September 9

Pretensions Of Our Fallen Nature

Preparation. - Besides the great evil of sin, on which we have already meditated, our soul has other evils to cure; first, the unjust pretensions of the body, and secondly, those of the soul fallen through original sin. The principal fruit of this meditation shall be to apply a remedy to these diseases by means of mortification of our senses and humility of the heart, bearing in mind as our spiritual bouquet these words of St. Paul: “What has thou, that thou hast not received? “ (1 Cor. 4. 7.)

I. Unjust Pretensions Of Our Body

Since original sin, which has placed the flesh in revolt against the spirit, peace between these two adversaries is impossible for those who wish to sanctify themselves. The body pretends to have nothing to suffer, to want for nothing, to have all it wishes. Eager to satisfy itself, it seeks its comfort every where, seated, standing, lying down, at all times and under all circumstances. It must have food satisfactory to its tastes; when this is wanting, it grumbles; if it is granted, it becomes so squeamish as to be dissatisfied with every thing. It is inconvenienced by the change of seasons; at one time the heat is unbearable, at another, it is the cold.

Although the body receives all it has from the soul, such as life, motion, beauty, strength, it cares but little about obeying her, but thinks only of itself and its comforts and pleasures. If after its sin, it is made to expiate it, being equally unjust and ungrateful, it resists punishment, repels mortification and revolts against the penance. Countless are the dangers to eternal salvation into which it leads the soul. Insensible to the divine threats, it gives unbridled license to its senses, follows its perverse instincts and sinful propensities, so far as to blunt the reason and pervert the will, unless its encroachments are restrained. O how many sad victims it makes among men! It renders them the degraded slaves of a sinful flesh before they undergo that of and eternity of misery. O deplorable blindness, and incomprehensible weakness, which subject so many immortal souls to a vile and perishable body!

But is there no remedy for so great an evil? There is a very efficacious one. It consists in frequently summoning our so very pretentious body to the tribunal of death, and to meditate on the sentence pronounced against it. It will, in fact, be one day stretched out on a bier, laid in a coffin and then into a deep grave, where it will gradually be dissolved, becoming the food of worms, and be reduced to an abject and fetid dust, without honor and nameless; a just punishment of its pride and lust! Go, then, worldly-minded soul, the slave of thy body, go and contemplate that idolized corpse; go and consider what death has done with it.

O my God, I repent of having so often allowed myself to be carried away by the longing to see and hear everything, to speak and taste of every thing, to the detriment of my spiritual progress. Enable me to mortify my senses, and to keep from losing by my sloth so many degrees of grace and glory, which ought to be the fruit of a hard, laborious and penitent life on my part.

II. Unjust Pretensions Of Our Soul

Our soul, as well as our body, has its vicious pretensions. Charmed with her own excellence, she seeks to be honored and praised. Every where she strives to put herself forward, to be esteemed and loved, even to the detriment of the divine glory. Proud of her fine natural qualities, her talents, her smartness, her good heart and generosity, she is inclined to take delight therein both in herself and before others, as if these benefits were her own property. She forgets that she has only the use of them for the service and honor of God. “What hast thou,” asks St. Paul of her, “that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Cor. 4. 7.)

The proud soul, being deaf to these teachings, goes so far as to attribute to herself the goods of grace, the virtues which are in her an effect of the divine assistance. Thus she loses sight of her total helplessness in the order of salvation, a helplessness so great, that she is unable to have a good thought and, much less, to believe, hope, love and to gain merit for heaven. To these deceitful pretensions are added, to our shame, a multitude of accursed offshoots of the abominable vice of pride, such as: hatred, envy, anger, duplicity, hypocrisy, sensitiveness, resentment, grudges, aversions; haughtiness, conceit, rebellion, arrogance, boasting, a propensity to backbite, criticize, murmur, contradict, to exalt ourselves and belittle others. To these let us add the almost invincible horror of admonitions, reprimands, confusions, humiliations, and we shall have some idea of the leaven of ambition fermenting in us, so far as to make us forget the nothingness out of which God, in His mercy, has drawn us.

But what remedy should we use to correct such a disorder? The best would be often to summon ourselves before the tribunal of the supreme Judge, and there rigorously to fathom the abyss of our ignorance, of our helplessness for doing good, of our innate corruption and of our grievous and multiplied sins. This would enable us to understand the injustice of our haughty pretensions, since we have deserved everlasting disgrace.

O Jesus, the mere thought of having offended Thee, my Benefactor and Father, ought forever to put me to confusion. Deign, through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, the Queen of humility, to free me from all self-esteem and give me the grace, first, often to think on death, which will reduce my body to dust, and on the particular judgment, which will disclose to me my faults in all their hideousness; and secondly, consequently to mortify my sensuality and all the ever sprouting offshoots of my natural presumption, that field so fertile in fatal propensities and depraved instincts.