Properties and Excellence of Devotion.
Those who would dissuade the Israelites from entering the Promised Land told them that it was a land which devoured its inhabitants—that is, that the air there was so unhealthy that one could not live long; and that, besides, its inhabitants were such prodigious people that they ate other men like locusts. Thus, dear Philothea, the world defames holy devotion as much as it can, portraying devout persons with a disagreeable, sad, and fretful countenance, and proclaiming everywhere that devotion makes one melancholy in temper and insufferable in character. But just as Joshua and Caleb assured them that not only was the Promised Land good and beautiful, but that its possession would also be sweet and pleasant, so the Holy Spirit teaches us through the mouths of all the saints, and our Lord Himself assures us, that the devout life is a happy, lovable, and sweet life.
Those who would dissuade the Israelites from entering the Promised Land told them that it was a land which devoured its inhabitants—that is, that the air there was so unhealthy that one could not live long; and that, besides, its inhabitants were such prodigious people that they ate other men like locusts. Thus, dear Philothea, the world defames holy devotion as much as it can, portraying devout persons with a disagreeable, sad, and fretful countenance, and proclaiming everywhere that devotion makes one melancholy in temper and insufferable in character. But just as Joshua and Caleb assured them that not only was the Promised Land good and beautiful, but that its possession would also be sweet and pleasant, so the Holy Spirit teaches us through the mouths of all the saints, and our Lord Himself assures us, that the devout life is a happy, lovable, and sweet life.
The world sees that the devout fast, pray, suffer injuries, serve the sick, give to the poor, keep watch, restrain their anger, do violence to their passions, deprive themselves of sensual pleasures, and do a thousand other things which are in themselves painful and rigorous; but the world does not see the inward devotion which makes all these practices agreeable, sweet, and easy. Look at the bees upon the thyme: they find there a very bitter juice; but as they suck it, they turn it into honey, because such is their nature. O worldly people! it is true that devout souls find much bitterness in their mortifications; but in performing them, they turn them into sweetness and consolation: fires, flames, wheels, swords, seemed like flowers and perfumes to the Martyrs, because they were devout. And if devotion can give sweetness to the cruellest torments, and even to death itself, what will it not do for acts of virtue? Sugar sweetens unripe fruits, and corrects in ripe ones the often harmful effect of their rawness: devotion does the same; it is the true spiritual sugar which takes away the bitterness of mortifications and the danger of consolations: it removes sorrow from the poor and eagerness from the rich; desolation from the oppressed and insolence from the favored; sadness from those who live alone and dissolution from the man of the world; it serves as fire in winter and as dew in summer; it makes honor and contempt equally useful; it receives pleasure and pain with a heart almost always even, and fills us with a marvelous sweetness.
Contemplate Jacob’s ladder, for it is the true portrait of the devout life. The two uprights of this ladder represent prayer, which asks for the love of God, and the use of the sacraments, which bestows it; the rungs are nothing other than the various degrees of charity, by which we go from virtue to virtue, descending through action to the aid and support of our neighbour, or ascending, through contemplation, even to the loving union of God. Now, see, I pray you, who are those upon the ladder; they are men with angelic hearts, or angels with human bodies. They are not young, yet they seem so, because they are full of vigour and agility. They have wings to fly and soar to God through holy prayer, but they also have feet to walk among men and converse with them in a holy and loving fellowship. Beauty and joy shine upon their faces, to show that they receive all things with perfect gentleness and peace. Their heads are bare, as are their arms and feet, because their thoughts, affections, and works have no other aim than to please God. The rest of their bodies is covered, but with a fine and light tunic, which shows us that, if they make use of this world and worldly things, they do so with all purity and simplicity of heart, taking only a little, and only as much as their condition requires. Such are devout persons. Believe me, dear Philothea, devotion is the sweetest of all sweetnesses, and the queen of virtues; it is the perfection of charity. If charity is milk, devotion is its cream; if it is a plant, devotion is its flower; if it is a precious stone, devotion is its lustre; if it is a balm, devotion is its fragrance, a fragrance full of sweetness that strengthens men and gladdens angels.