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O God! Theotimus, if we received divine inspirations
to the full extent of their virtue, in how short a
time should we make a great progress in sanctity? Be
the fountain ever so copious, its streams enter not
into a garden according to their plenty, but
according to the littleness or greatness of the
channel by which they are conducted thither.
Although the Holy Ghost, as a spring of living water,
flows up to every part of our heart to spread his
graces in it, yet as he will not have them enter
without the free consent of our will, he will only
pour them out according to his good pleasure and our
own disposition and cooperation, as the Holy Council
says, which also, by reason, as I suppose, of the
correspondence between our consent and grace, calls
the reception thereof a voluntary reception.
In this sense S. Paul exhorts us not to receive God's
grace in vain.(1) For as a sick man, who having
received a draught in his hand did not take it into
his stomach, would truly have received the potion,
yet without receiving it, that is, he would have
received it in a useless and fruitless way, so we
receive the grace of God in vain, when we receive it
at the gate of our heart, and not within the consent
of our heart; for so we receive it without receiving
it, that is, we receive it without fruit, since it is
nothing to feel the inspiration without consenting
unto it.
And as the sick man who had the potion given into
his hand, if he took it not wholly but only partly,
would also have the operation thereof in part only,
and not wholly, - so when God sends a great and
mighty inspiration to move us to embrace his holy
love, if we consent not according to its whole extent
it will but profit us in the same measure. It happens
that being inspired to do much we consent not to the
whole inspiration but only to some part thereof, as
did those good people in the Gospel, who upon the
inspiration which Our Lord gave them to follow him
wished to make reservations, the one to go first and
bury his father, the other to go to take leave of his
people.
As long as the poor widow had empty vessels, the
oil which Eliseus had by prayer miraculously
multiplied never left off running, but when she had
no more vessels to receive it, it ceased to flow. In
the same measure in which our heart dilates itself,
or rather in the measure in which it permits itself
to be enlarged and dilated, keeping itself empty by
the simple fact of not refusing consent to the divine
mercy, this ever pours forth and ceaselessly spreads
its sacred inspirations, which ever increase and make
us increase more and more in heavenly love; but when
there is no more room, that is, when we no longer
give consent, it stops.
How comes it then that we are not so advanced in the
love of God as S. Augustine, S. Francis, S. Catharine
of Genoa or S. Frances? Theotimus, it is because God
has not given us the grace. But why has he not given
us the grace? Because we did not correspond with his
inspirations as we should have done. And why did we
not correspond? Because being free we have herein
abused our liberty. But why did we abuse our liberty?
Ah! Theotimus, we must stop there, for, as S.
Augustine says, the depravation of our will proceeds
from no cause, but from some deficiency in the agent
(cause) who commits the sin. And we must not expect
to be able to give a reason of the fault which occurs
in sin, because the fault would not be a sin if it
was not without reason.
The devout Brother Rufinus upon a certain vision
which he had of the glory which the great S. Francis
would attain unto by his humility, asked him this
question: My dear father, I beseech you, tell me
truly what opinion you have of yourself ? The Saint
answered: Verily I hold myself to be the greatest
sinner in the world, and the one who serves Our Lord
least. But, Brother Rufinus replied, how can you say
this in truth and conscience, seeing that many
others, as we manifestly see, commit many great sins
from which, God be thanked, you are exempt. To which
S. Francis answered: If God had favoured those others
of whom you speak with as great mercy as he has
favoured me, I am certain, be they ever so bad now,
they would have acknowledged God's gifts far better
than I do, and would serve him much better than I do,
and if my God abandoned me I should commit more
wickedness than any one else.
You see, Theotimus, the opinion of this man, who
indeed was scarcely man, but a seraph upon earth. I
know it was humility that moved him to speak thus of
himself, yet nevertheless he believed for a certain
truth that an equal grace granted by an equal mercy
might be more faithfully employed by one sinner than
by another. Now I hold for an oracle the sentiment of
this great doctor in the science of the saints, who,
brought up in the school of the Crucifix, breathed
nothing but the divine inspirations. And this maxim
has been praised and repeated by all the most devout
who have followed him, many of whom are of opinion
that the great Apostle S. Paul said in the same sense
that he was the chief of all sinners.(2)
The Blessed Mother (S.) Teresa of Jesus, also, in
good truth, a quite angelic virgin, speaking of the
prayer of quiet, says these words: - "There are
divers souls who come up to this perfection, but
those who pass beyond are a very small number: I know
not the cause of it, certainly the fault is not on
God's side, for since his divine majesty aids us and
gives us the grace to arrive at this point, I believe
that he would not fail to give us still more if it
were not for our fault, and the impediment which we
on our part place."
Let us therefore, Theotimus, be attentive to
advance in the love which we owe to God, for that
which he bears us will never fail us.
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