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On the Vanity of the Hope of Heaven
word of flattery, an attraction in the least occasion that offers, and there is an end to all the good resolutions, because they are weak, and the former mode of life is resumed. Meanwhile the years of their lives pass away, and they have nothing better than those changeable desires and weak resolutions, those daily purposes and intentions of doing everything, although in reality nothing whatever is done.
Examen to see if we have not been of their number hitherto.
Now, my dear brethren, let each one of you ask himself by way of conclusion: have I hitherto wished to go to heaven? Do I still wish it? Have I wished it earnestly and in truth? Am I determined to carry this into effect? What have I hitherto done to this end? What am I doing now? Have I not perhaps been content with mere desires and empty longings, not using the proper means of fulfilling them? But how can such wishes or desires help me? Of what good is this weak determination of mine? Do you wish to do me a service? is a question often asked in the world; then show that you are in earnest by doing it. The ordinary compliments that people make through politeness, offering their services, do not count for much; they are empty words that one cannot depend on. If I wish to go to heaven I must show that my wish is real by keeping the commandments of God, by zeal in the practice of virtue, and indeed by keeping all the commandments, not one excepted; by fulfilling ail the obligations of my state and condition, not one excepted, and by diligence and constancy in the practice of virtue. Do I do as much for heaven as I am wont to do for health’s sake, or to make some temporal profit? to secure success in my domestic affairs? to get a good situation? to please a mere mortal? to satisfy my senses and love of comfort? Nay, do I do as much for the sake of gaining heaven as I have often done to commit sin? to avenge myself ou my enemy? to enjoy the forbidden love of a creature? to get possession unjustly of another’s property? to lose my soul for all eternity? How many thoughts, considerations, cares, labors, journeys! how much running here and there, chagrin, and expense I have endured to gain those ends! And shall I now refuse to take the least trouble, to make the slightest effort to gain an indescribable, eternal good in heaven? To accomplish my will m those other things, I was not satisfied with using one or the other means; I did everything that lay in my power; I ventured on everything that offered the slightest chance of success; and to get to heaven shall I only do a little, and not all that