satisfied with everything; all is right since it is according to Thy will! “Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight.”[1] But I need not dwell longer on this point, as I have already explained it in detail. And in fact when I consider how short is the miserable joy of the wicked, I find that I have not merely no cause to complain, but also no reason for congratulating them, or envying them in the least. This, my dear brethren, we shall see in the
Second Part.
Our discontent generally comes from envy. Shown by a simile. Generally speaking, the complaints we utter and the discontent we feel do not arise from our own wants nor from temporal goods as they are in themselves, but rather from a secret envy and spirit of grudging. If we men were alike in all things, and no one had more than his neighbor, then we should all be satisfied, although no one might have much; for every one would think: it must be so. Again, if each one imagined he had something more or better than others, he would be not only content, but would esteem himself very fortunate. The peasant who never left his native village, and who on account of the extent of his lands is obliged to keep a horse more than his neighbors, looks on himself as the richest and most fortunate in the whole place; but if he goes into the town and sees the rich equipages of the wealthy, alas! he thinks, poor man that I am! how rich the people are here! And he who was so happy before goes home discontented. Why? He is just as well off as before. Yes, but now he sees that others have more than he; and therefore his own condition now seems despicable to him.
Further explained by another simile. In this matter we resemble little children. Suppose there are four or five of them together in a household; their mother gives them their breakfast as usual in the morning; each one gets a piece of rye bread rather thinly spread with butter, but all receive the same; for none of you would advise her to be more generous to one than to another. They are all quite satisfied and fall to with great gusto, munching their bread with such eagerness that it quite gives one an appetite to look at them. But suppose now that one of the children, a brother or sister, perhaps on account of being more delicate than the others, gets a piece of white bread instead of rye, and may be a morsel of meat in addition, oh, what a to-do there is in the house about
- ↑ Ita, Pater, quoniam sic fuit placitum ante te.—Matt. xi. 26.
