429 part ii: meditations for more solemn feasts or worker, but also as the reward for your works: God Himself, and everything else with Him. 2. “Sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and runs away” (Jn 10:12). Consider that the wolves are the evil spirits who covet our souls day and night, not only seeking treacherously to catch them, but also to snatch them by force and to devour them. Therefore you, the shepherd of your soul, ought to be most vigilant and having foreseen from afar the cunning tricks of the evil spirit, make yourself ready to resist him strongly, and not to let him inside your heart’s stronghold; but to defeat him outside the walls, as someone warned: “We must be on our guard especially at the beginning of a temptation, for then the enemy is more easily overcome, if he is not allowed in any way to enter the door of our mind.”206 Therefore, do not be a hireling; catch the coming wolf while it is still afar, fight nobly, conquer bravely. Beware, lest you leave the sheep and run away. 3. “The sheep do not belong to him” (Jn 10:12). It is certain that your soul is not your own sheep. For Christ bought it for Himself at the immense price of His Blood. Yet, since it has been given over into your custody, you should care for it all the more, the more you recognize that it does not belong to you. If you had somebody else’s garment, you would use it with great caution, so that it may be returned to its owner clean and spotless. God also will require your soul from you in a pure condition. Look at the soul He handed over to you today: how charming, beautiful, how perfectly purified by His blood from all stains of imperfections; He will demand such a soul back. And if you stain it, He will treat you as a hireling. If you preserve it pure, He will admit you as a very good shepherd, guardian, and servant, to eternal joys. [f.137v] 206 Cf. IC, Bk. I, Ch. 13, § 5.
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