Lest You Remain

than to denounce oneself; to not constantly renounce the world; to expect reward for one’s efforts, instead of an honorable disinterestedness; to not get rid of every- thing, but to look back. A mercenary is cunning. At first, he puts his hand to the plow, but later, perhaps in hope of greater comfort, or discouraged by hard work, or lured by the pleasures of idleness, or tempted by the sweet taste of old vices, he looks back, abandons the reli- gious cross and loses, not someone else’s, but his own soul and he does not save it. Try to remain persistent in any good work, so that you would earn the name of the shepherd, or worker, and you would receive God alone as pay for your efforts, and everything together with Him. ( Inspectio Cordis ) 10 Think about the intention with which you serve God in the Order: as a son with love or as a mercenary for some worldly pay, for honors, for gaining knowl- edge, benefits or any other transient good. You would be a mercenary, if you performed your duties carelessly and indiffer- ently, and played the role of a Religious only on the surface. If this does not take place, you are a true servant of God, and not a mercenary; for your efforts, which you should have taken up out of love for the Crucified God, expect only the remuneration about which the Lord says: “I will make your reward very great” (Gn 15:1). ( Inspectio Cordis ) 11 Beware that nobody would say to you: You wear a cassock, but do not know what it means to be a Religious, what it means to be obedient, what it means to strive to keep chastity, poverty, humility and mortification of the senses. You wish to uncover heavenly secrets, to discover the deepest mysteries of God, to possess an abundance of heavenly delights and to relish in them! Yet how can you achieve this, if in every way you revolt, you do not believe, and you do not listen, when you should be abandoning and trampling [underfoot], all that is earthly? ( Inspectio Cordis ) Fr. Founder’s Selected Thoughts on the Religious Life 181