes pleasure in these
holy things, when, perchance, this is due only to his
natural desire and temperament, which lead him to
this just as they lead him to other things.
2. Hence it arises (we are now beginning to treat
of oratories) that there are some persons who never
tire of adding to their oratories images of one kind
and then of another, and take pleasure in the order
and array in which they set them out, so that these
oratories may be well adorned and pleasing to behold.
Yet they love God no more when their oratories are
ornate than when they are simple -- nay, rather do
they love Him less, since, as we have said, the
pleasure which they set upon their painted adornments
is stolen from the living reality.
It is true that all the adornment and
embellishment and respect that can be lavished upon
images amounts to very little, and that therefore
those who have images and treat them with a lack of
decency and reverence are worthy of severe reproof,
as are those who have images so ill-carved that they
take away devotion rather than produce it, for which
reason some image-makers who are very defective and
unskilled in this art should be forbidden to practise
it.
But what has that to do with the attachment and
affection and desire which you have[663] for these
outward adornments and decorations, when your senses
are absorbed by them in such a way that your heart is
hindered from journeying to God, and from loving Him
and forgetting all things for love of Him?
If you fail in the latter aim for the sake of the
former, not only will God not esteem you for it, but
He will even chasten you for not having sought His
pleasure in all things rather than your own. This you
may clearly gather from the description of that feast
which they made for His Majesty when He entered
Jerusalem.
They received Him with songs and with branches,
and the Lord wept;[664] for their hearts were very
far removed from Him and they paid Him reverence only
with outward adornments and signs. We may say of them
that they were making a festival for themselves
rather than for God; and this is done nowadays by
many, who, when there is some solemn festival in a
place, are apt to rejoice because of the pleasure
which they themselves will find in it -- whether in
seeing or in being seen, or whether in eating or in
some other selfish thing -- rather than to rejoice at
being acceptable to God.
By these inclinations and intentions they are
giving no pleasure to God. Especially is this so when
those who celebrate festivals invent ridiculous and
undevout things to intersperse in them, so that they
may incite people to laughter, which causes them
greater distraction. And other persons invent things
which merely please people rather than move them to
devotion.
3. And what shall I say of persons who celebrate
festivals for reasons connected with their own
interests? They alone, and God Who sees them, know if
their regard and desire are set upon such interests
rather than upon the service of God.
Let them realize, when they act in any of these
ways, that they are making festivals in their own
honour rather than in that of God. For that which
they do for their own pleasure, or for the pleasure
of men, God will not account as done for Himself.
Yea, many who take part in God's festivals will be
enjoying themselves even while God is wroth with
them, as He was with the children of Israel when they
made a festival, and sang and danced before their
idol, thinking that they were keeping a festival in
honour of God; of whom He slew many thousands.[665]
Or again, as He was with the priests Nabad and
Abiu, the sons of Aaron, whom He slew with the
censers in their hands, because they offered strange
fire.[666] Or as with the man that entered the
wedding feast ill-adorned and ill-garbed, whom the
king commanded to be thrown into outer darkness,
bound hand and foot.[667] By this it may be known how
ill God suffers these irreverences in assemblies that
are held for His service.
For how many festivals, O my God, are made Thee by
the sons of men to the devil's advantage rather than
to Thine! The devil takes a delight in them, because
such gatherings bring him business, as they might to
a trader. And how often wilt Thou say concerning
them: 'This people honoureth Me with their lips
alone, but their heart is far from Me, for they serve
Me from a wrong cause!'[668] For the sole reason for
which God must be served is that He is Who He is, and
not for any other mediate ends.
And thus to serve Him for other reasons than
solely that He is Who He is, is to serve Him without
regard for Him as the Ultimate Reason.
4. Returning now to oratories, I say that some
persons deck them out for their own pleasure rather
than for the pleasure of God; and some persons set so
little account by the devotion which they arouse that
they think no more of them than of their own secular
antechambers; some, indeed, think even less of them,
for they take more pleasure in the profane than in
the Divine.
5. But let us cease speaking of this and speak
only of those who are more particular[669] -- that is
to say, of those who consider themselves devout
persons. Many of these centre their desire and
pleasure upon their oratory and its adornments, to
such an extent that they squander on them all the
time that they should be employing in prayer to God
and interior recollection.
They cannot see that, by not arranging their
oratory with a view to the interior recollection and
peace of the soul, they are as much distracted by it
as by anything else, and will find the pleasure which
they take in it a continual occasion of unrest, and
more so still if anyone endeavors to deprive them of
it. |