slothful in the service of God. thou this?”[1] Our Lord asked Martha, after He had explained to her about the eternal life that is to follow the resurrection of the dead. Let me now put the same question to many Christians and Catholics: “Believest thou this?” do you believe and believe firmly that your last end is heaven? that your eternal happiness is in heaven? that the great God Himself shall be the measure of your happiness? that you must, in the short and uncertain time of this life, prepare and merit that happiness for yourselves? Do you believe this? I am not speaking to you, O wicked sinners! who spend the days and years of your lives in vice, for it is clear and evident that you are stone-blind, that you have no true knowledge of heaven; for not only do you not work for it, but you do all in your power to have yourselves violently excluded from it. My question is addressed to you, slothful Christians who are careless in the divine service, who appear not to belong to the number of the wicked, and yet do not deserve the name of pious and zealous servants of God; you who spend the greater part of your time in idleness, or in doing things that are useless for the salvation of your souls; you who in all things seek yourselves, your comforts, and the gratification of your senses, or who are so sunk in sordid cares, in your domestic and other duties, that you find no relish for heavenly things and works of devotion, who hardly think of God once or twice in the day, who make nothing of sins unless they are evidently grievous, who rarely examine your consciences to see how they stand with God, except once a year when you go to confession, who say your short prayers, that you now and then offer to God, in a cold, distracted manner, who perform your daily tasks and duties without tiie good intention, without any regard for God or heaven, without a supernatural motive: and with all this you have little patience in adversity, little devotion in the church, little charity and mercy towards the poor, little zeal for the honor of God, little inclination for hearing sermons or reading spiritual books, for overcoming and mortifying evil propensities, for humility and other Christian virtues. In a word, you are neither hot nor cold, neither pious nor wicked; you live as if you were created only for this world. Again I ask you, tepid Christians, do you believe this? Do you believe that such a great treasure of eternal reward is open for you in heaven?
They do And what do you do to gain it? Show us the care and trouble They do
- ↑ Credis hoc?—John xi. 26.
