Note. We could well apply these evangelical words to our current world, say, we would say; “Videns Jesús mundum, flevit super eum” (seeing Jesus in the world, I cry over it). For this time I will let the great saint Curé of Ars continue with his profound theme and someday I will take this divine phrase again for another theme related to the current situation of the world.
When Jesus Christ entered the city of Jerusalem, he wept over it, saying: «If you knew, at least, the graces that I come to offer you and you wanted to take advantage of them, you could still receive forgiveness; but no, your blindness has reached such an excess that all these graces will only serve to harden you and precipitate your misfortune; you have murdered the prophets and put to death the sons of God; now you are going to put the last straw in those crimes by killing the very Son of God». See, HM, what made Jesus Christ shed such abundant tears as he approached the city. ¡Oh! in the midst of those abominations, he foresaw the loss of many souls incomparably more guilty than the Jews, already. that they were going to be much more favored than they were in terms of spiritual graces, Oh! HM, what moved you most vividly was that, despite the merits of his passion and death, with which a thousand worlds much larger than the one we inhabit could be rescued, most men were going to be lost. Yes, HM, Jesus already saw in advance all those who in the coming centuries would despise his graces, or would only use them for their misfortune. ¡Oh! HM, who, of those who aspire to keep their souls worthy of heaven, ¿will not tremble when considering this? ¡Oh! Will we be by chance the number of those unhappy? Was Jesus Christ referring to us when he cried out: “Ah! if my death and my blood do not serve for your salvation, at least they will kindle the wrath of my Father, which will fall on you for all eternity); A God sold!... a disapproved soul!... a heaven rejected!... Is it possible that we show ourselves insensitive to so much misfortune?... Is it possible that, in spite of all that Jesus Christ has done to save our souls, we show ourselves so indifferent to the danger of losing them?... To get you out of such insensitivity, HM, I am going to show you what a soul is; what she costs Jesus Christ; and what the devil does to lose her. at least they will kindle the wrath of my Father, which will fall on you for an eternity); A God sold!... a disapproved soul!... a heaven rejected!... Is it possible that we show ourselves insensitive to so much misfortune?... Is it possible that, in spite of all that Jesus Christ has done to save our souls, we show ourselves so indifferent to the danger of losing them?... To get you out of such insensitivity, HM, I am going to show you what a soul is; what she costs Jesus Christ; and what the devil does to lose her. at least they will kindle the wrath of my Father, which will fall on you for an eternity); A God sold!... a disapproved soul!... a heaven rejected!... Is it possible that we show ourselves insensitive to so much misfortune?... Is it possible that, in spite of all that Jesus Christ has done to save our souls, we show ourselves so indifferent to the danger of losing them?... To get you out of such insensitivity, HM, I am going to show you what a soul is; what she costs Jesus Christ; and what the devil does to lose her. we show ourselves so indifferent to the danger of losing them?... To get you out of such insensitivity, HM, I am going to show you what a soul is; what she costs Jesus Christ; and what the devil does to lose her. we show ourselves so indifferent to the danger of losing them?... To get you out of such insensitivity, HM, I am going to show you what a soul is; what she costs Jesus Christ; and what the devil does to lose her.
I. — Ah! HM, if we were to know the value of our soul, ¿how carefully would we preserve it? Oh! we will never quite understand it! Wanting to show you, HM, the great value of a soul, is impossible for a mortal; only God knows all the beauties and perfections with which he has adorned a soul. I will only tell you that everything that God has created: the sky, the earth and everything they contain, all those wonders have been created for the soul; The catechism gives us the best possible proof of the greatness of our soul. When we ask a child: ¿What Does it mean that the human soul has been created in the image of God? This means, replies the child, that the soul, like God, has the power to know, love, and freely determine itself in all its actions. See here, H._ M., the greatest praise of the qualities with which God has beautified our soul, created by the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, in his image and likeness. A spirit, like God, eternal in the future, capable, as far as it is possible for a creature, to know all the beauties and perfections of God; a soul that is the object of the pleasures of the three divine Persons; a soul that can glorify God in all his actions; a soul, whose entire occupation will be to sing the praises of God throughout eternity; a soul that will appear radiant with the happiness that comes from God Himself; a soul whose actions are so free that it can give its friendship or its love to whomever it pleases: it can love God or not love him; moreover, if she has the joy of directing her love towards God, it is no longer she who obeys God, but God himself who seems to take pleasure in doing the will of that soul (1). And we could even affirm that, since the beginning of the world, we will not find a single soul that, having given herself to God without reservation, God has denied her anything that she desired. We see that God has created us by infusing us with such desires that nothing earthly is capable of satisfying them. Offer to a soul all the riches and all the treasures of the world, and still she will not be content; God having created her for Him, only He is capable of fulfilling her insatiable desires. Yes, HM, our soul can love God, and this constitutes the greatest of all joys. Loving him, we have all the goods and pleasures that we can desire on earth and in heaven (2). In addition, we can serve him, that is, glorify him in each of the acts of our life. There is nothing, no matter how insignificant, in which God is not glorified, if we do it in order to please him, while we are on earth, the only difference is that we see all divine goods only with the eyes of faith.
Our soul is so noble, since its birth it is endowed with such beautiful qualities, that God has not wanted to entrust it to anyone other than a prince of the heavenly court. Our soul is so precious in the eyes of God himself, that, despite all his wisdom, the Lord did not find another food worthy of it than his adorable Body, from which he wants to make his daily bread; or any other worthy drink. of her than the precious Blood of Jesus. «Yes, HM, we have a soul that God loves so much, Saint Ambrose tells us, that, even if it were alone in the world, God would not have thought He would have done too much by dying for it; and even if God, in creating her, had not also made heaven, he would have created a heaven for her alone », as she told Saint Teresa one day."You are so pleasing to me, Jesus Christ told her, that even if heaven did not exist, I would create one for you alone." «¡Oh, my body, Saint Bernard exclaims, ¡how happy you are to harbor a soul adorned with such beautiful qualities! A whole God, being infinite, makes her the object of all his pleasures!» Yes, HM, our soul is destined to spend its eternity in the very bosom of God. Let's say it once and for all, HM: our soul is something so great that only God exceeds it. One day God allowed Saint Catherine to see a soul. I found this Saint so beautiful that she burst into these exclamations: «Oh, my God, if faith did not teach me that there is only one God, I would think that he is a divinity; no, I am no longer surprised, my God, ¡I am no longer amazed that you should have died for such a beautiful soul!”
Yes, HM, our soul in the future will be eternal like God himself. Let's not go any further, HM is not lost in this abyss of greatness. Attending only to this, HM, I invite you to think if we should be amazed that God, perfectly aware of his merit, so bitterly mourned the loss of a soul. And you can also consider what our diligence must be to preserve all its beauties. ¡Oh! HM, God is so sensitive to the loss of a soul, that he wept for it before he had eyes to shed tears; he used the eyes of his prophets to mourn the loss of our souls. We find it well manifest in the prophet Amos. "Having retired into darkness, that prophet tells us, considering the appalling multitude of crimes that God's people committed every day, Seeing that the wrath of God was about to fall upon him and that hell opened its jaws to swallow him up, I assembled them all, and trembling with fear, I said to them, in the midst of bitter tears: ¡Oh, my children! ¿Do you know what I do night and day? ¡Oh! I am vividly representing your sins to myself, in the midst of the greatest bitterness of my heart. If by force... surrendered by fatigue, I fall asleep, I immediately wake up with a start, exclaiming, with tears in my eyes and a broken heart with pain: ¿My God, my God, ¿will there be some souls in Israel who don’t offend you? When this sad and deplorable idea fills my imagination, I express my feelings to the Lord, and groaning bitterly in his Holy presence, I say: My God, What means will I find to obtain the pardon of your unhappy people? Hear what the Lord answered me:“Prophet, if you want to achieve the forgiveness of that ungrateful people, go, run through the streets and squares; make the most bitter cries and moans resound in them; enter the shops of merchants and artisans; go to the places where justice is administered; he ascends the chamber of the greats and enters the cabinet of the judges; Say to everyone you meet inside and outside the city: “Woe to you! oh! unhappy! Of you who sinned against the Lord!” There is still not enough of this; you will seek the help of those who are capable of crying, so that they join their tears to yours; May your cries and groans be so frightening that they fill the hearts of those who hear you with consternation, so that they abandon sin and mourn it to the grave, and with this they understand how much the loss of their souls pains Me.”
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