If we had true Christian faith, we should rather rejoice in suffering after the example of good Christians. O Christian faith! how art thou become so weak and wavering! Christian hope, how uncertain thy foundation in many people! Might we not think of some that they acknowledge no other life than the present, which we have in common with the beasts of the field, like that old woman whose epitaph was: “I have lived, and have believed in nothing except life”?[1] Oh, if we only had a lively faith and hope in the glory of the resurrection, we should rejoice when poverty takes away our temporal goods, or sickness or voluntary mortification weakens our bodies. We should think and say with that leper of whom Rodriguez writes: “See, the fetters that keep me on this wretched earth are loosened more and more every day, so that I shall arrive in my fatherland all the quicker.” A nobleman who had lost his way out hunting found himself alone in a forest, and knew not how to get out or what to do. Suddenly he heard a most sweet voice singing. Where can the song come from? he thought. Is it an angel’s voice or that of a human being? He spurred on his horse and rode towards the voice; and behold there came out of the thicket a poor, ragged leper, so misshapen and deformed that the nobleman could hardly bear to look at him; meanwhile the leper kept on pulling off the decaying flesh from his body. “Poor wretch!” exclaimed the noble; “who was singing so sweetly in the forest a few moments ago?” “It was I, sir,” answered the leper. “What!” said the other; “can you, who have such cause to weep and lament, sing so cheerily?” “Yes, indeed! I have been singing through sheer joy and consolation; do you wish to know why? I know that the only wall that keeps me from heaven is this miserable body of mine; now the more I see it decay the nearer I come to the fulfilment of my hope that the wall will soon fall down altogether, and so I shall gain the rest and repose I long for. That is the reason why I sing so cheerily and bless God who now mortifies my flesh, that He may restore it to me afterwards in another guise.”
But we are wanting in faith. Ah, my dear brethren, I again repeat, would that we had only a lively faith and hope! But there is where we are at fault! The inordinate love we have for our flesh and sensuality, the inordinate desire of temporal things has so dimmed the faith in our hearts, that the future glory of the resurrection awakens in us but little pleasure, desire, or courage; or else if faith has still left some hope in us we try to persuade ourselves that we may
- ↑ Vixi, et ultra vitam nihil credidi?
