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What joy will he experience at the Judgment when he hears these welcome words: Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! But it is written: What things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. Let us weigh well what things we have hitherto been sowing, and let us do now what we shall then wish to have done.
I.
What great consolation he will enjoy at the Judgment hour who, for the love of Jesus Christ, has been detached from all worldly things; who has loved contempt, and mortified the body; who, in a word has loved only God!
What joy will he experience in hearing these welcome words: Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! Be glad and rejoice, for now thou art saved, and there is no longer any fear of being lost.
On the contrary, the soul which leaves this life in a state of sin, will, even before Jesus condemns it, condemn itself, and declare itself deserving of hell.
O Mary, my powerful advocate, pray to Jesus for me. Help me, now that thou art able to help me. For then thou wouldst have to see me perish and not be able to assist me.
What things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap (Gal. vi. 8). Let us consider what things we have hitherto been sowing, and let us do now what we shall then wish to have done.
If now, within an hour, we had to stand for judgment, how much should we be willing to give to purchase another year? And how are we going to employ the years which remain for us?
II.
The Abbot Agatho, after long years of penance, when he thought of Judgment, would say: “What will become of me when I shall be judged?” And holy Job exclaimed: What shall I do when God shall rise to judge? And when he shall examine, what shall I answer him? (Job. xxxi. 14). And what shall we answer when Jesus Christ calls us to account for the graces He has bestowed upon us, and for the bad use we have made of them?
O my God, deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee (Ps. lxxiii. 19). I do not deserve pardon, but Thou wouldst not have me to lose confidence in Thy mercy. Save me, O Lord, and raise me up from the mire of my miseries. I desire to amend my life, do Thou assist me.
The cause to be decided at the hour of our death will be one that will involve eternal happiness or eternal misery. Hence we should be most careful in using our utmost endeavours to secure success. Each one, considering this, should say to himself: Yes, this is true. Why, therefore, do I not leave all things to give myself entirely to God? Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found (Is. lv. 6). The sinner who thinks to find God at the Judgment after death will not find Him. But in life he who seeks Him, finds Him.
O Jesus, if hitherto I have despised Thy love, I now seek for nothing but to love Thee and to be loved by Thee. Grant that I may find Thee, O God of my soul!
Spiritual Reading
PRAYER
GOD WISHES ALL MEN TO BE SAVED.
Taking, then, for granted that Prayer is necessary for the attainment of Eternal Life, as we have proved, we ought, consequently, to take for granted also that every one has Divine assistance to enable him actually to pray, without need of any further special grace; and that by Prayer he may obtain all the other graces necessary to enable him to persevere in keeping the Commandments, and thus gain Eternal Life; so that no one who is lost can ever excuse himself by saying that it was through want of the aid necessary for his salvation. For as God, in the natural order, has ordained that man should be born naked, and in want of several things necessary for life, but then has given him hands and intelligence to clothe himself and provide for his other needs; so, in the supernatural order, man is born unable to obtain salvation by his own strength; but God in His goodness grants to every one the grace of Prayer, by which he is able to obtain all other graces which he needs in order to keep the Commandments and to be saved.
But before I come to treat this point, I must first establish Two Preliminary Propositions:
FIRST PRELIMINARY PROPOSITION
GOD WISHES ALL MEN TO BE SAVED, AND THEREFORE CHRIST DIED TO SAVE ALL MEN.
(a) God wishes all men to be saved.
God loves all things that He has created: For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made (Wis. xi. 25). Now love cannot be idle: “All love has a force of its own, and cannot be idle,” says St. Augustine. Hence love necessarily implies benevolence, so that the person who loves cannot help doing good to the person beloved whenever there is an opportunity: “Love persuades a man to do those things which he believes to be good for him whom he loves,” says Aristotle. If, then, God loves all men, He must, in consequence, will that all should obtain Eternal salvation, which is the one and sovereign good of man, seeing that it is the one end for which he was created: You have your fruit unto sanctification; and the end life everlasting (Rom. vi. 22).
This doctrine, that God wishes all men to be saved, and that Jesus Christ died for the salvation of all, is now a certain doctrine taught by the Catholic Church, as theologians in common teach, for example, Petavius, Gonet, Gotti, and others, besides Tourneley, who adds, that it is a doctrine all but of Faith.
1.–Proved from Decision of the Church.
With reason, therefore, were the Predestinarians condemned, who, among their errors, taught that God does not will all men to be saved, as Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, testifies of them: “The ancient Predestinarians asserted that God does not will all men to be saved, but only those who are saved.” These persons were condemned, first in the Council of Arles, A.D. 475, which pronounced “anathema to him that said that Christ did not die for all men, and that He does not will all to be saved.” They were next condemned in the Council of Lyons, A.D. 490, where Lucidus was forced to retract, and also to proclaim, “I condemn the man who says that Christ did not suffer for the salvation of all men.” So also in the ninth century, Gottschalk, who renewed the same error, was condemned by the Council of Quercy, A.D. 853, in the third Article of which it was decided, “God wills all men, without exception, to be saved, although all men be not saved.” These men were justly condemned, precisely because they taught that God does not will all men to be saved; since from the proposition that those whom God wills to be saved are infallibly saved, it would logically follow that God does not will even all the faithful to be saved, let alone all men.
This was also clearly expressed by the Council of Trent, in which it was said that Jesus Christ died, “that all might receive the adoption of sons,” and again it says: “But though He died for all, yet all do not receive the benefits of His death.” The Council, then, takes for granted that the Redeemer died not only for the elect, but also for those who, through their own fault, do not receive the benefit of Redemption. Nor is it of any use to affirm that the Council only meant to say that Jesus Christ has given to the world a ransom sufficient to save all men; for in this sense we might say that He died also for the devils. Moreover, the Council of Trent intended here to reprove the errors of those innovators, who, not denying that the Blood of Christ was sufficient to save all, yet asserted that in fact it was not shed and given for all. This is the error which the Council intended to condemn when it said that our Saviour died for all. Further, in Chapter VI, it says that sinners are put in a fit state to receive justification by hope in God through the merits of Jesus Christ: “They are raised to hope, trusting that God will be merciful to them through Christ.” Now, if Jesus Christ had not applied to all the merits of His Passion, then, since no one (without a special revelation) could be certain of being among the number of those to whom the Redeemer had willed to apply the fruit of His merits, no sinner could entertain such hope, not having the certain and secure foundation which is necessary for hope; namely, that God wills all men to be saved, and will grant pardon to all sinners made worthy of it by the merits of Jesus Christ.
2.–Proved from the celebrated text of St. Paul.
On the other hand, both the Scriptures and all the Fathers assure us that God sincerely and really wishes the salvation of all men and the conversion of all sinners, as long as they are in this world. For this we have, first of all, the express words of St. Paul: Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. ii. 4). The sentence of the Apostle is absolute and decisive–God wills all men to be saved. These words in their natural sense declare that God truly wills all men to be saved; and it is a certain rule received in common by all, that the words of Scripture are to be interpreted in the literal sense, except in the sole case where the literal sense is repugnant to Faith and morals. St. Bonaventure writes precisely to our purpose when he says: “We must hold that when the Apostle says, God wills all men to be saved, it is necessary to grant that He does will it.”
It is true that St. Augustine and St. Thomas mention different interpretations which have been given to this text, but both these Doctors understand it to mean a real will of God to save all, without exception.
And concerning St. Augustine, we shall see just now that this was his true opinion; so that St. Prosper protests against attributing to him the idea that God did not sincerely wish the salvation of all men, and of each individual, as an aspersion on the holy Doctor. Hence the same St. Prosper, who was a most faithful disciple of his, says: “It is most sincerely to be believed and confessed that God wills all men to be saved; since the Apostle (whose very words these are) is particular in commanding that prayers should be made to God for all.”
The argument of the Saint is clear, founded on St. Paul’s words in the above-cited passage: I desire, therefore,… that supplications, prayers … be made for all men (1 Tim. ii. 1); and then he adds: For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved (1 Tim. ii. 3, 4). So the Apostle wishes us to pray for all, exactly in the sense that God wishes the salvation of all. St. Chrysostom uses the same argument: “If He wills all to be saved, surely we ought to pray for all. If He desires all to be saved, do you also be of one mind with Him.” And if in some passages in his controversy with the Semi-Pelagians, St. Augustine seems to have held a different interpretation of this text, saying that God does not will the salvation of each individual, but only of some, Petavius well observes that here the holy Father speaks only incidentally, not with direct intention; or at any rate, that he speaks of the grace of that absolute and victorious will (voluntas absoluta et victrix) with which God absolutely wills the salvation of some persons, and of which the Saint elsewhere says, “The will of the Almighty is always invincible.”
Let us hear how St. Thomas uses another method of reconciling the opinion of St. Augustine with that of St. John Damascene, who holds that antecedently God wills all and each individual to be saved: “God’s first intention is to will all men to be saved, that as Good He may make us partakers of His goodness: but after we have sinned, He wills as Just to punish us.” On the other hand, St. Augustine (as we have seen) seems in a few passages to think differently. But St. Thomas reconciles these opinions, and says St. John Damascene spoke of the antecedent will of God, by which he really wills all men to be saved, while St. Augustine spoke of the consequent will. He then goes on to explain the meaning of antecedent and consequent will: “Antecedent will is that by which God wills all to be saved; but when all the circumstances of this or that individual are considered, it is not found to be good that all men should be saved; for it is good that he who prepares himself, and consents to it, should be saved; but not good that he who is unwilling and resists… And this is called the consequent will, because it presupposes a foreknowledge of a man’s deeds, not as a cause of the act of will, but as a reason for the thing willed and determined.” …
And again: “God, by His most liberal will, gives grace to every one that prepares himself–who wills all men to be saved; and therefore the grace of God is wanting to no man, but as far as He is concerned He communicates it to every one.” … And St. Thomas again, and more distinctly, declares what he means by antecedent and consequent will: “A judge antecedently wishes every man to live, but he consequently wishes a murderer to be hanged; so God antecedently wills every man to be saved, but He consequently wills some to be damned; in consequence, that is, of the exigencies of His justice.”
I have no intention here of blaming the opinion that men are predestined to glory previously to the provision of their merits; I only say that I cannot understand how those who think that God, without any regard to their merits, has elected some to eternal life, and excluded others, can therefore persuade themselves that He wills all to be saved; unless, indeed, they mean that this will of God is not true and sincere, but rather a hypothetical or metaphorical will…
It is certain that the happiness of a creature consists in the attainment of the end for which he was created. It is likewise certain that God creates all men for eternal life. If, therefore, God, having created certain men for eternal life, had thereupon, without regard to their sins, excluded them from it, He would in creating them have utterly hated them without cause, and would have done them the greatest injury they could possibly suffer in excluding them from the attainment of their end, that is, of the glory for which they had been created: “For,” says Petavius in a passage which we abridge, “God cannot feel indifferent whether He loves or hates His creatures, especially men, whom He either loves to eternal life or hates to damnation. Now it is the greatest evil that can befall man to be alienated from God and to be reprobate; wherefore, if God wills the everlasting destruction of any man’s soul, He does not love him, but hates him with the greatest hatred possible in that kind which transcends the natural order.” … “Wherefore,” Petavius concludes, “if God loves every man with a love which is antecedent to his merits, He does not hate his soul, and therefore He does not desire the greatest evil to him.” If, then, God loves all men, as is certain, we ought to hold that He wills all to be saved, and that He has never hated any one to such a degree that He has willed to do him the greatest evil, by excluding him from glory previously to the prevision of his demerits.
I say, however, and repeat again and again, that I cannot understand it; for this matter of predestination is so profound a mystery, that it made the Apostle exclaim: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? (Rom. xi. 33, 34). We ought to submit ourselves to the will of God, Who has chosen to leave this mystery in obscurity in His Church, that we all may humble ourselves under the deep judgments of His Divine Providence. All the more, because Divine grace, by which alone men gain eternal life, is dispensed more or less abundantly by God entirely gratuitously, and without any regard to our merits. So that to save ourselves it will always be necessary for us to throw ourselves into the arms of the Divine Mercy, in order that God may assist us with His grace to obtain salvation, trusting always in His infallible promises to hear and save the man who prays to Him.
But let us return to our point, that God sincerely wills all men to be saved.
3.–There are other texts which prove the same thing.
As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked may turn from his way and live (Ezech. xxxiii. 11). He says that not only does He not will the death, but that He wills the life of a sinner; and He swears, as Tertullian observes, in order that He may be more readily believed in this: “When moreover He swears, saying, as I live, He desires to be believed.”
Further, David says: For wrath is in his indignation, and life in his will (Ps. xxix. 6). If He chastises us, He does it because our sins provoke Him to indignation; but as to His will, He wills not our death but our life; Life in his will. St. Basil says concerning this text, that God wills all to be made partakers of life. David says elsewhere: Our God is the God of salvation; … of the Lord are the issues from death (Ps. lxvii. 21). On this Bellarmine says: “This is proper to Him; this is His nature; our God is a saving God, and His are the issues from death–that is, liberation from death”; so that it is God’s proper nature to save all, and to deliver all from eternal death.
Our Lord says: Come to me, all ye that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. xi. 28). If He calls all to salvation, then He truly wills all to be saved. Again, St. Peter says: He willeth not that any should perish, but that all should return to penance (2. Pet. iii. 9). He does not will the damnation of any one, but He wills that all should do penance, and so be saved.
Again the Lord says: Behold I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall open to me the door I will come in to him. Why will you die, O house of Israel? Return ye and live (Ezech. xviii. 31, 32). What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? (Is. v. 4). How often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not! (Matt. xxiii. 37). How could the Lord have said that He stands knocking at the hearts of us sinners? How exhort us so strongly to return to His arms? How reproach us by asking what more He could have done for our salvation? How say that He has willed to receive us as children, if he had not a true will to save all men? Again, St. Luke relates that our Lord, looking on Jerusalem from a distance, and contemplating the destruction of its people because of sin, wept: Seeing the city, he wept over it (Luke xix. 41). Why did He weep then, says Theophylact (after St. Chrysostom), seeing the ruin of the Jews, unless it was because He really desired their salvation? How, then, after so many attestations of our Lord, in which He makes known to us that He wills to see all men saved, how can it ever be said that God does not will the salvation of all? “But if these texts of Scripture,” says Petavius, “in which God has testified His will in such clear and often-repeated expressions, nay even with tears and with an oath, may be abused and distorted to the very opposite sense–namely, that God determined to send all mankind (except a few) to perdition, and never had a will to save them, what dogma of Faith is so clear as to be safe from similar injury and cavil?” … And Cardinal Sfondrati adds: “Those who think otherwise seem to me to make God a mere stage-god; like those people who pretend to be kings in a play, when indeed they are anything but kings.”
4.–Proved from the general consent of the Fathers.
Moreover, this truth, that God wills all men to be saved, is confirmed by the general consent of the Fathers. There can be no doubt that all the Greek Fathers are unanimous in saying that God wills all and each individual to be saved. So, St. Justin, St. Basil, St. Gregory, St. Cyril, St. Methodius, and St. Chrysostom, all adduced by Petavius. But let us see what the Latin Fathers say.
St. Jerome: “God wills to save all; but since no man is saved without his own will, God wills us to will what is good, that when we have willed, He may also will to fulfil His designs in us.” And in another place: “God therefore willed to save those who desire (to be saved); and He invited them to salvation that their will might have its reward; but they would not believe in Him.”
St. Hilary: “God would have all men to be saved, and not those alone who are to belong to the number of the elect, but all absolutely, so as to make no exception.”
St. Paulinus: “Christ says to all: Come to me, etc.; for He, the Creator of all men, so far as He is concerned, wills every man to be saved.”
St. Ambrose: “Even with respect to the wicked He had to manifest His will (to save them), and therefore He could not pass over His betrayer, that all might see that in the election even of the traitor He exhibits His desire to save all … and, so far as God is concerned, He shows to all that He was willing to deliver all.” …
St. Chrysostom asks: “Why then are not all men saved, if God wills all to be saved?” And he answers: “Because every man’s will does not coincide with God’s will, and He forces no man.”
St. Augustine: “God wills all men to be saved, but not so as to destroy their free will.” He says the same thing in several other places to which we shall refer later.
Evening Meditation
THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
“Charity endureth all things”
HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST WITH A STRONG LOVE DOES NOT CEASE TO LOVE HIM IN THE MIDST OF TEMPTATIONS AND DESOLATIONS
I.
Let us come now to the means which we have to employ in order to vanquish temptations. Spiritual masters prescribe a variety of means; but the most necessary, and the safest, of which only I will here speak, is to have immediate recourse to God with all humility and confidence, saying: “Incline unto my aid, O God; O Lord make haste to help me!” This short prayer will enable us to overcome the assaults of all the devils of hell; for God is infinitely more powerful than all of them. Almighty God knows well that of ourselves we are unable to resist the temptations of the infernal powers; and on this account the most learned Cardinal Gotti remarks that “whenever we are assailed, and in danger of being overcome, God is obliged to give us strength enough to resist as often as we call upon Him for it.”
And how can we doubt of receiving help from Jesus Christ, after all the promises He has made us in the Holy Scriptures? Come to me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you (Matt. xi. 28). Come to Me, ye who are wearied in fighting against temptations, and I will restore your strength. Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me (Ps. xlix. 15). When thou seest thyself troubled by thine enemies, call upon Me, and I will bring thee out of danger, and thou shalt praise Me. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am (Is. lviii. 9). Then shalt thou call upon the Lord for help, and He will hear thee: thou shalt cry out, Quick, O Lord, help me! and He will say to thee, Behold, here I am; I am present to help thee. Who hath called upon him and he despised him? (Ecclus. ii. 12). And who, says the Prophet, has ever called upon God, and God has despised him and given him no help? David felt sure of never falling a prey to his enemies, whilst he could have recourse to God. He says: Praising, I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies (Ps. xvii. 4). For he well knew that God is close to all who invoke His aid: The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him (Ps. cxliv. 18). And St. Paul adds that the Lord is by no means sparing, but lavish of graces towards all that pray to Him: Rich unto all that call upon him. (Rom. x. 12).
II.
Oh, would to God that all men had recourse to Him whenever they are tempted to offend Him; they would then certainly never commit sin! They unhappily fall, because, led away by the cravings of their vicious appetites, they prefer to lose God, the Sovereign Good, than to forego their wretched short-lived pleasures. Experience gives us manifest proofs that whoever calls on God in temptation does not fall; and whoever fails to call on Him, as surely falls: and this is especially true of temptations to impurity. Solomon himself said that he knew very well that he could not be chaste unless God gave him the grace to be so; and therefore he invoked Him by prayer in the moment of temptation: And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it … I went to the Lord and besought him (Wis. viii. 21). In temptations against purity (and the same holds good with regard to those against Faith), we must take it as a rule never to stay and combat the temptation hand to hand; but we must endeavour immediately to get rid of it indirectly by making a good act of the love of God or of sorrow for our sins, or else by applying ourselves to some indifferent occupation calculated to distract us. As soon as we discover a thought of evil tendency, we must disown it immediately, and, so to speak, close the door in its face, and deny it all entrance into the mind, without tarrying in the least to examine its object or errand. We must cast away these foul suggestions as quickly as we would shake off a hot spark from the fire.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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When all shall be gathered together in the Valley of Josaphet, what a glorious appearance will the Saints make who in this world were so much despised! And what a horrible appearance will so many of those great ones of earth, and kings, and princes make, who will on that day stand condemned!
I.
O ye foolish worldlings! I look forward to your appearance in the Valley of Josaphet. There you will change your sentiments! There you will bewail your folly! But to no purpose.
And you, who are hard tried in this world, be of good heart. On that last day all your pains will be changed into the delights and enjoyments of Paradise: Your sorrow shall be turned into joy (Jo. xvi. 20).
What a glorious appearance will the Saints then make who in this world were so much despised! And what a horrible appearance will so many of those nobles and kings and princes make, who will stand condemned on that day!
My crucified and despised Jesus, I embrace Thy Cross. What is the world, what are pleasures, what are honours? O my God, Thee only do I desire; Thee alone and nothing more!
What horror will not the reprobate in that day experience at being rejected by Jesus Christ in that terrible sentence, publicly pronounced: Depart from me, ye cursed! (Matt. xxv. 41).
O my Jesus, I also at one time deserved such a sentence. But now I hope that Thou hast pardoned me. Oh, do not suffer me to be any more separated from Thee. I love Thee, and I hope to love Thee forever.
O what joy, on the other hand will the Elect experience when they hear Jesus Christ inviting them to partake of the bliss of Heaven in those sweet words: Come ye blessed!
My beloved Redeemer, I hope in Thy precious Blood that I also shall be numbered among those happy souls, and embracing Thy feet, love Thee for all eternity in Heaven!
II.
Let us, then, reanimate our Faith, and reflect that one day we shall meet in that Valley of Judgment and be placed either on the right hand with the Elect, or on the left with the reprobate. Let us cast ourselves at the foot of the Crucifix and look into the state of our souls; and if we find them unprepared to appear before Jesus Christ, the Divine Judge, let us apply a remedy now whilst we have time. Let us detach ourselves from everything which is not God, and unite ourselves to Jesus Christ as much as we are able, by Meditation, the Holy Communion, mortification of the senses, and, above all, by Prayer. The use of these means which God affords us for our salvation will be a sure sign of our predestination.
O my Jesus and my Judge, I do not wish to lose Thee, but I wish to love Thee forever. I love Thee, my Lord, I love Thee; and thus I hope to be able to address Thee when I shall first behold Thee as my Judge. I now say to Thee: Lord, if Thou desirest to chastise me, as I have deserved, chastise me, but do not deprive me of Thy love; grant that I may always love Thee, and may be always loved by Thee, and then do with me what Thou wilt.
Spiritual Reading
PRAYER
(b) Therefore Christ died to save all men.
That Jesus Christ, therefore, died for all and for each individual is clear, not only from the Scriptures, but from the writings of the Fathers. Great, certainly, was the ruin which the sin of Adam occasioned to the whole human race; but Jesus Christ, by the grace of Redemption, repaired all the evils which Adam brought upon us. Hence the Council of Trent has declared that Baptism renders the soul pure and immaculate; and that the concupiscence which remains in it is not for its harm, but to enable it to gain a higher crown, if it resists so as not to consent to sin: "For in those who have been regenerated God hates nothing ... they are made innocent, immaculate, pure, and beloved of God ... But this holy Synod confesses and declares that concupiscence or the fuel (of sin) remains in baptized persons; but as it was left for our probation, it cannot injure those who do not consent to it; nay rather, he who contends lawfully (against it) shall be crowned." Thus, as St. Leo says, "we have gained greater things by the grace of Christ than we had lost through the envy of the devil." The gain which we have made by the Redemption of Jesus Christ is greater than the loss which we suffered by the sin of Adam. The Apostle plainly declared this when he said: Not as the offence, so also the gift ... And where sin abounded, grace did more abound (Rom. v. 15, 20). Our Lord says the same: I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly (Jo. x. 10). David and Isaias had predicted it: With him is plentiful redemption (Ps. cxxix. 7) She hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins (Is. xl. 2). Cornelius a Lapide interprets these words and says: "God has so forgiven iniquities through Christ that men have received double--that is, very much greater good, instead of the punishment of sin which they deserved."
Now, our Saviour, as I have said, died for all, and offered the work of His Redemption to the Eternal Father for the salvation of each one, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church.
1.--The Testimony of Holy Scriptures.
The Son of Man came to save that which was lost (Matt. xviii. 11). Who gave himself a redemption for all (1 Tim. ii. 6). Christ died for all, that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but to him who died for them (2 Cor. v. 15). For therefore we labour and are reviled, because we hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful (1 Tim. iv. 10). And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 Jo. ii. 2). For the charity of Christ presseth us, judging this that, if one died for all, then all were dead (2 Cor. v. 14). Now, to speak only of this last text, I ask, how could the Apostle ever have concluded that all were dead because Christ died for all, unless he had been certain that Christ had really died for all? And the more so seeing that St. Paul uses this truth as an argument for the love which it should kindle in us towards our Saviour. But by far the best proof of the desire and wish which God has to save all men is found in that other text of St. Paul: He that spared not his own son, but delivered him for us all. The force of this passage is increased by what follows: How hath he not also with him given us all things? (Rom. viii. 32). If God has given us all things, how can we henceforth fear that He has denied us election to glory if we fulfil the condition of corresponding to His grace? And if He has given us His Son, says Cardinal Sfondrati, how will He deny us the grace to be saved? "Here he clearly instructs us" (he is speaking of St. Paul) "that God assures us that He will not refuse us the less after He has given the greater; that He will not deny us grace to save ourselves, after giving us His Son that we might be saved." And in truth, how could St. Paul have said that God, in giving us His Son, has given us all things, if the Apostle had believed that God had excluded many from the glory which is the one good and the one end for which they were created? Has, then, God given all things to these "many" and yet denied them the best thing--namely, eternal happiness, without which (as there is no middle way) they cannot but be eternally miserable? Or are we to believe another thing still more unseemly, as a certain learned author well observes--namely, that God gives to all the grace to attain glory, but then refuses to allow many to enter on its enjoyment; that He gives the means, and refuses the end!
2.--Proved from the teaching of the Holy Fathers.
Besides the testimony of the Scripture, all the holy Fathers agree in saying that Jesus Christ died to obtain eternal salvation for all men.
St. Jerome: "Christ died for all; He was the only One Who could be offered for all, because all were dead in sin."
St. Ambrose: "Christ came to cure our wounds; but since all do not search for the remedy ... therefore He cures those who are willing; He does not force the unwilling." In another place: "He has provided for all men the means of cure, that whoever perishes may lay the blame of his death on himself, because he would not be cured when he had a remedy; and that, on the other hand, the Mercy of Christ to all may be openly proclaimed, Who wills that all men should be saved." And more clearly still in another place: "Jesus did not write His will for the benefit of one, or of few, but of all; we are all inscribed therein as His heirs; the legacy is in common, and belongs by right to all; the universal heritage belonging wholly to each." Mark the words, "We are all inscribed as heirs; the Redeemer has written us all down as heirs of heaven."
St. Leo: "As Christ found no one free from guilt, so He came to deliver all."
St. Augustine, on the words of St. John, For God did not send his son ... to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him (John 17), says: "So as far as it lies with the Physician, He came to heal the sick man." Mark the words, "as far as it lies with the Physician." For God, as far as He is concerned, effectually wills the salvation of all, but (as St. Augustine goes on to say) cannot heal the man who will not be healed: "He heals universally, but He heals not the unwilling. For what can be happier for thee, than, as thou hast thy life in thy hands, so to have thy health depend on thy will?" When he says: "He heals," he speaks of sinners who are sick, and unable to get well by their own strength; when he says "universally," he declares that nothing is wanting on God's part for sinners to be healed and saved. Then when he says "as thou hast thy life in thy hands, so thy health depends on thy will," he shows that God, for His part, really wills us all to be saved; otherwise, it would not be in our power to obtain health and eternal life. In another place: "He Who redeemed us at such a cost, wills not that we perish, for He does not purchase in order to destroy, but He redeems in order to give life." He has redeemed us all, in order to save us all. And the Saint encourages all to hope for eternal bliss, in that celebrated sentence: "Let human frailty raise itself; let it not say 'I shall never be happy' ... It is a greater thing that Christ has done, than that which He has promised. What has He done? He has died for thee. What has He promised? That thou shalt live with Him."
Some have pretended to say that Jesus Christ offered His Blood for all, in order to obtain grace for them, but not salvation. But Petrocorensis will not hear of this opinion, of which he says: "O disputatious trifling! How could the Wisdom of God will the means of salvation, without willing its end?" St. Augustine, moreover, speaking against the Jews, says: "Ye acknowledge the Side which ye pierced, that it has opened both by you and for you." If Jesus Christ had not really given His Blood for all, the Jews might have answered St. Augustine that it was quite true the side of our Saviour had been opened by them, but that it was not opened for them.
In like manner St. Thomas has no doubt that Jesus Christ died for all; whence he deduces that He wills all to be saved: "Christ Jesus is Mediator between God and men; not between God and some men, but between God and all men; and this would not be unless He willed all to be saved." This is confirmed, as we have already said, by the condemnation of the fifth Proposition of Jansenius, who said: "It is semi-Pelagianism to assert that Christ died or shed His Blood for all men." The sense of this, according to the context of the other Condemned Propositions, and according to the principles of Jansenius, is as follows:--Jesus Christ did not die to merit for all men the graces sufficient for salvation, but only for the predestined. Therefore the contrary, and the Catholic belief is as follows:--It is not semi-Pelagianism, but it is right to say that Jesus Christ died to merit not only for the predestinate, but for all, even for the reprobate, grace sufficient to obtain eternal salvation in the ordinary course of Providence.
Further, that God truly, on His part, wills all men to be saved, and that Jesus Christ died for the salvation of all, is proved to us by the fact that God imposes on us all the precept of Hope. The reason is clear. St. Paul calls Christian Hope the anchor of the soul, secure and firm: Who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope set before us which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm (Heb. vi. 18, 19). Now in what could we fix this sure and firm anchor of our hope, except in the truth that God wills all to be saved? And if Jesus Christ had not died for the salvation of all, how could we have a sure ground to hope for salvation through the merits of Jesus Christ, without a special revelation? But St. Augustine had no doubt when he said: "All my hope, and the certainty of my Faith, is in the Precious Blood of Christ, which was shed for us and for our salvation." Thus the Saint placed all his hope in the Blood of Jesus Christ; because the Faith assured him that Christ died for all. But we shall have a better opportunity later of examining this question of hope when we come to establish the principal point--namely, that the Grace of Prayer is given to all.
CHILDREN WHO DIE WITHOUT BAPTISM.
A difficulty answered.
Here it only remains for us to answer the objection which is drawn from children being lost when they die before Baptism, and before they come to the use of reason. If God wills all to be saved, it is objected, how is it that these children perish without any fault of their own, since God gives them no assistance to attain eternal salvation? There are two answers to this objection, the second more correct than the first. I will state them briefly.
First, it is answered that God, by His antecedent will, wishes all to be saved, and therefore has granted universal means for the salvation of all. But these means at times fail of their effect, either by reason of the unwillingness of some persons to avail themselves of them, or because others are unable to make use of them, on account of secondary causes (such as the death of children), causes the course of which God is not bound to change, after having disposed the whole according to the just judgment of His general Providence. All this is gathered from the teaching of St. Thomas. Jesus Christ offered His merits for all men, and instituted Baptism for all; but the application of this means of salvation, so far as relates to children who die before the use of reason, is not prevented by the direct will of God, but by a merely permissive will; because as He is the general Provider of all things, He is not bound to disturb the general order to provide for the particular order.
The second answer is that not to be blessed is not the same as to perish, for eternal happiness being a gift entirely gratuitous, the privation of it is not a punishment. The opinion, therefore, of St. Thomas, is very just, that children who die in infancy have neither the pain of sense nor the pain of loss. They have not the pain of sense, he says, "because pain of sense corresponds to conversion to creatures; and in Original Sin there is not conversion to creatures and therefore pain of sense is not due to Original Sin." Original Sin does not imply an act in the infant deserving of punishment. Objectors oppose to this the teaching of St. Augustine, who in some place shows his opinion to be that children are condemned even to the pain of sense. But in another place he declares that he was very uncertain on this point. These are his words: "When I come to the punishment of infants, I find myself, believe me, in great straits; nor can I by any means find an answer." And in another place he writes that it may be said that such children receive neither reward nor punishment: "Nor need we fear that there cannot be a middle sentence between reward and punishment; since their life was midway between sin and good works." This was directly affirmed by St. Gregory Nazianzen: "Children will be sentenced by the just Judge neither to the glory of Heaven nor to punishment." St. Gregory of Nyssa was of the same opinion: "The premature death of children shows that they who have thus ceased to live will not be in pain and unhappiness."
And as far as relates to the pain of loss, although these children are excluded from glory, nevertheless St. Thomas, who had reflected most deeply on this point, teaches that no one feels pain for the want of that good which he is not capable of acquiring; so that as no man grieves that he cannot fly, or no private citizen that he is not emperor, so these children feel no pain at being deprived of the glory of which they have never been made capable; since they could never pretend to it by nature, or by their own merits. St. Thomas adds, in another place, a further reason which is, that the supernatural knowledge of glory comes only by means of actual Faith, which transcends all natural knowledge; so that children can never feel pain for the privation of that glory of which they never had a supernatural knowledge. He further says that such children will not only not grieve for the loss of eternal happiness, but will, moreover, have pleasure in their natural gifts; and will even in some way enjoy God, so far as is implied in natural knowledge, and in natural love: "Rather will they rejoice in this, that they will participate much in the Divine Goodness, and in natural perfections." And he immediately adds that although they will be separated from God, as regards the union of glory, nevertheless, "they will be united with Him by participation of natural gifts; and so will even be able to rejoice in Him with a natural knowledge and love."
Evening Meditation
THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
"Charity endureth all things"
HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST WITH A STRONG LOVE DOES NOT CEASE TO LOVE HIM IN THE MIDST OF TEMPTATIONS AND DESOLATIONS
I.
If the impure temptation has already forced its way into the mind, and plainly pictures its object to the imagination, so as to stir the passions, then, according to the advice of St. Jerome, we must burst forth into these words: "O Lord, thou art my helper." As soon, says the Saint, as we feel the sting of concupiscence, we must have recourse to God, and say: "O Lord, do Thou assist me"; we must invoke the most holy Names of Jesus and Mary, which possess a wonderful efficacy in the suppression of temptations of this nature. St. Francis de Sales says that no sooner do children espy a wolf than they instantly seek refuge in the arms of their father and mother, and there they remain out of all danger. Our conduct must be the same; we must flee without delay for succour to Jesus and Mary, by earnestly calling upon them. I repeat that we must instantly have recourse to them, without giving a moment's audience to, or disputing with, the temptation. It is related in the 4th paragraph of the Book of Sentences of the Fathers, that one day St. Pacomius heard the devil boasting that he had frequently got the better of a certain monk on account of his lending ear to him, and not turning instantly to call upon God. He heard another devil, on the contrary, utter this complaint: As for me, I can do nothing with my monk, because he never fails to have recourse to God, and always defeats me.
II.
Should the temptation, however, obstinately persist in attacking us, let us beware of becoming troubled or angry at it; for this might put it in the power of our enemy to overcome us. We must, on such occasions, make an act of humble resignation to the will of God, Who thinks fit to allow us to be tormented by these abominable temptations; and we must say: O Lord, I deserve to be molested with these filthy suggestions, in punishment of my past sins, but Thou must help to free me. And as long as the temptation lasts, let us never cease calling on Jesus and Mary. It is also very profitable, in the like importunity of temptations, to renew our firm promise to God of suffering every torment, and a thousand deaths, rather than offend Him; and at the same time we must invoke His Divine assistance. And even should the temptation be of such violence as to put us in imminent risk of consenting to it, we must then redouble our prayers, hasten into the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, cast ourselves at the foot of the Crucifix, or of some image of our Blessed Lady, and there pray with increased fervour, and cry out for help with groans and tears. God is certainly ready to hear all who pray to Him; and it is from Him alone, and not from our own exertions, that we must look for strength to resist; but sometimes Almighty God wills these struggles and then He makes up for our weakness and grants us the victory.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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The greatest torment the damned will have to suffer in hell will be from themselves; from their own remorse of conscience. Their worm dieth not. Alas, what a cruel worm will it be to Christians who are lost in hell, to remember for what trifles they have damned their souls!
I.
The greatest torment the damned will have to suffer in hell will be from themselves; from their own remorse of conscience. Their worm dieth not. Alas, what a cruel worm will it be to Christians who are lost in hell, to remember for what trifles they have damned their souls! Have we, then, they will say, for such trifling, transitory, and poisonous gratifications, lost Heaven and God for ever and condemned ourselves to this prison of eternal torments? We had the happiness of being of the true Faith; but, forsaking God, we led miserable lives, to be succeeded by another life still more miserable in this pool of fire! God favoured us with so many lights, so many means of salvation, and we miserably chose to damn ourselves!
O my Jesus, thus should I now have been bewailing my misery in hell if Thou hadst let me die when I was in sin. I thank thee for the mercies Thou hast shown me, and detest all the sins that I have committed against Thee. Had I been in hell, I could no longer have loved Thee; but since I can still love Thee, I desire to love Thee with all my heart. I love Thee, my God, my Love, my All!
What does our past life appear at present but as a dream, a moment? But what will a life on earth of forty or fifty years appear to the damned, when, after hundreds and thousands of millions of years have passed away, they find that their eternity is only commencing?
How will those miserable pleasures for which they have sacrificed their salvation appear to them then? They will say: "Have we, then, for these accursed gratifications, which were scarcely tasted before they were ended, have we condemned ourselves to burn forever in this furnace of fire, abandoned by all, and for all eternity?"
II.
Another subject of remorse will be the thought of the little they were required to do in order to be saved. They will say: "Had we pardoned those injuries; had we overcome that human respect, had we avoided those occasions, we should not have now been lost."
It would not have cost us much to avoid those conversations; to deprive ourselves of those accursed gratifications; to yield that point of honour? Whatever it would have cost us, we should have been willing to do everything to obtain salvation; but we were not willing, and now there is no remedy for our eternal ruin. Had we frequented the Sacraments; had we not neglected Meditation; had we recommended ourselves to God, we should not have fallen into sin. We frequently proposed to do this, but we did it not. We sometimes began a good course, but we did not persevere in it, and hence we are lost for ever!
O God of my soul, how many times have I promised to love Thee, and have again turned my back upon Thee? Oh, by that love with which Thou didst die for me on the Cross, grant me sorrow for my sins, grant me grace to love Thee, and ever to have recourse to Thee in the time of temptation!
Spiritual Reading
PRAYER
SECOND PRELIMINARY PROPOSITION.
GOD GIVES TO ALL MEN THE GRACES NECESSARY FOR SALVATION WHEREBY ONE MAY BE SAVED THAT CORRESPONDS WITH THEM.
If, then, God wills all to be saved, it follows that He gives to all that grace and those aids which are necessary for the attainment of salvation, otherwise it could never be said that He has a true will to save all. The effect of God's antecedent will, says St. Thomas, by which He wills the salvation of all men, is "that order of nature the purpose of which is our salvation, and likewise those things which conduce to that end, and which are offered to all in common, whether by nature or by grace." It is certain, in contradiction to the blasphemies of Luther and Calvin, that God does not impose a law that is impossible to be observed. On the other hand, it is certain, that without the assistance of grace the observance of the law is impossible, as Innocent I declared against the Pelagians when he said: "It is certain that as we overcome by the aid of God, so without His aid we must be overcome." Pope Celestine declared the same thing. Therefore if God gives to all men a law they can keep, it follows that He also gives to all men the grace necessary to observe it, whether immediately, or mediately by means of Prayer, as the Council of Trent has most clearly defined: "God does not command impossibilities; but by commanding He admonishes you both to do what you can and to ask for that which is beyond your power, and by His help enables you to do it." Otherwise, if God refused us both the proximate and remote grace to enable us to fulfil the law, either the law would have been given in vain, or sin would be necessary, and if necessary would be no longer sin, as we shall presently prove at some length.
1.--Teaching of the Fathers of the Greek Church.
And this is the general opinion of the Greek Fathers:
St. Cyril of Alexandria says: "But if a man endowed as others, and equally with them, with the gifts of Divine grace, has fallen by his own free will, how shall Christ be said not to have preserved even him, since He delivered the man inasmuch as He gave him the aids to avoid sin?" How, says the Saint, can that sinner blame Jesus Christ? St. John Chrysostom asks: "How is it that some are vessels of wrath, others vessels of mercy?" And he answers, "Because of each person's free will; for, since God is very good, He manifests equal kindness to all." Then, speaking of Pharaoh, whose heart is said in Scripture to have been hardened, he adds: "If Pharaoh was not saved, it must all be attributed to his will, since no less was given to him than to those who were saved." And in another place, speaking of the petition of the mother of the sons of Zebedee, on the words It is not mine to give (Matt. xx. 23), he observes: "By this Christ wished to show that it was not simply his to give, but that it also belonged to the combatants to take; for if it depended only on Him, all men would be saved."
St. Isidore of Pelusium: "For God wills seriously, and in all ways, to assist those who are wallowing in vice, that He may deprive them of all excuse."
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: "God has opened the gate of eternal life, so that, as far as He is concerned, all may gain it without anything to hinder them."
But the doctrine of these Greek Fathers does not please Jansenius, who has the temerity to say that they have spoken most imperfectly on the question of Grace: "None have spoken on Grace more imperfectly than the Greeks."
On the question of Grace, then, are we not to follow the teaching of the Greek Fathers, who were the first masters and columns of the Church? But perhaps the doctrine of the Greeks, especially in this important matter, was different from that of the Latin Church? On the very contrary, it is certain that the true doctrine of Faith came from the Greek to the Latin Church; so that, as St. Augustine said, when writing against Julian, who opposed to him the authority of the Greek Fathers, there can be no doubt that the Faith of the Latins is the same as that of the Greeks. Whom, then, are we to follow? Shall we follow Jansenius, whose errors have already been condemned as heretical by the Church; who had the temerity to say that even the just have not the grace requisite to enable them to keep certain precepts; and that man acquires merits and demerits, even though he acts through necessity, provided he is not forced by violence? These, and other errors as well, spring from his most false system.
2.--Teaching of the Fathers of the Latin Church.
But since the Greek Fathers do not satisfy Jansenius, let us see what the Latins say on this subject. They in no wise differ from the Greeks.
St. Jerome says: "Man can do no good work without God, Who, in giving free will, did not refuse His grace to aid every single work." Mark the words, "did not refuse His grace for every single work." St. Ambrose: "He would never come and knock at the door unless He wished to enter; it is our fault that He does not always enter." St. Leo: "Justly does He insist on the command, since He furnishes beforehand aid to keep it." St. Hilary: "Now the grace of justification has abounded through one gift to all men." Innocent I: "He gives to man daily remedies; and unless we put confidence in them and depend upon them we shall never be able to overcome human errors."
St. Augustine: "It is not imputed to you as a sin that you are unwillingly ignorant, but that you neglect to learn that of which you are ignorant. Nor is it imputed as a sin that you do not bind up your wounded limbs, but (mark this) that you despise Him Who is willing to cure you. These are your own sins; for no man is deprived of the knowledge of how to seek with benefit to himself." In another place: "Therefore if the soul is ignorant what it is to do, it proceeds from this, that it has not yet learned; but it will receive this knowledge if it has made a good use of what it has already received; for it has received this that it can piously and diligently seek, if it will." Mark the words: "it has received power to seek piously and diligently." So that every one receives at least the remote grace to seek; and if he makes good use of this, he will receive the proximate grace to perform that which at first he could not do. St. Augustine founds all this on the principle that no man sins in doing that which he cannot help; therefore, if a man sins in anything, he sins in that he might have avoided it by the grace of God, which is wanting to no man: "Who sins in that which cannot in any way be avoided? But a man does sin, therefore it might have been avoided." "But only by His aid, Who cannot be deceived," says the Saint in another place--an evident reason, which makes it clear (as we shall show when we speak of the sin of the obstinate) that if the grace necessary to observe the Commandments were wanting, there would be no sin.
St. Thomas teaches the same in several places. In one place, in explaining the text, Who wills all men to be saved (1 Tim. ii. 4), he says, "and therefore grace is wanting to no man, but (as far as God is concerned) is communicated to all, as the sun is present even to the eyes of the blind." So that as the sun sheds its light upon all, and only those are deprived of it who voluntarily blind themselves to its rays, so God communicates to all men grace to observe the Law; and men are lost simply because they will not avail themselves of it. In another place: "It belongs to Divine Providence to provide all men with what is necessary to salvation, if only there be no impediment on man's part." If, then, God gives all men the graces necessary for salvation, and if actual grace is necessary to overcome temptations, and to observe the Commandments, we must necessarily conclude that He gives all men either immediately or mediately, actual grace to do good; so that no further grace is necessary to enable them to put in practice the means (such as Prayer) of obtaining actual proximate grace. In another place, on the words of St. John's Gospel, No man cometh to me, etc. (Jo. vi. 44), he says: "If the heart of man be not lifted up, it is from no defect on the part of Him Who draws it, Who as far as He is concerned, never fails; but from an impediment caused by him who is being drawn."
Scotus says the same: "God wills to save all men, so far as rests with Him, and with His antecedent will, by which He has given them the ordinary gifts necessary to salvation." The Council of Cologne (1536) says: "Although no one is converted except he is drawn by the Father, yet let no one pretend to excuse himself on the plea of not being drawn. He stands at the gate and knocks by the internal and the external word."
3.--Testimony of Holy Scripture.
Nor did the Fathers speak without warrant of the Holy Scriptures; God in several places most clearly assures us that He does not neglect to assist us with His grace, if we are willing to avail ourselves of it either for perseverance, if we are in a state of justification, or for conversion, if we are in sin.
I stand at the gate and knock; if any man shall hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come in to him (Apoc. 20). Bellarmine reasons well on this text that our Lord Who knows that man cannot open without His grace, would knock in vain at the door of his heart, unless He had first conferred on him the grace to open when he will. This is exactly what St. Thomas teaches in explaining the text; he says that God gives every one the grace necessary for salvation, that he may correspond to it if he will: "God by His most liberal will gives grace to every one that prepares himself: Behold I stand at the door and knock. And therefore the grace of God is wanting to no one but, "as far as in it lies, communicates itself to all men." In another place he says: "It pertains to God's Providence to provide every one with what is necessary to salvation." Yes, says St. Augustine, "For He Who comes and knocks at the door always wishes to enter; it is through us that He does not always go in, nor always remain."
What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard that I have not done to it? Was it that I expected that it should bring forth grapes; and it hath brought forth wild grapes? (Is. v. 4). Bellarmine says on these words: "If He had not given the power to bring forth grapes, how could God say I expected? And if God had not given to all men the grace necessary for salvation, He could not have said to the Jews, What is there that I ought to have done more? for they could have answered that if they had not yielded fruit, it was for lack of necessary assistance. Bellarmine says the same on the words of our Lord: How often would I have gathered together thy children, and thou wouldst not? (Matt. xxiii. 37). "How did He wish to be sought for by the unwilling, if He does not help them that they may be able to will."
We have received thy mercy, O God, in the midst of of thy temple (Ps. xlvii. 10). On this St. Bernard observes: "Mercy is in the midst of the temple, not in any hole or corner, because there is no acceptance of persons with God (Rom. 11); it is placed in public, it is offered to all, and no one is without it, except he who refuses it."
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness? Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? (Rom. ii. 4). You see that it is through his own malice that the sinner is not converted, because he despises the riches of the Divine Goodness, which calls him, and never ceases to move him to conversion by God's grace. God hates sin, but at the same time never ceases to love the sinful soul while it remains on earth, and always gives it the assistance it requires for salvation: But thou sparest all because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls (Wis. xi. 27). Hence we see, says Bellarmine, that God does not refuse grace to resist temptations to any sinner, however obstinate and blinded he may be: "Assistance to avoid new sin is always at hand for all men, either immediately or mediately (i.e. by means of Prayer), so that they may ask further aid from God, by the help of which they will avoid sin." Here we may quote what God says by Ezechiel: As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live (Ezech. xxxiii. 11). St. Peter says the same: He beareth patiently for your sakes, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance (2 Pet. 9). If, therefore, God wishes that all should actually be converted, it must necessarily be held that He gives to all the grace which they need for actual conversion.
Evening Meditation
THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
"Charity endureth all things"
HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST WITH A STRONG LOVE DOES NOT CEASE TO LOVE HIM IN THE MIDST OF TEMPTATIONS AND DESOLATIONS
I.
It is an excellent practice also, in the moment of temptation, to make the Sign of the Cross on the forehead and breast. It is also of great service to reveal the temptation to our spiritual director. St. Philip Neri used to say that a temptation made known is half-conquered. Here it will be well to remark, what is unanimously admitted by all Theologians, even of the rigorist school, that persons who have during a considerable period of time been leading virtuous lives, and living habitually in the fear of God, whenever they are in doubt, and are not certain whether they have given consent to a grievous sin, ought to be perfectly assured that they have not lost the Divine grace; for it is morally impossible that the will, confirmed in her good purposes for a considerable lapse of time, should on a sudden undergo such a total change as at once to consent to a mortal sin without clearly knowing it. The reason of it is that mortal sin is so horrible a monster that it cannot possibly enter a soul by which it has long been held in abhorence, without her being fully aware of it. We have proved this at length in our Moral Theology. St. Teresa says: No one is lost without knowing it; and no one is deceived without the will to be deceived.
II.
Wherefore, with regard to certain souls of delicate conscience, and solidly rooted in virtue, but at the same time timid and molested with temptations (especially if they be against faith or chastity), the director will find it sometimes expedient to forbid them to reveal or mention their temptations at all, for if they have to mention them, they are led to consider how such thoughts got into their minds, and whether they paused to dispute with them, or took any complacency in them, or gave any consent to them; and so, by this too great reflection, those evil imaginations make a still deeper impression on their minds and disturb them the more. And I find that St. Jane de Chantal acted precisely in this manner. She relates of herself that she was for several years assailed by the most violent storms of temptation, but had never spoken of them in confession, since she was not conscious of ever having yielded to them; and in this she had only followed faithfully the rule received from her director. She says: "I never had a full conviction of having consented"; these words give us to understand that the temptations did produce in her some agitation from scruples; but in spite of these she resumed her tranquillity on the strength of the obedience imposed by her confessor, not to confess similar doubts. With this exception, it will be generally found an admirable means of quelling the violence of temptations to lay them open to our director, as we have said above.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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What cruel swords of anguish and remorse for the damned will the lights, the calls, and all the other graces be which they received from God in order to repent and be saved! They will say: “We might have become saints and happy for ever in Heaven, but now, alas, we must be forever miserable in hell!”
I.
What cruel swords of anguish for the damned will the lights, the calls, and all the other graces be which they received from God! They will say: “We might have been saints and happy for ever in Heaven; but now we must be forever miserable in hell!”
The greatest torment of the damned will be to reflect that they are lost through their own fault, their own will, notwithstanding that Jesus Christ died to save them. “God,” they will say, “gave His life for our salvation and we fools, of our own free will, have cast ourselves into this furnace of fire to burn forever! Heaven lost! God lost! Ourselves eternally miserable!”
Such will be the eternal lamentations of the damned.
O my God, despised and forsaken by me, grant that I may find Thee whilst time yet remains for me to repent. For this end, grant me, O my Redeemer, to share in that sorrow which overwhelmed Thee in the Garden of Gethsemani for my sins. I am sorry above every evil for having offended Thee. Receive me into Thy favour, O Jesus, now that I promise to love Thee, and to love no other but Thee.
Represent to yourself a sick man in great pain and suffering, who has none to pity him, but many to load him with injuries, to reproach him with his disorders, and to ill-treat him with great rage. The damned are treated far worse. They suffer all kinds of torments, without the slightest compassion from anyone. But, at least, cannot the damned love God Who justly punishes them? Ah, no; while they know that God is sovereignly amiable, they are constrained to hate Him. This is hell, not to be able to love the Sovereign Good, which is God.
If the damned could resign themselves to the Divine will, as pious souls in their sufferings are now able to do, hell would no longer be hell. But no; the damned shall rage like wild beasts under the scourge of Divine justice, and their rage shall serve but to increase their torments. If, then, O Jesus, I were in hell, I should be incapable of loving Thee, but have to hate Thee forever! And what evil hast Thou done me, for which I should hate Thee? Thou hast created me, Thou hast died for me; Thou hast bestowed upon me many special graces. These are the evils which Thou hast done me. Chastise me as Thou pleasest, but do not deprive me of the power of loving Thee. I love Thee, my Jesus, and I desire ever to love Thee.
II.
Consider the terror of the soul on its first entrance into hell: “Am I, then, really damned?” it will ask, “or is it all a hideous dream?” It will think whether there can be any remedy; but will find that there can be no remedy–none, for all eternity!
Millions of ages will pass away, as many ages as there are drops of water in the sea, or grains of sand on the earth, or leaves upon the trees; and hell will still be hell, eternity will still be only commencing!
At least, may not the damned be able to flatter themselves, saying: “Who knows but that hell may one day come to an end?” No, for in hell there can be no who knows? The damned will be most certain that all the torments which they suffer every moment will continue throughout eternity. O my God, do men believe in hell and yet commit sin?
All the greater will the torment of those be who often meditated on hell, and yet by sin condemned themselves to its torments. Ah, let us not lose time, but let us renounce sin and give ourselves to Jesus Christ! All that we can do to avoid hell will be but little. Let us be persuaded of this and tremble; he that trembles not will not be saved.
O my Jesus, Thy Precious Blood, Thy Death, are my hope! Let others abandon me, but do not Thou abandon me! I see that Thou hast not as yet abandoned me, since Thou still invitest me to pardon, if I will but repent of my sins, and Thou still offerest me Thy grace and Thy love if I will but love Thee. Yes, my Jesus, my Life, my Treasure, my Love, I will ever bewail my offences against Thee, and will ever love Thee with my whole heart. My God, if I have lost Thee, I will lose Thee no more. Tell me what Thou requirest of me, and I will endeavour to comply with Thy will in all things; grant that I may live and die in Thy grace, and then dispose of me as Thou pleasest. O Mary, my hope, be thou my protectress, and suffer me never again to lose my God.
Spiritual Reading
PRAYER
GOD GIVES THE GRACE OF SALVATION EVEN TO OBSTINATE SINNERS.
I know well that there are theologians who maintain that God refuses to certain obstinate sinners even sufficient grace. And, among others, they avail themselves of a passage of St. Thomas which says: “But although they who are in sin cannot through their own power help putting or interposing an obstacle to grace, unless they are aided by antecedent grace, as we have shown; nevertheless, this also is imputed to them as a sin, because this defect is left in them from previous sin–as a drunken man is not excused from murder committed in that drunkenness which was incurred by his own fault. Besides, although he who is in sin has it not in his own power that he may altogether avoid sin, yet he has power at this present moment to avoid this or that sin, as has been said; so that whatever he commits, he commits voluntarily, and therefore it is properly imputed to him as sin.” From this they gather that St. Thomas intends to say that sinners can indeed avoid particular sins, but not all sins; because in punishment for sins previously committed they are deprived of all actual grace.
But we answer that here St. Thomas is not speaking at all of actual, but of habitual or sanctifying grace, without which the sinner cannot keep himself long from falling into new sins, as he teaches in several places. So that, in the first place, the intention of St. Thomas is not to prove that some sinners are deprived of all actual grace, and therefore, being unable to avoid all sin, they fall, and are all the same worthy of punishment; but his intention is to prove against the Pelagians that a man who remains without sanctifying grace cannot abstain from sinning. And this is the teaching of the Thomists in their comments on this passage.
And it is impossible that the holy Doctor could have meant otherwise, since he elsewhere teaches that, on the one hand, God’s grace is never wanting to any one; and, on the other hand, that there is no sinner so lost and abandoned by grace as not to be able to lay aside his obstinacy, and to unite himself to the will of God, which he certainly could not do without the assistance of grace: “During this life there is no man who cannot lay aside obstinacy of mind, and so conform to the Divine will.”
In another place St. Thomas observes, on the text of St. Paul, Who will have all men to be saved: “Therefore the grace of God is wanting to no man; but, as far as it is concerned, it communicates itself to all.”
Cardinal Gotti, confuting those who say that God keeps ready at hand the aids necessary for salvation, but as a matter of fact does not give them to all, asks: Of what use would it be to a sick man if the physician only kept the remedies ready, and then would not apply them? Then he concludes (quite to the point of our argument) that we must necessarily say: “God not only offers, but also confers on every individual, even on infidels and hardened sinners, help sufficient to observe the Commandments, whether it be proximate or remote.”
Bellarmine makes a sound distinction on this point, and says that for avoiding fresh sins every sinner has at all times sufficient assistance, at least mediately: “The necessary and sufficient assistance for the avoidance of sin is given by God’s goodness to all men at all times, either immediately or mediately … We say or mediately because it is certain that some men have not that help by which they can immediately avoid sin, but yet they have the help which enables them to obtain from God greater safeguards, by the assistance of which they will avoid sin.” But as to the grace of conversion, he says that this is not given at every single moment to the sinner; but that no one will be ever so far left to himself “as to be surely and absolutely deprived of God’s help through all this life, so as to have no hope of salvation.”
And so say the theologians who follow St. Thomas. Thus Soto: “I am absolutely certain, and I believe that all the holy Doctors who are worthy of the name were always most positive, that no one was ever deserted by God in this mortal life.” And the reason is evident; for if the sinner were quite abandoned by grace, either his sins afterwards committed could no longer be imputed to him, or he would be under an obligation to do that which he had no power to do; but it is a positive rule of St. Augustine that there is never a sin in that which cannot be avoided: “No one sins in that which can by no means be avoided.” This is in harmony with the teaching of the Apostle: But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will also make with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor. x. 13). And Primasius explains: “God will so order the issue that we shall be able to endure,” that is, in temptation He will strengthen you with the help of His grace, so that you may be able to bear it. St. Augustine and St. Thomas go so far as to say that God would be unjust and cruel if He obliged any one to a command which he could not keep. St. Augustine says: “It is the deepest injustice to reckon any one guilty of sin for not doing that which he could not do.” And St. Thomas: “God is not more cruel than man; but it is reckoned cruelty in a man to oblige a person by law to do that which he cannot fulfil; therefore we must by no means imagine this of God.” ” It is, however, different,” he says, “when it is through his own neglect that he has not the grace to be able to keep the Commandments.” This is the case when a man neglects to avail himself of the remote grace of Prayer, in order to obtain the proximate grace to enable him to keep the law, as the Council of Trent teaches: “God does not command impossibilities but by commanding admonishes you to do what you can, and to ask for that which is beyond your power, and by His help enables you to do it.”
Other Fathers have taught the same doctrine. So St. Jerome: “We are not forced by necessity to be either virtuous or vicious; for where there is necessity, there is neither condemnation nor crown.” Tertullian: “For a law would not be given to him who had it not in his power to observe it duly.” Marcus the Hermit: “Hidden grace assists us; but it depends on us to do or not to do according to our strength.” So also St. Irenaeus, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Chrysostom, and others.
From all this several Theologians conclude that to say that God refuses to any one sufficient help to enable him to keep the Commandments would be contrary to the Faith, because in that case God would oblige us to impossibilities. So F. Nunez teaches: “God never refused aid sufficient to keep the Commandments, otherwise they could not be in any way fulfilled; and thus we should have the heresy of Luther back again, that God has obliged men to impossibilities.” And in another place: “It is of Faith (so that the opposite doctrine is a manifest heresy) that every man, while he is alive, can do penance for his sins.” And Father Ledesma: “It is a certain truth of Faith that that is not sin which is not in the free power of man.”
Nor is it right to say that if the sinner is deprived of grace, he is deprived of it by his own fault and therefore though he is deprived of grace, yet he sins. For Cardinal Gotti well replies to this that God can justly punish the sinner for his previous faults, but not for future transgressions of precepts which he is no longer able to fulfil. If a servant, he says, were sent to a place, and if he, through his own fault, fell into a pit, his master might punish him for his carelessness in falling, and even for his subsequent disobedience, if means, such as a rope or ladder, were given him to get out of the pit, and he would not avail himself of them. But supposing that his master did not help him to get out, he would be a tyrant if he ordered him to proceed and punished him for not proceeding. Hence he concludes: “When, therefore, a man has by sin fallen into the ditch, and becomes unable to proceed on his way to eternal life, though God may punish him for this fault, and also if he refuses the offer of grace to enable him to proceed; yet if God chose to leave him to his own weakness, He cannot without injustice oblige him to proceed on his way, or punish him for not proceeding.”
Moreover, our opponents adduce many texts of Scripture where this abandonment is apparently expressed: Blind the heart of this people … lest they see with their eyes … and be converted, and I heal them (Is. vi. 10). We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed; let us forsake her (Jer. li. 9). Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity, and let them not come into thy justice (Ps. lxviii. 28). For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. He hath mercy on whom he will; and whom he will he hardeneth (Rom. i. 26; ix. 18), and others similar. But we can answer all these objections, and it is the answer usually given, that in the Holy Scriptures God is often said to do what He only permits (that is, does not prevent); so that if we would not blaspheme with Calvin, and say that God positively destines and determines some persons to sin, we must say that God permits some sinners, in penalty of their faults, to be, on the one hand, assailed by vehement temptations (which is the evil from which we pray God to deliver us when we say Lead us not into temptation) (Matt. vi. 13), and, on the other hand, that they remain morally abandoned in their sin. Thus it is their conversion, and the resistance they make to temptation, although neither impossible nor desperate, is yet, through their faults and bad habits, very difficult; for, in such a state of laxity, they have only very rare and weak desires and attempts to resist their bad habits, and to regain the way of salvation. And this is the imperfect obstinacy of the hardened sinner which St. Thomas describes: “He is hardened who cannot easily co-operate in his escape from sin; and this is imperfect obstinacy, because a man may be obstinate in this life if he has a will so fixed upon sin that no impulses towards good arise, except very weak ones.” On the one hand the mind is obscured, the will is hardened against God’s inspirations, and attached to the pleasures of sense, so as to despise and feel disgust for spiritual things, and the sensual passions and appetites reign in the soul through the bad habits that have been acquired. While on the other hand the illuminations and the callings of God are, by its own fault, rendered scarcely efficacious to move the soul, which has so depised them, and made so bad a use of them that it even feels a certain aversion towards them because it does not want to be disturbed in its sensual gratifications. All these things constitute moral abandonment; and when a sinner has once fallen into it, it is only with the utmost difficulty that he can escape from his miserable state, and bring himself to live a well-regulated life.
In order to escape, and pass at once from such a miserable state to a state of salvation, a great and extraordinary grace would be requisite; but God seldom confers such a grace on these obstinate sinners. To some He gives it, says St. Thomas, and chooses them for vessels of Mercy, as the Apostle calls them, in order to make known His Goodness; but to others He justly refuses it, and leaves them in their unhappy state, in order to show forth His Justice and Power: “Sometimes,” says the Angel of the Schools, “out of the abundance of His Goodness He gives His assistance even to those who put a hindrance in the way of His grace, and converts them … And just as He does not enlighten all the blind, nor cure all the sick, so neither does He assist all who place an impediment to His grace, so as to convert them … This is what the Apostle means when He says that God, to show forth his anger, and to make his power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, that he might show the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he hath prepared unto glory (Rom. ix. 22, 23).” Then he adds: “But since out of the number of those who are involved in the same sins there are some to whom God gives the grace of conversion, while others He endures, or allows to follow the ordinary course we are not to inquire the reason why He converts some and not others. For the Apostle says: Has not the potter power over the clay, to make of the same mass one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour? (Rom. ix. 21).”
To bring this point to a conclusion–we do not deny that there is such a thing as the moral abandonment of some obstinate sinners, so that their conversion is morally impossible, that is to say, very difficult. And this concession is abundantly sufficient for the laudable object which our opponents have in defending their opinion, which is to restrain evil-doers, and to induce them to enter into themselves before they come to fall into such a deplorable state. But then it is cruelty, as Petrocorensis well says, to take from them all hope, and entirely to shut against them the way of salvation, by the doctrine that they have fallen into so complete an abandonment as to be deprived of all actual grace to enable them to avoid fresh sins, and to be converted. Even sinners have the means of Prayer, a grace not refused to any man while he lives, as we shall prove, whereby they can afterwards obtain abundant help for placing themselves in a state of salvation. The fear of total abandonment would not only lead them to despair, but also to give themselves up more completely to their vices, in the belief that they were altogether destitute of grace, and that they had no hope left of escaping eternal damnation.
Evening Meditation
THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
“Charity endureth all things”
HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST WITH A STRONG LOVE DOES NOT CEASE TO LOVE HIM IN THE MIDST OF TEMPTATIONS AND DESOLATIONS
I.
But, I repeat, the most efficacious and the most necessary of all remedies against temptation, is that remedy of remedies, namely to pray to God for help, and to continue praying as long as the temptation continues. Almighty God will frequently have decreed success, not to the first prayer, but to the second, third, or fourth. In short, we must be thoroughly persuaded that all our welfare depends on prayer: our change of life depends on prayer; our victory over temptations depends on prayer; on prayer depends our obtaining Divine love, together with perfection, perseverance, and eternal salvation. There may be some who, after the perusal of my spiritual works, will accuse me of tediousness in so often recommending the importance and necessity of having continual recourse to God by prayer. But I seem to myself to have said not too much but far too little. I know that day and night we are all assailed with temptations from the infernal powers, and that Satan lets slip no occasion of causing us to fall. I know that, without the Divine help, we have not strength to repel the assaults of the devils; and that therefore the Apostle exhorts us to put on the armour of God: Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness (Eph. vi. 11, 12). And what is this armour with which St. Paul warns us to clothe ourselves in order to conquer our enemies? Behold in what it consists: By all prayer and supplication, praying at all times in the spirit, and in the same watching with all instance (Eph. vi. 18). This armour is constant and fervent prayer to God, that He may help us to gain the victory. I know, moreover, that in every page of the Holy Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament, we are repeatedly admonished to pray: Call upon me, and I will deliver thee (Ps. xlix. 15). Cry to me and I will hear thee (Jer. xxxiii. 3). We ought always to pray and not to faint (Luke xviii. 1). Ask, and you shall receive (Matt. vii. 7). Watch and pray (Mark xiii. 33). Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. v. 17). So that I think, far from having spoken too much on prayer, I have not said enough.
II.
I would urge it on all preachers to recommend nothing so much to the people as prayer; on confessors, to insist on nothing so earnestly with their penitents as prayer; on spiritual writers, to treat of no subject more copiously than on prayer. But it is a source of grief to my heart, and it seems to me a chastisement of our sins, that so many preachers, confessors, and authors speak so little of prayer. There is no doubt that sermons, meditations, communions, and mortifications are great helps in the spiritual life; but if we fail to call upon God by prayer in the moment of temptation, we shall fall, in spite of all the sermons, meditations, communions, penances, and virtuous resolutions. If, then, we really wish to be saved, let us aways pray, and commend ourselves to Jesus Christ, and most of all when we are tempted; and let us not only pray for the grace of holy perseverance, but at the same time for the grace to pray always. Let us, likewise, take care to recommend ourselves to the Divine Mother, who, as St. Bernard says, is the dispenser of graces: “Let us seek for graces, and let us seek them through Mary.” For the same Saint assures us that it is the will of God, that not a single grace should be dealt to us except through the hands of Mary: “God has willed us to receive nothing that has not passed through the hands of Mary.”
O Jesus, my Redeemer, I trust in Thy Blood, that Thou has forgiven me all my offences against Thee; and I fondly hope to come one day to bless Thee for it eternally in Heaven: The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever. I plainly see now that I have over and over again fallen in times past from the want of entreating Thee for holy perseverance. I earnestly beg Thee at this present moment to grant me perseverance: Never suffer me to be separated from Thee. And I propose to make this prayer to Thee always; but especially when I am tempted to offend Thee. I indeed make this resolution and promise; but what will it profit me thus to resolve and promise if Thou dost not give me the grace to run and cast myself at Thy feet? By the merits, then, of Thy Sacred Passion, oh, grant me this grace, in all my necessities to have recourse to Thee. O Mary, my Queen and my Mother, I beseech thee, by thy tender love for Jesus Christ, to procure me the grace of always fleeing for succour, as long as I live, to thy blessed Son and to thee.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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O ye sons of men, why do you not love Jesus Christ? Tell me, what more could He have done to make you love Him? If the vilest of mankind had suffered for us the torments Jesus Christ suffered, could we help giving him all our affection and showing him our gratitude?
I.
O my Jesus, what greater proof of Thy love couldst Thou have given me, than the sacrificing of Thy life upon the disgraceful gibbet of the Cross, to make satisfaction for my sins, and to conduct me with Thee into Paradise?
He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross (Phil. ii. 8). The Son of God, therefore, for the love of man, obedient to His Eternal Father, Whose will it was that He should die for our salvation, humbled Himself to die, and to die on a Cross! And are there men to be found who believe this and love not such a God!
O Jesus, how much has it cost Thee to make me understand Thy burning love for me; and I have basely repaid Thee with ingratitude. Oh, accept me now and suffer me to love Thee, since I will no more abuse Thy love. I love Thee, my Sovereign Good, and desire to love Thee forever. Remind me continually of the pains Thou didst suffer for me, that I may never forget the love I owe Thee.
O God, the Passion of Jesus Christ is spoken of, and is listened to as though it were a fable, or story about the sufferings and death of someone unknown to us, or something that did not concern us at all!
O ye sons of men, why do ye not love Jesus Christ? Tell me, what more could our Blessed Redeemer have done to make us love Him than to die in the midst of humiliations and torments?
If the vilest of mankind had suffered for us the torments Jesus Christ suffered, could we help giving him our affection and showing him our gratitude?
But, my Jesus, why do I speak of the ingratitude of others and not rather of my own? What has hitherto been my conduct towards Thee? Alas, I have repaid Thy love only with offences against Thee!
Pardon me, O Jesus! From this day, I desire to love Thee, and to love Thee much. I should be too ungrateful, if, after so many favours and mercies, I loved Thee but little.
II.
Let us reflect that this Man of Sorrows, nailed to the disgraceful wood of the Cross, is our true God, and suffers and dies there for no other motive but for love of us.
Do we, then, believe that Jesus Christ crucified is our God, and really dies for us, and can we love aught but Jesus crucified?
O beautiful flames of love which consumed the life of my Saviour on Calvary, come and consume in me all worldly affections! Cause me ever to burn with love for such a God, Who was pleased to die and to sacrifice Himself entirely for the love of me.
What a spectacle for the Angels of Heaven to behold the Divine Word fastened to a gibbet, and dying for the salvation of us, His miserable creatures!
O my Saviour, Thou hast not refused me Thy Blood and Thy life, and shall I refuse Thee the affection of my heart? Shall I refuse Thee anything Thou askest of me? No, my Jesus! Thou hast given Thy whole Self to me, and I will give my whole self without reserve to Thee.
Spiritual Reading
PRAYER
GOD GIVES TO ALL MEN THE GRACE TO PRAY.
We have proved that God wishes all men to be saved, and that, as far as He is concerned, He gives to all the graces necessary for their salvation. We say, moreover, that all men have given to them the grace to enable them actually to pray without needing a further grace, and by Prayer to obtain all further aid necessary for the observance of the Commandments and for salvation. But it must be remarked that when we say, "without needing a further grace," we do not mean that the common grace gives the power of Prayer without the aid of assisting grace, since, in order to exercise any act of piety, besides the exciting grace, there is undoubtedly required the assisting or co-operating grace. But we mean that the common grace gives every man the power of actual Prayer, without a further preventing grace to determine, physically or morally, the will of man to exercise the act of Prayer. We will therefore:
First mention the famous Theologians who teach this doctrine as certain;
Secondly, examine the proofs of this doctrine
(a) from Scripture,
(b) the Council of Trent,
© and the Fathers;
Thirdly, examine the theological arguments which prove it.
I.-THE FAMOUS THEOLOGIANS WHO TEACH THIS DOCTRINE.
It is held by Isambert, Cardinal du Perron, Alphonsus le Moyne, and others whom we shall presently quote, and especially by Honoratus Tourneley, who treats the matter fully. All these authors prove that every man, by means of the ordinary sufficient grace alone, can actually pray without need of further aid, and by Prayer can obtain all the graces requisite for the performance of the most difficult things.
It was also held by Cardinal Noris, who proves the proposition that man, when the Commandment urges, can pray if he will; and he proves it in this way: Assuming that, in order to keep the Commandments and to be saved, Prayer is necessary, as we proved in the beginning when we spoke of the Necessity of Prayer, this learned author says that every one has the proximate power of Prayer, in order that by Prayer he may obtain the proximate power to do good; and therefore all can pray with only the ordinary grace, without other assistance. Otherwise, he argues, if, in order to obtain the proximate power for the act of Prayer we require another power, we should still want another power of grace to obtain this power, and so on ad infinitum, and it would no longer be in the power of man to co-operate in his salvation.
The same author held it as certain that in the present state all men have the assistance sine qua non, i.e., ordinary grace, which, without need of further assistance, produces Prayer, by which we can then obtain efficacious grace to enable us to observe the Law. And hence we can easily understand the axiom universally received in the Schools: "Facienti quod in se est, Deus non denegat gratiam." To him who does what in him lies, God does not refuse His grace. That is, to the man who prays, and thus makes good use of the sufficient grace which enables him to do such an easy thing as to pray, God does not refuse the efficacious grace to enable him to execute difficult things.
Thus also, Louis Thomassin, who says that "sufficient grace," to be really sufficient, ought to give a man the proximate and ready power to execute a good act. But if, in order to perform such an act, another grace--namely, efficacious grace--is needed, and a man has not, at least, mediately, this efficacious grace which is necessary for salvation, how can it be said that the "sufficient grace" gives him this proximate and ready power? But Saint Thomas says: "God does not neglect to do that which is necessary to salvation." It is true, of course, that God is not bound to give us His grace, because what is gratis is not of obligation; but, on the other hand, supposing that He gives us Commandments, He is obliged to give us the assistance necessary for observing them. And as God does oblige us actually to observe every precept whenever it applies, so ought He also actually to supply us (at least mediately or remotely) with the assistance necessary for the observance of the precept, without the necessity of a further grace which is not common to all. Hence Thomassin concludes that in order to reconcile the proposition that sufficient grace is enough for a man's salvation with the statement that efficacious grace is requisite to observe the whole Law, it is necessary to say that sufficient grace is enough to pray, and to perform similar easy acts, and that by means of these we then obtain efficacious grace to fulfil the difficult acts. And this is without doubt in conformity with the doctrine of St. Augustine, who teaches: "By the very fact that it is most firmly believed that the just and good God does not command impossibilities, we are admonished both what to do in easy things, and in difficult things what to ask for." On this passage Cardinal Noris observes: "Therefore, we are able to do easy or less perfect works without asking God for further help; for which, however, we must pray in more difficult works." Thomassin also brings forward the authority of St. Bonaventure, Scotus, and others on this subject, and says that all these considered sufficient graces to be truly sufficient, whether the will consents to them or not. And this he demonstrates in four parts of his book, adducing the authorities of the Schoolmen for a long series of years beginning from the year 1100.
Habert, Bishop of Vabres and Doctor of the Sorbonne, who was the first to write against Jansenius, says: "We think, first, that sufficient grace has only a contingent or mediate connection with the actual effect of the complete consent... We think, further, that 'sufficient grace' is a grace that disposes for efficacious grace, since from a good use of it God afterwards grants to the created will the grace that performs the complete effect." He had said before that "all Catholic Doctors have professed, and do profess, that a real inward grace is given, which is capable of persuading the will to consent to good, though, on account of the free resistance of the will, it sometimes does not persuade it thus to consent"; and for this doctrine he quotes Gamaches, Duval, Isambert, Perez, Le Moyne, and others. Then he proceeds: "The assistance, therefore, of sufficient grace disposes us for the reception of efficacious grace, and is in some sort efficacious, namely, of an incomplete effect, obtained first remotely, then more nearly, and at last proximately --such as is an Act of Faith, Hope, Love ... and amongst all these, of Prayer. Hence the famous Alphonsus Le Moyne taught that this sufficient grace was the grace of asking or of Prayer, of which St. Augustine so often speaks." So that, according to Habert, the difference between efficacious and sufficient grace is that the former produces its effect completely while the latter produces it either contingently (that is, sometimes, but not always), or mediately (that is, by means of Prayer). Moreover, he says that sufficient grace, according to the good use we make of it, prepares us to obtain efficacious grace; hence he calls sufficient grace " in some sort efficacious" (secundum quid), because of its effect commenced but not completed. Lastly, he says that sufficient grace is the grace of Prayer, of which it is in our power to avail ourselves, as St. Augustine teaches. So that a man has no excuse if he does not do that which he already has sufficient grace to enable him to perform, seeing that without further assistance he has the sufficient grace either to act, or at least obtain more help to enable him to act. And Habert asserts that this was the common doctrine of the Sorbonne.
Charles du Plessis d'Argentre, another Theologian of the Sorbonne, quotes more than a thousand Theologians who teach expressly that with sufficient grace easy works are accomplished, and that a man who makes use of it obtains thereby more abundant assistance for his thorough conversion. And precisely in this sense, as we have already explained, he says the celebrated axiom of the Schools is to be understood: "To those who do what is in their power" (by means of sufficient grace) "God does not deny grace"; that is, more abundant and efficacious grace.
The learned Dionysius Petavius proves at great length that man works with simple sufficient grace; and he even says that it would be monstrous to assert the contrary, and that this is the doctrine not only of Theologians, but also of the Church. Hence, he says, the grace of observing the precepts follows Prayer; and that the gift of Prayer is given by God at the time when He imposes the precept. So that as the Law is imposed upon all, the gift of Prayer is given to all.
The author of the Theology for the Use of the Seminary of Peterkau says that with sufficient grace alone a " man can act well, and sometimes does act well"; so that "there is nothing to hinder that, of two persons furnished with equal graces, one should perform the easier acts (which very often precede full conversion), the other should not." And this, he says, is in conformity with the doctrine of St. Augustine, and also of St. Thomas and his first disciples, notably Father Bartholomew Medina, who says that sometimes a man is converted with sufficient grace alone. And I find that also Father Louis of Granada asserts this to be the common doctrine of Theologians: "Theologians reckon two kinds of assistance--one sufficient, the other more than sufficient; by the former men are sometimes converted and sometimes refuse to be converted." And he adds: "And Theologians define how universally this assistance is open to men." "Thus," says the Theology of Peterkau, a man can perform some acts of piety, such as pray to God humbly, with the aid of sufficient grace alone, and sometimes actually does perform them, and so prepares himself for further graces." This, it adds, is the order of God's Providence with regard to graces, "that the succeeding should follow the good use of the former." And it concludes that thorough conversion and final perseverance "are infallibly obtained by Prayer, for which the sufficient grace which is given to every one abundantly suffices..."
Richard of St. Victor similarly teaches that there is a sufficient grace to which a man sometimes consents and which he sometimes resists.
Dominic Soto asks: "Why of two persons whom God is most ready and desirous to convert, one is drawn by grace, and the other is not?" And he answers: "No other reason can be given, except that one consents and co-operates, while the other does not co-operate." ...
Cardinal Gotti in one place of his Theology apparently agrees with us; for when discussing how it is that a man can persevere if he will, when it is not in his power to have the special assistance which is requisite for perseverance, he says that although this special assistance is not in a man's power, "yet it is said to be in a certain sense in a man's power, because he can by the grace of God ask for it and obtain it; and in this way it may be said to be in a man's power to have the assistance necessary for perseverance because it can be obtained by prayer." But to verify the proposition that it is in a man's power to persevere, it is necessary to grant both that he can, without needing any further grace, obtain by Prayer the assistance requisite for perseverance; also, that with only the sufficient grace common to all, without need of any special grace he can actually pray, and by Prayer obtain perseverance; otherwise it could not be said that every man had the grace necessary for perseverance, at least remotely or mediately, by means of Prayer.
But if Cardinal Gotti did not so understand it, at any rate this is what St. Francis de Sales teaches when he says that the grace of actual Prayer is given to everyone who will avail himself of it, and thence concludes that perseverance is in the power of everybody. The Saint says this clearly in his Treatise on the Love of God, where, after proving that constant Prayer is necessary to obtain from God the gift of final perseverance, he adds, that as the gift of Prayer is freely granted to all those who will consent to the heavenly inspirations, it is consequently in our power to persevere.
Cardinal Bellarmine teaches the same thing. He says: "Assistance, then and there sufficient for salvation, is given mediately or immediately to all men ... We say mediately or immediately, because to those who have the use of reason we believe that holy inspirations are given by God, and that by these they have immediately the exciting grace, by which, if they will acquiesce in it, they can be disposed to be justified, and at last to obtain salvation."
Evening Meditation
"Charity endureth all things"
HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST WITH A STRONG LOVE DOES NOT CEASE TO LOVE HIM IN THE MIDST OF TEMPTATIONS AND DESOLATIONS
I.
St. Francis de Sales says: "It is a mistake to estimate devotion by the consolations which we feel. True devotion in the way of God consists in having a determined will to execute all that is pleasing to God." Almighty God is wont to make use of aridities in order to draw closer to Him His most cherished souls. Attachment to our own inordinate inclinations is the greatest obstacle to true union with God. When, therefore, God intends to draw a soul to His perfect love, He endeavours to detach her from all affection to created goods. Thus His first care is to deprive her of temporal goods, of worldly pleasures, of property, honours, friends, relations, and bodily health; by the like means, that is, of losses, troubles, neglect, bereavements, and infirmities, He extirpates by degrees all earthly attachment, in order that the affections may be set on Him alone.
II.
With a view to produce a longing for spiritual things God regales the soul at first with great consolations, with an abundance of tears and tenderness. She is thus easily weaned from the gratifications of sense, and seeks further to mortify herself with works of penance, fasts, cilices, and disciplines. At this stage the director must keep a check on her, and not allow her to practise mortifications--at least not all those for which she asks permission --because, under the spur of this sensible devotion, a soul might easily ruin her health by indiscretion. It is a subtle artifice of the devil, when he beholds a person giving himself up to God, and receiving the consolations and caresses which God generally gives to beginners, to do his utmost to plunge him into the performance of such immoderate penances as utterly to destroy his health; so that afterwards, because of bodily weakness, he not only gives up the mortifications, but prayer, Communion, and all exercises of devotion, and eventually sinks back into his old way of living. On this account, the director should be very sparing in allowing mortifications to those who are only just entering upon the spiritual life, and who desire to practise bodily mortifications. Let him exhort them to practise rather interior mortification by bearing patiently with affronts and contradictions, by obedience to superiors, by bridling the curiosity to see, to hear, and the like; and let him tell them that, when they have acquired the good habit of practising these interior mortifications, they will then be sufficiently perfect to proceed to the external. It would be, of course, a serious error to say, as some say, that external mortifications are of little or no use. Without doubt, interior mortification is most requisite for perfection; but it does not follow from this that external mortifications are unnecessary. St. Vincent de Paul declared that the person who did not practise external mortifications would be mortified neither interiorly nor exteriorly. And St. John of the Cross declared that the director who despised external mortifications was unworthy of confidence, even though he should work miracles.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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Friday--Eighth Week after Pentecost
Morning Meditation
THE LOVE OF JESUS FOR US DEMANDS OUR LOVE
My soul, consider thy God crucified and dying on Calvary. See how much He suffers, and say to Him: Why, O Jesus, why dost Thou love me so much, and why art Thou so much tormented and afflicted on the Cross? Oh, Thou wouldst be less afflicted didst Thou love me less!
I.
My soul, consider thy God crucified and dying on Calvary. See how much He suffers, and say to Him: Why, O Jesus, why dost Thou love me so much, and why art Thou so much tormented and afflicted on the Cross? Oh, Thou wouldst be less afflicted, didst Thou love me less!
Ah, my dear Redeemer, what a multitude of sorrows, ignominies, and afflictions torment Thee upon the Cross! Thy most sacred body hangs from three nails and rests only on Thy Wounds; the people who surround Thee deride and blaspheme Thee; and Thy immaculate soul is much more afflicted than Thy body. Tell me, why dost Thou suffer so much? Thou answerest me: I suffer all for the love of thee; remember, then, the affection I have borne thee, and love Me.
Yes, my Jesus, I will love Thee. And whom shall I love, if not my God Who dies for me? Hitherto I have despised Thee, but now my greatest grief is the remembrance of my offences against Thee, and I desire nothing but to be entirely Thine. O my Jesus, pardon me, and draw my heart to Thee; pierce and inflame it through and through with Thy love.
Let us consider how loving were the sentiments with which Jesus Christ presented His hands and feet to be nailed to the Cross, offering at the same time His Divine life to His Eternal Father for our salvation. My beloved Saviour, when I think how much my soul cost Thee, I cannot despair of pardon. However great and numerous my sins, I will not despair of being saved, since Thou hast already superabundantly satisfied for me. My Jesus, my Hope, and my Love, as much as I have offended thee, so much will I love Thee: I have exceedingly offended Thee, I desire also to love Thee exceedingly. Thou Who givest me this desire, help me.
Eternal Father, look on the face of thy Christ (Ps. lxxxiii. 10). Behold Thy dying Son upon the Cross; look on that livid countenance, that head crowned with thorns, those hands pierced with nails, that body all bruised and wounded; behold the Victim sacrificed for me, Whom I now present to Thee, and have pity on me!
II.
He hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood (Apoc. i. 5). Why should we fear that our sins will hinder us from becoming saints, when Jesus Christ has made for us a bath of His own Blood to wash our souls of every stain? It is sufficient that we repent of our sins and desire to amend.
Jesus, on the Cross, had us in His thoughts, and there prepared for us all those graces and mercies He now bestows upon us, with as much love as though He had to save only the soul of one of us in particular.
O my Saviour, Thou didst foresee upon the Cross the offences I should commit against Thee, and instead of punishments Thou didst prepare for me lights, loving calls, and pardon. O my Jesus, shall I ever again, after so many graces, offend Thee and separate myself from Thee? O my Lord, permit it not! Grant that I may die rather than cease to love Thee. I will say to Thee, with St. Francis de Sales: "Either to die, or to love! Either to love, or to die!"
Spiritual Reading
PRAYER
GOD GIVES TO ALL MEN THE GRACE TO PRAY.
II.-FURTHER PROOFS
(a) From Holy Scripture.
We have first the authority of the Apostle St. Paul, who assures us that God is faithful, and will not permit us to be tempted beyond our strength, since He always gives us assistance (either immediate or mediate, by means of Prayer) to resist the assaults of our enemies: God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor. x. 13). Jansenius says that this text refers only to the predestined, but this comment of his is completely unfounded; for St. Paul is writing to all the faithful of Corinth, whom he certainly did not consider to be all predestined. So that St. Thomas has good reason for understanding it generally of all men, and for saying that God would not be faithful if He did not grant us, so far as in Him lies, those graces by means of which we can obtain salvation. It is proved, moreover, by all those texts in which God exhorts us to be converted, and to have recourse to Him for the graces necessary for our salvation, and promises to hear us when we have recourse to Him. Wisdom preacheth aloud ... saying, O children, how long will ye love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves ...? Turn ye at my reproof; behold, I will utter my spirit to you ... Because I called, and you refused ... I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock (Prov. i. 22-26).
This exhortation, Turn ye, would be simple mockery, says Bellarmine, if God did not give to sinners at least the mediate assistance of Prayer for their conversion. Besides, we find in the passage, Behold, I will utter my spirit to you, mention made of the internal grace by which God calls sinners, and gives them actual assistance for conversion, if they will accept it. And again: Come to me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you (Matt. xi. 28). Come and accuse me, saith the Lord; if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow (Is. i. 18). Ask, and it shall be given you (Matt. vii. 7). And so on in innumerable other texts already quoted. Now, if God did not give every one grace actually to have recourse to Him and actually to pray to Him, all these invitations and exhortations would be vain.
(b) From the Council of Trent.
It is clearly proved from the words of the Council of Trent. I beg the reader to give his best attention to this proof, which, if I am not mistaken, is perfectly decisive. There were innovators who asserted that man was deprived of free-will by the sin of Adam, and that the will of man at present has no share in good actions, but is induced to receive them passively from God, without producing them itself; and hence they inferred that the observance of the Commandments was impossible to those who were not efficaciously moved and predetermined by grace to avoid evil and to do good. Against this error the Council pronounced sentence in words borrowed from St. Augustine: "Deus impossibilia non jubet; sed jubendo monet, et facere quad possis, et petere quod non possis; et adjuvat ut possis." "God does not command impossible things; but by commanding, admonishes you both to do what you can, and to pray for what you cannot do; and He helps you so that you may be able ..."
So that, according to the Council, the Divine precepts are possible to all men, at least by the assistance of Prayer, by which greater help may be obtained to enable men to observe them. If, therefore, God has imposed His Commandments on all men, and has rendered their observance possible to all, at least mediately by means of Prayer, we must necessarily conclude that all men have the grace to enable them to pray, for the Commandments would not be possible to them without this grace. And as God grants to Prayer actual grace to do good, and thereby renders all His Commandments possible, so also He gives all actual grace to pray; for if there were any man who had not actual grace to pray to God, the Commandments would be impossible, as he could by no means, not even by Prayer, obtain the assistance necessary for their observance.
This being laid down, it cannot be said that the words, God admonishes you to do what you can, and to ask for what you cannot do, are only to be understood of the power to pray, not of actual Prayer; because, we reply, if the common and ordinary grace gave only the power to pray but not the power of actually Praying, the Council would not have said: "He admonishes you to do what you can, and to ask for what you cannot do," but rather, He admonishes you that you can do, and that you can pray. Moreover, if the Council had not intended to declare that every one can observe the Precepts, or can pray to obtain grace to observe them, and had not meant to speak of actual grace, it would not have said "He admonishes," because this word properly refers to actual operation, and denotes not the instruction of the mind, but the movement of the will to do that good which it can actually do. When, therefore, the Council said: "He admonishes you to do what you can, and to ask for what you cannot do," it most clearly expressed, not only possible operation and possible Prayer, but actual operation and actual Prayer. For if man had need of another extraordinary grace, which as yet he has not, in order actually to work or actually to pray, how could God admonish him to do or to ask that which he cannot actually either do or ask without efficacious grace? Father Fortuanto Brescia speaks wisely on his point: "If the actual grace of Prayer were not given to all, but if for Prayer we had need of efficacious grace, which is not common to all, Prayer would be impossible to many who are without this efficacious grace; so that it could not be rightly said that 'God admonishes you to ask for that which you cannot do', because He would then admonish us to do a thing requiring a grace which we did not possess. Therefore, God's admonition to do and to pray must be understood of actual operation and Prayer, without need of a further extraordinary grace." And this is exactly what St. Augustine means when he says: "Hence we are admonished in easy things what to do, and in difficult things what to pray for"; for he supposes that though all have not grace, to enable them to do difficult things, all have at least grace to pray, because Prayer is an easy thing for everybody, as he also propounds in the words afterwards adopted by the Council of Trent: "God admonishes you to do what you can, and to ask for what you cannot do."
To recapitulate the argument: the Council says that God does not impose impossible Commands, because He either gives assistance to observe them, or gives the grace of Prayer to obtain that assistance, which He always grants when it is prayed for. Now, if it could ever be true that God does not give all men grace, at least the mediate grace of Prayer, actually to observe all His Precepts, Jansenius' Proposition would be true, that even the just man is without grace to enable him actually to observe some of the Commandments.
I do not know how else the text of the Council of Trent which I have cited, can be understood and explained, unless "sufficient grace" gives to all men the power of actually praying without the "efficacious grace" which our opponents suppose to be necessary for the actual performance of any pious work. And supposing the necessity of a further grace for actual Prayer, I cannot understand how this other text of the same Council can be true: "God does not leave those who have been once justified by His grace, unless they first leave Him." If, I argue, the ordinary sufficient grace would not be enough for actual Prayer, but that for this purpose efficacious grace, which is not common to all men, should be required, it would follow that when the just man would be tempted to commit his first mortal sin, and God would not give him efficacious grace at least to enable him to pray, and so obtain strength to resist, his succumbing to temptation might be said to result rather from the just man being abandoned by God than that he had abandoned God, seeing that he was left without the efficacious grace necessary to enable him to resist.
© From the Holy Fathers.
In the next place, our opinion is proved from the words of the holy Fathers.
St. Basil says: "When, however, any one is allowed to fall into temptation, it must issue that he may be able to endure it, and to ask in Prayer that the will of God may be done." The Saint, then, teaches that when God permits a man to be tempted, He does it in order that the man may resist by asking for the Divine Will, i.e., the grace to overcome. He therefore supposes that when a man has not sufficient assistance to overcome the temptation, he at least has the actual and common grace of Prayer, by which he may obtain whatever further grace he needs.
St. John Chrysostom says that God gave a law which would make the wounds manifest, in order that men may desire a physician. And again: "Nor can any one be excused who, by ceasing to pray, has voluntarily abstained from overcoming his adversary." If such a man had not the grace necessary for actual Prayer, whereby he might obtain grace to resist, he might excuse himself when he is overcome.
So also St. Bernard: "Who are we, or what is our strength? This is what God wanted, that we, seeing our weakness, and that we have no other help, should with all humility have recourse to His Mercy." God, then, has imposed on us a Law impossible by our own strength, in order that we should go to Him, and by Prayer obtain strength to observe it; but if to any one was denied the grace of actual Prayer, to him the Law would be utterly impossible. "Many persons," says the same St. Bernard, "complain that they are deserted by grace; but grace could much more justly complain of being deserted by them."
But no Father is more clear on this point than St. Augustine, and that in many places. In one place he says: "The Pelagians think themselves very learned when they say, 'God would not command that which He knows man could not do.' Who is ignorant of this? But God does command some things that we cannot do, in order that we may know that for which we ought to ask Him."
Again: "It is not reckoned your fault, if you are ignorant without wishing to be so, but only if you neglect to inquire into that of which you are ignorant; nor that you do not cure your wounded members, but that you despise Him Who is willing to heal you. These are your own sins; no man is deprived of the knowledge of how to seek with advantage." So that, according to St. Augustine, no one is deprived of the grace of Prayer, whereby he may obtain grace for his conversion; otherwise, if this grace were wanting, it could not be his fault if he were not converted.
Again St. Augustine says: "What else, then, is shown us but that it is God that gives the power to ask, and to seek, and to knock, Who commands us to do these things?"
Again: "Once for all, receive this and understand it. Art thou not yet drawn? Pray that thou mayest be drawn."
Again the Saint says: "That the soul, then, knows not what it should do comes from this, that it has not yet received it; but will receive this also, if it has made a good use of what it has received; and it has received power to seek piously and diligently if it will."
Mark the words "it has received power to seek diligently and piously." Every one, then, has the grace necessary for Prayer, and if he makes a good use of this, he will receive grace to do that which before he was unable to do immediately. Again: "Let the man who may be willing, but may not be able to do what he wills, pray that he may have such a measure as suffices for fulfilling the Commandments; thus is he assisted so as to be able to do what is commanded."
Again St. Augustine says: "He gives us Commandments for this reason, that when we have tried to do what we are commanded, and are wearied through our infirmity, we may know how to ask the help of grace." Here the Saint supposes that with ordinary grace we are not able to do difficult things, but can by means of Prayer obtain the aid necessary to accomplish them ... When, therefore, St. Augustine says that man is unable to fulfil the whole Law, and that Prayer is the only means given him to obtain help to fulfil it, he certainly supposes that God gives every man the grace of actual Prayer without need of a further extraordinary aid, not common to all men ...
But there are two texts of St. Augustine which have particular bearing on the point.
The first is this: "It is certain that we can keep the Commandments if we will; but since the will is prepared by God, we must ask Him that we may have such a will as is sufficient to enable us to perform what we will." Here he says that it is certain we could observe the Law if we would; on the other hand, he says that in order to will to do so, and actually to do so, we must pray. Therefore all men have grace given them to pray, and by Prayer to obtain the abundant grace which enables us to keep the Commandments; otherwise, if for actual Prayer, efficacious grace, which is not common to all, were requisite, those to whom it was not given would not be able to keep the Commandments, nor to have the will to keep them.
The second text is that in which the holy Doctor answers the monks of Adramyttiurn, who spoke thus: If grace is necessary, and if we can do nothing without it, why blame us when we cannot act, and have not grace to act? You should rather pray God for us, that He may give us this grace. St. Augustine answers: You must be blamed, not because you do not act when you have not strength, but because you do not pray to obtain strength. "He who will not be admonished, and says, ' Do you rather pray for me,' must on that very account be admonished to do it (i.e. to pray) for himself." Now if the Saint did not believe that every man had grace to pray (if he so will) without need of further aid, he never could have said that these people were to be blamed for not praying; for they could have answered that if they were not to be blamed for not doing a thing when they had not special grace to enable them to do it, so they could not be blamed for not praying when they had not special grace for actual Prayer. This is what St. Augustine elsewhere says: "Let them not deceive themselves who say: ' Why are we commanded to abstain from evil and do good if it is God Who works in us both to will and to do it?' " And he answers that when men do good they should thank God for it, Who gives them strength to do it; " but when they do it not," he says, "let them pray that they may receive that which as yet they have not." Now, if these people had not even the grace for the act of Prayer, they might answer " Why are we commanded to pray if God does not work in us to make us pray?" How are we to have the will to pray if we do not receive the grace necessary for actual Prayer?
St. Thomas is not speaking of Prayer expressly, but assumes the certainty of our Proposition, when he says: "It belongs to God's Providence to provide every individual with what is necessary for salvation, provided he puts no impediment in the way." Since, then, it is true, on the one hand, that God gives to all men the graces necessary for salvation, and, on the other, that we require for Prayer the grace which enables us actually to pray, and thereby to obtain further and greater assistance to enable us to do that which we cannot compass with ordinary grace--it follows, necessarily, that God gives all men sufficient grace actually to pray if they will, without need of efficacious grace.
Here we may add the answer of Bellarmine to the heretics who inferred from the text, No one can come to me, unless my Father draw him (Jo. vi. 44), that no one could go to God who was not properly drawn by Him. "We answer," he says, "that the only conclusion from this text is that all men have not the efficacious grace to make them really believe; but we cannot conclude that all men have not at least the assistance which confers the possibility of believing, or, at any rate, the possibility of asking for grace."
Evening Meditation
THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
"Charity endureth all things"
HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST WITH A STRONG LOVE DOES NOT CEASE TO LOVE HIM IN THE MIDST OF TEMPTATIONS AND DESOLATIONS
I.
The soul, then, in the commencement of her conversion to God, tastes the sweetness of those sensible consolations with which God seeks to allure her, and by them to wean her from earthly pleasures; she breaks off her attachment to creatures, and becomes attached to God. Still, her attachment is imperfect, inasmuch as it is fostered more by that sensibility of spiritual consolations than by the real wish to do what is pleasing to God; and she deceives herself by believing that the greater the pleasure she feels in her devotions, the more she loves Almighty God. The consequence of this is that if this food of spiritual consolation is stopped, by her being taken from her ordinary exercises of devotion, and employed in other works of obedience, charity, or duties of her state, she is disturbed, and takes it greatly to heart: and this is a universal defect in our miserable human nature, to seek our own satisfaction in all that we do. Or again, when she no longer finds this sweet relish of devotion in her exercises, she either forsakes them or lessens them, and continuing to lessen them from day to day, she at length omits them entirely. And this misfortune befalls many souls who, when called by Almighty God to love Him, enter upon the way of perfection, and as long as spiritual sweetness lasts, make a certain progress; but alas! when this is no longer tasted, they leave off all, and resume their former ways. But it is of the highest importance to be fully persuaded that the love of God and perfection, do not consist in feelings of tenderness and consolation, but in overcoming self-love and in following the Divine Will. St. Francis de Sales says: "God is as worthy of our love when He afflicts us as when He consoles us."
I do love Thee, my Sovereign Good; I love Thee with my whole heart; I love Thee more than myself; I love Thee, and have no other desire than to love Thee. I own that this my good-will is the pure effect of Thy grace; but do Thou, O my Lord, perfect Thy own work; withdraw not Thy helping hand till death! Oh, never for a moment leave me in my own hands; give me strength to vanquish temptations and to overcome myself; and for this end give me grace always to have recourse to Thee!
II.
Amid these consolations, it requires no remarkable degree of virtue to forego sensible delights, and to endure affronts and contradictions. The soul in the midst of these sweetnesses can endure all things; but this endurance comes far more frequently from those sensible consolations than from the strength of true love of God. On this account the Lord, with a view to give her a solid foundation in virtue, retires from her, and deprives her of that sensible devotion, that He may rid her of all attachment to self love, which was fed by such consolations. And hence it happens that whereas formerly she felt a joy in making acts of offering, of confidence, and love, now that the stream of consolation is dried up she makes these acts with a coldness and painful effort, and finds a weariness in the most pious exercises, in her prayers, spiritual readings, and Communions; she even finds in them nothing but darkness and fears, and all seems lost to her. She prays and prays again, and is overwhelmed with sadness, because God seems to have abandoned her.
O Jesus, my Hope, my Love and only Love of my soul, I deserve not Thy consolations and sweet visitations; keep them for those innocent souls who have always loved Thee; sinner that I am, I do not deserve them, nor do I ask for them: this only do I ask, give me grace to love Thee, to accomplish Thy adorable will during my whole life, and then dispose of me as Thou pleasest! Unhappy me! far other darkness, other terrors, other abandonments would be due to the outrages I have done Thee: hell were my just award, where, separated from Thee forever, and totally abandoned by Thee, I should shed tears eternally, without ever being able to love Thee more. But no, my Jesus, I accept of every punishment; only spare me this. Thou art deserving of an infinite love; Thou hast placed me under an excessive obligation of loving Thee; oh, no, I cannot trust myself to live and not love Thee!
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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St. Basil of Seleucia remarks that "if God granted to some who were only His servants such power that not only their touch, but even their very shadows, healed the sick who were placed for this purpose in the streets, how much greater power must we suppose He has granted to her who was not only His servant but His Mother!"
I.
St. Ephrem, addressing this Blessed Virgin, says: "Thou art the only advocate of sinners, and of all who are unprotected." And then he salutes her in the following words: "Hail, refuge and hospital of sinners!"--true refuge, in which alone they can hope for reception and liberty. And an author remarks that this was the meaning of David when he said: For he hath hidden me in his tabernacle (Ps. xxvi. 5). And truly what can this tabernacle of God be unless it is Mary, who is called by St. Germanus "a tabernacle made by God, into which He alone entered to accomplish the great work of the Redemption of man."
St. Basil of Seleucia remarks that "if God granted to some who were only His servants such power that not only their touch but even their shadows healed the sick who were placed for this purpose in the public streets, how much greater power must we suppose that He has granted to her who was not only His handmaid but His Mother?" We may indeed say that our Lord has given us Mary as a public hospital, in which all who are sick, poor, and destitute can be received. But now I ask, in hospitals erected expressly for the poor, who have the greatest claim to admission? Certainly the most infirm, and those who are in the greatest need.
And for this reason should any one find himself devoid of merit and overwhelmed with spiritual infirmities, that is to say, sin, he can thus address Mary: O Lady, thou art the refuge of the sick poor; reject me not, for as I am the poorest and the most infirm of all, I have the greatest right to be welcomed by thee.
II.
Let us, then, cry out with St. Thomas of Villanova: "O Mary, we poor sinners know no other refuge than thee, for thou art our only hope, and on thee we rely for our salvation." Thou art our only advocate with Jesus Christ; to thee do we all turn.
In the Revelations of St. Bridget, Mary is called the "Star preceding the sun," giving us thereby to understand, that when devotion towards the Divine Mother begins to manifest itself in a soul that is in a state of sin, it is a certain mark that before long God will enrich it with His grace. The glorious St. Bonaventure, in order to revive the confidence of sinners in the protection of Mary, places before them the picture of a tempestuous sea into which sinners have already fallen from the ship of Divine grace; they are already dashed about on every side by remorse of conscience and by fear of the judgments of God; they are without light or guide, and are on the point of losing the last breath of hope and falling into despair; then it is that our Lord, pointing out Mary to them, who is commonly called the "Star of the Sea", raises His voice and says: "O poor lost sinners, despair not! Raise up your eyes, and cast them on this beautiful star; breathe again with confidence, for it will save you from this tempest, and will guide you into the port of salvation." St. Bernard says the same thing: "If thou wouldst not be lost in the tempest, cast thine eyes on the star, and call upon Mary."
Spiritual Reading
PRAYER
GOD GIVES TO ALL THE GRACE TO PRAY.
III-THEOLOGICAL REASONS THAT JUSTIFY THIS DOCTRINE.
Let us now proceed, in the third and last place, to examine the reasons of this opinion. Petavius, with Duval and other Theologians, asks: Why does God impose on us commands which we cannot keep with the common and ordinary grace? Because, he answers, He wishes us to have recourse to Him in Prayer. This is the general teaching of the Fathers, as we have seen above. Hence he infers that we ought to hold it as certain that every man has grace actually to pray, and by Prayer to obtain greater grace to enable him to do that which is impossible to him with the ordinary grace; otherwise God would have imposed an impossible law. This reason is very strong.
Another reason is that if God imposes on all men the duty of actual observance of His Commandments, we must necessarily suppose that He also gives to all men the grace necessary for this actual observance, at least mediately by means of Prayer. In order, therefore, to uphold the reasonableness of the Law, and the justice of the punishment of the disobedient, we must hold that every man has sufficient power, at least mediately by means of Prayer, for the actual performance of what is prescribed, and that he is able to pray without any unusual and additional grace; otherwise, if he had not this mediate or remote power of actually keeping the Commandments, it could never be said that all men had from God sufficient grace for the actual observance of the Law.
Tomassin and Tourneley bring forward many other reasons for this opinion; but I pass them over for one that seems to me demonstrative. It is founded on the Precept of Hope, which obliges us all to hope in God with confidence for Eternal Life; and I say: If we were not certain that God gives us all grace to enable us actually to pray, without our being in need of another particular and unusual grace, no one without a special revelation could hope for salvation as he ought. But I must first explain the grounds of this argument.
The Virtue of Hope is so pleasing to God that He has declared that He feels delight in those who trust in Him: The Lord taketh pleasure in them that hope in his mercy (Ps. cxlvi. 11): And he promises victory over his enemies, perseverance in grace and eternal glory, to the man who hopes, and that because he hopes: Because he hoped in me, I will deliver him; I will protect him ... I will deliver him and I will glorify him (Ps. xc. 14). Preserve me, for I have put my trust in thee (Ps. xv. 1). He will save them, because they have hoped in him (Ps. xxxvi. 40). No one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded (Ecclus. 11). And let us be sure that the heavens and the earth will fail, but the promises of God cannot fail: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Matt. xxiv. 35). St. Bernard, therefore, says that all our merit consists in reposing all our confidence in God: "This is the whole merit of man, if he places all his hope in Him." The reason is that he who hopes in God honours Him much: Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me (Ps. xlix. 15). He honours the power, the mercy, and the faithfulness of God; since he believes that God can and will save him; and that He cannot fail in His promises to save the man who trusts in Him. And the Prophet assures us that the greater our confidence is, the greater will be the measure of God's mercy poured out upon us: Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in thee (Ps. xxxii. 22).
Now, as this Virtue of Hope is so pleasing to God, He has willed to impose it upon us by a Precept that binds under mortal sin, as all Theologians agree, and as is evident from many texts of Scripture. Trust in him, all ye congregations of people (Ps. lxi. 9). Ye that fear the Lord, hope in him (Ecclus. ii. 9). Hope in thy God always (Os. xii. 6). Hope perfectly in that grace which is offered to you (1 Pet. i. 13). This Hope of Eternal Life ought, then, to be sure and firm in us, according to the definition of St. Thomas: "Hope is the certain expectation of Beatitude." And the sacred Council of Trent has expressly declared: "All men ought to place and repose a most firm Hope in the help of God; for God, unless they fail to correspond to His grace, as He has begun the good work, will also finish it, working in them both to will and to perform." And speaking of himself, St. Paul had already said: I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him (2 Tim. i. 12). And herein is the difference between Christian hope and worldly hope. Worldly hope need only be an uncertain expectation; nor can it be otherwise; for it is always doubtful whether the man who has promised a favour may not hereafter change his mind, if he has not already changed it. But the Christian Hope of Eternal Salvation is certain on God's part; for He can and will save us, and has promised to save those who obey His Law, and to this end has promised us all necessary graces to enable us to observe this Law, if we ask for them. It is true that Hope is accompanied by fear, as St. Thomas says; but this fear does not arise from God's side, but from our own, since we may at any time fall by not corresponding as we ought and by putting an impediment in the way of grace by our sins. For this reason then, did the Council of Trent condemn those innovators, who, because they entirely deprive man of free will, say that every believer must have an infallible certitude of perseverance and salvation. This error was condemned by the Council; because, as we have said, in order to obtain salvation our correspondence is necessary, and this correspondence of ours is uncertain and fallible. Hence God wills that we should, on the one hand, always fear for ourselves, lest, trusting in our own strength, we should fall into presumption, but, on the other, that we should be always certain of His good will, and of His assistance to save us, provided always that we ask Him for it, so that we may always have a sure confidence in His goodness. St. Thomas says that we ought to look with certainty to receive from God Eternal happiness, confiding in His power and mercy, and believing that He can and will save us. "Whoever has Faith, is certain of God's power and mercy."
Now, as the Hope of our salvation which we place in God ought to be certain (according to the definition of St. Thomas--"the certain expectation of beatitude") it follows that the motive of our Hope must also be certain; for if the foundation of our Hope were uncertain, and open to a doubt, we could not with any certainty hope and expect to receive salvation, and the means necessary for it from the hands of God. St. Paul insists on our being firm and immovable in our Hope, if we would be saved: If so ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and immovable from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard (Col. i. 23). This he confirms in another place where he says that our Faith ought to be as immovable as an anchor securely fixed, since it is grounded on the promises of God Who cannot deceive: And we desire that every one of you show forth the same carefulness to the accomplishing of hope unto the end. That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have the strongest comfort, who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope set before us, which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm (Heb. vi. 11-19). Hence St. Bernard says that our Hope cannot be uncertain, as it rests on God's promises: "Nor does this expectation seem to us vain, or this Hope doubtful, since we rely on the promises of the Eternal Truth." In another place St. Bernard says of himself that his hope depends on three things--the love which induced God to adopt us as His children, the truth of His promises, and His power to fulfil them: "Three things I see in which my Hope consists--the love of adoption, the truth of the promise, the power to fulfil."
And therefore the Apostle, St. James, declares that the man who desires the grace of God must ask for it, not with hesitation, but with the confident certainty of obtaining it: Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (James i. 6). For if he asks with hesitation he shall obtain nothing: For he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea, that is moved and carried about by the wind; therefore, let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord (James i. 6, 7). And St. Paul praises Abraham because he in nothing doubted God's promise, knowing that when God promises, He cannot fail to perform: In the promise also of God he staggered not by distrust; but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God; most fully knowing that whatsoever he has promised, he is able also to perform (Rom. iv. 20-21). Hence, also, Jesus Christ tells us that we shall then receive all the graces that we desire when we ask them with a sure belief of receiving them: Therefore I say to you, all things whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive them, and they shall come unto you (Mark xi. 24). In a word, God will not hear us, unless we have a sure confidence of being heard.
Now, my argument is this. Our Hope of salvation, and of receiving the means necessary for its attainment, must be certain on God's part. The foundations of this certainty are, as we have seen, the Power, the Mercy, and the Fidelity of God; and of these the strongest and most certain is God's infallible Fidelity to the promise which He has made on account of the merits of Jesus Christ, to save us, and to give us the graces necessary for our salvation; for, as Giovenino well observes, though we might believe God to be infinite in Power and Mercy, nevertheless we could not feel confident expectation of God saving us, unless He had surely promised to do so. But this promise is on condition that we correspond with God's grace and pray, as is clear from the Scriptures: Ask, and ye shall receive. If ye ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you. He will give good things to those that ask him. We ought always to pray. Ye have not, because ye ask not. If any one wanteth wisdom let him ask of God; and from many other texts which we have already quoted. Wherefore it is that the Fathers and Theologians maintain, as we have shown, that Prayer is a necessary means of Salvation.
Now, if we were not certain that God gives to all men grace to enable them actually to pray, without need of a further special grace and one not common to all, we could have no certain and firm foundation for a certain Hope of salvation in God, but only an uncertain and conditional foundation. When I have the assurance that by Prayer I shall obtain Eternal Life, and all the graces necessary to attain it; and when I know that God will give to me what he gives to all men, namely, the grace of actual Prayer, if I so will, then I have a sure foundation for hoping in God for salvation, if I fail not on my part. But when I am in doubt whether or not God will give me that particular grace which He does not give to all, but which is necessary for actual Prayer, then I have not a certain foundation for my Hope of salvation, but only a doubtful and uncertain one, since I cannot be sure that God will give me this special grace, without which I cannot pray, as He refuses it to so many. And in this case the uncertainty would be not only on my part, but also on God's part; and so Christian Hope would be destroyed, which, according to the Apostle, ought to be immovable, firm, and secure. I say in all truth, I cannot see how a Christian can fulfil the precept of Hope--hoping, as he ought, with sure confidence for salvation from God, and for the graces necessary for its attainment--unless he holds it as an infallible truth that God commonly gives to every individual the grace actually to pray, if he chooses, without any further special assistance.
So that to conclude, our System or opinion (held by so many Theologians, and by our humble Congregation) well agrees--
(a) On the one hand, with the doctrine of grace intrinsically efficacious, by means of which we infallibly, though freely, act virtuously.
It cannot be denied that God can easily, with His Omnipotence, incline and move men's hearts freely to will that which He wills, as the Scriptures teach: The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord: whithersoever he will, he shall turn it (Prov. xxi. 1); I will put my spirit in the midst of you, and I will cause you to walk in my commandments (Ezech. xxxvi. 27); My counsel shall stand, and all my will shall be done (Is. xlvi. 10); He changeth the heart of the princes of the people of the earth (Job xii. 24); May the God of peace make you perfect in every good work, that you may do his will; working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ (Heb. xiii. 21).
And it cannot be denied that St. Augustine and St. Thomas have taught the opinion of the efficaciousness of grace in itself, by its own nature. This is evident from many passages, and specially from the following:
St. Augustine says: "Yet God did not this, except by the will of the men themselves; since He, no doubt, has the most almighty and absolute power of inclining the hearts of men." Again: "Almighty God works in the hearts of men that He may do by their means that which He has willed to do through them." Again: "Although they all do what is right in the service of God, yet He causes them to do what He commands." Again: "It is certain that it is we who act when we act; but He causes us to act, by bestowing most efficacious powers on the will, according to His words, I will cause you to walk in my commandments (Ezech. xxxvi. 27). Again, on the text, For it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish according to his good will (Phil. ii. 13), St. Augustine says: We therefore will; but God worketh in us even to will."
Again: "God knows how to work in men's hearts, not so as to make them believe against their will, which is impossible, but so as to make them willing instead of unwilling." Again: "He works in the hearts of men not only true revelations, but also good-will." Again: "The acts of our will have just so much power as God wishes them to have." So also St. Thomas: "God infallibly moves the will by the efficacy of the moving power, which cannot fail." Again: "Love has the character of impeccability, from the power of the Holy Spirit, Who infallibly works whatever He will; hence it is impossible that these two things should be at the same time true--that the Holy Spirit wills to move a person to an act of love, and that at the same time the person should lose love by an act of sin." Again: "If God moves the will to do anything, it is impossible to say that the will is not moved to it."
(b) On the other hand, our teaching is quite consonant to the doctrine of truly sufficient grace being given to all, by corresponding to which a man will gain efficacious grace; while by not corresponding, but resisting, he will deservedly be denied this efficacious grace. And thus all excuse is taken away from those sinners who say that they have not strength to overcome their temptations; because if they had prayed, and made use of the ordinary grace which is given to all men, they would have obtained strength, and would have been saved. If, on the contrary, a person does not admit this ordinary grace by which everyone is enabled at least to pray, without needing a further special unusual grace, and by Prayer to obtain further assistance to enable him to fulfil the Law, I do not know how he can explain all those texts of Scripture, in which souls are exhorted to return to God, to overcome temptation, and to correspond to the Divine invitation: Return, ye transgressors, to the heart (Is. xlvi. 8); Return and live: Be converted and do penance (Ezech. xviii. 30, 32); Loose the bonds from off thy neck (Is. lii. 2); Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened (Matt. xi. 28); Resist, strong in faith (1 Pet. v. 9); Walk whilst you have the light (Jo. xii. 35). I cannot tell, I say, supposing it were true that the grace of Prayer were not given to all to enable them thereby to obtain the further assistance necessary for salvation, how these texts could be explained. And I do not know how the Sacred Writers could so forcibly exhort all men, without any exception, to be converted, to resist the enemy, to walk in the way of virtue, and, for this end, to pray with confidence and perseverance, if the grace of doing well, or at least of praying, were not granted to all, but only to those who have the gift of efficacious grace. And I cannot see where would be the justice of the reproof given to all sinners, without exception, who resist grace and despise the Voice of God: You always resist the Holy Ghost (Acts vii. 51). Because I called and you refused; I stretched out my hand and there was none that regarded; you have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions (Prov. i. 24-25). If sinners were without even the remote grace of Prayer, and that, too, an efficacious grace, which our opponents consider necessary for actual Prayer, I cannot see how all these reproofs could be justly made against them.
Evening Meditation
THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
"Charity endureth all things"
HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST WITH A STRONG LOVE DOES NOT CEASE TO LOVE HIM IN THE MIDST OF TEMPTATIONS AND DESOLATIONS
I.
Let us come now to the practice of what we are to do on our part in the like circumstances. When Almighty God in His mercy deigns to console us with His loving visitations, and to let us feel the presence of His grace, it is not good to reject the Divine consolations, as some false mystics advise: let us thankfully receive them, but let us beware of settling down on them, and seeking delight in those feelings of spiritual tenderness. St. John of the Cross calls this a "spiritual gluttony," which is faulty and displeasing to God. Let us strive in such moments to banish from our mind the sensible enjoyment of these sweetnesses: and let us be especially on our guard against supposing that these favours are a token of our standing better with God than others; for such a thought of vanity would oblige God to withdraw Himself from us altogether, and to leave us in our miseries. We must certainly at such times return most fervant thanks to God, because such spiritual consolations are signal gifts of the Divine bounty to our souls, far greater than all the riches and honours of this world. But let us not seek then to regale ourselves on these sensible sweetnesses, but let us rather humble ourselves by the remembrance of the sins of our past life. For the rest, we must consider this loving treatment as the pure result of the goodness of God; and that perhaps, it is sent in order that we may be strengthened by these consolations to endure with patience and resignation some great tribulation soon to befall us. We should, therefore, take the occasion of offering ourselves to suffer every pain, internal or external, that may happen to us--every illness, every persecution, every spiritual desolation--saying: O my Lord, I am here before Thee; do with me, and with all that belongs to me, whatever Thou wilt; grant me the grace to love Thee and perfectly to accomplish Thy holy will, and I ask no more!
II.
When a soul is morally certain of being in the grace of God, although she may be deprived of worldly pleasures, as well as of those which come from God, she nevertheless rests satisfied with her state, conscious, as she is, of loving God and of being loved by Him. But God wishes to see her purified and divested of all sensible satisfaction, in order to unite her entirely to Himself by means of pure love and so He puts her in the crucible of desolation, which is more painful to bear than the most severe trials, whether internal or external; she is left in uncertainty as to whether she is in the grace of God or, not, and in the dense darkness that shrouds her, there seems no prospect of her evermore finding God. Almighty God, moreover, will sometimes permit the soul to be assailed by violent sensual temptations, accompanied by irregular movements of the lower nature, or perhaps by thoughts of unbelief, of despair, and even of hatred of God, when she imagines herself cast off by Him, and that He no longer hears her prayers. And as, on the one hand, the suggestions of the devil are vehement, and the motions of concupiscence are excited, and, on the other, the soul finds herself in this great darkness, she can no longer sufficiently distinguish whether she properly resists or yields to the temptations, though her will resolutely refuses all consent. Her fears of having lost God are thus very much increased; and from her fancied infidelity in struggling against the temptations, she thinks herself deservedly abandoned by God. The saddest of all calamities seems to have befallen her--to be able no longer to love God, and to be hated by Him. St. Teresa passed through all these trials, and declares that during them solitude had no charms for her, but on the contrary filled her with horror; while prayer was changed for her into a perfect hell.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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A reminder ...
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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