Reflection III. — To enter at once into our subject, without losing sight of the consequence of the Gospel, the first motive which our Saviour seems to have, in the resurrection of Lazarus, is that of drying up the tears, and rewarding the prayers and the piety of his sisters. Lord, said they to him, he whom thou lovest is sick: and behold the first motive which often determines Jesus Christ to operate the conversion of a great sinner, — the tears and the prayers of those just souls who entreat it.
Yes, my brethren, whether it be that the Lord thereby wish to render virtue more respectable to sinners, by according favours to them only through the mediation of just souls; whether it be that he intended more closely to knit together his members, and to perfect them in unity and in charity, by rendering the ministry of the one useful and requisite to the other; it is certain that it is through the prayers of the good, and in their intercession, that the source of the conversion of the greatest sinners springs up. As all is done for the just in the church, says the apostle, so it may be said that every thing is done through them; and, as sinners are only endured in it to exercise their virtue, or to animate their vigilance, they are also recalled from their errors only to console their faith and to reward their groanings and prayers.
To love just souls is a beginning, then, of righteousness to the greatest sinners: it is a presage of virtue to respect it in those who practise it: it is a prospect of conversion to seek the society of the good, to esteem their acquaintance, and to interest them in our salvation; and, even admitting that our heart still groan under iniquitous bonds, and that attachment to the world and to pleasures still separate us from God, yet from the moment that we begin to love his servants, we accomplish, as it were, the first step in his service. It seems as if our heart already becomes tired of its passions, from the moment that we take pleasure in the society of those who condemn them; and that a relish for virtue is on the eve of springing up in us, from the moment that we take delight in those whom virtue alone renders amiable.
Besides, the just, instructed by ourselves with regard to our weaknesses, keep them continually present before the Lord: they lament, before him, over those chains which still bind us to the world and to its amusements; they offer up to him some weak desires of virtue, which we have entrusted to their charge, in order to induce his goodness to grant more fervent and more efficacious ones; they carry, even to the foot of the throne, some feeble essays toward good which they have noted in us, in order to obtain for us the perfection and plenitude of his mercy. More affected with our evils than for their own wants, they piously forget themselves, in order to snatch from destruction their brethren who are on the point of perishing before their eyes: they alone love us for ourselves, because they alone love in us but our salvation: the world may furnish sycophants, flatterers, social companions in dissipation, but virtue alone gives us friends.
And it is here that you who now listen to me, who, perhaps like
