Chapter 18. On the Divine Benefits, Where the Subject of the Last Meditation is Considered at Greater Length

§ 1.—On the feelings with which God regards ingratitude jor his favours, on the chastisements he inflicts on those who are guilty of it, and on the advantages which accrue from gratitude.

1.—One of the bitterest complaints made by our blessed Saviour against man and for which he will be called to answer most strictly on the great day of account, is ingratitude for divine favours. With this complaint, the Prophet Isaiah commences his, prophecy, calling upon heaven and earth to testify against the ingratitude and forgetfulness of the wicked, LER th ¿Hear Oh ye heavens, and give ear earth, for the Lord hath spoken, I have brought up children, and exalted them; but they have despised me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.” Is it not then marvellous that man should forget what even the beasts remember? And as St. Jerome remarks on this passage; ““He does not compare man with other animals of more intelligence, as with the dog, which for his morsel of food defends his master’s house, but with the ox and the ass, stupid and mean animals, to give us to understand that the ungrateful are not like animals in general but more like brutes, that is, more brutal than the ordinary kind of animals.”

2.—What punishment then does this brutish conduct merit ? God has in store many kinds of punishment for the ungrateful, but the fittest and most common is to withdraw favours once — conferred, since the giver has reaped nothing from them but ingratitude. “For,” as'St. Bernard remarks, ‘‘ ingratitude is a scorching wind which dries up the stream of «divine mercy, the fountain of clemency and the current of grace.”

3.—In the same way as ingratitude is the cause of such great evils, so on the other hand is gratitude the source of the greatest benefits, and of three especially. First of the love of God, “Because,” as Aristotle observes, “good is lovely in itself and everyone is most disposed «to love his own good.” As men then are by nature such lovers of themselves and of their own welfare, when they clearly see that all they ‘possess is the pure gift of their Sovereign Benefactor, they are naturally inclined to love and cherish Him from whom all their blessings come. Hence it is that amongst the most profitable considerations for stimulating the love of God, one of the chief is the consideration of the divine benefits, for every one of these acts as a brand to revive and inflame the fire of this love. Consequently the consideration of many of these benefits is like uniting many brands that the flame of this fire may burn brighter and brighter. ;

4.—This consideration is also useful to awaken love of the service of God, in consequence of the great obligation man is under to Him to. whom he owes so much, because, if even birds and beasts from this motive answer to the voice of those who call them, and obey like rational beings the orders given them, how much more fitting is it that he should do so, who has received so much more and is so much better qualified to appreciate it ?

5.—It serves also to awaken in our souls sorrow and repentance for our sins. For when men seriously consider on the one hand the multitude of blessings they have received from God, and on the other the multitude of their offences against him, how can they avoid blushing for shame and being confounded at the contrast? It is well for them to see the greatness of their wickedness compared with the greatness of that sovereign goodness which has so long persevered in doing good to them, though they only requited it with evil.

6.—For these three ends therefore should man reflect on the divine benefits, as well as for the purpose of returning thanks to God for them; and thus in meditating he should carefully go over each in its turn, urging his heart at one time to the love of him to whom he owes so much, at another to a desire to serve him, at another to sorrow and repentance for his sins, and at another to offer a sacrifice of praise and gratitude for them, they beg the young calves which the prophet desired us to offer up to God as a sacrifice of acknowledgment for benefits received.

7.—Though these benefits are innumerable, we propose here to treat only of five principal ones to which all the rest may be reduced; namely, the benefit of creation, preservation, redemption and vocation ; and lastly the particular and hidden benefits which each one is conscious to himself of having received.

8.—It is by no means requisite that all these benefits should be considered at the same time; one is sufficient or two or three well weighed and digested, because the subjects for meditation are not to be taken in the lump, like a task to be worked out, but like daily nourishment, which taken in moderation, digests the better and is all the more healthy.

§ 2.—On the benefit of Creation.

9.—Commencing then first with the benefit derived from our creation, the better to appreciate its greatness, thou pS — e shouldst first most deeply reflect upon what thou wast before thy creation. This is one of the most serious pieces of advice which the masters of a spiritual life are accustomed to enforce on this subject, both for making us comprehend the greatness of the blessing itself as for the annihilation, so they name it, which itis fora man clearly and palpably of himself to see that he is absolutely less than nothing. Consider then how many years thou hast lived to this day, not a thousand, nor a hundred, but only as it were from yesterday up to to-day; itis well to know that but a short time ago thou wast, at least thy soul was, nothing, ad eterno thou wast nothing, and thou mightest have been always nothing, which is to be less than earth, less than air, and less even than straw, in a word nothing.

10.—See then how nothing can of itself do nothing, not even deserve that another should do anything for it, since that which is not can neither work nor avail itself of the work of others. Whilst thou wast buried in that darkness and in that deep abyss of nothing, it pleased God in his infinite goodness and mercy, without any merit of thine, and out of pure kindness, to exercise his power and omnipotence upon thee and to withdraw thee with his powerful hand from that darkness and that - deep abyss of nothingness and make thee something. “And not only,” says St. Augustin, “something, but a man, one of the noblest created beings in the world, not a bird or a stone or a serpent. He gave thee that being which thou hast, he formed and organized that body, he furnished it with all its parts, both members and senses with such marvellous foresight and skill, that every one of them if well considered is an object of the greatest wonder and a truly great benefit.” This is that benefit which Holy Job humbly acknowledged, when he

Job x. 8,9, 11,12, said, “Thy hands, Oh Lord, have made me, and fashioned me wholly round about.” ‘Remember I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and thou wilt bring me into dust again.” ‘Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, thou hast put me together with bones and sinews; thou hast granted me life and mercy, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.”

11.—Then what shall I say of the nobleness of thy soul and of the lofty end for which she was created, and of the image after which she was made, and of her capacity ? Her image is that of God himself, because in truth there is nothing on earth more like unto God nor by study of which we can arrive at a clearer knowledge of him. Hence the ancient philosophers and especially Anaxagoras, knew no more appropriate name by which to designate God, than “the mind,” meaning thereby a rational soul, from the great similitude they discovered between her and God. Hence arises the impossibility of perfectly understanding the substance of our soul, for inasmuch as she so closely resembles the divine substance, which is incomprehensible to us in this life, for the same reason she is herself incomprehensible.

12.—As then the end for which this noble creature was created is conformable to this dignity, so she was evidently created for the participation in the glory and happiness of God, to dwell in his house, to eat at his table, to share in his joys, to be arrayed”in the robes of his immortality and to reign for ever with him. Hence the wonderful capacity of the soul is so distending that all created objects and all the riches of the world combined, can no more satisfy her longings than can a grain of millet fill the world.

13.—How can we then repay the Lord for this great bounty? If we are so indebted to our parents in the flesh for having contributed to the formation of our bodies, how much more are we indebted to our heavenly Parent, who through these means made the body, and without them created the soul which beyond comparison is more excellent than the body, and without which the body would be no more than a rotten dunghill? What are our parents more than the tool with which God wrought one portion of the work? How much more art thou indebted to the principal who did the work ? And if thou owest so much to that which did only one part, how much more dost thou owe to him who did all? If thou prizest the sword with which the City was taken, how much more the King who wielded it ? Ri 3.—On the benefit of Preservation. 14.—But God not satisfied with thy creation in such honour and glory has ever since preserved thee and watched over thee, as he says himself by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah. ‘‘T am the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things,

Isaiah xlviii. 17. and govern thee in the way that thou walkest.” Many mothers satisfied with having suffered the pains of childbirth, shrink from the troubles of nursing and hire a nurse to discharge their duties. But it is not so here, for the’ same Lord takes upon himself all the duties, so as to be both the mother who bore us, and the nurse that suckled us with’ the milk and abundance of his providence, as he testifies by the mouth of his prophet, saying, ‘‘ And I was like to a foster-

Osee xi, 3. father to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms, and they knew not that [ healed them.” Thus was one and the same the Maker and the Conservator of his work. Both the one and the other are plainly acknowledged by the royal prophet in these words, ‘‘ All expect of thee that thou give them food in season. What thou givest to them they shall ds ar aa gather up; when thou openest thy hand they shall be filled with good. But if thou turnest away thy face, they shall be troubled ; thou shall take away their breath, and they shall fall, and shall return to their dust.” In the same manner as the movements and works of a clock depend upon the weights acting upon them, and when the connexion between them is suspended, the whole of the ingenious mechanism must also stop, so every motion of this great machine of the world, depends «upon the weight of Divine Providence, failing which, only for a single, instant, the world — would be paralyzed.

• 15.—But think for an instant, how many benefits are included in this one. Every instant and moment of thy life forms a portion of it, for thou couldst not exist one single second, if God withdrew from thee his watchful eye. All created things in the world form a portion of it, since we see that all of them contribute towards it. So that thine are the heayens and the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars are thine, the sea and the fishes therein, the birds of the air and the trees and all animals, and finally all things are thine, since they are all dedicated to thy use. This is the benefit so much wondered at by the prophet, when he said: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that

Psalm viii, 5. thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: and hast set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen; moreover the beasts also of the fields; the birds of the air and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea. Oh Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth!”

16.—And not content with having devoted to this object

_ all visible creatures, it hath pleased him in his great mercy, to devote also the invisible, those noble intelligences who minister before him and behold his divine face, as according Heb. i. Matt. xviii. / to St. Paul, they are all officers in the household of God, to whom he has entrusted the tutilage and protection of man. Lastly he engaged all the world in thy service, that thou mightest engage thyself entirely in his, and he desired that there should be no creature on earth or in the heavens above that should not minister to thy advantage, that there might be nothing left thee unconsecrated to his service.

17.—But even passing all this aside, thou shouldst never forget the favours that God has shown thee in delivering thee from the numberless calamities and miseries which we see daily befalling others. One is a cripple, one blind, another lame, another with broken legs, another a martyr to the stone or gout or similar complaints. For surely this world is nothing but a sea of infinite troubles, and thou canst enter scarcely a dwelling in all this land of Egypt without encountering lamentations and groans. Wilt thou tell me now, who gave thee this bull of exemption? Who privileged thee to walk unscathed amongst such a crowd of wounded? Why art thou left standing amongst so many lying prostrate? Art not thou a man like all the rest, a sinner like them, a son of Adam as they all are? If these evils have befallen them, either from natural causes or their own excesses, how is it that thou under similar circumstances, hast escaped similar consequences? Who withheld on thy behalf the effects of similar causes? What stemmed the rushing waters and saved thee from the general deluge, but divine grace? After pondering well on this, thou wilt find that all the ills of the world are — for thy benefit, and for every one of them thou owest special gratitude and love. In the same way that we find all the good things of this world are benefits conferred upon thee inasmuch as they tend to thy preservation, so also do we know that all the ills of the world are also benefits conferred on thee inasmuch as God hath delivered thee from them.

§ 4.—On the benefit of our Redemption.

18.—Let us come now to the inestimable benefit of our redemption, though it would be better in sacred silence to bow down and adore this mystery, than profane it with mortal lips. Thou hadst forfeited through sin thy primitive innocence and the grace in which thou wast created, and divine justice might have left thee in that wretched state, as it left Satan, with none to intercede for him, but God willed it not so, but on the contrary turning anger into compassion, he chose to confer the greatest favours where he had suffered the greatest affronts. And having it in his power to repair the evil committed by sending an angel or archangel or by many other means, he preferred coming himself in person; and having it in his power to come in majesty and glory, he preferred coming in humility and poverty, the more to make thee appreciate this great benefit, and oblige thee the more by this his own example, and to redeem thee more abundantly with a treasure so priceless, and to shew thee more clearly the love he bore thee, that thou mightest love him in like manner ; also to further shew how much he prized thee, in order to induce thee to place all thy hopes in him. Well may the Prophet Isaiah amplify this in these words, according to the translation in the Septuagint. “In all the afflictions of men

Isaiah Ixiii. he was not troubled nor did he weary in suffering for them, he desired not to send an ambassador or an angel to redeem them; but he in his own person from the greatness of his compassion sought to come and redeem them, and bear them upon his shoulders for ever, although they were ungrateful for this benefit, and afflicted him and provoked the anger of the Holy Spirit.”

19.—And if thou owest so much to thy Saviour for seeking in person to effect thy redemption, how much more deeply wilt thou not be indebted for the manner in which he effected it with so many sufferings? A king confers a great boon upon the robber to whom he remits the lashes he has been sentenced to undergo: but that the same king should choose to undergo the lashes in his stead, is an act of unheard-of kindness. What numbers of benefits are included in this one? Raise thy eyes to that sacred wood, and behold all the wounds and agonies that the Lord of Glory is suffering there, each one of which is an inestimable benefit to thee. Behold that most innocent body all covered with blood, torn with wounds and marked with bruises and blood streaming from every part. Behold that most sacred head bowed down and drooping upon the shoulder, and that divine face on which angels love to gaze, how wan and streaked with blood, some still running fresh and crimson and sume dried and fastened in dark clots of gore. Behold that most beautiful face, the loveliest of all that ever were, once the delight of every eye, how all the flower of its loveliness has perished! Behold that most holy Nazarite more.pure than snow, whiter than milk or the finest ivory, now blacker than charcoal and so disfigured and foul that even his own knew him not. Behold that sacred mouth, pallid and stamped with the hue of death, those bloodstained blackened lips how they move to beg pardon and mercy for his executioners.

20.—Lastly look at him on every side and thou wilt not find one spot untouched by suffering, from head to foot is he covered with wounds. That bright brow and those eyes more beautiful than the sun, are dimmed and darkened by the film of death. Those ears accustomed to the canticles of heaven, now ring with the blasphemies of sinners. Those comely and extended arms which sustain and uphold the world, are stretched disjointed on the cross. Those hands that created the heavens and injured no one, are pierced and torn with hard nails. Those sacred feet that never walked in the paths of sinners, are mortally wounded and transfixed. But above all Cant. i. behold that bed on which lies and sleeps the heavenly spouse at mid-day, how narrow and how hard it is. Behold he has not where to lay his head. Oh priceless head how can I see thee so wearied for my sake! Oh sanctified body conceived of the Holy Ghost! How can I see thee so wounded and bruised for the love of me! Oh sweet and loying breast! What means that gaping wound? What all that blood? Woe is me, to see thee for the love of me pierced so deeply with a lance! Oh rigorous cross! Be not so rigid, soften a little thy hardness, bend down to me thy extended boughs and lower that precious fruit that I may strive to taste it. Oh cruel nails! Loosen those feet and innocent hands ; come and pierce my heart for it is I that have sinned, and not he. Oh Good Jesus why are all these sufferings for thee ? What has death to do with thee, what the nails, and what the cross? Truly with much reason said the prophet: “ His

Isalah. work shall be different and foreign from this.” What more foreign to and what more different from life than death, what more foreign to glory than punishment, what to the height of sanctity and innocence than the brand of a sinner? Truly Oh Lord is that name and character foreign to thee. Oh thou true Jacob, who in strange dress and borrowed garments obtained for us thy Father's blessing, since by assuming the likeness of a sinner thou hast conquered sin ! Oh ineffable goodness! Oh mercy undeserved! Oh unheard-of love! Oh incomprehensible charity! Tell me, Oh Lord, what thou sawest in us, what service had we done thee, how have we compelled thee to suffer such torments? Ob miraculous bounty! which without any merit of ours, without the slightest necessity for us, hast chosen solely of thy grace and mercy to make the road safe for us. “The mercy and

Timothy iii. clemency of the Lord,” says the Apostle, “have been manifested, not through the works of justice which we have performed, but through his great mercy by which he has saved us.” Oh, how much did our Lord desire us to appreciate this mercy when he spoke these memorable words through the mouth of Isaiah; ‘‘Thou hast not called upon

Isaiah xliii. 22. me Oh Jacob; neither hast thou laboured about me Oh Israel; thou hast not offered me the ram of thy holocaust, nor hast thou glorified me with thy victims.” “But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities. Jam, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.

Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together ; tell if.

thou hast anything to justify thyself.”

21.—Then Oh most clement, Oh most sweet Lord! What have I wherewith to repay thee for so great a benefit? Had I all the lives of all the children of Adam, and all the days and years of ages, and could I bear all the sufferings of all men past present and future, all would be nothing to repay thee for the least of the sufferings thou hast undergone for me.

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And since I have no means of satisfying this debt, I would wish at all events, Oh my God, to repay thee by never forgetting thy bounty. I beseech thee, Oh Lord, through the bowels of thy infinite charity, so to wound my heart with thy wounds, and so to inebriate my soul with thy blood, that wherever I turn myself I may always see thee crucified, and that wheresoever I fix my eyes every object may dazzle me with thy blood. Let this be my only comfort, to be always crucified with thee, and this my only affliction, never to think of any thing but thee. Look, Oh my God, at the price for which thou hast purchased me, and suffer not so precious a treasure to be lost by me, and suffer me not to be like an abortive son, borne by his mother in sorrow but not destined to enjoy the fruit of life.

§ 5.—On the fourth benefit, that of our Vocation.

22.—Consider next the benefit of our vocation or call to —

God, without which all other benefits would only serve for the greater condemnation of man. It must here be remarked that there are two divine calls; one to the faith by means of the sacrament of baptism ; the other to grace, after the loss of baptismal innocence.

23.—Reflect on the great benefit of the first call through baptism, by which thou wast cleansed from the stain of original sin and delivered from the power of the devil, made a child of God and heir to his kingdom. There he took thy soul for his spouse, adorned her with all requisites for that state, with grace and the virtues and gifts of the Holy Ghost and with many richer jewels and presents than were given to Rebecca

Genesis xxiv. when she was espoused to Isaac. What hadst thou done to deserve so great a benefit? How many thousands, not to say of men, but of nations and people, by the just judgment of God have never received this blessing ? What would have been thy fate hadst thou been born amongst them? Thou wouldst not have known the true God, but been a worshipper of stocks and stones. How much art thou indebted to God, amongst such a crowd of lost sheep for folding thee amongst his flock and amongst those who were to be born within the pale of the Church and to be fed with the milk of the apostles and with the blood of Christ.”

24.—If after the favour of this call thou hast forfeited by sin thy baptismal innocence, and God has notwithstanding vouchsafed to call thee a second time or perhaps many times, how much more art thou not indebted to him for this benefit ? Luke xill. + How many benefits are included in this? It was a benefit for him to expect thee so long and give thee time for repentance ; to bear with thee in thy sins without cutting down the barren tree which encumbered the land and was watered to no purpose with the showers of heaven. It was another benefit to tolerate thy many grievous sins without casting thee headlong into hell, where many perhaps are now suffering for lesser sins than thine. It was a further benefit to send thee so many good inspirations, even in the midst of thy sins, and to persevere so long in calling thee to him in spite of thy offences against him. It was a further benefit to put an end to thy obstinacy and to summon thee with a voice powerful enough to raise the dead to life, that like another Lazarus thou mightest come forth from the dark sepulchre of thy iniJohn it, quities, not bound hand and foot but freed from the bonds of the enemy. But above all, what a benefit was it not only'there to pardon thee all thy past sins, but to give thee grace to avoid returning to them and to bestow upon thee all the other blessings which the prodigal son received upon his return home, that with all these thou mightest walk forth asa child of God, scorn the allurements of the devil, triumph over the world, take delight in the things of God before so distasteful, and feel disgust at the things of the world before so agreeable.

25.—But what if after this, thou considerest how many have been denied this benefit which has been so generously granted to thee? To thee, as great a sinner, and as unworthy of the call as they, that whilst they continue in their wretched state, it should have pleased God to call thee to a state of health and grace? How canst thou shew too much gratitude, how canst thou repay this favour? What will be thy feelings, when in consequence of this call thou shalt one day find thyself in the enjoyment of God in heaven for all eternity, and see others once thy companions. and associates, from want of similar grace, suffering for ever the pains of hell? Oh, how much ought this grace to be estimated! Tell me, when the fortunate thief who with only one word obtained everlasting life, saw himself surrounded with such great glory, and saw also his companion in such torments in hell and recollected that he too was once also a thief like the other, and was punished for his thefts like the other, and a few moments before like the other was blaspheming Christ, and that notwithstanding all this, those divine eyes turned to look upon him and gave light to him leaving the other in darkness, what bounds would there be to his gratitude for such a favour ? What limit to his delight ? With what astonishment would he look on such a judgment ? With what intense love would he burn for him who chose to confer wpon him so admirable a gift? Should this appear to thee such an immense benefit, recollect that it is no more than Christ has done for thee, when he fixed on thee the eyes of his tender compassion, but called not - with the same call thy friend or neighbour, who for all thou knowest, has offended less than thee. See then, how much thou owest to the Lord, and the reasons'thou hast to desire to suffer death for the love of him.

26.—But consider further how much this benefit cost thy Saviour. He bestowed it on thee free gratis out of pure bounty ; it cost him his blood and his life, since it is evident without that, our sins could not have been pardoned nor our wounds cured. It is said that the pelican, when she finds her young ones dead, tears open her own breast with her beak and with the flowing blood bedews and sprinkles them and so restores them to warmth and life. If thou desirest to comprehend the greatness of this benefit, remember when thou wast dead in sin, that compassionate Pelican moved by the bowels of his mercy, pierced his sacred breast with a lance and bedewed the mortal wounds of thy soul with his blood and thus by his death gave life to thee, and by his wounds healed thine. Thou wilt not be ungrateful for so great and costly a benefit, if thou wilt recollect, as the Lord admonishes, the day when thou camest out of Egypt. This was thy passover, the day of thy resurrection, for on it didst thou pass by the Red Sea of the blood of Christ to the Land of Promise, and on it thou wast raised from death to life.

§ 6.—On particular Benefis.

27.—What we have hitherto spoken of are general benefits, there are other particular ones specially bestowed upon each individual, which can only be known to the recipient. Under this head are included various blessings and gifts of fortune or nature or of grace bestowed upon each one specially: also many misfortunes and dangers, both to soul and body, from which God in his mercy has delivered each one ; for which benefits as well as for the general ones our gratitude is due, because they are more definite pledges of the special love and providence of God. It is impossible to write in a book these kinds of benefits; but everyone should inscribe them upon his own “heart and add them to the others and return thanks to God for them.

28.—Others there are more hidden still, which the recipient is even unconscious of, for example particular dangers and hidden snares which God averts and destroys by his providence, because he knows the injury they might occasion us. Who can count the temptations from which God has protected him? The occasions of sin from which he has delivered him? How often he has disconcerted the plans and destroyed the snares of the enemy to prevent him being en-trapped ? The devil himself said of Holy Job, ‘‘ That God had Luke xxii. Jobi. encircled him on all sides, that nothing should hurt him ;” and thus is God accustomed to keep his own, guarded like a precious vase of crystal, so that no one may commence an attack upon them. ; 29.—As one may have received from God various secret gifts, without being conscious of them; so in the same way he may and often does commit many secret sins without being aware of them. Thus with regard to this kind of sins we should daily pray with the prophet and say, ‘‘ From my secret Psalm xviii. sins deliver me Oh God ;”” we should also every day give thanks to God for this kind of benefit, that no sin be unrepented of and no blessing be unacknowledged.

THE END OF THE SEVEN MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY NIGHT IN THE WEEK, AND OF THE FIRST PART.

A TREATISE

PRAYER AND MEDITATION,

WITH REFLECTIONS ON THE PRINCIPAL MYSTERIES

OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH.

AN EST LT: