Salesian Literature

Chapter 5  :  Loss of charity is due solely to the human will

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Irreverent impudence, to give our own strength of will the credit for the active charity which is the work of the Holy Spirit!  Impudent irreverence, to cast the responsibility for a worthless man’s defective love on to the lack of heavenly help and grace!  On the contrary, the Holy spirit is ever proclaiming that we are our own undoing (cf. Osee 13:90; that our Lord has come to spread the fire of charity over the earth, and has no better wish than that it should be kindled in our hearts (cf. Lk. 12:49); that his saving power is prepared in the sight of all nations – a light which shall give revelation to the Gentiles, a light which is the glory of Israel (cf. Lk. 2:31-32); that God, in his kindness, is unwilling for any to be lost (cf. 2 Pet. 3:9), since it is his will that all men should be saved, and be led to recognize the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

 

It was to make us sons by adoption that the Saviour came to earth (cf. Gal. 4:5), so the wise man distinctly warns us: Do not blame God for the want of it (Eccl. 15:11).  The Council of Trent[1] too was inspired by God to teach all the children of holy Church that grace is never wanting to those who do what they can, who ask for God’s help; that God never deserts souls, once they have won his acceptance, his approval, unless they first desert him; so that, as long as they are not unfaithful to grace, they will come to the possession of glory.

 

We have almost dropped off, Theotimus, at some time or other, into the sleep of sin.  God’s sunrise of restoration sheds more than enough rays upon us, enlightening our minds with his inspirations, warming our hearts with his blessings, caressing each of us with the charms of his love.  How is it, I wonder, that so few feel those charms, that even fewer surrender to them?

 

Of course, those who do fall captive, who follow the inspiration, have good reason to be delighted at it, but no reason whatever for boasting  they have every cause for rejoicing, since a great blessing is theirs; but no cause for self-glorification, since only the sheer goodness of God is responsible.  He allows them to profit from his benefits; the glory he reserves to himself.

 

As for those who sleep on in sin, they have good reason for grief, for tears, for remorse; theirs is the saddest of all plights.  Still, they have only themselves to blame: it is they who scorn, who turn away from the light; it is they who are cross-grained when God tries to charm them, stubborn in face of his inspiration.  They have only one thing to curse, to be ashamed of – their own malice; they are the sole architects of their own perdition, the sole constructors of their own damnation.  It will go hard with people who fail to realize that their own malice is the key to all their misfortune.

 

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[1]  Session 6, Chapter 11.

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