The benefits resulting from withdrawing our Joy from Temporal things.

The spiritual man, then, must be very careful of the beginnings of Joy in Temporal things, lest it should grow from little to be great, and increase from one degree to another. What is small becomes large, out of slight beginnings result great evils, and one spark is enough to set a mountain on fire. However slight his joy may be, let him quench it at once, and not trust that he shall be able to do it later; for if he has not the courage to do so when it is but beginning, how can he presume upon success when it shall have taken root and grown? Remember especially those words of our Lord, ‘ He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater.’ t

He who avoids what is slight will not stumble over what is great. Little things involve great evils, because the fences and wall of the heart are broken down when they enter in. And the proverb says, He who has begun his work has

* Rom. i. 28. + Ps. xlviii. 17, 18. t S. Luke xvi. 10.

in

accomplished the half of it. It is for this reason that David admonishes us, saying, ‘ If riches abound set. not your heart upon them.’* If man will not do this for God, and because Christian Perfection requires it, yet because of the temporal advantages, beside the ‘spiritual ones, which such conduct brings with it, he should keep his heart perfectly free from all joy of this kind. In this way he not only delivers himself from those pestilent evils enumerated in the preceding chapter, but also, repressing all joy in temporal goods, acquires the virtue of liberality, one of the chief attributes of God; and which cannot possibly coexist with avarice. Moreover, he attains to liberty of spirit, clearness of judgment, repose, tranquillity, and peaceful confidence in God, together with the true worship and obedience of the Will. He has greater joy and comfort in creatures if he detaches himself from them; and he can have no joy in them if he considers them as his own. He acquires also in this detachment from creatures a clear comprehension of them, so as to understand perfectly the truths that relate to them, both naturally and supernaturally. For this reason his joy in them is widely different from his who is attached to them, and far nobler. The former rejoices in their truth, the latter in their deceptiveness; the former in their best, and the latter in their worst, conditions; the former in their substantial worth, and the latter in their seeming and accidental nature, through his senses only. For sense cannot grasp or comprehend more than the accidents, but the mind, purified from the clouds and species of the accidents, penetrates to the interior truth of things, for that is its proper object.

Now Joy as a cloud darkens the judgment, for there can be no rejoicing in created things without the attachment of the Will. The negation and purgation of this joy leaves the

e * Ps. bxi. 11.

judgment clear as the sky when the mists are scattered.

The former, therefore, has joy in all things, but his joy is

not dependent upon them, neither does it arise from their being his own: and the latter, in so far as he regards them as his own, loses in general all joy whatever. The former, while his heart is set upon none of them, possesses them all, as the Apostle saith, with great freedom: ‘ as having nothing, and possessing all things.’* The latter, while in will attached to them, neither has nor possesses anything, for rather created things have possession of his very heart, for which cause he suffers pain as a prisoner. And, therefore, all the joy he will derive from ereatures, will necessarily end in as many disquietudes and pains in the heart which is in their possession.

He who is detached from creatures, is not molested during prayer or otherwise, and so, without losing his time, he gains easily great spiritual treasures. On the other hand, the covetous man runs to and fro, within the limits of the chain by which his heart is bound, and with all his efforts can scarcely set himself free, even for a moment, from the bondage of his thoughts, running incessantly thither where his heart is fixed. The spiritual man, therefore, must suppress the first motions of this joy, remembering, as I said before, that there is nothing in which a man may rejoice except in serving God, in promoting His Honour and Glory, in directing all things to this end, and in avoiding all vanity in them, and in not seeking his own pleasure and comfort.

The absence of Joy in created good, brings another great and excellent benefit: it sets the heart free for God: which is a disposition meet for all those graces which He will bestow, and without which He will give none, And even in this life, for one joy denied through love of Him and for the

* 2 Cor. vi. 10.

6. for

infior

sake of Evangelical Perfection, He will give them a hundredfold, according to His promise.* But if it were not so, the spiritual Christian ought to suppress all joy in created things because it is offensive in the sight of God. When the rich man, in the gospel, rejoiced, because he had ‘much goods laid up for many years,’ God was so displeased, that He said unto him: ‘Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee.’ f

It is therefore justly to be feared, whenever we rejoice in vanity, that God is looking “on and preparing some chastisement for us, the bitter cup of our deservings; for the punishment of such rejoicing is frequently greater than its pleasures. Though the words recorded by S. John concerning Babylon be true: ‘ As much as she hath glorified herself and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her,’ { we are not to suppose that the pain will not exceed the joy, because it will be far greater—seeing that for passing pleasures there are infinite and everlasting torments—for the words mean that nothing shall escape its particular punishment, for He who will punish for every idle word, will not pass over our empty joy.