Day 3

destroy it utterly by crushing it under foot. This, again, is what is meant by the ‘ smoking flax/ Anger in a heart has made it catch fire ; the smoke is some insult offered to you by your neighbour in this angry state. Take great care not to quench the fire by violence. Listen to St Paul’s exhortation — ‘Not revenging yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath.’ 1 Let it smoke a little and go out of its own accord. Left to itself it will burn out, so do not stifle it ; but let the smoke rise and lose itself vainly in the air, without annoying or even reaching you.

This is just what our Saviour does when He bears so many insults without bitterness. ‘ Thou hast a devil ; ’ they say to Him. c Who seeketh to kill thee ? ’ 2 And He replies, unmoved, ‘ I have not a devil, but I honour my Father, and you dishonour me.’ 3 And on another occasion, when they reproach Him with the same thing : ‘ Are you angry at me because I have healed the whole man on the Sabbath day ? ’ 4 Here, as you see, He does not extinguish the smoking flax, but leaves it to burn out, to see whether the unfortunate people, tired of covering so 1 Rom. xii. 19. 2 John vii. 20.

3 Ibid . viii. 49. 4 Ibid. vii. 23.

meek and humble a man with insults, will not return to their senses. Such, throughout, was the conduct of the Son of God, especially in His Passion. ‘ When he was reviled he did not revile ; when he suffered, he threatened not/ 1 And again, to the man who gave Him a blow, ‘If I have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil ; but if well, why strikest thou me ? ’ 2 To Him, truly, it belongs to say, ‘ Learn of me , for I am meek and humble of heart/ 3 He is rightly compared to a lamb, the meekest of all animals, which not only allows itself to be ‘sheared,’ but was ‘led as a sheep to the slaughter,’ without opening its mouth.* ‘ Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land .’ The land promised to Abraham is called c a land flowing with milk and honey/ 5 Everything sweet abounds there ; it is the type of Heaven and of the Church. What makes us harsh is the pouring forth upon others of our own inward venom and bitterness. When we have a spirit calmed by possession of the only real good and by the joy of a pure conscience, as there is then nothing bitter within our hearts, 1 i Pet. ii. 23. 2 John xviii. 23. 3 Matt. xi. 29.

♦ Isa. liii. 7 s Exod. iii. 8, etc.

[ " ] so we have only mildness for others. The true mark of innocence, either preserved or recovered, is gentleness.

Man is so prone to take offence that he is often offended with the very people who are doing him good. How irritable a sick man is with his nurses ! Almost the whole world is diseased in that way ; and hence it is that we are always getting angry with those who advise us for our own good, even more so with those who have the authority to do it than with others. The innate pride that we carry about with us is the cause of this. i Blessed/ therefore, c are the meek, for they shall possess the land * where all sweetness abounds, because the joy there is perfect.

jfourtb Dai?

To be a mourner . — Matt. v. 5 .

i §Sramj53|LESSED are those who mourn.’ rl Whether they are mourning for y PlMjj their troubles or their sins, they are happy, and shall receive the only true consolation : — which is that of the next life, where c there shall be no more mourning nor crying,’ and where all tears shall be wiped away . 1 Abraham said to the wicked rich man, 4 Thou didst receive good things in this life, and Lazarus evil things ; but now he is comforted and thou art tormented .’ 2 That is — he is happy, for he suffered patiently ; his painful condition often forced him to mourn over excessive misfortunes, and he got no consolation from his fellows : — the pitiless rich man did not even deign to look at him. But because he bore Apoc. xxi. 4.

[ *3 J 2 Luke xvi. 25.

all with patience, he is comforted, and God has received him into the place where no troubles exist.

c — the world shall rejoice, and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be changed into joy / 1 This is our Saviour’s promise to His disciples. Sadness and joy come alternately : he who rejoices shall be afflicted ; he who is afflicted shall rejoice. ‘ Blessed,’ then, i are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted? 9 But, amongst all who mourn, none shall be sooner consoled than those who weep for their own sins. In every other case, grieving over a trouble, far from being a remedy, only increases the evil itself. Sin is the only evil that can be cured by deploring it. Let us sinners, then, weep without ceasing. Let our eyes be turned into inexhaustible streams, whose incessant flow shall furrow our cheeks, as the Psalmist says. The remission of sins is the fruit of such holy tears. Ah ! ten thousand times happy those who mourn their sins ! They shall indeed be comforted.

And what of those happy ones, again, who shed tears of pure love and tenderness ? Their hearts melt within them, as Holy Scripture says, 1 John xvi. 20. 2 Matt. v. 5.

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