March 28
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeThursday after Seragesima Sunday
By temptations. Deuteronomy 4:34.
TEMPTATIONS are around us as the occasions of exercising the renewed will, of putting forth our supernatural energy, of developing some truer purposes or higher resolves, and in such exercise the spiritual stature grows, as without it it would not grow. Trees put forth fresh roots on the side on which the wind blows most violently. There is likewise an inner discipline of the soul, which in an analogous way strengthens it where temptation assaults it, and thus the spiritual growth is matured, every fresh meeting of trial adding a fresh spring of the renewed life. Sometimes an allurement of the flesh arouses a strong effort of self-restraint, sometimes an unexpected hindrance chastens the patient endurance of the will, sometimes a sorrow softens the whole texture of the heart; or again some call to exertion stirs up impulses to put away sloth, or a call to self-sacrifice raises the whole nature above the world, above self; or again a denial of ease, or of praise, brings the soul into special union with our Lord's humility. By such accessions of the power of grace the Divine life in us attains its full proportions and its perfected beauty. There are two conditions for raising our nature into conformity with the Divine Mind, into union with God. One is the indwelling Presence of God infusing the graces and virtues of our Lord's humanity; the other is the exercise of these virtues by trial, as we learn obedience by the things which we suffer.
The perfect way is hard to flesh, It is not hard to love; If thou wert sick for love of God, How swiftly wouldst thou move!