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Peace that the World cannot Give
John 14:27-31
One who is presumptuous often imagines that he has gained God’s peace through self-distrust and trust in God when the case is far otherwise. And this will be made clear to you by the way he takes his failures.
If, after a fall, you give way to despondency and vexation, and despairingly complain that you can make no progress, such feelings evidently show that you have been trusting in yourself and not in God. And if your sadness and discouragement is great, there can be no doubt that your trust in self was great and your trust in God but little and any peaceful feelings have come from the world and not God. For he who has God’s peace is not surprised when he falls nor does he become bitter because he knows his fall is due to his own weakness and the little trust he placed in God.
On the other hand, as he grows in self-distrust, so more and more does he humbly trust in God; and hating intensely his sin and the rebellious passions that caused his fall, and mourning over it with a deep, calm, and meel sorrow, because of the offense against God, he at once resumes his efforts and pursues his enemies with new resolution and energy even to the death.
If only people who consider themselves spiritual, who cannot give themselves a moment’s peace when they have committed a fault would consider these things. Such people rush off to their spiritual advisor chiefly to relieve themselves of their anxiety and vexation, which arise from self-love more than from anything else, where their first concern should be to be cleansed from the stain of their sins and to be fortified by the Sacrament of Penance.
參考 References:
The Spiritual Combat (Dom Lorenzo Scupoli)
