showers of rain and thunderstorms, but at the summit, which is raised above the middle region of the atmosphere, there is a perpetual calm. In a word, they are like Jesus our Saviour, who, in the midst of all the sorrows and ignominies of his Passion, suffered no diminution of his peace. The more the saints suffer, the more they rejoice in spirit, knowing that in accepting their sufferings they please their Lord, whom only they love. This David experienced when he said: Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me.[1] St. Teresa says: "And what greater good can we acquire than a testimony that we please God?" Father Avila has written: "One Blessed be God, in adversity, is of greater value than a thousand acts of thanksgiving in prosperity."
But such a religious says: I accept all the crosses that come to me from God, such as losses, pains, and infirmities; but how can I bear so much maltreatment and such unjust persecutions? They that thus persecute me are certainly guilty of sin, and God does not will sin. But, dear sister, do you not know that all comes from God? Good things and evil, life and death, . . . are from God. Prosperity and adversity, life and death, come from the Lord. It is necessary to know that in every action there is a physical entity which belongs to the material part of the action, and a moral entity that appertains to reason: the moral entity of the action, or the sin of the person who persecutes you, belongs to his malice, but the physical entity appertains to the divine concurrence; so that God wills not the sin, but he wills that you suffer the persecution, and it is he that sends it. When his cattle were taken away from Job, God did not will the sin of the plunderers, but he willed that Job should suffer the loss. Hence, Job said:
- ↑ Ps. xxii. 4.
