THOUGHTS
I thought of the Christian who upon meeting an Irishman, remarked:
"It is great to be saved is it not?"
"Sure it is" answered the Irishman, "but there is something better".
"Better? Better? How could anything be better than to be saved?" cried the Christian.
"Tell me what could that be?"
"To be friends with Him that saved you" said the Irishman in a sober
voice.
All sadness which is not arising, either from the repentance of a real sin and
hastens towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and
hastening to active assistance, is simply bad.
I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to "rejoice"
as much as by anything else. Humility, after the first shock, is a cheerful virtue:
it is the high - minded unbeliever desperately trying though he has been again
and again disillusioned - to retain his faith in humanity that is always sad and
down -cast.
Don't believe that God smiles when the saints say that they are vile or that they
try to be humble. What they say is nothing else but a matter of fact statement.
For if it were false and we were holy, then God should stop changing us as we
would have reached perfection.
For any addition to perfection makes it, imperfect!
God loves us.
Some people ask: if God loves us, why then does He give so many commands which
many people find it impossible to obey?
The answer is that because He loves us He wants to change us, for this is the
only way for us to receive what He is offering us.
To understand this answer, first you have to realise some things about love.
Love, true love, wants to enjoy it's object, i.e. what it loves.
Love may keep on loving you with your faults but not because of them, thus it
will try to change you into something good.
Love forgives most but it condones least.
It may forgive all your infirmities and love you in spite of them but can't cease
to will their removal.
If you did not know nor care how your husband, wife, girl or boy friend,she/he
is looking, or what she/he does, would they regard it as a sign of love? I very
much doubt it.
Love though loves the imperfect, wants the beloved perfect; it will continue to
love the beloved when her/his beauty has gone but not because it is lost.
You will hear people saying that they believe that: God is able to do anything,
but this is not faith; this is knowledge.
The first step of faith is to believe that: God not only, is able to do, but that
He will do everything for the good of the ones that love Him.
And the second even higher step of faith is that: Even if He will never do what
I pray for, I will still believe and trust in Him.
