Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/200

 avoid them? If you had to pass by night through a wood full of precipices, without a guide to give you light, and to point out to you the dangerous passages, you would certainly run a great risk of losing your life. You wish to direct yourself: "Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness." (Luke xi. 45.) The light which you think you possess will be your ruin; it will lead you into a pit. 11. God wills that, in the way of salvation, we all submit to the guidance of our director. Such has been the practice of even the most learned among the saints. In spiritual things the Lord wishes us to humble ourselves, and to put ourselves under a confessor, who will be our guide. Gerson teaches, that he who neglects the advice of his director, and directs himself, does not require a devil to tempt him: he becomes a devil to himself. ”Qui spreto duce, sibi dux esse vult, non indiget dromone tentante, quia factus est sibi ipse dæmon." (Cons, de Lib. Reg.) And when God sees that he will not obey his minister, he allows him to follow his own caprice. “So I let them go according to the desires of their own hearts." (Ps. lxxx. 13.) 12. ”It is like the sin of witchcraft to rebel: and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey." (1 Kings xv. 23.) In explaining this text, St. Gregory says, that the sin of idolatry consists in abandoning God and adoring an idol. This a penitent does when he disobeys his confessor to do his own will: he refuses to do the will of God, who has spoken to him by means of his minister; he adores the idol of self-will, and does what he pleases. Hence St. John of the Cross says that, "not to follow the advice of our confessor is pride and a want of faith." (Tratt. delle spine, tom, iii., col. 4, 2, n. 8); for it appears to proceed from a want of faith in the Gospel, in which Jesus Christ has said: "He that heareth you, heareth me." 13. If, then, you wish to save your souls, obey your confessor punctually. Be careful to have a fixed confessor, to whom you will ordinarily make your confession; and avoid going about from one confessor to another. Make choice of a learned priest; and, in the beginning, make to him a general confession, which, as