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Morning Prayers.
(Page 184)
I. All things change but God. Until we are united with Him after death, we remain always subject to vicissitudes in our spiritual life. No one is confirmed in grace and holiness while the present life endures. The very first in God's favour may fall to be the last; they who have eaten the bread of angels may come to delight in the husks of swine. The world is full of sad examples, from Solomon, the wisest of men, to Judas, one of those chosen to sit on thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and thenceforth in every era of history. The great Apostle of the Gentiles did not account himself safe from this peril: "lest perhaps when I have preached to others I myself should become a cast away" (1 Cor. ix. 27). The greatest services rendered to God, the greatest favours received from Him, the greatest holiness attained, afford us no assurance that we shall persevere in Charity to the end. We are fickle, we have great potentialities of evil in us, we never know how much we are capable of, nor how low we may yet fall. We never can be sure of even our actual state before God, nor shall we know it till we stand at His judgment-seat. We may be progressing, but we may also be declining in Charity. So we must never be without fear; we must never presume or count ourselves as if we "had already attained or were already perfect" (Phil. iii. 12). Ask God to enlighten you so that you may at once detect any backsliding or any diminution in Charity. Watch and pray and fear lest you should fail even at the last moment, like a ship that founders as she is entering port.
II. A gradual decline in charity generally precedes its total failure. Venial sin prepares the way for mortal. We become careless first in small things, and at last reckless in great ones. We grow negligent of prayer, we lose graces, we grow accustomed to self-indulgence and smaller infidelities, we forget our weakness and risk danger daily till we perish in it. We suddenly find ourselves across the line that (Page 185) separates venial from mortal sin. We forfeit the higher graces of God and the fulness of His protection, by our carelessness in His service, and then we suddenly discover that we have cut ourselves off from the special assistance that we need in some exceptional crisis. Our virtue may be sufficient for ordinary risks, yet we must provide for certain special dangers which may spring upon us suddenly. One mortal sin absolutely destroys the infused habit of charity, and all the effects of charity, all the accumulations of years of virtue, all previous merits, all title to reward ; and it reduces the soul to a state of utter spiritual incapacity and supernatural ruin. Thenceforth we cannot recover our lost ground by any effort of our own, but only by a new influx of God which ordinarily comes to us through the Sacraments. The beginnings of decline are obscure, its progress is insidious, and our blindness to it incredible. Never cease to fear and pray.
III. There are certain signs which may serve to reassure us as to our position.
1. Delight in the thought of God, "Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also" (Matt. vi. 21).
2. Love of instruction in spiritual things, "He that is of God heareth the words of God" (John viii. 47).
3. Regularity of life and obedience. "He that keepeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me" (John xiv. 21).
4. Love and kindness towards our neighbour.
5. Loyal attachment to the Church and the representatives of God.
6. Aversion from the ideas and ways of the world.
7. The testimony of a good conscience.
These signs, however, are not infallible; we may be deceived about some of them, thinking them to be present when they are absent. It happens also that, after divine charity is extinct, the natural habits acquired by a long course of virtue may continue for a while by the force of their previous momentum, and may present the appearance of divine action and become a cause of self-deception. Let this uncertainty not depress you but stimulate you to continual vigour.
