Reacting with common sense

Though we are very much children before God, we cannot be childish. We come to the Work old enough to know that we have feet of clay and are made of flesh and blood. It would be absurd for this to dawn on us in our maturity, the way an infant a few months old is astonished to discover its own hands and feet. We have come to serve God, fully aware of our worthlessness and weakness. But if we have given ourselves to God, Love will prevent us from being unfaithful.

Loyalty

On the other hand, you can be sure that being disloyal and taking hold of an earthly love would be the beginning of a very bitter life, full of sadness, shame and suffering. My children, strengthen your resolve never to sell your birth-right and not to exchange it, after years have passed, for a plate of lentils. It would be a great shame to throw away so many years of self-sacrificing love like that. Say, I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules (Ps 119[118]:106).

Drawing out humility from a trial

God, who always rewards our faithfulness and reminds us of the omnia in bonum, at the same time forewarns us against the constant danger of vanity. As St Augustine wrote: “For those who love him, God makes everything work together for their good, absolutely everything, to the point that even if some swerve and stray from the path, he makes even this contribute to their good, because they come back humbler and wiser. For they learn that even on the right path they ought to rejoice with trembling, and not claim that they can remain on the path thanks to their own strength, nor say in times of prosperity, ‘We shall never be moved’ (Ps 30:6)”¹⁷