time; what great condescension and goodness in Him! The first and longer part. Yet there are men who must be compelled and forced by extreme necessity before they either receive the visit of Our Lord or treat Him with becoming respect; what folly and madness in us! The second part.
O merciful Saviour who meanest so well with us! “compel them to come in;” (ah, that I must ask Thee to do this!) soften by Thy powerful grace the stony hearts of men, that they may come to Thy supper, and that they may come to it in good time, and receive Thee with due respect. This I am forced to beg of Thee through the merits of Thy dearest Mother Mary and of our holy guardian angels. I repeat my prayer “Compel them to come in.”
Nothing comforts the sick man more than a visit from a good friend. It is when we are sick that we learn rightly to appreciate the value of good health, without which all other earthly goods are worthless. Personal beauty, mental gifts, the esteem of men, great treasures and riches, splendid garments and exquisite food and drink, of what use are all those things to me if I have lost my health and am sick and suffering? For I cannot enjoy any of them and am just as badly off as if I had them not. In the whole world there is nothing I can use but my bed, and even in that I cannot find as much rest and pleasure as the poor ploughman does, when he lays down on his hard bed, worn out with toil and fatigue. His repose is far sweeter and more refreshing than that of a sick man who lies on a bed of down. If there is anything that can bring consolation in sickness it is a visit from a good, sincere friend, who can comfort the sick man and help him to pass the time by agreeable or consoling conversation. By agreeable conversation, I say; for it is not every visit that is pleasing to the sick man; there are some visits that only annoy him and make him wish that the person who came to trouble him with silly talk would go away. Job, patient as he was, sitting on the dung-hill and writhing in pain, complained of the friends who visited him with the intention of offering him consolation; for they began to speak to him of a host of things of which they knew nothing, and tried to fathom the designs of God in punishing him so severely. Ah, said he at last, after having listened to them for a long time in silence: “You are all troublesome comforters. Shall windy words have no end?”[1] Will you not put a stop to that vain, silly
- ↑ Consolatores onerosi omnes vos estis. Numquid habebunt finem verba ventosa?—Job xvi. 23.
