 |
| They sow the seed of quarrel between husband and wife |
Lucifer heard these different suggestions of
the demons, and answering them, he said:
“I am much beholden to you for your opinions: I approve of them and adopt them
all; it will be easy to put them into practice with those, who do not profess
the law given by this Redeemer to men, though with those who accept and embrace
these laws, it will be a difficult enterprise. But against this law and against
those that follow it, I intend to
direct all my wrath and fury and I shall most
bitterly persecute those who hear the doctrine of this Redeemer and become his
disciples; against these must our most relentless battle be waged to the end of
the world. In this new Church I must
strive to sow my cockle (Matth. 14, 25), the ambitions, the avarice, the
sensuality, and the deadly hatreds, with all the other vices, of which I am the
head. For if once these sins multiply and increase among the faithful, they
will, with their concomitant malice and ingratitude, irritate God and justly
deprive men of the helps of grace left to them by the merits of the Redeemer.
If once they have thus despoiled themselves of these means of salvation, we
shall have assured victory over them. We must also exert ourselves to weaken
piety and all that is spiritual and divine; so that they do not realize the
power of the Sacraments and receive them in mortal sin, or at least without fervour
and devotion.  |
| without fervour and devotion |
721.
It is not possible to rehearse all the schemes of this dragon and his allies
concocted at that time against the holy Church and her children, in order that
these waters of Jordan might be swallowed up in his throat (Job 40, 18). It is
enough to state that they spent nearly a full year after the Death of Christ in
conferring and considering among themselves the state of the world up to that
time and the changes wrought by Christ our God and Master through his Death and
after having manifested the light of his faith by so many miracles, blessings and
examples of holy men. If all these labours have not sufficed to draw all men to
the way of salvation, it can be easily understood, that Lucifer should have
prevailed and that his wrath should be so great, as to cause us justly to say
with saint John:
“Woe to the earth, for satan is come down
to you full of wrath and fury!”
But alas! that truths so infallible and so much to be dreaded and avoided by
men, should in our days be blotted from the minds of mortals to the irreparable
danger of the whole world! Our enemy is astute, cruel and watchful: we sleepy,
lukewarm and careless! What wonder that Lucifer has entrenched himself so
firmly in the world, when so many listen to him, accept and follow his deceits,
so few resist him, and entirely forget the eternal death, which he so furiously
and maliciously seeks to draw upon them? I beseech those, who read this, not to
forget this dreadful danger. If they are not convinced of this danger through
the evil condition of the world and through the evils each one experiences
himself, let them at least learn of this danger by the vast and powerful
remedies and helps, which the Saviour thought it necessary to leave behind in
his Church. For He would not have provided such antidotes if our ailment and
danger of eternal death were not so great and formidable.
