Volume I, Treatise II, Chapter III

In What the Goodness and Perfection of Our Actions Consist, and Some Means to Help Us to Perform Them Well.;

Ler us now see in what the goodness of our actions consists, that thereby we may better know the means of performing them well. I say, it consists in two things, of which the first and chief is, that we act purely for God. St. Ambrose (De Inst. Virg. ad Euseb. c. 3) asks the reason why God in the creation of the world, after he had created the living creatures, and all other corporal things, praised them at the same instant? ‘“He created the plants and trees,” saysthe Scripture, “and he saw that it was good. He created the beasts upon the earth, the birds also, and fishes; and he saw that it was good. He created the heavens, and stars, the sun, and moon; and he saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10,12, &c.); in fine, he praised everything he created, as soon as he had perfected its creation. But as soon as he had created man, he seems to leave him the only one Without praise, because he added not presently, “He saw that he was good,” as he had said of the rest. What mystery is there i this? And what can be the cause of this difference that God Makes? The cause, says this great saint is this; That the beauty and goodness of beasts and corporal things consist entirely in their external appearance; and that there is nothing at all, besides what presently appears externally to the eye, that is perfect in them; and therefore they may be pra’sed as soon as they are seen. But the goodness and perfection of man consist not in the exterior, but in what lies inwardly hid: all the glory of the king’s daughter is from within (Psalms 44:14): it is this which is pleasing in God’s sight ‘For man sees only what outwardly appears,” says our Lord to Samuel, “but God penetrates to the bottom of the heart.” (1 Kings 16:7) He sees with what intention every one performs each action; and it is upon this account that he did not praise man, as he did all other creatures, as soon as he had created him. The intention is the foundation of the goodness of all our actions: the foundations are not seen, and yet they alone sustain the whole edifice. Our intention also does the same.

The second thing required for the perfection of all our actions is, that we do all we can to perform them well. It is not enough that your intention is good, nor to say that you do this for God. But the better to please him, you must endeavour to perform it after the best manner possible. The first means, therefore, to perform our actions well, is to perform them purely for God; for hereby, though our superiors do not behold us, and though men cannot see everything we do, yet the desire we have to please God will make us force ourselves to perform all our actions with all the perfection we are able, and in fine to imitate those who truly work for God. St. Ignatius once asked a brother, whom he saw perform his office very negligently, “Dear brother, for whom do you do that? For the love of God,” answered the brother. ‘Then I assure you,” replied the saint, “if you do so hereafter, I shall give you a severe penance; for if you did it for men, it were no great fault to doit with so little care as you do, but since you do it for so great a Master, with so great carelessness, it cannot be excused.”

The second means which the saints propose as most efficacious, is always to walk in God’s presence. And Seneca himself says, “That when we desire to be virtuous, and to do all things very well, we ought to imagine ourselves in the presence of some person of great merit and quality, and accustom ourselves to say and do all things, as we should do or say, were we actually in his presence.” (Ep. 25.) And if this may be sufficient to oblige us to perform our duty exactly, of what efficacy will it be, to place ourselves always in God’s presence, and to think every moment that he sees us; especially, since this is not a mere imagination, but a real truth, as the Scripture teaches us in divers places?

“The eyes of our Lord are more glorious than the sun, looking round about upon all the ways of men and upon the bottom of the abyss; and penetrating the most secret corners of man’s heart.” (Ecclesiasticus 23:28)

We shall, in another place, treat expressly of the presence of God; where we shall make appear how profitable a thing it is, and how much recommended by the saints, to place ourselves’ always in God’s presence. What we ought to infer from this subject at present, is to consider how much. it will help us, to. perform our ordinary actions well. And though it is of so great importance, as we shall prove in its proper place, yet in our continually reflecting on it, we ought not make the presence of God our principal object, but we ought to look on it as only a very proper means or help to perform our actions well. But should it happen, that the attention we pay to the presence of God should cause us to perform our actions negligently, and thereby make us commit several faults, this would not be a good or true devotion, but an illusion. Some even add that the true presence of God, which we ought always to have before our eyes, and which the Scripture and saints recommend unto us, is to take great care that in consequence we doall our actions so, that they may be fit to appear in his sight, and may contain nothing unworthy of his divine presence; in a word, we ought so perform them, as if we performed them in his holy sight. St. John seems to remind us of this in the Apocalypse, when, speaking of the four beasts he saw before the throne of God, he says, “That within and without, before and behind, and on all sides they were full of eyes” (Apocalypse 4:8); to signify that those who would perfectly serve God, and be worthy of his presence, ought to be very circumspect to do nothing, whereby they may render themselves unworthy to appear before him. You ought to be full of eyes, within and without, in order to take care of all your actions, of your steps, your looks, your words; of what you hear, of what you think; and in fine of what you desire, and what you love; to the end that in all your thoughts, words, and actions, there may be nothing disagreeable in the sight of God, in whose presence you are.

Behold here a most excellent manner of walking in God’s presence. Let us also take notice that instead of these words in Genesis: ‘‘ Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:24), that is to Bay, before God, “and disappeared because our Lord took him;” Ecclesiasticus and St.Paul say, “Enoch pleased God, and was translated to Paradise” (Ecclesiasticus 44:16); (Hebrews 11:5)); giving us hereby to understand, that there is no difference between walking with God, and pleasing God; since the Wise Man and the apostle explain both expressions alike, and make them signify one and the same thing. Origen and St. Austin give the same explanation to what is said in Exodus, where when Jethro came to see his son-in-law Moses, Aaron and the chief of the people of Israel assembled “to eat bread with him before the Lord.” (Exodus 13)

-12.) The Scripture says, not that they assembled to eat before the tabernacle, or before the ark, because they were not then in being; but they met together to rejoice, and divert themselves with him, by entertaining and feasting him; and kept the same moderation and decency during their mirth and feasting, as they would have done, had they eaten in God’s presence: taking care there should be nothing that might offend his sacred eyes. It is after this manner that the just and perfect walk before God in all things, even in the most indifferent actions, and the most necessary for the preservation of life. “Let the just,” says the Royal Prophet, “feast and rejoice themselves in God’s sight.” (Psalms 67:4) Let them eat, drink, and recreate, so they do it in his sight, and do nothing indecent, or unworthy of his divine presence.;

Many saints affirm, that we ought to understand in this sense those words of our Saviour, “We must always pray without ceasing” (Luke 18:1); and also these of St. Paul, “pray without intermission” (1 Thessalonians 5:17); ¢end they, moreover, add that those who perform well what they do, pray always. St. Austin, speaking of these words of the Psalmist, “I will celebrate thy praise all the day long. Would you know,” says he, “the way to praise God always? Perform well what you do, and you will praise him continually. They pray always,” says St. Hilary, “who always perform their actions to please and glorify God, whereby they make their life a perpetual prayer, and they who thus live night and day according to his law, their lives are-no other than a continual meditation on the law.” St. Jerom, writing upon this verse of the Psalmist: “Sun and moon, praise ye the Lord, and let the light and all the stars praise him” (Psalms 148:3), asks how the sun and moon, the light and stars can praise God?—and answers the question himself thus: « never failing to do their duty, and by continually complying with those obligations God imposed upon them at the moment of their creation; for by this continual service, they render to God a continual praise. Hence, whosoever acquits himself well of his charge, and performs well the more ordinary actions, to which his profession obliges him, such a one praises God always-and exercises continual prayer. This doctrine may also be confirmed by those words of the Holy Ghost in Ecclesiasticus: “‘ He who observes the law, multiplies prayer. It is a wholesome sacrifice to keep the commandments, and withdraw one’s-self from all kind of iniquity.” (Ecclesiasticus 35:1) Such persons as these let us see, of how great perfection it is to perform our ordinary actions well: because hereby we multiply our prayers, we walk always in God’s presence, and we offer a continual sacrifice, which is pleasing to him and wholesome and profitable to us.

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