Of the Abuse of Grace

Grace is the nutriment of the soul, just as material food is the aliment of the body; and as we expose ourselves to certain death by obstinately refusing all food, so likewise by the neglect or rejection of grace we expose our virtue to the inevitable danger of shipwreck. No, if our understanding be not illumined by heavenly light, if our will be not animated by the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, it shall be utterly impossible for us to make the least progress in perfection. It is a certain truth that abuse of grace is a very material obstacle to sanctity.

This chapter shall be devoted to the consideration of the abuse of grace and the punishment awaiting it. We shall afterwards give the rules for the discernment of spirits, and lastly, we shall adduce some powerful incentives for corresponding with the inspirations of grace.

Article I

Of the abuse of grace

1. The need in which we stand of grace

Without grace it is impossible for us to acquire any merit in the order of salvation.

This is a truth of the Catholic faith, defined by the Church against the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians.¹12 Counc. of Orange, Can. 5. It rests on the Oracle of Jesus Christ, ‘without me,’ that is, unless my grace incite you to good, ‘you can do nothing,’²2John xv. 5. meritorious of eternal life. The Apostle of the nations inculcates the same thing to the Philippians. ‘It is God,’ says he, ‘who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish according to His good pleasure,’³3Philip. ii. 13. and to the Corinthians he adds, ‘we are not sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.’⁴42 Cor. iii. 5. According to the invariable interpretation given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church to these words of the Apostle, man is incapable of commencing, performing, or even willing anything superior to nature unless he be prevented by interior grace. St. Augustine adds that, ‘deprived of this grace, we could not of ourselves either pray to obtain it or prepare our soul for its reception,’ so great and absolute is the need in which we stand of the assistance of God! To refuse it, then, when He offers it, is to reject with a lamentable rashness an indispensable means of performing our actions meritoriously. Fool that you are! in resisting the inspirations of grace, you refuse the key of heaven which is offered you; you squander a talent which is the only equivalent for an immortal crown; you throw away a diamond which alone could purchase for you the everlasting possession of God. And you laugh! you laugh, you who so bitterly bewail the loss of a trifling gain. But the day will come when you shall shed burning tears over this criminal abuse of grace, when you shall cry out in the anguish of your soul, ‘Alas! when I could I would not!’

We are aware that of all those who have attained the years of discretion, not one shall be saved unless he bring forth works worthy of salvation. We are likewise aware that without special help from God such works are impossible. We believe these truths of which the word of God is the guarantee; and yet through sloth, levity, and without even the excuse of self-interest, we neglect the only stay of our weakness, we disdainfully refuse the aid which God offers to us, and ungratefully repel the loving violence of His mercy. Such conduct cannot fail to wound this tender Father in the apple of the eye, and dry up, in our regard, the source of grace, exhaustless as it is. ‘Father of lights,’⁵5James i. 17. what have I done in resisting Thy inspirations? I was seated ‘in the dark places, and in the shadow of death,’⁶6Ps. lxxxvii. 7. and I shut my eyes to the only light that could have dispelled this fatal obscurity. Struck with a horrible wound ‘from the sole of the foot even to the top of the head,’⁷7Job ii. 7. I have refused the only remedy which could have healed me. Wretched that I am! I have despised a ray of heavenly glory, the price of the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, the pledge of a happy eternity. Ah! Lord, I repent; grant, my God, that I may at least correspond with that which Thou now bestowest on me, and which may perhaps be the last.

2. On the excellence of grace

There is nothing comparable to the dignity and excellence of grace. It is a good which, after the Beatific Vision, exceeds in value all that is not God. Grace is the price of the labours, sufferings, and death of Jesus Christ. It commences, augments, and crowns our merits; p. 42finally, it is the seed of eternal glory, since every time the just man, co-operating with its holy inspirations, performs an act of supernatural virtue, he acquires a new degree of sanctifying grace, together with the title to a new degree of immutable happiness. Each ray of this light, penetrating into our heart, deposits there the germ and pledge of an eternal and incomprehensible felicity.

Compare with it all earthly greatness, the diadems of kings, the pomp of the greatest monarchs; add, if you will, the value of the most costly metals and the untold treasures which the earth and sea contain within their bosoms; unite to them the wonders of nature, the matchless magnificence of the aurora, the brightness of the sun, the brilliant splendour of the stars, and you will find that one emanation of grace, one inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is infinitely more estimable and desirable than all these.

Could the damned, by the endurance of a thousand hells, procure but a single one of the countless graces which we so recklessly squander, they would gladly purchase it at that price. And we, miserable that we are, notwithstanding our pressing need of the divine assistance, far from desiring, almost spurn it from us, and obstinately evade and resist its solicitations. Oh, ye heavens, be astonished! it is not the untaught child of the desert, ignorant of the truths of faith, who thus repulses the visits of the Holy Spirit. No; it is Christians, religious even, ‘nourished up in the words of faith,’⁸81 Tim. iv. 6. instructed in the necessity of grace and its inappreciable value. But, woe to us! if we only begin to comprehend its value when it has for ever eluded our grasp.

O Divine Jesus! like the hapless traveller ‘fallen on the road to Jericho into the hands of robbers, whom they wounded and left half dead;’⁹9Luke x. 30. or the blind man ‘seated on the wayside’¹⁰10Luke xviii. 35. of justice, but who ‘sees not the light of heaven,’¹¹11Tob. v. 12. I ignore my misery; and whilst Thou, with love unparalleled, hourly offerest me Thy grace, purchased at the infinite price of Thy Blood, whilst Thou appliest it as a soothing balm to my wounds and a sight-giving unguent to my eyes, I rudely push aside the hand which fain would heal me, choosing to bear till death the degrading marks of my wretched infatuation.

My God, I am filled with confusion at my ungrateful resistance to Thy calls. Do Thou, who ‘art clothed in light,’¹²12Ps. ciii. 2. ‘enlighten my eyes,’¹³13Ps. xii. 4. that I may see and understand the incomparable excellence of Thy grace. Grant ‘that I may prefer it before kingdoms and thrones, and esteem riches as nothing in comparison of it.’ Grant me fully to realise that ‘gold in comparison of it is as a little sand, and silver in respect of it shall be counted as clay.’¹⁴14Wisd. vii. 8.

3. Superabundance and efficacy of grace

God grants us great and numberless graces, such as our vocation to the faith and the religious state; our election to the dignity of the priesthood, to the guidance of souls, the novitiate, the great annual and the little intermediary retreats, the frequentation of the Divine Mysteries, and the fruit they have the power to produce in our souls. These are a few of the favours lavished on us by the divine bounty. But in what countless other ways does not God manifest His love! Every morning p. 43the Holy Sacrifice is offered for us at which we may assist; pious exhortations, edifying examples, examen of conscience, spiritual lectures, and holy inspirations recurring almost every moment, are so many choice and continuous graces.

These graces are efficacious both in themselves and in their appropriateness to our wants. Bestowed with the same profusion on others more faithful, they would have caused them to become great saints; they would even have more than sufficed to win back the greatest sinners to God; but in us they are unproductive, because we ungratefully and wantonly reject them. And yet, is not the rejection of such copious, efficacious, and continual graces, together with the little esteem we have for them, a criminal aggravation of their abuse? ‘Wo to thee, Corozain! wo to thee, Bethsaida!’ wo to thee, religious! ‘for if the mighty works that have been wrought in thee had been wrought’¹⁵15Luke x. 13. in others, they would have attained to high perfection. On the last day infidels and heretics ‘shall come from the east and the west.’¹⁶16Matt. viii. 11. Those who were thy disciples, thy penitents, thy auditors, those whom thou hast animated to a faithful correspondence with grace, shall also come; they shall come to accuse thee of thy own culpable contempt of it. The Blood of Jesus Christ, shed in vain since thou hast allowed so many interior lights, so many holy inspirations purchased by it to pass unheeded, shall also invoke vengeance upon thee. Unfortunate soul! what answer shalt thou make to the Sovereign Judge when, in presence of the entire universe, He will sustain His cause against thee by this terrible interpellation: ‘Inhabitants of’ the heavenly ‘Jerusalem! judge between me and my p. 44vineyard’—between me and this soul. Tell me ‘what is there that I ought to do more for my vineyard that I have not done to it?’ After so many cares lavished upon it, had I not a right to ‘expect that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth only wild grapes.’¹⁷17Isaias v. 4. In return for so many labours, fatigues, and sufferings, this ungrateful vineyard yields me only briars and thorns. Once more, unhappy soul, what reply shalt thou make to those reproaches? ‘O Lord, enter not into judgment with Thy servant.’¹⁸18Ps. cxlii. 2. I confess, that my soul, like the barren fig-tree of the Gospel, has been tended with unceasing solicitude, refreshed with the dew of heaven, constantly exposed to the rays of the Sun of Justice, and like it, too, it has been unproductive. But, my God, I have strayed from Thee long enough; may I now, at least, cease to resist Thee. Do not yet begin to punish me. ‘Give to Thy servant an understanding heart,’¹⁹193 Kings iii. 9. ‘that he receive not Thy grace in vain.’²⁰202 Cor. vi. 1. Prepare my soul for this divine seed, that, ‘falling into good ground, it may spring up there, and yield fruit a hundredfold.’²¹21Luke viii. 8.

Article II

1. Of the chastisements with which God avenges the abuse of grace

God frequently punishes the abuse of sufficient grace by the subtraction of such as is efficacious.

Now, of all the chastisements He could inflict this is the most dire, the most just, and the most ordinary.

1. The subtraction of grace is the most terrible chastisement of its abuse. There is no greater misfortune, nor anything so much to be dreaded as that which tends to alienate us from God, the Sovereign Good, and to subject us to the sovereign evil—sin and hell. Now, this is the deplorable effect of the subtraction of efficacious grace. By a special ordinance of the Almighty this grace is so absolutely necessary for the working out of our salvation, that without it it would be equally impossible for us to possess God or to escape hell. It is true that we could be saved with purely sufficient grace, but, accustomed as we are to an unworthy resistance to it, and weakened by these very infidelities, we are in imminent danger of continuing in this road of perdition, and of thus dying in sin and being lost eternally. The first effect, therefore, of the subtraction of grace is that it removes us from God, our Sovereign Good, and subjects us to the sovereign evil, sin; consequently it is the most awful punishment God can inflict in this life. Furthermore, the misfortune of dying in mortal sin, which is indisputably the greatest that can befall us, is itself but the final rejection of efficacious grace, of the grace which would enable the soul to conceive sentiments of true compunction and charity, and thus recover the friendship of its Creator. The subtraction of grace is, I repeat, the direst penalty of its abuse. Let us appeal to the judgment of the truly wise, those enlightened and guided by faith, and we shall learn that there can be no more awful punishment than that which tends to render the sinner more obdurate in his guilt, blinds his understanding so far as to prevent his discerning his danger, captivates his will so as to divest it of the power of even desiring to break its fetters, deprives him of the best means of doing penance, and levels and abridges the path to vice. And yet, such are the bitter fruits of the privation of the interior lights and inspirations of efficacious grace. p. 45When the Almighty allows us to suffer opprobrium, persecution, sickness, etc., it is a punishment, it is true: but it is not unmitigated, since in these instances His only object is to wean us from sin and attach us to Himself. In inflicting these trials He acts not as a judge but as a father who, in the chastisement of the sin, proposes to himself the conversion of the sinner. But when He delivers up our understanding to blindness, permits our will to become hardened in its own malice, refuses us the lights that would discover to us the odium of vice, and withholds the inspirations which would induce us to detest it; ‘when,’ says St. Augustine, ‘He punishes our illicit pleasures by a humiliating blindness, and abandons us to the desires of our heart and ignominious passions,’²²22On Epist. to Rom. then it is that His fury is let loose ‘as a bear that is robbed of her whelps,’²³23Osee xiii. 8. that the wrath of an omnipotent God strikes us with ‘an incurable wound,’²⁴24Isaias xiv. 6. ‘with the wound of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement,’²⁵25Jerem. xxx. 14. and so awful as to expend all the rigours of divine justice which it is possible to inflict in this life. Oh, truly terrible revenge! ‘O God, rebuke me not in Thy indignation,’²⁶26Ps. vi. 2. here cut, here burn, but withdraw not Thy grace from me.

2. The subtraction of grace is a just and merited chastisement

The subtraction of grace is, on the part of God, an equitable vengeance exercised by Him against the sinner. Grace is the pledge of the love of the heavenly Bridegroom who remains at the door of your heart, knocking, entreating, tenderly imploring admittance. But you do not hearken to His voice, you turn a deaf ear to His pleadings, you refuse Him entrance. Tired of knocking and finding Himself despised, He at length ceases His importunities, He retires. What could be more just? Grace is a burning and shining light with which God desires to enlighten your mind and inflame your heart; but you close the eyes of your soul, you seek darkness, and like the wild owl you shun light and warmth. The Sun of Justice, finding you constantly rebellious to His divine influences, at length withdraws His rays. He ceases to shine for you. What could be more just? Grace is an inestimable treasure, a pearl of the crown of Jesus Christ, the pledge of eternal life. God lovingly offers it to you, He urges, He insists on your acceptance of it, presenting it anew after reiterated refusals. You despise this gift, you disdain this priceless pearl, you fling it from you as though it were a worthless snowflake. The Almighty thus repeatedly repelled ceases His solicitations. Who can charge Him with injustice in so doing? Oh, avenging God! this chastisement is but too just, and I, alas! have a thousand times merited it; with the faithless Jerusalem whose children Thou didst so often desire to collect, ‘as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings’²⁷27Matt. xxiii. 37. have I resisted Thee. What grounds have I not to apprehend lest ‘my house’ that is my soul, ‘shall be left to me desolate’?²⁸28Ibid. 38. Deeply penetrated with the thought of this awful chastisement and the fear of Thy justice, I cast myself into the arms of Thy mercy, imploring forgiveness and purposing amendment. Chastise me as Thou wilt, provided only Thou withdraw not Thy grace from me.

3. The subtraction of grace is the ordinary punishment of its abuse

God ordinarily withdraws His grace from him who abuses it.

Moses, David, the Prophets, all the sacred writers, incessantly repeat this threat of the subtraction of grace. ‘I let them go according to the desires of their heart, they shall walk in their own inventions;’²⁹29Ps. lxxx. 13. ‘He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,’³⁰30John xii. 40. ‘that seeing they may not perceive, and hearing they may not understand.’³¹31Mark iv. 12. ‘The kingdom of God shall be taken from you.’³²32Matt. xxi. 43. In a word, the whole Scripture abounds in these awful denunciations, whilst myriad examples occur both in the new and old law illustrating that the withdrawal of efficacious grace is a frequent and ordinary punishment of its abuse. Alas! how common is it even in our own times! We are often astonished that God, from whom nothing is concealed, bears so patiently the tepidity and carelessness with which so many acquit themselves of their duty, notwithstanding all the helps they receive.

We are amazed at His tolerating so many whose dissolute and shameful lives are an indelible disgrace to their family and friends and a scandal to strangers. ‘Ah!’ says St. Augustine, ‘God punishes them with a secret chastisement, which is the more severe in that it is more secret, by withdrawing from them His graces and allowing them to sleep tranquilly in their tepidity.’

Owing to this fatal and secret chastisement, those who formerly shuddered at the very shadow of sin now regard as trifles, thoughts, looks, and other dangerous liberties. Too tender friendships, familiarities, aversions, hatreds, detractions, murmurs, anger, etc., they term venial offences, though there is but too much reason to fear that they are so many mortal sins. The remorse awakened by gross neglect of their employments or violation of their vows they regard as vain scrupulosity. They form for themselves certain lax principles by the aid of which they endeavour to deceive themselves and drown the voice of conscience. Those hearts, once so docile to the attractions of virtue, so susceptible to holy impressions, now frozen and hard as adamant, are callous alike to the remembrance of their last end, the judgments of God, and the duties of religion.

Nothing moves them, nothing can effect their cure. Would to God that a daily experience did not teach us that this chastisement is but too usual even in religious communities. How often does not the prophet’s lamentation resound in our ear. Alas! ‘how is the gold become dim, the finest colour changed! They that were brought up in scarlet have embraced dung. Her Nazarites were whiter than snow, how is their face now made blacker than coals!’³³33Lament. iv. 1. Those fearful falls, those thrilling shipwrecks in virtue, the abandonment of a holy vocation frequently followed by apostasy and an absolute loss of faith, are so many instances illustrative of the subtraction of divine grace from which the Almighty would have us take salutary warning. Let us fathom the depths of our own hearts. Have we ourselves never experienced this unhappy privation of grace? Let us recall the time of our retreats, that of our novitiate and other days of fervour. Do we not find that in consequence of our having neglected to correspond with the p. 48lights and inspirations then received, the Almighty has withheld many others? ‘God is not mocked.’³⁴34Gal. vi. 7. He ends by forsaking those who have first abandoned Him.

My soul, the fate which has befallen so many others may likewise happen to thee. ‘The Lord is a strong revenger,’³⁵35Jerem. li. 56. ‘He hath’ already ‘bent His bow,’³⁶36Ps. vii. 13. ‘He shall whet his sword as the lightning.’³⁷37Deut. xxxii. 41. It may be that the moment is not far distant when the chain of graces destined for thee shall be broken, the robe of sanctity, the crown of glory, taken from thee to be given to another more deserving. ‘Oh, great and awful God! fear and trembling are come upon me.’³⁸38Ps. liv. 6. Who would not shudder with fear at seeing the gift of grace pass from Heli to Samuel, from Saul to David, from Judas to Mathias? ‘If these things are done in the green wood, what shall be done in the dry.’³⁹39Luke xxiii. 31. If a pontiff, a king, a disciple are rejected, what shall not happen to me? Oh, accursed moment in which I resisted the divine inspirations! ‘Who will give to my eyes a fountain of tears,’⁴⁰40Jerem. ix. 1. to wash away my criminal ingratitude? Divine Redeemer of my soul! vouchsafe to me once more that heavenly light to which I have so long closed my heart. I acknowledge myself unworthy of Thy least assistance; but since, even when ‘Thou art angry Thou wilt remember mercy,’⁴¹41Habac. iii. 2. grant me, I implore Thee, a victorious grace which will enable me to terminate the ingratitude of my past life in order to commence a new and holy one.

Article III

Of the discernment of spirits

Abuse of grace includes the greatest insult to God, and it is usually followed by the most awful chastisements. p. 49These truths, maturely weighed in the preceding articles, must, doubtless, have inspired us with a firm determination to listen in future with docility to the voice of God. But that this holy disposition may produce fruit, it behoves us to know the marks of divine inspirations as well as the manner in which they should be received and the cogent reasons there are for our obeying them.

1. Rules for recognising the divine inspiration

1. If we desire to prepare our souls properly for the grace of the discernment of spirits, we must: 1. Frequently recollect ourselves and silence the actual desires of our heart, the better to hear the interior whisperings of the Holy Ghost; for if the ‘wisdom,’ taught by this divine Spirit ‘will not enter into the malicious soul,’⁴²42Wisd. i. 4. neither will it enter into a dissipated one. The daughter of Jairus did not hear the voice of Jesus recalling her to life till ‘the riotous crowd’ that filled the house had retired.⁴³43Matt. ix. 23.

2. We must subdue our sensuality and tepidity, because the one obscures our understanding, the other captivates our will; the one conceals the path traced out by grace, the other deprives us of the courage to tread therein, whilst both oppose insuperable barriers to the reception of the word of God.

3. We should often repeat with St. Paul, either during meditation or after holy communion, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’⁴⁴44Acts ix. 6. Possessing such dispositions we may be fully satisfied that God will not fail to speak frequently to our hearts in order to manifest His will to us.

But Satan, in order to deceive us, ‘frequently p. 50transforms himself into an angel of light,’⁴⁵452 Cor. xi. 14. and suggests thoughts which are apparently good. Of this we are forewarned by the beloved disciple, who says: ‘Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God.’⁴⁶461 John iv. 1.

The following rules will serve as a guide to us in making a discernment which so nearly concerns our salvation. When we find our will excited by any interior movement, let us examine whether peace, consolation, joy, and the desire of perfection are the fruits of the existing inspiration, or whether its results are distraction, disquietude, disgust, sadness, dangerous impressions, and a disrelish for virtue. The last are certain indications of the temptations of the evil spirit. For ‘the Lord dwells not in agitation’⁴⁷473 Kings xix. 11. and anxiety, ‘but He is the God of peace’⁴⁸482 Cor. xiii. 11. ‘and of all consolation,’⁴⁹492 Cor. i. 3. the God who forms ‘the light and dispels the darkness.’⁵⁰50Isai. xlv. 7.

2. Let us examine whether we entertain a firm confidence of obtaining sufficient strength from God to carry out the interior inspirations, or whether we are not uneasy lest, ‘having laid the foundation of the edifice and not being able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock us, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.’⁵¹51Luke xiv. 29. This firm faith and confidence of receiving succour from on high is a sure sign that it is God who speaks to us. When an inspiration presents itself we must reflect whether it is persistent, also whether it constantly and invariably incites us to good; for instability of the desires and vacillation of the will, ‘like a wave of the sea which is moved and carried about by the wind,’⁵²52James i. 6. attest the insidious workings of the spirit of darkness.

We must, then, as St. Ignatius advises, studiously observe the commencement, the progress, and the end of those interior movements. Have we experienced them in a time of fervour, consolation, peace, and tranquillity; or did they come to agitate us when bitterness, sadness, tepidity or some evil disposition prevented the spirit from exercising a due control over the senses? Have they occurred at an unseasonable time, when, for instance, we were engaged in some duty of obedience with which they had no connexion, and were, perhaps, even incompatible? Such movements do not proceed from the Holy Ghost, since there can be no opposition in divine inspirations.

We may attribute them with certainty to God if during their continuance they preserve our mind calm and tranquil, and illuminate our understanding with supernatural light. Should they, on the other hand, be accompanied with disgust, anxiety, and obscurity of mind, the demon is indubitably their author.

In conclusion, do they serve as a salutary spur to the soul, inducing it to run with alacrity in the paths of sanctity, to fulfil its daily duties more perfectly, to mortify the senses and preserve interior recollection? Or, do they inspire it with disgust for heavenly things, dissipation, disrelish for virtue, sadness, tepidity, melancholy, and lassitude for good works?

The first effects are the action of the Holy Ghost, the second that of the malign spirit. In a word, ‘the surest marks and, at the same time, the most precious fruits of the divine inspiration, are fervour, humility, and peace.’⁵³53St. Bernd. Serm.

We must never forget that the inspirations which come from God are always in conformity with the p. 51maxims of scripture and theology, with the principles of morality approved of by the Church, and with the customs of religious communities; that they are in accordance with the obligations of our state, suitable to our inclinations, character, strength, and natural talents, and in some measure subordinate to our employments, condition, and age. But this sweetness, condescension, and bounty, with which the Spirit of God speaks to our soul, renders us more blamable, nay, altogether inexcusable, if, ‘stiff-necked,’ like the Jews, ‘uncircumcised in heart and ears,’ we obstinately continue ‘to resist Him.’⁵⁴54Acts vii. 51. A diligent attention to these rules will enable us to ‘separate the precious from the vile: we shall be as the mouth of God,’⁵⁵55Jerem. xv. 19. ‘and the spirit of lying shall not deceive us, and shall not prevail against us.’⁵⁶563 Kings xxii. 22.

2. Docility in obeying the divine inspirations

When, by the application of the foregoing rules, we have acquired a certainty that the inspiration is from God, we are bound to obey it promptly, generously, and perseveringly.

1. There must be no delay in our obedience, for ‘God loveth a cheerful giver.’⁵⁷572 Cor. ix. 7. Procrastination is most displeasing to Him. The Spouse of the Canticles expiated for long the having deferred to open the door to her Beloved. The Majesty of the God of armies, the King of kings, is too august, too exalted, to permit that man, a vile worm, should, with impunity, compel Him to wait when He deigns to visit him with His grace. So culpable a delay arrests the course of the divine favours, augments the difficulties of virtue, exposes us to the risk of being incapacitated from performing the good we omitted at the proper time, either because the opportunity for doing so does not recur, or the divine assistance has been withdrawn.

Let us arise and trample on all that impedes the accomplishment of the divine will. Since we desire to obey, why not do so at present? Is not the God who shall reign eternally the same who reigns to-day? Is He not always equally magnificent in His recompenses and awful in His chastisements? If He demanded nothing difficult, our obedience would be devoid of merit, and consequently disentitled to reward. The more the victory will have cost us, the more glorious shall be our recompense. Let us then be generous with God. The monster that excites our alarm is the fish of Tobias. ‘Instead of fearing let us seize it,’⁵⁸58Tob. vi. 4. and it shall be conquered, and soon, together with our fears, the painful efforts which shook our best resolutions shall be at an end.

3. Our fidelity to the divine inspirations must be constant and perseverant. What would it avail us to commence well and not to finish?—to build with one hand and throw down with the other? to roll a stone to the mountain’s brow, if afterwards its own gravity causes it to rebound? The punishment due to our inconstancy shall be proportioned to our want of correspondence with the heavenly lights and other graces vouchsafed.

We must endeavour to understand clearly what God demands of us by His inspirations. What inordinate affection, what vice He wishes us to eradicate; what sacrifice, bodily mortification, act of virtue or good work He asks of us, what the things He would have us do, what the action He prohibits. Descending into the depths of our heart, we must listen attentively to the divine voice, and hold ourselves in readiness to obey. Let us hearken to the advice of the Apostle: ‘Neglect not the grace that is in thee, which was given thee,’⁵⁹591 Tim. iv. 14. otherwise with the slothful servant of the Gospel who ‘digged into the earth and hid his lord’s money,’⁶⁰60Matt. xxv. 18. we ‘shall be cast into exterior darkness.’⁶¹61Matt. xxii. 13.

3. Motives which should incite us to obey the divine inspirations

Everyone who is rash enough to trifle with the inspirations of grace exposes himself to the imminent danger of being lost. Can we doubt it? The supernatural lights and inspirations of the Holy Ghost are the aids vouchsafed us by God to withdraw us from ‘the wide and broad way that leadeth to destruction,’ and strengthen us to walk ‘in the narrow way that leadeth to life.’⁶²62Matt. vii. 14. Should we neglect them we must inevitably fall into tepidity and be cast off by the Almighty. It is evident that if we neglect the means, we do not desire the end. Our profession as religious obliges us, under pain of mortal sin, to tend to the perfection of our state and advancement in virtue. But the holy inspirations and lights of grace are the indispensable means afforded us by God for the attainment of this twofold end. Every time, therefore, that we contemn or slight these heavenly gifts, we neglect one of our most essential obligations—that of striving to become perfect.

But to continue. Once a man has attained the years of discretion, he is bound to make acts of faith, hope and charity, from time to time, and no sinner can ever obtain p. 53forgiveness without an act of supernatural contrition. Now, such acts are the special work of divine grace, without which we are absolutely incapable of eliciting them; consequently, by refusing this succour we incapacitate ourselves for obtaining the remission of our sins and gaining heaven. St. Gregory says, we even deserve that God should refuse to listen to us since we, in the first instance, have refused to listen to Him. ‘If,’ says he, ‘any one obey not the interior inspirations and divine admonitions, let him know that God in His turn will cease to listen to and hear his prayer.’⁶³63St. Greg. Mor.

Again, though a soul should have attained the highest sanctity, it would, nevertheless, perish eternally if deprived of the gift of final perseverance. Now, all the fathers and doctors of the Church teach that the Almighty has ordained that this precious gift should bear a strict relation, an intimate connexion with the interior lights and movements of grace, and it often happens that He, whose judgments are inscrutable, withholds it from those who turn a deaf ear to the divine inspirations. Thus it is that He punishes our rejection of the graces which His clemency has offered to us.

We behold with mingled sentiments of astonishment and fear the Gentiles substituted for the Jews, the Churches of the West for those of the East, the peoples of America, Japan, and other idolatrous countries for the heretical countries of Europe. May not the same hapless abandonment, experienced by whole nations, be likewise extended to us?

We have already remarked, and it is a thing we should never forget, that the subtraction of grace is as ordinary a punishment as it is equitable and dreadful. ‘It is just,’ says St. Augustine, ‘that a property should p. 54be taken from him that does not administer it properly, and that even the knowledge of good should be withdrawn from him who knows, but will not practise it.’ Children of God! ‘If to-day you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’⁶⁴64Ps. xciv. 8. When the Sovereign Master speaks to you interiorly, lend Him, as St. Bernard advises, the ear of your understanding and your will. Listen to the ‘light breeze’⁶⁵653 Kings xix. 12. of the voice of God, that you may know what ‘is good and perfect in His sight,’⁶⁶66Rom. xii. 2. and obey His divine admonitions.