Of Our Indifference to please God

Of Our Indifference to please God

When we value anyone's friendship we endeavour (says an an eminent Servant of God) to acquire and preserve ourselves in his favour, by a thousand services by showing all the respect and zeal imaginable even in things to which our duty does not absolutely oblige us, and by avoiding everything which may in the least displease him. The fear of punishment keeps us from attempting the life of the man we hate, we do neither good nor harm to those whom we think below our notice; but when we deliberately and frequently affront a man, it is an evident sign that we neither value his love nor fear his hatred; and if we do not offer him the highest injury's tis not because we care for his aversion, but because we fear his power.

They who abstain only from great sins and allow themselves a liberty in everything else, have reason to fear that charity is absolutely extinguished in their hearts: and if they will examine themselves they shall find that it is only the apprehension of the severity with which God punishes heinous sins that keeps them from committing them: they would willingly displease Him if the sight of Hell did not stop them, they wish with all their heart they might sin without punishment.

This is a fearful disposition, yet it is the disposition of those who indulge themselves in deliberate venial sins: God hath no share in the motives that make them abstain from great crimes, and therefore He is not obliged to assist them; which renders it exceeding difficult for a man who desires to avoid only mortal sins, to be long free from them.

from Christian Reflections by Fr. Jean Croiset