Irish Jesuit Province

The Life Worth LivingAuthor(s): William SuttonSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 15, No. 170 (Aug., 1887), pp. 433-436Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20497590 .

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THE LIFE WORTH LIVING.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM SUTTON, S.f.

G OD made us for Himself, and He made Himself one of us, that, learning from Him how to live, we might through

Him gain eternal life. We have no other business in this world but to do this. It is all that we are here for, to glorify God by serving him here, to glorify Him for eternity in reward for taking up our cross and following Him here. Every human being who does not do this is foolish, because he does not know, or does not care about the one thing he is in existence for. Every human being who does this is wise with the very highest wisdom, because he

knows and cares about what he himself was made for. Wisdom is knowledge of the causes of things, and practical wisdom is know ing how to get what is worth having. The worldly wise are they who know the sources of worldly happiness, what the world has that is most solid and satisfying, and know with practical knowledge how to get them. The world's fools are they who for some present fleeting pleasure or advantage forfeit its solid goods. Sots, idlers, triflers are such. Power, fame, wealth, obtainable by knowledge. energy, persistent striving, that gives in to no defeat as final, and always tries again, these and all that these enable men to enjoy, are what the world's wise men set their hearts upon, and forget

everything else for. There is more hope for the fools than for them. Out and out worldly wise people long so for the good things of earth as in their pursuit to make no account of how they get them; if they may, they will get them honestly, if not, any way they can. And riches and honours beg,et pride, and pride is consummated folly, that will make its victims capable of any offence against God. Pride is not the besetting sin of the world's fools. As long as people are not proud, there is great hope that

they may yet be healed by wisdom. Without wisdom it is impos sible to please God, " for by wisdom they wvere healed, 0 Lord,

whoever have pleased Thee from the beginning."* This wisdom

springs from the knowledge of God, imparted to us in the gift of

Faith, whereby we adjust ourselves rightly in relation to Him and

* Wisdom, ix. 19.

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434 4he Life worth Living.

to the world around us. "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. and to depart from evil is understanding."

The WVisdom of God, Himself became man to teaclh us all how to be wise, how to fear God and to depart from evil, in other words how to lead a Christian life. The Christian life, the crucified life, is then the only wise life. All must lead it, to secure the end for

which they were created. How can this be done-? It seems a hard saying, that all Christians without exception must lead a crucified life. The courtier, soldier, scholar, the man of business, the professional man, all men, women and children must live a crucified life, else they wiU lead a life whose natural end is the second death. And all may do so by God's grace according to their state of life without any such great trouble as we are inclined to imagine. Whether we lead a crucified life or not ,depends upon ourselves, we have to lead a suffering one. It is the

badge of all our tribe. " Great labour is created for all men, and

a heavy yoke is upon the children of Adam, from the day of their

-coming out of their mother's womb, until the day of their burial into the mother of all. Their thoughts and fears of the heart, their imagination of things to come and the day of their end; from him that sitteth on a glorious throne unto him that is humbled in earth and ashes; from him that weareth purple and

beareth the crown even to him that is covered with rough linen; wrath, envy, trouble, unquietness, continual anger and strife, and in the time of rest upon his bed, the sleep of the night changeth his knowledge. A little and as nothing is his rest, and afterwards in sleep as in the day of keeping watch. He is troubled in the

vision of his heart, as if he had escaped in the day of battle. In

the time of his safety he rose up and wondereth that there is no fear. Such things happen to all flesh from man even to beast, and upon sinners are sevenfold more."t Since we must suffer, the wisest thing to do is to learn how to make our suffering life a

crucified one. Our Lord has told us that his followers, that is, Christians, must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him. Self-denial is the essence of the crucified life. Its first and absolutely necessary degree is freedom from mortal sin. To keep clear of mortal sin requires great self-denial. To people who care only for the good things of earth, avoiding grievous sin seems impossible except at the cost of what is best worth having.

Life without sin would be, they think, a dreary burthen and an

* Job, xxviii. 28. f Ecclus. xl. 1, &c.

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The Life worth Living. 435

intolerable struggle. Crime or anything that would disgrace them they wish to avoid, but sin as an offence against God they have no horror of, quite otherwise. And still it is absolutely necessary to avoid mortal sin, if we would be wise in the lowest degree. As long as we remain in mortal 8sin we are fools, who deliberately risk the eternal jewel of our soul for some worth less bauble. Left to ourselves we could not long keep from mortal sin, nor could we ever rise from it. By God's grace we may with comparative ease; and after awhile, living a Christian life will give us even here on this bank and shoal of time, more solid content and satisfaction than all sinful indulgences could.

All who wish to serve God and save their souls must wish, too, to grow in His grace and love. Even though we may not be ready to pay the price necessary to purchase sanctity, we must have some desire of it, and at times strong desires of earnestly applying our selves to the more perfect service of God. There is no one, who hlabitually strives to keep in the state of grace, who does not often vearn to break away from what they know lieeps them so imper fect, as they feel they are. But we are frightened, we shrink from

the rawness and loneliness of a much crucified life, and so we go on suffering, and through our own folly make little or no use of the means by which that suffering might be softened and lightened, and made a vast help for strengthening ourselves in virtue, grow ing in grace, and earning an exceeding great reward for ever.

Getting up in the morning is a very severe penance. It is intensely disagreeable whether we do it with a good will or not. Wit,h some

persistent energy and begging God's help we may make it a

splendid start for each day's crulcified Christian life. In the mat ter of food, clothes, lodging, study, business, state of health, cir cumstances of ourselves and those dear to us, we have causes andc

sources of multitudinous suffering, actual and possible, great and small, and which must be gone through one way or the other. By the Christian life we learn the secret of enduring patiently and of extracting from suffering, peace and satisfaction, which makes a life, of itself at times intolerable, a source of communicative con

tentment here and the promise and potency of eternal happiness. This may be brought about by acquiring the habit of uniting

all that we suffer to the suffering of our Lord. What God did for us by becoming man and living and dying for us is this: He completely satisfied divine justice for all human sin, thereby obtain ing for all men the right to be forgiven and to become children again of God by grace and glory, if only they fulfil the simple

VOL. XV. No. 170. 31

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436 The Life worthi Living.

conditions of entering upon this heritage of our Lord. Through what He did for us, our works and sufferings, done and enduredl

by the help of grace, in union with His merits andisufferings, are raised to a state of supernatural dignity and efficacy for the forgiveness of sin, growth in grace and earning of eternal glory. Consequently, if we acquire the habit of uniting what we do and suffer to the sufferings of our Lord, the whole day long we may be heaping up grace for ourselves, that will wonderfully lighten and sweeten the burden of this present life, and give us a continually increasing claim on God's providence here, and an ever-growing right to a larger possession in Hus eternal home. All this may be

done in varying degrees of perfection, but even a very imperfect carrying out of it, provided it is earnest and persistent, wouldl bring about no small change for the better, and make life more

tolerable, more cheerful, more profitable. It would soon give it a relish and freshness that nothing else could, especially in the case of those whose lot is mostly suffering. As we progressed in the habit, it would let us into the secrets of sanctity. We

should begin to understand in some small way, how it is saints

love and yearn for poverty, humiliations, and sufferings, as worldly people thirst for wealth, and power, and pleasure. After awhile there would spring up and strengthen in us a vigorous disrelish of what keeps us from loving and serving God alone. Then,

indeed, life would be worth living. The only life worth living is the Christian, crucified life, according to the state and duty of

each Christian. The more crucified it is by due and reasonable

self-denial and self-control, the fuller and fresher it becomes, and it increases in peace and fulness to the end.

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