Volume I, Treatise III, Chapter X

How Advantageous It Is to Perform Our Actions After the Manner Already Described

Actions performed after the manner aforesaid are called full and perfect —and St. Jerom and St. Gregory say, that when the holy Scripture speaks of those that have lived after this manner, it expresses itself, ‘“That they have thus lived entire and full days: and that they died full of days” (Isa. xxxviii. 10), though they died very young. It is this the Wise Man teaches us, when he speaks of the just: “That in the short time they lived, they fulfilled a great space or length of time.” (Wisdom 4:13) But how can it be that one should live a great while in a short time, and that in afew, he should complete many years? Would you know how? It is by performing his actions full and entire, and by passing perfect and whole days. ‘Full and entire days shall be found in them” (Psal. Ixxii. 10)—these words of the Psalmist explain the foregoing text. To the true servants of God every day is twenty-four hours; they suffer not one moment of this time to pass unprofitably. ‘The day is always full and entire to them, because they employ it totally in doing the will of God. The very hours of eating, recreating, and sleeping are fruitful to them, because they refer all their actions to the greater glory of God; and because they do them conformably to his divine will. They eat from pure necessity, not for pleasure; and seek not their satisfaction in anything. On the contrary, they would desire, if it were God’s will, to be able to live without eating,

~ sleeping, or recreation—they would never be employed but in loving God, and they earnestly desire with the Royal Prophet: “That he would deliver them from their necessities” (Psal. xxiv. 17); that is, that they might be disengaged from the miseries of the body, and the necessity of supplying nature, to the end they might be always absorbed in the love and contemplation of God.

I know very well that this is what none can arrive to in this life; and that the just ought to suffer with patience all the infirmities of human nature; yet they cannot accommodate themselves to them but with sorrow; of which the testimonies of Job and David are clear proofs. The one says, “I sigh before I eat” (Job 3:24); and the other, “That he mixed his drink with his tears” (Psal.ci. 10); and again, ‘‘ That he washed his bed every night, and watered it with his tears.” (Psal. vi. 7.) It is ours to do the same; as soon as we lie down in bed we ought in tears to say to God: Must I, O Lord! be so long a time deprived of thinking of you “Why are my exile and banishment prolonged” (Psal. cxix. 5), when will you be pleased to put anendtothem? “Draw my soul out of its prison” (Psal. exli. 18), draw it out of the prison of this miserable body, to the end that it may never more be employed but in blessing and praising you eternally. It is after this manner that all our actions and all our days become full and entire—it is after this manner that the just live a long while in a short time, and that a few days of life make many years of merit. But says St. Gregory, whoever has not well employed his time, and has neglected to do good works during his life; how long soever the course of his life may be, we can say of him, that he dies void and destitute of days, because he has permitted his days and years to pass unprofitably; and he himself may truly say, that the “days of his pilgrimage have been short and evil.” (Genesis 17:9)

St. Jerom, speaking of these words of King Ezechias, related by the prophet Isaiah: “In the midst of my days I will go to the gates of hell” (Isa. xxiii. 10), makes this. remark, that the saints and just, even such as Abraham was, do entirely accomplish the multitude of their days. ‘ He died in a happy old age, and full of days” (Genesis 25:8), says the holy Scripture, but the wicked die in the midst of their days, and even go not so far; because they let many years pass unprofitably. ‘The men of blood, and the deceivers,” says the prophet, “shall not live half

\ their days.” (PsaJ. liv. 17.) Itis upon this account, and for the same reason, that the holy Scripture calls a sinner an infant of an hundred years; because he lives not as a man, but as a child.

*¢ An infant died of an hundred years of age,” says Isaiah, “and the sinner of an hundred years old shall be cursed.” (Isa, Ixv.

20.) Hence it is, that the wicked are always surprised by death,

and cut down whilst they are green; and when it happens thus, they complain that it happens too soon, and beg some respite that they may have leisure to do penance. We say the same of tepid religious; for be it ever so long since they took the habit,

yet they have lived but very few days in religion.

We read in the Chronicle of St. Francis, that a good old man, being asked by a secular, how long he had been religious, answered him, “That he had not yet been one moment.” But the old man seeing him scandalised at this answer, which he did not rightly comprehend, added; “I know very well that it is seventy-five years since I put on the religious habit, but I know not how long I have been a true religious by the due performance of all my actions.” God grant that none of us may say of ourselves with truth, what his ‘humility alone made this holy man say. Because it matters not to have been a long while in religion, and to have grown old therein, but it is of importance, to have lived wellin religion; and what does it profit us to count many years from the day of our conversion, if we be not at all grown better? A few days of a pure and holy life are of greater value, than many days of a dissolute and tepid one. Hence before God we reckon not the years of our life, but those of a good life; nor the years that are passed in religion, but those in which we have lived as good religious. The holy Scripture furnishes us with an excellent example of this truth in the first book of the Kings, when it says, that Saul “was an infant of a year old, when he began to reign, and that he reigned two years over Israel.” (1 Kings 13) ].) Yet it is very certain that he reigned forty years; and St. Paul clearly states this in the Acts of the Apostles in these words: ‘ Afterwards they asked a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Cis, of the tribe of Benjamin, during the space of forty years.” (Acts 12:21) Why then, in the history of the Kings, is there mention made of only two years? Because in God’s annals we count only the years that we have lived well; and therefore of the whole time that the reign of Saul lasted, the holy Scripture only counts two years, because he reigned only those two years as a just prince, and a true king. The gospel also teaches us, that although those, whom the father of the family had sent last of all to his vineyard, had wrought only an hour, yet they had the same recompense as those who had wrought all the day long. And without doubt, he treated them after this manner, because in the short time they had laboured, they had merited as much, if not more, than the others had done the whole day. Let us, therefore, regulate our account after this manner, and let us mark accordingly how long we have lived in religion.

Eusebius Emissenus describes this admirably well, when he says: “It is by the number of years that we ordinarily measure the time we have lived; but take care you deceive not yourself by counting from the time of your entrance into religion. Because you ought not count any other days than those in which you have renounced your own will; or resisted your passions; or wherein you have done nothing contrary to the exact observance of your rules; reckon also that day as one of your life, which received its light from the purity of your mind and holy meditations. Make, if possible, some years of this sort of days, and measure hereby the time you have lived in religion: fearing lest otherwise the same reproach be made to you that was made to the Bishop of Sardis in the Apocalypse: “Write to the angel of the church of Sardis,” says our Lord, “T know all your actions; I know they say that you live, and notwithstanding you are dead; wherefore stand upon your guard, because I find your actions are not full in the sight of God.” (Apoe. iii. 1.) Believe that nothing is hid from the knowledge of God; he sees in you that which men cannot discover; they believe you live, when, alas! you are dead; you bear the name of a Christian; you bear the name and habit of religion, but have not the qualities of a religious. All your actions accord very ill with the name you bear: they are entirely void of God; and if they are full of anything it is of yourself— you seek only yourself in all things you do—you seek your own

articular interest, your own glory, honour, and reputation.

t us, therefore, watch ourselves carefully—let us endeavour that our actions be full and complete, and that our days be full and entire, to the end that after this manner we may live a

great while in a short time, and that we may merit very much before God.

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