Page:AceticLibraryV2PreparationForDeath.djvu/144

 lost My voice in calling thee. "Be warned, O sinners," observes S. Teresa, " for that same Lord Who is now calling you, will one day be your Judge." My Christian brother, how many times have you not turned a deaf ear to God when He has called you? You deserve that He should never call you again. But no, your God will never cease to call you, because He wishes to be at peace with you and to save you. And Who was He that called you? Even a God of Infinite Majesty. And what are you but a miserable worm? And wherefore does He call you? For nothing else than to give you back the life of grace which you have lost. " Wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." (Ezek. xviii. 32.) It would be doing but little to live in a desert for a whole life, if by so doing we could gain Divine grace; but God offered His grace to you in one moment, if you chose to accept it, by doing one act of repentance; and you have refused it. And yet God has not abandoned you; but He has sought you, saying, Why wilt thou condemn thyself, my son? " For why will ye die, O house of Israel?"

When a man commits a deadly sin, he drives God away from his soul. " Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways." (Job. xxi. 14.) But what does God do? He stands at the door of that ungrateful heart. " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." (Rev. iii. 20.) And He entreats, as it were, the soul to admit Hun: " Open to Me, My sister." (Song of Sol. v. 2.) And He wearies Himself with entreating. " Yes," observes S. Dionysius the Areopagite, " God follows the sinner about like a discarded lover, entreating him not to be lost."

And S. Paul signifies the same when he writes to his disciples, "We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Cor. v. 20.) And the reflection is indeed beautiful that S. Chrysostom makes, commenting upon this, " Christ Himself beseeches you. What does He beseech? That ye may be reconciled to God; for it is not He that is your enemy, but yourselves." And the saint wishes to say that there is indeed no need for the sinner to strive to make his peace with God, for he only has to form the wish to make it, since it is he himself, and not God, that flies away from peace.