`
Page 30
`
to God, who alone can
satisfy them. In their affliction they will rise early to Me. Osee
6;1.
God says within himself, If I allow those sinners to enjoy their pleasures
undisturbed, they will
remain in the sleep of sin: they must be afflicted, in order that; recovering
from their lethargy
they may return to me. When they shall be in tribulation they will say:
Come, let us return to
the Lord, for He hath taken us, and He will heal us; He will strike and He will
cure us. What
shall become of us, say those sinners, as they enter into themselves, if we do
not turn from our
evil courses? God will not be appeased, and will with justice continue to punish
us; come on, let
us retrace our steps; for he will cure us, and if he has afflicted us just now,
he will upon our
return think of consoling us with his mercy.
In the day of my trouble I sought God, and I was not deceived, Ps. 76:3,
because he raised
me up. For this reason does the prophet thank the Lord that he hath humbled him
after his sin;
because he was thus taught to observe the divine laws: "It is good for me
that Thou hast humbled
me, that I may learn Thy justifications. Ps. 118:71. Tribulation is for
the sinner at once a
punishment and a grace, says St. Augustine. In Ps. 38. It is a
punishment inasmuch as it has been
drawn down upon him by his sins; but it is a grace, and an important grace,
inasmuch as it may ward
eternal destruction from him, and is an assurance that God means to deal
mercifully with him if he
look into himself, and receive with thankfulness that tribulation which has
opened his eyes to his
miserable condition, and invites him to return to God. Let us then be converted,
my brethren,
and we shall escape from our several chastisements: "Why should he who accepts
chastisement
as a grace be afraid after receiving it?" says St. Augustine. He who turns to
God, smarting from
the scourge, has no longer anything to
fear, because God
scourges only in order that
we may return to him; and this end once obtained, the Lord will scourge us
no more.
St. Bernard says that it is impossible to pass from the pleasures of the earth
to those of
Paradise: "If is difficult, even impossible, for any one to enjoy present and
future goods, to
pass from delights to delights. "Therefore does the Lord say, Envy not the
man who prospereth in
his way the man who doth unjust things. Ps. 36:7. "Does he prosper?"
says St. Augustine;
"ay, but in his own way.' And do you suffer? You do, but it is in the way of
God." You who walk
before God are in tribulation, but he, evil as is his way, prospers. Mark now
what the
saint says in conclusion: "He has prosperity in this life, he shall be miserable
in the next;
you have tribulation in this life, you shall be happy in the next."
In Ps. 36. Be glad,
therefore, O
sinners! and thank God when he punishes you
in this life, and takes vengeance of your sins; because you may know thereby
that he means to
treat you with mercy in the next. Thou wast a merciful God to them, and
taking vengeance on
their inventions. Ps. 98:8. The Lord when he chastises us has not
chastisement so much in
view as our conversion. God said to Nabuchodonozor: Thou shalt eat grass
like an ox, and
seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdom of men.
Dan. 4:29. For seven years, Nabuchodonozor, shalt thou be
compelled to feed upon grass like a
beast in order that thou mayest know I am the Lord; that it is I who give
kingdoms, and take them
away; and that thou mayest thus be cured of thy pride. And in fact this judgment
did cause the
haughty king to enter into himself and change; so that, after having been
restored to his former
condition, he said: Therefore I, Nabuchodonozor, do now praise and magnify
the King of heaven.
Dan. 4:34.
And God gave him back his kingdom. "He
`
