Of the consideration of human misery
Chapter 22 human misery
Did you also ponder well the future pains of hell or purgatory, I think you would willingly bear labour and sorrow, and fear no kind of austerity.
But because these things do not reach the heart, and we still love the things that flatter us, therefore we remain cold and very sluggish.
6. Often it is mere cowardice that makes the wretched body complain so lightly.
Pray therefore humbly to the Lord to give you the spirit of compunction. And say with the Prophet: Feed me, O Lord, with the bread of tears, and give me abundance of tears to drink}
CHAPTER 22
OF THE CONSIDERATION OF HUMAN MISERY
Wretched are you, wheresoever you be and whithersoever you turn, unless you turn to God.
Why are you troubled because things do not go with you as you wish and desire? Who is there that has all things according to his will? Neither
I, nor you, nor any man upon earth.
There is no man in the world without some trouble or trial, be he King or Pope.
Who, then, is the best off? Assuredly he that is able to suffer something for God's sake.
2. Weakminded and silly people often say:
See what a happy hfe that man leads! how rich he is, how great, how powerful and exalted!
But take heed to heavenly riches, and you will see that all these temporal ones are nothing; yes, most uncertain, and rather burdensome than otherwise, since they are never possessed without anxiety and fear.
Man's happiness does not consist in having temporal things in abundance; a moderate portion is sufficient for him.
Truly it is a misery to hve upon the earth.
The more a man desires to be spiritual, the more distasteful does this present life become to him; for he the better understands and more clearly sees the defects of human corruption.
For to eat, to drink, to watch, to sleep, to rest, to labour, and to be subject to the other necessities of nature: this truly is a great misery and affliction to a devout man, who would gladly be set loose and free from all sin.
1 Psalm Ixxix, 6.
OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
Book I 3. For the spiritual man is greatly weighed down in this world by the necessities of the body.
Hence the Prophet devoutly prays that he may be free from them, saying: From my necessities deliver me, O Lord.^
But woe to them that know not their own misery; and stiU more woe to them that make this wretched and perishable life the object of their love!
For some there are who cling to it so closely (though even by labouring or by begging they hardly have bare necessaries) that could they live here always, they would care nothing for the Kingdom of God.
4. O senseless men and unbelieving in heart, who lie so deeply sunk in earthly things that they relish nothing but what is camall Miserable men! Yet a little while and they wiU realize to their cost that the thing they loved was a worthless thing and the merest nothing.
But the Saints of God, and all devoted friends of Christ, looked not to what pleases the flesh, nor to what flourishes for the time of this mortal life; but in all their hopes and aims they yearned after the good things that are eternal.
All their desire tended upwards, to the abiding and invisible things, lest by the love of things visible they should be dragged down to the lowest depths.
Lose not, brother, your confidence of making spiritual progress; you still have time, the hour is not yet passed.
5. Why will you put off your purpose from day to day?
Arise, and begin this very instant! Say to yourself: Now is the time to be doing; now is the time to be fighting; now is the fit time to be amending my life.
When you are ill at ease and m tribulation, then is the time to win merit.
You must pass through fire and water before you come to the place of refreshment.
Except you do violence to yourself, you shall not overcome vice.
So long as we carry this frail body, we cannot be free from sin, nor live without weariness and sorrow.
Fain would we be at rest from all misery; but since by sin we have lost our innocence, we have lost also true happiness.
We must therefore have patience, and await God's mercy, till this iniquity pass away,^ and mortality be swallowed up by life.« 1 Psalm xxiv, 17.
2 Psalm Ivi, 2.
8 Corinthians v, 4.