Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
As the spirit of the world, upon which we meditated this morning, is formulated in maxims which pass for incontestable axioms, we will consider tomorrow in our meditation: 1st, how false these maxims are; 2nd, how every Christian ought to love and prefer to them the maxims of Jesus Christ. Our resolution shall be: 1st, not to count as anything the maxims of the world; 2nd, always to take as the rule of our conduct the maxims of Jesus Christ. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the gospel, that Jesus Christ is the sole master whose teachings we ought to follow: "Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, Christ" (Matt. xxiii. 10).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Jesus Christ, the Eternal Truth, descended from heaven to earth to enlighten every man coming into the world (John xiv. 6; viii. 12; i. 9). Let us thank Him for having come to make this sweet and blessed light shine in the midst of the errors which cover the world (John i. 5). We can never bless Him sufficiently.
FIRST POINT
The Falsity of Worldly Maxims.
The best proof of the falsity of these maxims is that they are in direct opposition to the maxims of the Eternal Truth, which is Jesus Christ. For, 1st, the world says: "If honors present themselves to you, refuse them not; if they do not come to you, then seek them. A man can neither have a mind nor a heart if he act differently. Happy he who is honored, applauded, and who marches forward to glory; miserable he who drags along an obscure life and without splendor." Jesus Christ says, on the contrary: "Happy are the humble; happy are those who are persecuted for justice sake; happy those of whom a great deal of evil is said, if they suffer with patience and resignation; happy those who do not blush at practising religion and at being confounded with the common herd, knowing how to understand that because many vulgar men are upright and just, uprightness and justice do not thereby cease to be worthy of elevated minds."
2nd. The world says: "A man must be insensible not to love pleasures and not to enjoy them when he can. Happy those who wish for them, who laugh, who amuse themselves, and whose days and nights are spent in enjoyment; unhappy is the man who is in affliction." Jesus Christ says, on the contrary: "Happy are those who suffer and who weep, because a day will come in which their tears will be changed into joy; and woe to you who laugh and have your consolation in this world, because your laughter will be changed into cries of grief and into gnashings of teeth."
3rd. The world says: "A man must be a fool to love poverty and prefer it to riches. Happy the rich man who wants for nothing and obtains all that he desires; who sits down every day at a splendid table, and can satisfy all his tastes; who has numerous servants eager to forestall his desires and execute his will; who inhabits beautiful palaces fitted with all the inventions of effeminacy and luxury; who rambles over his vast domains in his leisure moments, whilst saying to himself: All this belongs to me." Jesus Christ says, on the contrary: "Woe to ye rich who have your enjoyments in this world, because it is written that the wicked rich man died and was buried in hell; but happy the poor who know how to bear privation and poverty, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them."
4th. Lastly, the world says: "A man must make himself happy here below at all costs; that is his great affair." Jesus Christ, on the contrary, says: "Your great, your only affair is to save yourself. Happiness is not for this present life, it is for the future life. It will serve you nothing to gain the whole universe if you lose your soul."
Such are the contrary maxims of Jesus Christ and of the world; they cannot be both of them true. Either the world deceives itself or Jesus Christ deceives Himself; the world may choose to say that Jesus Christ is wrong, that His cross is folly. "Thou art beside thyself," said a great man of the world to St. Paul (Acts xxvi. 24). Dare we say the same?
SECOND POINT
The Christian ought to Prefer to the Maxims of the World, and to Love above all else, the Maxims of Jesus Christ.
In bygone days the world bowed before the words of a pagan philosopher Aristotle. On hearing the simple words, "The master has said so," every one submitted. How much more ought we to be docile to the words, "Jesus Christ has said so." Jesus Christ has said: It is happiness to be humbled, to be poor, to suffer. Therefore, that saying is true, and I believe in it as much as in the existence of a God in three persons, as much as in the Incarnation and Redemption, for Jesus Christ is not less credible in regard to moral truths than in regard to speculative doctrines. The world, which is beside me, will act, speak, and think differently; but what signifies to me the speeches and the acts of a madman when I am sure of following the Eternal Truth? I will therefore be entirely Thine, O my God, without dividing myself between Thee and the world, between Thy cross and pleasure, between grace and nature (Matt. viii. 19). But here, O my Lord, a reflection which I am making confounds me. I enter into my conscience, I cast a glance upon my past. If I believe these truths, wherefore then, in suffering and privation, have I allowed murmurs, discouragements, such words of incredulity as these to escape me: God is not just to make me suffer in this way? Wherefore then, on seeing the prosperity of the wicked and the enjoyments of those who seem to traverse the pathway of life without having any crosses to bear, has this cry escaped my lips: How happy they are and how I would like to be in their place! Pardon, O Jesus! I have been incredulous in regard to Thy word, which told me that the cross is a happiness, poverty a blessing, contempt and humiliation a glory! It consoles the afflicted, it makes the rich to be detached, it inclines him to be charitable and generous, it moderates the passions. O God, increase my faith (Luke xvii. 5).
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.