14 October 2023
WHEREVER you are, wherever you go, you are miserable unless you turn to
God. So why be dismayed when things do not happen as you wish and desire? Is
there anyone who has everything as he wishes? No—neither I, nor you, nor any
man on earth. There is no one in the world, be he Pope or king, who does not
suffer trial and anguish. Who is the better off then? Surely, it is the man who
will suffer something for God. Many unstable and weak-minded people say: “See
how well that man lives, how rich, how great he is, how powerful and mighty.”
But you must lift up your eyes to the riches of heaven and realize that the
material goods of which they speak are nothing. These things are uncertain and
very burdensome because they are never possessed without anxiety and fear.
Man’s happiness does not consist in the possession of abundant goods; a very
little is enough. Living on earth is truly a misery. The more a man desires
spiritual life, the more bitter the present becomes to him, because he
understands better and sees more clearly the defects, the corruption of human
nature. To eat and drink, to watch and sleep, to rest, to labor, and to be
bound by other human necessities is certainly a great misery and affliction to
the devout man, who would gladly be released from them and be free from all
sin. Truly, the inner man is greatly burdened in this world by the necessities
of the body, and for this reason the Prophet prayed that he might be as free
from them as possible, when he said: “From my necessities, O Lord, deliver me.”
But woe to those who know not their own misery, and greater woe to those who
love this miserable and corruptible life. Some, indeed, can scarcely procure
its necessities either by work or by begging; yet they love it so much that, if
they could live here always, they would care nothing for the kingdom of God. How
foolish and faithless of heart are those who are so engrossed in earthly things
as to relish nothing but what is carnal! Miserable men indeed, for in the end
they will see to their sorrow how cheap and worthless was the thing they loved.
The saints of God and all devout friends of Christ did not look to what pleases
the body nor to the things that are popular from time to time. Their whole hope
and aim centered on the everlasting good. Their whole desire pointed upward to
the lasting and invisible realm, lest the love of what is visible drag them
down to lower things. Do not lose heart, then, my brother, in pursuing your
spiritual life. There is yet time, and your hour is not past. Why delay your
purpose? Arise! Begin at once and say: “Now is the time to act, now is the time
to fight, now is the proper time to amend.”
Thomas à Kempis
No comments:
Post a Comment