examination of the heart 386 But if a man professes God above all by honoring His glory and fulfilling His commandments, then consider out how great a firmness you should demonstrate in these matters. Indeed, you will be able to use this most powerful act of professing God if, coming today into the full mystery of the presence of Jesus Christ, you will exclaim with love: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God.” After Holy Communion 1. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 16:19). Consider how great was the providence and wisdom of God, which appointed the sinner Peter, who denied Christ as the supreme head of the Church, leader of the Christian hosts and His Vicar. He did not appoint the innocent John, or the righteous James. For certainly, we needed such a Shepherd, one who would know how to forgive the straying sheep and to admit them most kindly into the sheepfold of Christ, as they showed repentance. Since he himself had sinned in the past, he knew how great the proclivity to sin was in men, the ease of their moral failure, and the will of doing good, once they have risen! Hence, you ought to learn to empathize with sinners rather than to be angry with them. Since it is the rule with Divine Providence to seriously tempt or possibly allow to fall, the men who are just and most desirous of perfection as well as others such as the Superiors, so that, coming back to their senses and not being ignorant of evils, they may help others and know how to assist the wretched ones. In fact, you should know that sometimes sins are means for or ways to salvation. As someone has said: “For many it is better not to be too free from temptations,” (and even to fall sometimes),“but often to be tried lest they become too secure, too filled with pride.”179 [f.123r] 2. “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” (Mt 16:19). 179 Cf. IC, Bk. I, Ch. 20, § 4.
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