|
"I wish also that you should know that every virtue
is obtained by means of your neighbor, and likewise,
every defect; he, therefore, who stands in hatred of
Me, does an injury to his neighbor, and to himself,
who is his own chief neighbor, and this injury is
both general and particular.
"It is general because you are obliged to love your
neighbor as yourself, and loving him, you ought to
help him spiritually, with prayer, counseling him
with words, and assisting him both spiritually and
temporally, according to the need in which he may be,
at least with your goodwill if you have nothing else.
A man therefore, who does not love, does not help
him, and thereby does himself an injury; for he cuts
off from himself grace, and injures his neighbor, by
depriving him of the benefit of the prayers and of
the sweet desires that he is bound to offer for him
to Me.
"Thus, every act of help that he performs should
proceed from the charity which he has through love of
Me. And every evil also, is done by means of his
neighbor, for, if he do not love Me, he cannot be in
charity with his neighbor; and thus, all evils derive
from the soul's deprivation of love of Me and her
neighbor; whence, inasmuch as such a man does no
good, it follows that he must do evil. To whom does
he evil?
"First of all to himself, and then to his neighbor,
not against Me, for no evil can touch Me, except in
so far as I count done to Me that which he does to
himself. To himself he does the injury of sin, which
deprives him of grace, and worse than this he cannot
do to his neighbor. Him he injures in not paying him
the debt, which he owes him, of love, with which he
ought to help him by means of prayer and holy desire
offered to Me for him.
"This is an assistance which is owed in general to
every rational creature; but its usefulness is more
particular when it is done to those who are close at
hand, under your eyes, as to whom, I say, you are all
obliged to help one another by word and doctrine, and
the example of good works, and in every other respect
in which your neighbor may be seen to be in need;
counseling him exactly as you would yourselves,
without any passion of self-love; and he (a man not
loving God) does not do this, because he has no love
towards his neighbor; and, by not doing it, he does
him, as you see, a special injury.
"And he does him evil, not only by not doing him the
good that he might do him, but by doing him a
positive injury and a constant evil. In this way sin
causes a physical and a mental injury.
"The mental injury is already done when the sinner
has conceived pleasure in the idea of sin, and hatred
of virtue, that is, pleasure from sensual self-love,
which has deprived him of the affection of love which
he ought to have towards Me, and his neighbor, as has
been said. And, after he has conceived, he brings
forth one sin after another against his neighbor,
according to the diverse ways which may please his
perverse sensual will. Sometimes it is seen that he
brings forth cruelty, and that both in general and in
particular.
"His general cruelty is to see himself and other
creatures in danger of death and damnation through
privation of grace, and so cruel is he that he
reminds neither himself nor others of the love of
virtue and hatred of vice. Being thus cruel he may
wish to extend his cruelty still further, that is,
not content with not giving an example of virtue, the
villain also usurps the office of the demons,
tempting, according to his power, his
fellow-creatures to abandon virtue for vice; this is
cruelty towards his neighbors, for he makes himself
an instrument to destroy life and to give death.
"Cruelty towards the body has its origin in cupidity,
which not only prevents a man from helping his
neighbor, but causes him to seize the goods of
others, robbing the poor creatures; sometimes this is
done by the arbitrary use of power, and at other
times by cheating and fraud, his neighbor being
forced to redeem, to his own loss, his own goods, and
often indeed his own person.
"Oh, miserable vice of cruelty, which will deprive
the man who practices it of all mercy, unless he turn
to kindness and benevolence towards his neighbor!
"Sometimes the sinner brings forth insults on which
often follows murder; sometimes also impurity against
the person of his neighbor, by which he becomes a
brute beast full of stench, and in this case he does
not poison one only, but whoever approaches him, with
love or in conversation, is poisoned.
"Against whom does pride bring forth evils? Against
the neighbor, through love of one's own reputation,
whence comes hatred of the neighbor, reputing one's
self to be greater than he; and in this way is injury
done to him. And if a man be in a position of
authority, he produces also injustice and cruelty and
becomes a retailer of the flesh of men. Oh, dearest
daughter, grieve for the offense against Me, and weep
over these corpses, so that, by prayer, the bands of
their death may be loosened!
"See now, that, in all places and in all kinds of
people, sin is always produced against the neighbor,
and through his medium; in no other way could sin
ever be committed either secret or open. A secret sin
is when you deprive your neighbor of that which you
ought to give him; an open sin is where you perform
positive acts of sin, as I have related to you.
"It is, therefore, indeed the truth that every sin
done against Me, is done through the medium of the
neighbor."
|