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Wherever you are, wherever you go, you are miserable
unless you turn to God. So why be dismayed when
things do not happen as you wish and desire? Is there
anyone who has everything as he wishes? No -- neither
I, nor you, nor any man on earth. There is no one in
the world, be he Pope or king, who does not suffer
trial and anguish.
Who is the better off then? Surely, it is the man who
will suffer something for God. Many unstable and
weak-minded people say: "See how well that man lives,
how rich, how great he is, how powerful and mighty."
But you must lift up your eyes to the riches of
heaven and realize that the material goods of which
they speak are nothing. These things are uncertain
and very burdensome because they are never possessed
without anxiety and fear. Man's happiness does not
consist in the possession of abundant goods; a very
little is enough.Living on earth is truly a
misery. The more a man desires spiritual life, the
more bitter the present becomes to him, because he
understands better and sees more clearly the defects,
the corruption of human nature. To eat and drink, to
watch and sleep, to rest, to labor, and to be bound
by other human necessities is certainly a great
misery and affliction to the devout man, who would
gladly be released from them and be free from all
sin. Truly, the inner man is greatly burdened in this
world by the necessities of the body, and for this
reason the Prophet prayed that he might be as free
from them as possible, when he said: "From my
necessities, O Lord, deliver me."(1)
But woe to those who know not their own misery, and
greater woe to those who love this miserable and
corruptible life. Some, indeed, can scarcely procure
its necessities either by work or by begging; yet
they love it so much that, if they could live here
always, they would care nothing for the kingdom of
God.
How foolish and faithless of heart are those who
are so engrossed in earthly things as to relish
nothing but what is carnal! Miserable men indeed, for
in the end they will see to their sorrow how cheap
and worthless was the thing they loved.
The saints of God and all devout friends of Christ
did not look to what pleases the body nor to the
things that are popular from time to time. Their
whole hope and aim centered on the everlasting
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good. Their whole desire pointed upward to the
lasting and invisible realm, lest the love of what is
visible drag them down to lower things.
Do not lose heart, then, my brother, in pursuing your
spiritual life. There is yet time, and your hour is
not past. Why delay your purpose? Arise! Begin at
once and say: "Now is the time to act, now is the
time to fight, now is the proper time to amend."
When you are troubled and afflicted, that is the
time to gain merit. You must pass through water and
fire before coming to rest. Unless you do violence to
yourself you will not overcome vice.
So long as we live in this fragile body, we can
neither be free from sin nor live without weariness
and sorrow. Gladly would we rest from all misery, but
in losing innocence through sin we also lost true
blessedness. Therefore, we must have patience and
await the mercy of God until this iniquity passes,
until mortality is swallowed up in life.
How great is the frailty of human nature which is
ever prone to evil! Today you confess your sins and
tomorrow you again commit the sins which you
confessed. One moment you resolve to be careful, and
yet after an hour you act as though you had made no
resolution.
We have cause, therefore, because of our frailty
and feebleness, to humble ourselves and never think
anything great of ourselves. Through neglect we may
quickly lose that which by God's grace we have
acquired only through long, hard labor. What,
eventually, will become of us who so quickly grow
lukewarm? Woe to us if we presume to rest in peace
and security when actually there is no true holiness
in our lives. It would be beneficial for us, like
good novices, to be instructed once more in the
principles of a good life, to see if there be hope of
amendment and greater spiritual progress in the
future.
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