The Shepherd Of My Soul Part 4

It is futile to trust in men, or "in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation."(89) The peace and blessedness which we seek are "not as the world giveth;"(90) and unless we turn away from the world and cease to torture our lives with its vanities, our portion can never be other than heartaches, secret loathing, consuming thirst. "For many friends cannot profit," says Thomas a'Kempis, "nor strong helpers a.s.sist, nor prudent counsellors give a profitable answer, nor the books of the learned afford comfort, nor any precious substance deliver, nor any place, however retired and lovely, give shelter, unless thou thyself dost a.s.sist, help, strengthen, console, instruct, and guard us."(91) Such has been the history of the race, and such is the experience of every individual in the race that has placed his hope and trust in anything created.

We are confronted, therefore, on the one side by the inherent weakness of our own nature and the constant needs that arise therefrom; and on the other side, we are a.s.sured by the history of the race, if not by our own experience, that so long as we strive to satisfy our wants by an appeal to anything but G.o.d we are doomed to disappointment and sorrow. It is unfortunate that most people must first be crushed by the world and creatures which they serve before they grasp the fundamental truth that creatures are not their G.o.d. Comparatively few of those who enjoy the world are ever brought to realize the dignity and divine purpose of their souls until the world and its allurements, like a false pageant on a false stage, give way beneath them, and they fall helpless and alone. It is commonly only after repeated awful experiences, when worn out and exhausted by years of fruitless quest for peace and happiness and contentment, that men wake up to the simple fact that the treasures which they seek are not in the world, nor as the world giveth.

But it is one thing to turn away from the world disappointed, disgusted and betrayed; and it is quite another thing to turn to G.o.d and to recognize Him as our good Father and Shepherd, patiently waiting to receive us, ever able and ready to satisfy our wants. There are many people who find the world a disappointment and a deception, and who turn from it with loathing and hate, but who fail ever to lift their weary eyes to the proper object of their trust. Like the Israelites of old, they succeed at length in escaping from the hands of oppression and tyranny, but only to wander in a desert land throughout the length of their days.

This is the region where dwell the pessimist, the skeptic and the cynic-miserable mortals that have wasted on creatures the talents they should have given to their Creator, or that have otherwise failed in their conception of life, and have left unmultiplied the money of the Master.(92) There is plainly no middle course for us, if we would not encounter disaster; we are not negative as to the necessities of our nature; it is not enough for us to turn from positive harm, from the objects that deceive and disappoint us; we must further turn to positive good, and to Him who alone can quiet and appease our yearning spirits.

One of the most evident and convincing reasons, then, why we should put our trust in G.o.d above all else is that He alone can satisfy and give us rest. Only G.o.d is able adequately to respond to all the needs of our being. The simplest process of reasoning should a.s.sure us of this, when once we perceive the vastness of our wants and the impossibility of their satisfaction through the medium of created things. We know our nature, which has come from the source and essence of truth, cannot be false.

Neither can our unlimited capacities for knowledge, for joy, for happiness be a deceiving mockery. There is a way to peace for us, and a source of supreme contentment; there is a fountain of living waters from which, if we drink, we shall never thirst again. Hence our Saviour said: "Come to me all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you;"(93) and again, "he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever: but the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting."(94)

But we shall never be able to come to G.o.d, we shall never succeed even in getting near the secret of interior peace and contentment until we are able to grasp more or less comprehensively the great basic truths of our existence: that G.o.d loves each one of us with the love of an infinite Father, and that His Providence is so universal and omnipotent as to extend to all things, even to the numbering of the hairs of our head. We talk much about chance and fortune and accident, we speak every day of things happening, as if by the sheerest contingence, without warning or previous knowledge; and so it is with reference to ourselves, and to all the world perhaps: but with reference to divine Providence it is not so; there is nothing accidental, nothing unforeseen with respect to G.o.d.

"Without Thy counsel and Providence, and without cause, nothing cometh to pa.s.s in the earth,"(95) says the Imitation. But what does this mean, "G.o.d provides?" It means that the will of the omnipotent Father directs and governs everything. "Providence," says St. John Damscene, "is the will of G.o.d, by which all things are fitly and harmoniously governed,"(96) and such is its power that nothing can elude or deceive it, neither can it be hindered or baffled in any way. "For G.o.d will not except any man's person, neither will He stand in awe of any man's greatness; for He made the little and the great, and He hath equally care of all."(97)

And just as divine Providence disposes and governs all the events of life, directing each to its proper end, so the divine Will is the cause of everything that exists. Just as it is impossible that anything should escape G.o.d's knowledge and directing hand, so is it impossible that anything should exist or come into being without the direct intervention or permission of His will. There is nothing in the world which G.o.d has not made, and nothing takes place which is not according to His good-pleasure, except the malice and guilt of sin. Even all the other evils of life, such as sickness, suffering, disease, poverty, cold, hunger, thirst, and the like, G.o.d actually and positively wills. And precisely because these things proceed from His will, they cannot be bad. G.o.d is the author of all good, and evil He cannot do. So good, indeed, is He that, if He were not sufficiently omnipotent to draw good out of evil, He would never have permitted any evil to exist. "G.o.d has judged it better," says St.

Augustine, "to work good out of evil, than to allow no evil."(98) We must not argue in our foolishness and try to understand all the doings of G.o.d, for His ways are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts.(99) It is often beyond our power even to understand our fellow-creatures, and how foolish it is to complain because we cannot comprehend the great Creator!

Enough for us, if we be sincere and right of heart, to know, as we do, that G.o.d is good, that He loves us individually, and that His protecting hand guides and governs all the events of our lives, even to the smallest detail. These are truths which we must take hold of and lay close to our hearts, else we shall go the way of error and issue in ultimate disaster.

And from these truths, so certain and unquestionable, it further follows that everything existing in the world, so far as it affects us, everything that falls to our lot, all that we encounter, all that we suffer, all that we do, aside from sin, has been purposely arranged by Almighty G.o.d for our greater spiritual good and eternal salvation. This must be so, since G.o.d is the universal cause of all things, and since He sincerely loves us and desires above all to save us. If it were otherwise, either He would not have omnipotent control of everything, or He could not be said really to desire our salvation. How sadly we misunderstand these great truths in our daily lives, when we murmur and complain at the evils that afflict us! How narrowly we conceive the all-powerful will of G.o.d, and the infinite abyss of His goodness which would lead us to eternal delights! We would like to escape all the evils of time, we love our lives, and we wish to save them from final wreck; but when failing to trust to the will of G.o.d we forget the words of Christ, that "he that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal."(100) We want to save our souls, and we are, perhaps, much disturbed about doing many and great things in the cause of G.o.d and of Heaven, unmindful the while of the Master's warning that, "not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."(101) It is doubtless our aim to draw ever nearer and nearer to our Saviour, and to deepen our relationship with Him; but do we remember that He said, "whosoever shall do the will of G.o.d, he is my brother, and my sister, and mother?"(102)

"Yes," you will say, "This is all true; I know it is so; my faith is at fault. If I only had that beautiful faith and trust in G.o.d which many have it would be easy for me, and I should be happy! Faith is a gift and favored are they that possess it." But, dear reader, can you not pray? Can you not ask from G.o.d that heavenly gift which will move mountains and translate them into the sea?(103) Can you not overcome your indolence and your repugnance, and patiently and persistently implore from on high that superior vision which pierces the clouds and sees in everything the hand of G.o.d? Surely you can say, with the devout author of the Imitation of Christ, "Behold, Oh beloved Father, I am in Thy hands, I bow myself under the rod of Thy correction. Strike my back and my neck too, that my crookedness may be conformed to Thy will."(104) Here again, remember the words of your Saviour, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away."(105)

Perhaps the greatest trial to our faith in divine Providence is in bearing what we call the wrongs of life. That we should have any crosses to suffer at all; that there should be death and sickness and disease; that there should be poverty and misery, distress and worry, labor and sorrow; that there should exist any of these things, is to our infirmity, if we forget our sins and the sins of our race that have caused these evils, a trial and a test of fidelity. But still more is it difficult, except to minds that are deeply religious, to meet with the gentleness and serenity of faith the positive injuries-the injustice, the scorn, the ridicule, the pain and persecution which others, needy creatures like ourselves, actually inflict upon us. It is easier, we say, to bear poverty than insult; it is easier to suffer the inclemency of the elements than to endure the unkindness of our brethren; it is easier to put up with the pain and weariness of bodily sickness than to come under the lash of the tongues of men. There is here, however, no room for hesitation and question; the rule is the same for all the crosses that come to us. G.o.d often permits us to be afflicted by the sins of others for our greater spiritual profit. Since, therefore, all alike proceed from G.o.d, either by positive act or divine permission, and since we know that He is supremely good and loves us, having given every proof of His desire to save us, even to the delivering up of His only Son,(106) we can never reasonably or sincerely doubt that every evil and cross of life, with the sole exception of our personal sins, has been arranged for our good. My G.o.d, do Thou teach us the wisdom of the cross! "For this is a favor to Thy friend, that for love of Thee he may suffer and be afflicted in the world, how often soever and by whom soever Thou permittest such trials to befall him."(107)

It is helpful that here also, in learning to discern the source and meaning of our afflictions, we have ever before us the examples of the holiest souls. We know that in all trials they steadfastly look beyond the cross that presses them to the hand of Him who has placed it there. Like the shepherd's sheep, they are convinced of the power and goodness of their Master, and nothing can shake their trust in Him. Without distinction or question they accept all as coming from G.o.d by special act or sovereign permission, to purify them, to detach them from the world and creatures, to increase their nearness and likeness to Himself, to multiply their merits for Heaven and bring them to everlasting crowns. They discover the workings of Providence everywhere, in things that are painful, as well as in things that are pleasant to nature. Thus behind their pangs of body and mind, behind the whips and scorns of time, behind the tongue that slanders and calumniates them, behind the oppressor's wrong, the injustice and tyranny of princes and rulers, behind all the evils of life they see the hand of Him who directs and governs all. But here we must not conclude that the Saints and holy persons have never resisted evil and evil-doers, and that consequently we must not. This would be a serious mistake, as Church history and hagiography plainly prove. Who was ever more vigorous and fearless in opposing wrong and the doers of wrong than St. Paul, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome? Who was ever more persistent in his efforts to prevail against the evils of sin in others than St. Monica, St. Teresa, St. Dominic, and St. Catharine of Siena? After their example, then, we may and we must struggle against evils of all kinds, whether physical or spiritual, whether from ourselves or from others, in so far as it is not certain that it is the will of G.o.d that we should submit to them. But when we have exerted ourselves reasonably and lawfully to rid our lives of that which afflicts us, and still it persists, there can be no further doubt that it is the will of G.o.d that we should patiently and submissively accept our condition and our cross. Since, however, we do not know how long it is the wish of Providence that we should be burdened and afflicted, we may continue patiently to use every legitimate means to be delivered, provided it be done with humble resignation to the will of our heavenly Father.

The acceptance of injuries, therefore, on the part of holy souls is not a weak yielding to inevitable circ.u.mstances, nor a willing consent to the wrongs of others. Like St. Paul, they know whom they have believed,(108) and they are certain that, in due time, divine justice will bring all evil-doers to an evil end and will deliver the just from their troubles.

And further, when the vengeance of the persecutor is turned upon them, and they are hunted down without reason by their kind, even by the members of their own household, they remember the words of their Shepherd, "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the good man of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household!"(109)

And again, when the servants of G.o.d behold the wicked prospering and the just oppressed; when they see the ambitious, the covetous, the unscrupulous preferred and honored, and they themselves plotted against and rejected, their heart is not disturbed, because they know first of all that "to them that love G.o.d, all things work together unto good,"(110) and secondly, they are persuaded that the efforts of sinners must finally fail. "For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and as a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that pa.s.seth by."(111) In a word, then, those who are really the friends of G.o.d have faith and confidence in their heavenly Master; and all the perils of earth, and all the powers of darkness cannot avail to daunt them or turn them aside from their purpose.

This steadfastness of religious trust we, in our turn, must strive to acquire. It is the only way to peace and victory. If we would ever rise above the evils of our lives we must learn to look to G.o.d for every thing.

And this looking to G.o.d must be, not only as to our bountiful benefactor, but as to a kind master who knows how best to discipline his servants and preserve them from irreparable harm.

There is a substantially correct translation of the final verse of the Shepherd Psalm, which may be rendered as follows: "And Thy goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life, _that I may dwell_ in the house of the Lord forever." It is the special wording of the second clause of the stanza that expresses the real purpose of divine Providence in regard to the elect. Everything in life has been ordained and arranged for their eternal salvation, and for the increase of their heavenly rewards.

"Therefore," wrote St. Paul to Timothy, "I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with heavenly glory."(112) It is this firm conviction that infinite love is at the bottom of all the workings of Providence, doing everything for the sake of the elect, that consoles and steadies the souls of the just throughout all the trials and crosses of life. In the thick of the battle they never lose sight of the faithful Shepherd that leads them, and they ever behold by faith the unspeakable delights He has prepared for them that love Him.

What joys are there in our faith and hope! If by the mercy and goodness of G.o.d we succeed in saving our souls, how cheap will seem the price we shall have paid for Heaven, and how benign and ineffably loving will appear the Providence of G.o.d which is leading us there! At times now in our fervor we can faintly and feebly imagine what it will mean to throw off forever this veil of faith and see distinctly and continually the Shepherd of our souls. But our liveliest conceptions here are infinitely inferior to the vision to come. "To see G.o.d face to face, as He is; to gaze undazzled on the Three Divine Persons, cognizable and distinct in the burning fires of their inaccessible splendors; to behold that long-coveted sight, the endless Generation of the All-holy Son, and our hearts to hold the joy, and not die; to watch with spirits all out-stretched in adoration the ever-radiant and ineffably beautiful Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, and to partic.i.p.ate ourselves in that jubilee of jubilees, and drink in with greedy minds the wonders of that Procession, and the marvelous distinctness of its beauty from the Generation of the Son; to feel ourselves with ecstatic awe, and yet with seraphic intimacy, overshadowed by the Person of the Unbegotten Father, the Father to whom and of whom we have said so much on earth, the Fountain of G.o.dhead, who is truly our Father, while He is also the Father of the Eternal Son; to explore, with exulting license and with unutterably glad fear, attribute after attribute, oceans opening into oceans of divinest beauty; to lie astonished in unspeakable contentment before the vision of G.o.d's surpa.s.sing Unity, so long the joyous mystery of our predilection, while the Vision through all eternity seems to grow more fresh and bright and new: O my poor soul! what canst thou know of this, or of these beautiful necessities, of thy exceeding love, which shall only satisfy itself in endless alternations, now of silence and now of song?"(113)

If regret were possible for the blessed hereafter, they would never cease to mourn over the loss of their opportunities on earth to increase their eternal beat.i.tude. It is only when the veil shall have been removed that we shall fully realize how the goodness and mercy of G.o.d have always pursued us in this life, that we might be saved and enjoy the rewards of His house forever. May G.o.d give us all that child-like trust in our heavenly Master which the sheep display toward their shepherd; may He grant us that vivid constant faith of the Saints which will enable us to see in every event of life, in adversity as well as in prosperity, in our pains as well as in our joys, the designs of a loving Father who is ever wishing and trying to lead His children to His home of eternal delights.