Chapter XXXVIII. That we ought to regard as precious every Opportunity which is afforded to us for the Acquisition of Virtues; any chiefly those which present the greatest Difficulties

THAT you should accept the opportunities which present themselves of acquiring virtue is not enough, beloved; you should also sometimes seek them, as things of great price and value, and ever embrace them joyfully as soon as they appear; and the more distasteful they are to nature, the more dear and precious should they be esteemed. This, by the Divine assistance, you will be enabled to do, if you will bear in mind the following considerations.

One is, that opportunities are means adapted, nay, necessary for acquiring virtues. Hence, when you are seeking virtues from the Lord, you are by a necessary consequence asking also for opportunities, else your prayer would be vain, and you would be contradicting your own words and tempting God, for He ordinarily does not give patience without tribulation, nor humility without humiliations.

The same may be said of all other virtues, which are doubtless only to be gained by adverse circumstances; and the more painful these are, the more effectually do they aid us, and therefore the more acceptable and welcome should they be.

For acts of virtue, done in such cases, are more heroic and generous, and more easily and quickly open to us the way to holiness.

But even the slightest opportunity, though but a word or look, which crosses our will, should be prized and not allowed to pass unused; for such acts, though less intense than those made in the face of considerable difficulties, are more frequent.

Another consideration (of which I have already spoken) is, that everything which happens to us comes from God for our good, and in order that we may turn it to account.

And although (as we have elsewhere said) some things spring from our own defects, and those of others, and therefore cannot be said to be of God, Who wills nothing that is sinful, yet are they from God, inasmuch as He permits them, and does not prevent them, though He has it in His power to do so.

But all sorrows and afflictions, whether they are the result of our own fault, or of the malice of others, are both from God, and of God; because He concurs in them, and that which He would not have us do as being utterly hateful and abominable in His most pure eyes. He yet wills that we should suffer, both for our quicker growth in holiness, and for other wise reasons: unknown to us.

If, then, it is most certainly our Lord's Will that we should cheerfully endure all crosses which may come to us, either from our own evil doings, or from those of others, for us to say—as many say as an excuse for their impatience—that God wills not, nay, hates evil deeds, is but a vain pretext for hiding our own fault, and for refusing the cross which we well know He intended us to bear.

Indeed, I will go further and say, that, taking all things into consideration, our Lord is more pleased with our endurance of those sufferings which come to us from the misdeeds of others, especially from those who are under an obligation to us, than with our endurance of those trials which arise from other distressing accidents. And this because our proud nature is more humbled in the former than in the latter case; and also because, by cheerfully enduring them, we do most especially please and magnify our God, working together with Him in that which renders His unspeakable Goodness and Almightiness most conspicuous, namely, His way of drawing out of the deadly poison of malice and wickedness the sweet and precious fruit of virtue and goodness.

Know, then, beloved, that when the Lord has discovered in us the desire to yield ourselves up in earnest, and to strive as we ought for so great a prize, He at once prepares for us a cup of the sharpest temptations and hardest trials, that we may drink it when He wills; and we, as we acknowledge His love and our own profit, should receive it cheerfully and blindly, and drink it trustingly and unhesitatingly to the very dregs, for it is a medicine, mixed by an unerring Hand, and composed of ingredients which are as profitable to the soul as they are bitter in themselves.