Lest You Remain

L EST Y OU R EMAIN W ITHOUT W ORK IN THE V INEYARD OF THE L ORD 130 of perfection. Cry that as long as you remain in the body, you will be deprived of the highest good. Cry that too often, you offend God who loves you so much; cry that you do more evil than good. Cry that, by nature, you turn yourself to ruin. Cry that you have more predilections for bodily pleasures, than for mortifications. Finally, cry that you are so ill prepared to receive the sweetest Divine nourishment. Cry, at last, that although you have a thousand reasons to cry, you cannot cry, and in fact you laugh and rejoice more. ( Inspectio Cordis ) B EAUTY OF THE H EART 1 And who would not admit that the Heart of man, especially of a devout one, is the Altar of God the Most High? For, just as God, veiled in the most Holy Eucharist, is never absent on the altar of a material temple, so He is never absent in a heart that is devoted to Him. [...] Once the God of infinite goodness desired that a temple be set up for Him by the King of the Israelites. And so He intimated His desire to His Prophet, and dis- patched him to David with these instructions: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?’” (2 Sam 7:5). How much more ardently does He desire to have an altar—I say, the whole heart—ded- icated to Him in His mystical temple? From this arises this entreaty, so to speak, addressed to each one of us, as it is found in the writings of the Sage: “My son, give me your heart” (Prov 23:26). For what purpose? That He may inhabit it, reside therein, and stay, reign and rest therein forever. For the Roman Philosopher himself believes: “God dwells in each good man” (Seneca). ( Templum Dei Mysticum) 2 Yet what is more excellent or more sublime than God? Since then there is noth- ing in man either more deserving, or more noble, than his heart, God is to be placed here as on His altar, so that He may rejoice most fully in His whole possession.