"Dear son, the first thing I admonish thee is that thou set thy heart to love God, for without that nothing else is of any worth. Beware of doing what displeases God, that is to say mortal sin; yea rather oughtest thou to suffer all manner of torments. If God send thee adversity, receive it in patience, and give thanks for it to our Lord, and think that thou hast done Him ill service. If He give thee prosperity, thank Him humbly for the same and be not the worse, either by pride or in any other manner, for that very thing that ought to make thee better; for we must not use God's gifts against Himself. Have a kind and pitiful heart towards the poor and the unfortunate, and comfort and assist them as much as thou canst. Keep up the good customs of thy kingdom, and put down all bad ones. Love all that is good and hate all that is evil of any sort. Suffer no ill word about God or our Lady or the saints to be spoken in thy presence, that thou dost not straightway punish. In the administering of justice be loyal to thy subjects, without turning aside to the right hand or to the left; but help the right, and take the part of the poor until the whole truth be cleared up. Honour and love all ecclesiastical persons, and take care that they be not deprived of the gifts and alms that thy predecessors may have given them. Dear son, I admonish thee that thou be ever devoted to the Church of Rome, and to the sovereign Bishop our father, that is the Pope, and that thou bear him reverence and honour as thou oughtest to do to thy spiritual father. Exert thyself that every vile sin be abolished from thy land; especially to the best of thy power put down all wicked oaths and heresy. Fair son, I give thee all the blessings that a good father can give to a son; may the blessed Trinity and all the saints guard thee and protect thee from all evils; may God give thee grace to do His will always, and may He be honoured by thee, and may thou and I after this mortal life be together in His company and praise Him without end."
We don't speak with the 'thees' and 'thous' any more, but you get the picture. Our beloved Abbot Gueranger epitomizes St. Louis with these words, which we ought to follow:
'He made a covenant before the Lord to walk after Him and keep His commandments; and cause them to be kept by all.' God was his end, faith was his guide: herein lies the whole secret of his government as well as of his sanctity. As a Christian he was a servant of Christ, as a prince he was Christ's lieutenant; the aspirations of the Christian and those of the prince did not divide his soul; this unity was his strength, as it is now his glory. He now reigns in heaven with Christ, who alone reigned in him and by him on earth. If then your delight be in thrones and sceptres, O ye kings of the people, love wisdom, that you may reign for ever.'
Now, to the readings for tomorrow. I'm going to focus on what St. Paul writes to the Galatians. He talks about mortifying his flesh, in order to appease God, Who has rescued him. As our Abbot says:
'Flesh and blood have had no share in their divine birth; flesh and blood have no hand in their regenerated life. Their first birth being in the flesh, they were flesh, and did the works of death and ignominy mentioned in the Epistle, showing at every turn that they were from slime of earth; but, born of the Spirit, they are spirit, and do the works of the spirit, in spite of the flesh which is always part of their being. For, by giving them of His own life, the Spirit has emancipated them, by the power of love, from the tyranny of sin, which held dominion over their members; and, having been grafted on Christ, they bring forth fruit unto God.
Man, therefore, who was once a slave to concupiscence, has regained on the on the Cross of Christ that equilibrium of his existence which is true liberty. The supremacy, which the soul had forfeited in punishment for her revolt against God, has been restored to her by the laver of the water of Baptism...He too demands atonement...For this purpose He mercifully takes man, now that he is enfranchised, and confides to him the task of sharing with His divine Majesty in taking revenge on their common enemy and usurper. Then again, this mortifying the flesh and keeping it in subjection is a necessary means for retaining the good position already obtained. It is true that the rebel has been made incapable of damaging those who are in Christ Jesus, and who walk not according to the flesh and its vile suggestions; but it is equally true that the rebel is rebel still, and is ever watching for opportunities to assail the spirit. If one were Antony in the desert, the flesh would be fierce in its assaults even there. If the saint were a Paul, just fresh from the third heaven of his sublime revelations, the flesh would have impudence enough to buffet even him. So that, had we no past sins to atone for, the commonest prudence would urge us to take severe measures of precaution against an enemy who is so fearfully untiring in his hatred of us, and, what is worse, lives always in our own home. St. Paul, of whom we were just speaking, says of himself: "I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest, perhaps...I should become reprobate!"
So, if Paul still had to fight these tendencies even after what he went through, we too need to rein in our urges in order to appease God, Who will judge us according to our lives.
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