|
6. Good God, what passed in man to make him rejoice more at the
salvation of a soul despaired of, and delivered from greater danger,
than if there had always been hope of him, or the danger had been
less? For so Thou also,, O merciful Father, dost "joy over one
sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons that
need no repentance." And with much joyfulness do we hear, whenever
we hear, how the lost sheep is brought home again on the Shepherd's
shoulders, while the angels rejoice, and the drachma is restored to
Thy treasury, the neighhours rejoicing with the woman who found it and
the joy of the solemn service of Thy house constraineth to tears, when
in Thy house it is read of Thy younger son that he "was dead, and is
alive again, and was lost, and is found."' For Thou rejoicest
both in us and in Thy angels, holy through holy charity. For Thou
art ever the same; for all things which abide neither the same nor for
ever, Thou ever knowest after the same manner.
7. What, then, passes in the soul when it more delights at finding
or having restored to it the thing it loves than if it had always
possessed them? Yea, and other things bear witness hereunto; and all
things are full of witnesses, crying out, "So it is." The
victorious commander triumpheth; yet he would not have conquered had he
not fought, and the greater the peril of the battle, the more the
rejoicing of the triumph. The storm tosses the voyagers, threatens
shipwreck, and every one waxes pale at the approach of death; but sky
and sea grow calm, and they rejoice much, as they feared much. A
loved one is sick, and his pulse indicates danger; all who desire his
safety are at once sick at heart: he recovers, though not able as yet
to walk with his former strength, and there is such joy as was not
before when he walked sound and strong. Yea, the very pleasures of
human life not those only which rush upon us unexpectedly, and
against our wills, but those that are voluntary and designed do men
obtain by difficulties. There is no pleasure at all in eating and
drinking unless the pains of hunger and thirst go before. And
drunkards eat certain salt meats with the view of creating a troublesome
heat, which the drink allaying causes pleasure. It is also the custom
that the affianced bride should not immediately be given up, that the
husband may not less esteem her whom, as betrothed, he longed not
for. This law obtains in base and accursed joy; in that joy also
which is permitted and lawful; in the sincerity of honest friendship;
and in Him who was dead, and lived again, had been lost, and was
found. The greater joy is everywhere preceded by the greater pain.
What meaneth this, O Lord my God, when Thou art, an everlasting
joy unto Thine own self, and some things about Thee are ever
rejoicing in Thee?s What meaneth this, that this portion of things
thus ebbs and flows, alternately offended and reconciled? Is this the
fashion of them, and is this all Thou hast allotted to them, whereas
from the highest heaven to the lowest earth, from' the beginning of
the world to its end, from the angel to the worm, from the first
movement unto the last, Thou settedst each in its right place, and
appointedst each its proper seasons, everything good after its kind?
Woe is me! How high art Thou in the highest, and how deep in the
deepest! Thou withdrawest no whither, and scarcely do we return to
Thee.
|
|