examination of the heart 448 wants you to work; you gladly embrace a sickness if God wants you to be sick; you eagerly solicit contempt if God wants you to be slighted; you treasure mortifications if God wants you to be mortified. Finally, you do whatever God commands; you reject whatever God forbids. Oh, happy indeed is such a soul. Blessed is God’s servant who thus watches, and he is wholly fearless of his destiny; while on the contrary, it seems to be a certain sign of eternal condemnation if one neglects to fulfill the divine will. We are taught this by the example of Saul, to whom the prophet Samuel said: “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, [H]e also rejected you from being king.” (1 Sam 15:23). Therefore, you will be happy if the Lord finds you always watching, and especially today. After Holy Communion 1. “he will put on his apron and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them” (Lk 12:37). Behold, the reward earned by the soul of the servant, who watches for the commands of the Lord, namely: the Lord Himself provides him with repose and interior food. Look at it in the following way: persons obedient to God’s inspirations, which for the most part are given through the direction of others, acquire the greatest peace of heart. The pious follower of Christ provides this manner of acquiring peace when he says, speaking on behalf of Christ: “If you will hear me and follow my voice, you shall be able to enjoy great peace.”216 He advises precisely the same elsewhere: “Strive to do the will of another rather than your own.”217 “Desire always, and pray that the will of God be perfectly fulfilled in you. Behold such a person enters into the highest degrees of peace and quiet,”218 when the Lord makes such a servant sit down at His table. Indeed, He waits on him when, as to the obedient one, He gives to him in abundance many [f.144r] 216 Cf. IC, Bk. III, Ch. 25, § 1. 217 Ibid., Bk. III, Ch. 23, § 3. 218 Ibid.
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