Page:PracticeOfChristianAndReligiousPerfectionV1.djvu/29

 called  elsewhere  by  obedience,  cannot  assist  with  the  test  at  the common exercises  of  devotion,  and  to  teach  us,  not,  through our own  fault,  to  absent  ourselves  from  them.

" Blessed  are  they,"  says  the  gospel,  "  who  hunger  and  thirst after  justice,  for  they  shall  be  filled." (Matt. v.  6.)  Though the word  "justice"  is  particularly  applied  to  one  of  the  four cardinal virtues  as  distinct  from  the  rest;  nevertheless,  it  is very  applicable  to  all  the  virtues,  and  to  sanctity  in  general. We give  the  name  of  justice  to  righteousness  and  to  holiness  of life,  and  we  call  those  just,  who  are  holy  and  virtuous. The Wise Man  says,  "  That  the  justice  of  the  righteous  shall  deliver them"  (Prov.  xi.  6),  that  is,  they  shall  be  saved  by  their  holiness of life. This word  is  taken  in  the  same  sense  in  several  passages of Scripture. " Unless  your  justice,"  says  our  Saviour,  "  exceeds that  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  you  shall  not  enter  the  kingdom of  heaven"  (Matt.  v.  20);  i.e.,  you  will  not  be  saved  unless you have  more  virtue,  more  religion,  and  more  sanctity,  than they have. In the  same  manner,  must  be  understood  what our Saviour  said  to  St.  John,  when  he  refused  to  baptize him: — "For so  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  justice  (Matt.  iii. 15) ;  as  if  he  bad  said,  I  must  do  this  to  set  an  example  of  obedience, of  humility,  and  of  all  manner  of  perfection.  We  must then  take  in  the  same  sense,  those  words  I  have  cited  in  the beginning  of  this  chapter,  and  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  called those  blessed,  who  have  so  great  a  love,  and  so  ardent  a  desire of  virtue,  as  to  feel  the  same  pain  from  it  as  is  felt  from  hunger and  violent  thirst.  St.  Jerom  writing  on  this  passage,  says,  it is  not  enough  for  us  to  have  a  weak  desire  of  virtue  and  perfection, but  we  must  hunger  and  thirst  after  it;  so  as  to  cry  out with  the  Royal  Prophet: — "  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  fountains of  waters,  so  my  soul  panteth  after  thee,  O  God!"  (Ps.  xli. 2.)

This ardent  desire  is  so  necessary  to  us,  that,  as  I  have  said in the  foregoing  chapter,  all  our  spiritual  advancement  depends upon it. It is  the  first  principle  which  disposes  us  to  it,  and