Volume II, Treatise VI, Chapter VI

That Sadness Ts Produced by Tepidity in God’s Service. What Joy a Good Conscience Gives

NEGLIGENCE in God’s service, and in those things that belong to our profession, is one of the chief and most ordinary causes of sadness, - I appeal to your own experience. Do you not feel joy, when you acquit yourself well; and sadness, when you acquit yourself ill of your duty? To render sad, is one of the properties of sin. “A wicked heart,” says the wise man, “shall be charged with grief ’’ (Ecclesiasticus 3:29); “and a bad heart occasions sadness.” (Ecclesiasticus 36:22) The holy Scripture teaches us, that when Cain saw the difference that God made between his and Abel’s sacrifice, “he was seized with wrath, and his countenance fell, and he became dejected.” (Genesis 4:26) This was an effect of the bad designs he conceived, and which, unable to conceal in his heart, he made appear by the change in his countenance. The Lord therefore asked him the cause of this change: ‘‘if thou dost well, shalt thou not receive a recompense?” (Genesis 4:7); or as another version has it, “shalt thou not lift up thy head?”—That is, “shalt thou not have a cheerful countenance; but if thou dost ill, will not sin presently present itself at thy gate?” Will it not torment thee within, with remorse of conscience, and will it not appear without, on thy countenance? As virtuons actions bring joy along with them, because they are conformable to reason; so bad ones bring naturally discontent, because they are contrary to it; and as we must fight against conscience, in order to commit sin, therefore the reproaches of conscience will never let us be at rest..

‘There is not a greater punishment,” says St. Bernard, “than a bad conscience. It carries its punishment along with it:—it is in vain to hide our crimes from the eyes of men, and to appear innocent before them, when we cannot hide them from ourselves, nor evade the condemnation of our conscience.” {De inter. domo. ¢. 45.) Do what you will—seek company and amusement to free yourself from its reproaches, you will never succeed; it will always torment you. It was this made Seneca say, that the greatest punishment of a crime, was the having committed it. Plutarch compares the pain which one thereby suffers, to that which we feel in the cold and hot fit of an ague, and says, that as sick persons are more indisposed with the cold and heat occasioned by a fever, than those who are in health are by the cold’ and heat resulting from the diversity and inconstancy of seasons; so the disquiets occasionedbyour faults and remorse of conscience, torments us far more cruelly than those which are caused only by accidents of fortune. This, above all, is verified in those who have begun to taste what God is, and after having served him for some time with fervour, begin to relent and contradict themselves. For misery is more sensible and painful to him who has lived in plenty, than to him that has been always poor. When we remember the fervour with which we served God at other times, and the favours we thereby received; and begin to compare the present with what is past, it is impossible but we must feel cruel regret, and find our hearts pierced to the quick. |

“Tf then,” says St. Bernard, “you would banish sadness far from you, and live always content—live as you ought todo.. Think what your obligations are, and apply yourself to the performance of them, and to correct your faults and imperfections since these are what disquiet the peace of your soul.”—(De inter. dom.) A virtuous man is always cheerful, and a wicked man is always sad and tormented in conscience; and as there is not a more cruel punishment than those that the sting and reproach of conscience bring along with them; so there cannot be a more sensible joy than they feel, who have the testimony of a good conscience. “There is not a greater pleasure,” says the Scripture, “than the joy of the heart; and a secure and quiet mind, is like a continual feast.” (Proverbs 15):15.) And as at a feast, the different sorts of meat, and the presence of the guests, occasion joy; so it is a great subject of joy to a Christian, who carefully acquits himself of his duty, to have a good testimony of his conscience, and to be in the possession of God’s grace, of which he feels so great marks within himself. “For if our hearts,” says St. John, “does not reproach us, we have a confidence in God.’’ (John 3:21) And St. Paul tells us, “that our glory and comfort is the testimony of a good conscience.”’ (2 Corinthians 1:12) St. Chrysostom also assures us, that a good conscience dissipates all darkness of heart, and drives it away, as the sun does the clouds; and that sadness which falls upon a good conscience, is as easily extinguished, as a spark of fire that falls into a Jake. St. Austin compares it to honey, which is not only sweet in itself, but renders the most bitter things sweet; and says, that it sweetens all the pains and bitterness of this life. Wherefore the prophet, speaking of God’s commandments, says, “they are more to be desired than gold and precious stones, and more sweet than honey or the honey-comb.’’ (Psalms 18:11)

Ecclesiastical history relates, that when the persecution was raised under Marcus Aurelius against the Christians: they did one thing that never was before practised, which was, that all the Christians they took, whether they renounced Jesus Christ, or whether they persevered in their faith, were put indifferently into the same prison, and afterwards condemned, no longer as Christians, but as thieves and robbers, Yet, this did not prevent them from perceiving a great difference between the one and the other, when they led them to execution. For they perceived a joyful countenance, and, as it were, such rays of divinity in the faces of the saints, that it seemed as if their chains became an ornament to them, and the stench of the prisons had served to render them more pleasing to the eyes both of God and men—whereas the others went along with a sad countenance, having 3such frightful and ghastly looks, as filled all the spectators with horror. This shews, that these were more cruelly tormented by the reproaches of their criminal conscience, than by their sufferings in prison, and the sight of their torments; and that the others on the contrary felt all their pains sweetened by the testimony of their conscience, and by the hope of that glory they were about to enjoy. Virtuous persons frequently experience the same thing in themselves, even in time of their greatest afflictions; for when they perceive themselves forsaken by all the world, and deprived of all kind of comfort, they cast their eyes upon themselves, and seeing the good state of their conscience, this sight gives them an entire comfort; because they know very well that it is no matter how all other things go, so they keep but a good conscience.

But the joy of which I speak, is, not only the effect of a good conscience, but it is also a sign of it; as St. Bonaventure teaches us by these words, “spiritual joy is an evident mark of grace.”— (In spec. discip. p. i. c. 38.) The Holy Ghost teaches us also the same truth, in several places of Scripture; “light is risen upon the just,” says David, “and joy to those that are right of heart.” (Psalms 96:11) “But the wicked walk in darkness, they find nothing but misery and confusion in their way, and they have not known the way of peace.” (Psalms 13:3) One.reason also why St. Francis desired always to see cheerfulness in the countenances of his religious, was because he looked upon this joy “as one of the fruits of the Holy Ghost,” (Galatians 5:22), and as a mark of God’s habitation in their souls. He said, moreover, that this made such an impression upon him, that as often as he found. himself carried away with sadness and dejection, he needed only to cast his eyes‘ upon his brethren, and he found himself presently delivered from this temptation; because seeing them, he seemed to behold so many angels. And in effect we see angels upon earth, when we see the servants of God who are in his grace; and it is in this sense, that these words of Scripture may be understood, “I beheldithee as an angel of God, thou art as agreeable in my eyes as an angel of the Lord.” (1 Kings 29:9)

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