by the hand of God; they will not acknowledge that it is God who punishes them, who sends them wars, sickness, famine, misfortune, poverty, on account of their sins. “They have said: It is not He;” the .Lord has not done this; the sickness comes from the impure air; princes and potentates are the cause of the war; this or that cruel man has brought misfortune on our country, etc. Thus they lay the whole blame on creatures; they try to get hold of the rod that beats them, but they do not look at the hand that wields it.
Becuase they do not wish to amend. And why so? For what purpose do they refuse to acknowledge God as the Author and Cause of calamities and troubles? That they may not have to confess that such things are sent as a punishment of their sins, and be not forced to repent and amend their wicked lives. “O Lord, Thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved;” they have not entertained the least thought of repentance; Thou hast pressed hard on them, but they are not convinced; “they have refused to return.” Is it not so in reality, my dear brethren? Is the world any better for the troublous times it has been passing through hitherto? Is there any diminution of pride, of vanity, luxury, and indecency in dress? Is avarice a thing of the past? Are people more scrupulous as to how they make money? Are unlawful intimacies given up? Is drunkenness, is the foul habit of cursing and swearing, abolished? Are parents more careful in looking after their children? Alas! is not the world just the same in these respects as it always was? Nay, does it not seem to have grown worse than ever? Must we not acknowledge with the Prophet Isaias: “Behold Thou art angry, and we have sinned: in them we have been always”?[1] O Lord, Thou hast chastised us through mercy, yet we continue to sin; we remain as bad as we were before. There is no denying the evidence of our own eyes.
They continue in the sleep of sin like Jonas in the ship. It seems to me that things are going on as in the ship that was carrying the obstinate Jonas. A furious storm burst upon the sea and exposed the ship to the greatest danger; the sailors and rowers ran hither and thither in a fright; with great trouble they succeeded in taking in sail; they pumped* the water out, and cried and groaned to Heaven in their distress. Meanwhile what was Jonas, the sole cause of the disaster, doing? “Jonas,” says the Scripture, “went down into the inner part of the ship and fell into a deep sleep.” The cries and groans disturbed him not
- ↑ Ecce tu iratus es, et peccavimus in ipsis fuimus semper.—Is. lxiv. 5.
