some trifling corporal pain in this life they expose their souls and bodies to eternal torments in the next. "Such charity," says St. Bernard, " is destructive of charity: such mercy is full of cruelty; because it serves the body so as to destroy the soul." The false love of the flesh destroys the true charity which we owe to ourselves: inordinate compassion towards the body is full of cruelty, because by indulging the flesh it kills the soul. Speaking of sensualists who deride the mortifications of the saints, the same Father says: "If we are cruel in crucifying the flesh, you by sparing it are far more cruel." Yes, for by the pleasures of the body in this life you shall merit for soul and body inexpressible torments forever in the next. Father Rodriguez tells us of a solitary who had emaciated his body by very rigorous austerities. Being asked why he treated his body so badly, he replied: "I only chastise what chastises me." I torment the enemy who persecutes my soul, and who seeks my destruction. The Abbot Moses being once censured for his severity towards his body, replied: " Let the passion cease, and I will also cease to mortify my flesh." When the flesh ceases to molest me, I shall cease to crucify its appetites.
If, then, we wish to be saved, and to please God, we must take pleasure in what the flesh refuses, and must reject what the flesh demands. Our Lord once said to St. Francis of Assisi: "If you desire my love, accept the things that are bitter as if they were sweet, and the things that are sweet as if they were bitter."
