Consideration XX - THE FOLLY OF THE SINNER

"Sapientia enim huius mundi stultitia est apud Deum" (1 Cor. 3:19).

Point I

The Venerable John of Avila would have wished to divide the world into two prisons: one for those who do not believe, and the other for those who believe and yet live in sin, far from God; to the latter he said the prison for the insane would belong. But the greatest misery and misfortune of these wretches is that they consider themselves wise and prudent, and they are the most foolish and stupid in the world. And the worst is that the number of such persons is innumerable. "Et stultorum infinitus est numerus" (Eccl. 1:15). Some go mad for honors, some go mad for pleasures, some for the carrion of this earth. And then these dare to call the Saints mad — the Saints who despised these goods of the world to acquire eternal salvation and the true good, which is God. They call it madness to embrace contempt and forgive injuries; madness to deprive oneself of sensual pleasures and embrace mortifications; madness to renounce honors and riches, to love solitude and a humble, hidden life. But they do not realize that their wisdom is called madness by the Lord: "Sapientia enim huius mundi stultitia est apud Deum" (1 Cor. 3:19).

Ah, one day they will indeed confess this folly of theirs — but when? When there will be no more remedy; and they will say in despair: "Nos insensati vitam illorum aestimabamus insaniam, et finem illorum sine honore" (Wis. 5:4). Ah, wretches that we were, we considered the life of the Saints to be madness, but now we know that we were the fools. "Ecce quomodo inter filios Dei computati sunt, et inter sanctos sors illorum est" (ibid. 5). Behold how they are already placed among the happy number of the children of God, and have made their fortune among the Saints — a fortune that will be eternal and will make them forever blessed; and we have remained in the number of slaves of the devil, condemned to burn in this pit of torments for all eternity. "Ergo erravimus" — so they will conclude their lament — "a via veritatis, et iustitiae lumen non luxit nobis" (ibid. 6). Thus we have gone astray for having chosen to close our eyes to the divine light, and what will make us most unhappy is that for our error there is and will be no remedy, as long as God is God.

What folly, then, to lose the grace of God for a base interest, for a little puff of smoke, for a brief pleasure! What would a subject not do to win the favor of his prince! O God, for a wretched satisfaction to lose the supreme Good, who is God! To lose paradise! To lose peace even in this life, admitting sin into the soul, which with its remorse will always torment it! And to condemn oneself voluntarily to an eternal misery! Would you take that illicit pleasure if for it you had to have a hand burned? Or to be shut for a year inside a tomb? Would you commit that sin if afterward you had to lose a hundred coins? And then you believe, and you know, that by sinning you lose paradise and God, and you are forever condemned to the fire — and you sin?

Affections and Prayers

O God of my soul, what would have become of me at this hour if You had not shown me so many mercies? I would be in hell, in the place of the mad — as I have been. I thank You, Lord, and I beg You not to abandon me in my blindness. I deserved to remain abandoned by Your light, but I see that Your grace has not yet abandoned me. I feel it calling me with tenderness, inviting me to seek Your pardon and to hope great things from You, notwithstanding the great offenses I have committed. Yes, my Savior, I hope from You to be accepted as a son. I am not worthy to be so called, because I have injured You so many times to Your face. "Pater, non sum dignus vocari filius tuus; peccavi in coelum, et coram te." But I hear that You go seeking lost sheep and take joy in embracing lost sons. My dear Father, I repent of having offended You; I throw myself and cling to Your feet, and I will not leave until You pardon me and bless me. "Non dimittam te, nisi benedixeris mihi." Bless me, my Father, and let Your blessing be to give me great sorrow for my sins and a great love for You. I love You, my Father, I love You with all my heart. Do not permit me to depart from You any more. Deprive me of everything, but do not deprive me of Your love.

O Mary, if God is my Father, you are my Mother. Bless me too. I do not deserve to be a son; accept me as your servant; but let me be a servant who tenderly loves you always and always trusts in your protection.

Point II

Poor sinners! They toil and labor to acquire worldly knowledge or the art of gaining the goods of this life, which must shortly end; yet they neglect the goods of that life which never ends! They so lose their senses that they become not only fools but brutes, for, living as brutes, they do not consider what is good and what is evil, but only follow the bestial instincts of the senses, embracing what presently pleases the flesh, without thinking of what they lose and the eternal ruin they bring upon themselves. But this is not to act like a man, but like a beast. St. John Chrysostom says: "Hominem illum dicimus, qui imaginem hominis salvam retinet; quae autem est imago hominis? rationalem esse." To be a man is to be rational — that is, to act according to reason, not according to the appetite of the senses. If God gave a beast the use of reason and it acted according to reason, it would be said to act like a man; so, on the contrary, when man acts according to sense against reason, it must be said that he acts like a beast.

"Utinam saperent, et intelligerent, et novissima providerent" (Deut. 32:29). He who acts prudently according to reason foresees the future — that is, what must happen at the end of life: death, judgment, and after this, hell or paradise. Oh, how much wiser is a peasant who saves his soul than a monarch who is damned! "Melior est puer pauper, et sapiens rege sene et stulto, nesciente praevidere in posterum" (Eccl. 4:13). O God, would not everyone think him mad who, to gain a penny now, put himself at risk of losing all his possessions? And he who for a brief satisfaction loses his soul, or puts it at risk of losing it forever — should he not be considered mad? This is the ruin of so many souls that are damned: attending only to present goods and evils and not to eternal goods and evils.

God certainly has not placed us on this earth to make ourselves rich, acquire honors, or satisfy our senses, but to gain eternal life. "Finem vero vitam aeternam" (Rom. 6:22). And attaining this end is the only thing that should matter to us. "Porro unum est necessarium" (Luke 10:42). But this end is what sinners most despise; they think only of the present, they walk toward death, they approach the entrance to eternity, and they know not where they are going. What would you say of a helmsman, says St. Augustine, who when asked where he is going, answered that he does not know? Everyone would say this man is leading his ship to ruin. "Talis est qui currit praeter viam." Such are those wise men of the world who know how to make profits, take their pleasures, obtain positions, but do not know how to save their souls. The rich man was wise in making himself wealthy, but "mortuus est, et sepultus in inferno." Alexander the Great was wise in conquering so many kingdoms, but in a few years he died and was damned forever. Henry VIII was wise in keeping himself on the throne by rebelling from the Church, but in the end he himself, seeing that he was losing his soul, confessed: "Perdidimus omnia." How many wretches now weep and cry out in hell: "Quid profuit nobis superbia, aut divitiarum iactantia? transierunt omnia illa tanquam umbra" (Wis. 5:9). Behold, they say, for us all the goods of the world have passed like a shadow, and nothing remains but eternal pain and weeping.

"Ante hominem vita, et mors, quod placuerit ei, dabitur illi" (Sirach 15:18). My Christian, in this life, life and death are set before you — that is, depriving yourself of forbidden pleasures and gaining eternal life, or taking them and gaining eternal death. What do you say? What do you choose? Choose as a man, not as a beast. Choose as a Christian who has faith and says: "Quid prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animae vero suae detrimentum patiatur?"

Affections and Prayers

Ah, my God, You gave me reason, You gave me the light of faith, and I in the past have acted like a brute, losing Your grace for the wretched pleasures of my senses, which have passed like a wind; and I find nothing remaining from them but remorse of conscience and accounts to settle with Your divine justice. "Non intres in iudicium cum servo tuo." Ah, Lord, do not judge me according to my merits, but treat me according to Your mercy. Give me light. Give me sorrow for the offenses I have done You, and pardon me. "Erravi sicut ovis quae periit, quaere servum tuum." I am a lost sheep; if You do not seek me, I shall remain lost. Have pity on me, for the blood You shed for love of me. I repent, O supreme Good, of having left You and of having voluntarily renounced Your grace. I could wish to die of sorrow; but give me still more sorrow. Grant that I may come to heaven to sing Your mercies.

O Mary, my Mother, you are my refuge; pray to Jesus for me; pray that He may pardon me and give me holy perseverance.

Point III

Let us understand that the truly wise are those who know how to acquire divine grace and paradise. Let us therefore always pray to the Lord to give us the knowledge of the Saints, which He gives to those who ask for it. "Dedit illis scientiam sanctorum" (Wis. 10:10). Oh, what a beautiful knowledge it is to know how to love God and save one's soul — which consists in knowing how to take the way of eternal salvation and the means to attain it. The study of saving one's soul is the most necessary of all studies. If we know everything and do not know how to save ourselves, nothing will avail us, and we shall be forever unhappy; but on the other hand, we shall always be blessed if we know how to love God, even if we are ignorant of all other things. "Beatus qui te novit, etsi alia nescit," said St. Augustine. One day Brother Giles said to St. Bonaventure: Blessed are you, Father Bonaventure, who know so many things, while I, a poor ignorant man, know nothing; you can make yourself holier than I. Hear, the Saint then answered, if an ignorant old woman knows how to love God more than I, she will be holier than I. Whereupon Brother Giles began to cry out: O old woman, old woman, listen — if you love God, you can make yourself holier than Father Bonaventure!

"Surgunt indocti, et rapiunt coelum," said St. Augustine. How many simple folk who cannot read, but who know how to love God, save themselves; and how many learned men of the world are damned! But the former, not the latter, are the truly wise. Oh, what great sages were a St. Paschal, a St. Felix the Capuchin, a St. John of God, although ignorant of human sciences! What great sages were the many who, leaving the world, went to shut themselves in cloisters and to live in deserts — a St. Benedict, a St. Francis of Assisi, a St. Louis of Toulouse, who renounced his kingdom! What great sages were the many martyrs, the many virgins, who renounced marriages with the great in order to go and die for Jesus Christ! And this truth is recognized even by the worldly, who do not fail to say of someone who has given himself to God: Blessed is he who understands this and saves his soul. In short, those who leave the goods of the world to give themselves to God are called men who have seen through the world's deceptions. Then those who leave God for the goods of the world — what should they be called? Men who are deceived.

My brother, to which company of these do you wish to belong? To choose well, St. John Chrysostom advises you to visit the cemeteries. "Proficiscamur ad sepulchra." The graves are beautiful schools for knowing the vanity of the goods of this world and for learning the knowledge of the Saints. Tell me, says Chrysostom, can you there discern who was a prince, who was a nobleman, and who was a scholar? For my part, says the Saint: "Nihil video, nisi putredinem, ossa et vermes. Omnia fabula, somnium, umbra." All the things of this world will shortly end and vanish like a play, a dream, a shadow. But, my Christian, if you wish to become wise, it is not enough to know the importance of your end — you must take the means to attain it. Everyone would like to save himself and become a saint; but because they do not then take the means, they do not become saints and are damned. We must flee occasions of sin, frequent the Sacraments, practice prayer, and above all we must establish in our hearts the maxims of the Gospel: "Quid prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur? Qui amat animam suam, perdet eam" (John 12:25).

That is to say, we must lose even our life to save our soul. "Qui vult venire post me, abneget semetipsum" (Matt. 16:24). To follow Jesus Christ, we must deny self-love the satisfactions it seeks. "Vita in voluntate eius" (Ps. 39:6). Our salvation consists in doing the divine will — these and other similar maxims.

Affections and Prayers

O Father of mercies, look upon my miseries and have pity on me. Give me light and make me know my past folly, so that I may weep over it, and know Your infinite goodness, so that I may love it. My Jesus, "ne tradas bestiis animas confitentes tibi." You have shed Your blood to save me; do not permit me to be any longer a slave of the demons, as I have been in the past. I repent, O supreme Good, of having left You. I curse all those moments in which by my will I gave consent to sin; and I embrace Your holy will, which desires nothing but my good. Eternal Father, through the merits of Jesus Christ, give me the strength to carry out all that pleases You. Let me die first, rather than contradict Your will any more. Help me by Your grace to place all my love in You alone, and to detach myself from every affection that does not tend toward You. I love You, O God of my soul; I love You above all things; and from You I hope every good: pardon, perseverance in Your love, and paradise, to love You for eternity.

O Mary, seek for me these graces. Your Son refuses you nothing. My hope, in you I trust.