lies heavy upon them, and they merit but little in bearing it, because of the great repugnance and disgust with which they bear it; so that they live in danger of forsaking it, and of falling into the malediction of Jeremias, which says, "Oursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully [1] and into that most terrible one with which our Lord threatened a tepid bishop, saying to him, " Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth;" [2] and cast him both from Himself and out of the mystical body of His Church.
3. Finally, as the "slothful servant," who "hid the talent" of his Lord, lost what he had, and was "cast" "into the exterior darkness," where there is perpetual " weeping and gnashing of teeth;" [3] so the slothful shall be punished in torment proportioned to his sloth, taking from him "the talent" of faitfr-and hope which he had buried. And because he lived in idleness and trembled at labour, he shall live in perpetual darkness, not working, but suffering, trembling, and gnashing his teeth for the dreadfulness of the torments which he suffers.
Colloquy. — O eternal God, by whose sentence the fainthearted and slothful perished in the desert without entering into "the land" [4] which Thou hadst promised them, I confess that for my sloth I deserve to be cast out of Thy house, to be excluded from Thy kingdom, and being bound hand and foot, to be cast into "exterior" darkness. I am grieved, O Lord, for my former remissness, deliver me from it for Thy mercy, that I may merit to enter into "the land" of eternal promise! Amen.
POINT III.
Thirdly, I will consider the great benefits that I shall obtain
