examination of the heart 178 Himself and to His Cross so that having tasted how sweet He is, you would desire nothing worldly and instead long for Him alone; and so that there would be nothing too arduous to accomplish, nothing repugnant to your spirit, except what must be abandoned for His glory. 2. “Peter and James and John his brother” (Mt 17:1). The Lord wanted these apostles to witness His glory so that they might likewise carry the Cross. He wanted them to be present at His Divine Transfiguration, so that, by joint effort, they would overcome the powers of hell and eradicate the darnels and burrs; that is, the pagan teachings spread throughout the world by the cunning of the evil spirit; and so that they would plant the salutary seed of the Divine Word in the whole world and would zealously and continuously preach and spread faith in their Master, the Savior of the universe! If you, along with so many other holy ones, come to the table of Christ and consume the food common to all the saints, if you enjoy the food and drink shared with them, you should not hesitate to work together with them. Indeed, since you have become a sharer in the fruits of the Most Sacred Eucharist, consider how and resolve to bear fruit in the vineyard of the Lord, lest perchance you be only a friend “ad aras,” (i.e., until the dangerous sea threatens65), lest you only take good things from the Savior, but flee from every unpleasantness and difficulty, as from a rabid dog or a snake.66 [f.32v] 3. “And [H]e was transfigured before them” (Mt 17:2). What a great favor the Lord did to the apostles by showing Himself to them in His divine glory! He shows you a favor just as great, or even greater, when He gives you not only to see but also 65 According to Virgil (in Aeneid, Bk., line 112), arae are “rocks near the sea” where it is dangerous to navigate. Cf. CLD, p. 49 (s.v. arae). St. Stanislaus warns against being like people whose friendship fails when their friend is exposed to certain dangerous situations and sufferings, when the friendship would oblige them to share or to assist the friend at a certain cost to themselves. 66 "Cane peius et angue vitare" (“avoid the rabid dog and the snake”) is a proverb used by Horace (cf. CLD, pp. 81-82 (s.v. canis)), where the “dog” is rabid and the “snake” signifies a detestable thing to flee away from (cf. FLL, vol 1, Typis Seminarii, Patavii 1864, pp. 513-514 (s.v. canis)).
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