It is not charity to rock and lull our brothers to sleep
in the inertia and drowsiness of matter, but rather to awaken them to
the uneasiness and torment of spirit.
To the fourteen works of mercy which we learnt in the Catechism of
Christian Doctrine there should sometimes be added yet another, that of
awakening the sleeper. Sometimes, at any rate, and surely when the
sleeper sleeps on the brink of a precipice, it is much more merciful to
awaken him than to bury him after he is dead--let us leave the dead to
bury their dead. It has been well said, "Whosoever loves thee dearly
will make thee weep," and charity often causes weeping. "The love that
does not mortify does not deserve so divine a name," said that ardent
Portuguese apostle, Fr. Thome de Jesus,[57] who was also the author of
this ejaculation--"O infinite fire, O eternal love, who weepest when
thou hast naught to embrace and feed upon and many hearts to burn!" He
who loves his neighbour burns his heart, and the heart, like green wood,
in burning groans and distils itself in tears.
And to do this is generosity, one of the two mother virtues which are
born when inertia, sloth, is overcome. Most of our miseries come from
spiritual avarice.
The cure for suffering--which, as we have said, is the collision of
consciousness with unconsciousness--is not to be submerged in
unconsciousness, but to be raised to consciousness and to suffer more.
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