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Even as a tender mother, leading with her her little
babe, assists and supports him as need requires,
letting him now and then venture a step by himself in
less dangerous and very smooth places, now taking him
by the hand and steadying him, now taking him up in
her arms and bearing him, so Our Lord has a continual
care to conduct his children, that is such as are in
charity; making them walk before him, reaching them
his hand in difficulties, and bearing them himself in
such travails, as he sees otherwise insupportable
unto them.
This he declared by Isaias saying: am the Lord thy
God, who take thee by the hand, and say to thee: fear
not, I have helped thee.(1) So that with a good heart
we must have a firm confidence in God, and his
assistance, for if we fail not to second his grace,
he will accomplish in us the good work of our
salvation, which he also began working in us both to
will and to accomplish,(2) as the holy Council of
Trent assures us.
In this conduct which the heavenly sweetness makes
of our souls, from their entry into charity until
their final perfection, which is not finished but in
the hour of death, consists the great gift of
perseverance, to which our Saviour attaches the
greatest gift of eternal glory, according to his
saying: He that shall persevere unto the end, he
shall be saved:(3) for this gift is no other thing
than the combination and sequence of the various
helps, solaces and succours, whereby we continue in
the love of God to the end: as the education,
bringing up and supporting of a child is no other
thing, than the many cares, aids, succours, and other
offices necessary to a child, exercised and continued
towards him till he grow to years in which he no
longer needs them.
But the continuance of succours and helps is not
equal in all those that persevere. In some it is
short; as in such as were converted a little before
their death: so it happened to the Good Thief; so to
that officers who seeing the constancy of S. James
made forthwith profession of faith, and became a
companion of the martyrdom of this great Apostle; so
to the blessed gaoler who guarded the forty martyrs
at Sebaste, who seeing one of them lose courage, and
forsake the crown of martyrdom, put himself in his
place and became Christian, martyr and glorious all
at once; so to the notary of whom mention is made in
the life of S. Antony of Padua, who having all his
life been a false villain yet died a martyr: and so
it happened to a thousand others of whom we have seen
and read that they died well, after an ill-spent
life.
As for these, they stand not in need of a great
variety of succours, but unless some great temptation
cross their way, they can make this short
perseverance solely by the charity given them, and by
the aids by which they were converted. For they
arrive at the port without voyaging, and finish their
pilgrimage in a single leap, which the powerful mercy
of God makes them take so opportunely that their
enemies see them triumph before seeing them fight: so
that their conversion and perseverance are almost the
same thing.
And if we would speak with exact propriety, the
grace which they received of God whereby they
attained as soon the issue, as the beginning of their
course, cannot well be termed perseverance, though
all the same, because actually it holds the place of
perseverance in giving salvation we comprehend it
under the name of perseverance.
In others, on the contrary, perseverance is
longer, as in S. Anne the prophetess, in S. John the
Evangelist, S. Paul the first hermit, S. Hilarion, S.
Romuald, S. Francis of Paula; - and they stood in
need of a thousand sorts of different assistances,
according to the variety of the adventures of their
pilgrimage and the length of it.
But in any case, perseverance is the most desirable
gift we can hope for in this life, and the one which,
as the Council of Trent says, we cannot have but from
the hand of God, who alone can assure him that
stands, and help him up that falls: wherefore we must
incessantly demand it, making use of the means which
Our Saviour has taught us to the obtaining of it;
prayer, fasting, alms-deeds, frequenting the
sacraments, intercourse with the good, the hearing
and reading of holy words.
Now since the gift of prayer and devotion is
liberally granted to all those who sincerely will to
consent to divine inspirations, it is consequently in
our power to persevere. Not of course that I mean to
say that our perseverance has its origin from our
power, for on the contrary I know it springs from
God's mercy, whose most precious gift it is, but I
mean that though it does not come from our power, yet
it comes within our powers by means of our will,
which we cannot deny to be in our power: for though
God's grace is necessary for us, to will to
persevere, yet is this will in our power, because
heavenly grace is never wanting to our will, and our
will is not wanting to our power.
And indeed according to the great S. Bernard's
opinion, we may all truly say with the Apostle that:
Neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus Our
Lord.(4) Yes, indeed, for no creature can take us
away by force from this holy love; we only can
forsake and abandon it by our own will, except for
which there is nothing to be feared in this matter.
So, Theotimus, following the advice of the holy
Council, we ought to place our whole hope in God, who
will perfect the work of our salvation which he has
begun in us, if we be not wanting to his grace: for
we are not to think that he who said to the
paralytic: Go, and do not will to sin again:(5) gave
him not also power to avoid that willing which he
forbade him: and surely he would never exhort the
faithful to persevere, if he were not ready to
furnish them with the power. Be thou faithful until
death, said he to the bishop of Smyrna, and I will
give thee the crown of life.(6) Watch ye, stand fast
in the faith, do manfully, and be strengthened. Let
all your actions be done in charity.(7) So run that
you may obtain.(8)
We must often then with the great King demand of
God the heavenly gift of perseverance, and hope that
he will grant it us. Cast me not off in the time of
old age; when my strength shall fail, do not thou
forsake me.(9)
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