which makes the perfect happiness of the soul in heaven for all eternity, even outside the good it possesses in God, the Fountain of infinite happiness. All that it remembers outside of God, all that it knows and grasps outside of God, all that it wishes and desires outside of God will cause it unspeakable joy and pleasure.
The memory shall rejoice in the recollection of the dangers incurred on earth. Shown by a simile. With regard to the memory, it can rejoice even at the recollection of sad events. Thus a soldier who has escaped out of a bloody battle, in which the greater number of his comrades were left dead on the field, and who has returned victorious after long fighting, has reason to rejoice whenever his thoughts go back to the danger in which he was, and in which so many lost their lives, and to the good fortune he now enjoys. How lucky I am, he says to himself; I am among the few who have saved their lives and won the victory. And the greater the danger, the greater must be his joy at having escaped. My dear brethren, as long as we are in this mortal life on earth we are soldiers engaged in battle, and we have to defend ourselves amid blows and cuts, and are still uncertain as to whether we shall escape or not. On all sides we are surrounded by powerful foes, and if they get the better of us we shall have to suffer an eternal death. “We have to fight,” says St. Cyprian, “with avarice, impurity, ambition, and impatience,” which try to lead us into sin. Our most bitter and invisible enemies are the demons and their satellites, who lie in wait for our souls night and day. And what should occasion us the greatest alarm, our faith teaches us that the greater number of men succumb in the struggle and are lost forever; and that the smaller number gain the victory and eternal life (although the number of the elect is countless, still it is small compared to that of the reprobate). Hence if you ask those who are really desirous of saving their souls and serving God truly with all their hearts, what it is that occasions them most anguish, they will tell you that they are terrified most at knowing that they are always in danger of offending God, whom they love above all things, and losing their souls, which they are most eager to save. For that reason hermits seek the deserts and wildernesses, and religious love their cloisters and convents, because there they are more safe from that danger; therefore they sigh with St. Paul: “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”[1] I would willingly serve Christ till the end
- ↑ Mihi vivere Christus est, et mori lucrum.—Philipp. i. 21.
