Of our indifference for Salvation

Of our indifference for Salvation

Our indifference for Salvation is so great, that we must own that of all our affairs we neglect this most and lay it least to heart. Whence proceeds this unaccountable indifference for eternal happiness? God gave us our lives only to think on it, He judged them all little enough to succeed in it; Death for ought we know is very near us, what part of our life have we spent in this important business? How few years, how few days, nay how few hours have we devoted to it? Have we the confidence to reckon those we spend in the church with so much distraction and voluntary irreverence? Alas! have we made any great progress in those hours? Can we have the face to mention the little time we have given to hasty prayers without devotion, to Confessions without sorrow and without reformation, to Communions without fruit, or to a few pretended good works which we have lost by doing them upon natural, or which were corrupted by bad, motives?

We are so taken up with the superfluous cares and worldly business that we can spare but a little time to think of our Salvation, and we grudge the little time we spend in thinking of it. What reason can we give for such an unreasonably conduct? unless we will own that it proceeds from want of Faith. If we believed that the enjoyment of God, that an Eternity of infinite happiness, or misery (which includes and surpasses all other miseries) depended on our diligence if we did really believe what we repeat so often, that we cannot serve God and the world at once, that time is short, and that Death approaches; that each moment for ought we know may be our last; if we did indeed believe that Salvation is our own work and that we only can secure, it is no matter what becomes of us here if we make sure of Heaven, that we loose all, even temporal, blessings by neglecting our Souls, and that if we be truly careful of them we shall loose nothing not even worldly goods; if we do seriously believe these things, how can we be careful, how can we be solicitous for anything but Salvation?

from Christian Reflections by Fr. Jean Croiset

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