Capítulo XXVIII. Contra los que recelan seguir el camino de la virtud, por el amor del mundo

Capítulo XXVIII. Contra los que recelan seguir el camino de la virtud, por el amor del mundo

If we checked the pulse of everyone who shrinks from the path of virtue, we’d likely find that one of the main things daunting them is the deceitful love of this world. I call it deceitful because it’s caused by a false image and appearance of good that worldly things possess, which leads the ignorant to value them highly. Just as skittish animals flee from things they imagine are dangerous when they aren't, these people do the opposite: they love and pursue worldly things, believing them to be delightful when they aren't. And for this reason, just as those who want to cure such beasts of this bad habit try to lead them through the very passage they refuse, so they may see that what they feared was nothing more than a shadow—so it is right that we now lead these people through the shadow of these worldly things they love so disordered, and make them look at them with different eyes, so that they may clearly see how everything they love is vanity and shadow, and that just as those dangers do not deserve to be feared, neither do these goods deserve to be loved.¹ So looking carefully now at the world with all its happiness, I find in it these six kinds of evils that no one can deny me—namely: brevity, misery, danger, forms of blindness, sins, and deceptions—with which this happiness of the world is accompanied; and from this it will clearly be seen what that happiness really is. We will now briefly address each of these in order. I. How brief the world's happiness is. 1. Misery. So, starting with how brief it is: you can't deny that all the world's happiness and pleasure, whatever it may be, is at least short-lived. After all, a person's happiness can't last longer than their life. And as for how long this life is, we've already made that clear elsewhere, for the longest human life barely reaches a hundred years. But how many make it that far? I have seen bishops who lasted two months, popes who lasted one, and newlyweds who lasted only a single week. We read of many such examples from the past, and we see many every day in our own time. But let's grant that your life is very long. "Let us give," says Saint Chrysostom, "a hundred years to the world's pastimes, and add to these another hundred, and even another two hundred." What does all this have to do with eternity? If a person lives for many years—as Solomon says—and everything goes exactly as they wish, they should still remember the dark time and the days of eternity; when those arrive, it will be perfectly clear that everything in the past was vanity.^✦ In the face of eternity, every happiness, no matter how great, seems like vanity—and that is exactly what it is. Even the wicked admit this in the Book of Wisdom, saying that they ceased to exist almost as soon as they were born. See how brief this whole life will seem to the wicked then; it will truly feel as if they barely lived a single day, having been carried straight from the womb to the grave. From this it follows that all the pleasures and contentments of this world will seem to them there like dreamed pleasures—things that seemed to be pleasures, and were not. The prophet Isaiah expressed this beautifully: just as a hungry man dreams he is eating, only to wake up deceived and still hungry; or as a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, only to wake up still thirsty, realizing his satisfaction was empty—so it will be for all the people who fought against Mount Zion. Their prosperity will be so brief that once they open their eyes and that short time has passed, they will see that all their joys were nothing more than dreams.^✦2 If not, tell me: what more than this was the glory of all the princes and emperors the world has ever known? Where are they—says the Prophet—the princes of the nations, who held dominion over the beasts of the earth, who sought their pastimes and amusements in hunting and falconry, contending with the birds of the air; those who heaped up piles of silver and gold, in which people put their trust, without ever putting an end to their³ treasures; those who crafted so many and such rich vessels of gold and silver that no one can finish counting the inventions of their work? What became of all these? Where did they end up?⁴ They're already gone from their palaces; they went down to hell, and others have taken their place. What about the wise man?^✦ What about the man of learning?^✦5 Where is the searcher of nature?^✦ What became of Solomon's glory?^✦ Where is the mighty Alexander, and where is the glorious Ahasuerus?^✦ Where are the famous Roman Caesars? Where are the other princes and kings of the earth? What good did their vainglory do them—the power of the world, their many servants, their false riches, the hosts of their armies, the throng of their jesters, and the companies of liars and flatterers who went about them?^✦6 All of it was a shadow, all a dream, all a happiness that passed in a moment. So see, brother, how brief this worldly happiness is.⁷ II. On the great miseries that are mixed into the world's happiness. 2. Misery. Beyond being so brief, this happiness has another flaw: it's accompanied by a thousand kinds of miseries that are unavoidable in this life—or rather, in this valley of tears, this place of exile, and this sea of constant turmoil.⁸ For truly a person's miseries outnumber the days—and even the hours—of a person's life; because every day dawns with its own care, and every hour misery is threatening him. But what tongue could ever describe all these miseries? Who could count all the diseases of our bodies, the passions of our souls, the wrongs done to us by our neighbors, and all the disasters of our lives? One person sues you for your property, another hunts your life, and another stains your honor. Some with hatred, others with envy, others with deceit, others with thirst for revenge, others with false testimony, others with weapons, and others with their tongues—worse than the weapons themselves—wage deadly war on you. And on top of all these miseries, there are countless others that have no name because they are unexpected accidents. One man had an eye put out, another an arm broken; one fell from a window, another from his horse; one drowned in a river, another was ruined by rents, and another by a surety. If you want to know about even more evils, ask people in the world to account for the moments of pleasure and grief they've endured; if you put both on a scale, you'll see clearly how much heavier one load is than the other, and how for every single moment of pleasure, there are a hundred hours of sorrow. So if life itself is so short, as has already been shown, and so many miseries take up so much of it, I ask you to tell me how much true and pure happiness is left. But the miseries I’ve described here are common to both the good and the bad, who, just as they sail the same sea, are equally subject to the same storms. There are other miseries far more painful to feel, which belong to the wicked alone, because they are the daughters of their wickedness—and knowing them serves our purpose better, because it makes the life of such people more hateful, since it is subject to such miseries.⁹ But how many and how great these are, the wicked themselves confess in the Book of Wisdom, saying: Worn down like dogs, we walked the path of wickedness and ruin, and our ways were rough and hard; and the way of the Lord, so level and open, we never knew how to find.¹⁰ So it is that, just as the good have a paradise in this life and look forward to another, and go from one Sabbath to another Sabbath—that is, from one rest to another rest—so the wicked have a hell in this life and look forward to another, because from the hell of a bad conscience they go on to the hell of punishment.¹¹ These hardships come upon the wicked in many ways. Some of these come from God, who, as a just Judge, won't let the evil of guilt pass without the punishment of a penalty; and though that punishment is generally reserved for the next life, it often begins in this one.¹² For it is certain that just as God holds universal providence over the world, so he also holds particular providence over each person; and since we see that when there are greater sins in the world, there are also greater punishments—famines, wars, plagues, heresies, and other calamities of the same kind—so too, many times, punishments are sent to a person in keeping with that person's sins. For this reason, God said to Cain: If you do well, you'll receive the reward; and if you do evil, you'll find your sin right at the door—which is the penalty and punishment for it.^✦13 And in Deuteronomy Moses said to the people of Israel: You must know that the Lord your God is strong and faithful, and that he keeps his word and shows mercy to those who love him and keep his commandments, to the thousandth generation; and he promptly punishes those who¹⁴ hate him, so that he destroys them at once, without putting the punishment off any longer, giving them right away what they deserve.¹⁵ Notice how many times the word “at once” is repeated here.¹⁶ From this, you can see that beyond the punishment the wicked are owed in the next life, they are also often punished in this one, since Scripture so frequently repeats that they will be punished here at once, without further delay. This is the source of the many calamities and scourges they suffer—those who live on a treadmill of cares, hardships, needs, and troubles—though even when they feel them, they don't know where they come from, and so they mistake them for natural conditions rather than punishments for their guilt.¹⁷ For just as they don't recognize the goods of nature as a gift from God and don't thank him for them, they also don't recognize the scourges of his anger as punishments, and consequently, they don't amend their lives because of them. Other hardships come to them from God's deputies, the ministers of his justice, who often come upon wrongdoers and so pursue and press them hard with prisons, with exile, with costly expenses, with prosecutions, with disgrace and loss of property, and with a thousand other kinds of punishments; by these they make the sweet taste of their guilt turn bitter and make them pay sevenfold for it, even in this life.¹⁸ Other troubles and miseries come from the disordered appetites and passions of the heart. After all, what can you expect from excessive anxiety, empty fear, doubtful hope, disordered desire, and anguished sadness, other than swarms of jolts and worries? These rob the heart of the peace and freedom we mentioned earlier, unsettle life, lure people into sin, hinder prayer, steal sleep at night, and make our days sad and miserable. All these miseries are born within a person—they come from the disorder of their own passions. So you can see what someone who reaps this from his own harvest can expect from anywhere else—and with whom anyone can have peace who has so much war within himself.¹⁹ III. On the great traps and dangers of the world 3. Misery. And if there were nothing in the world but bodily pains and hardships alone, it would not be so much to fear; but there are not only bodily hardships in it, but also dangers to the soul, which are far more to be felt, because they cut closer to the quick. And these are so many that the Prophet said: God will rain snares upon the sinners. So how many snares do you think he saw in the world who compared them to the drops of water that fall from the sky? He says this specifically about sinners because, since they guard their hearts and senses so poorly, take so little care to avoid the occasions of sin, show so little diligence in seeking spiritual remedies, and on top of all that, walk through the fires of the world—how could they avoid walking among endless dangers? It is because of this multitude of dangers that he says snares will rain upon the sinners. There are snares in youth and snares in old age, snares in riches and snares in poverty, snares in honor and snares in dishonor, snares in company and snares in solitude, snares in adversity and snares in prosperity, and finally, snares for every human sense: for the eyes, the ears, the tongue, and everything else. Ultimately, the snares are so many that the Prophet cries out: "A snare is upon you, inhabitant of the earth." And if God opened our eyes even a little, as he opened them for Saint Anthony, we would see the whole world full of snares, tangled one into another, and we would cry out with him: "Oh! who will escape so many snares?" From this comes the ruin of so many souls that perish every day; for, as Saint Bernard laments, "on the sea of Marseilles, of ten ships scarcely one is lost, but on the sea of this world, of ten souls scarcely one is saved."²⁰ Who, then, wouldn't fear a world so dangerous? Who wouldn't try to flee from so many snares? Who wouldn't tremble to walk barefoot among so many serpents, unarmed among so many enemies, unprepared among so many occasions of sin, and without medicine among so many occasions of deadly disease?²¹ Who wouldn't labor to get out of this Egypt? Who wouldn't flee this Babylon? Who will not try to escape the flames of Sodom and Gomorrah and save himself on the mountain of the good life?^✦ So, with the world full of so many snares and precipices, and burning with so many flames of vice, who will count himself safe? Will anyone walk—says the Wise Man—on hot coals without burning the soles of his feet?^✦ And will he hide fire in his bosom without his clothes catching fire?^✦ .²² It is certain—says the²³ The Wise Man says that whoever touches pitch is bound to get dirty from it; so, whoever keeps company with the proud runs a great risk of becoming one of them.²⁴ IV. On the blindness and darkness of the world 4. Misery. To this crowd of traps and dangers is added another misery that makes them worse: the blindness and darkness of worldly people. It is perfectly illustrated by the darkness of Egypt, which was so thick you could feel it with your hands; for the three days it lasted, no one moved from where they stood, nor could they see the neighbor beside them.^✦ Such, certainly, and far more palpable, are the darknesses the world suffers. If not, then looking at its blindness and folly, tell me: what greater blindness is there than that people believe what they believe and live the way they do?²⁵ What greater blindness than to make so much of people, and so little of God? —to pay so much attention to the world's laws, and so little to the laws of God? —to work so hard for this body, which is a brute beast, and so little for the soul, which is the image of the divine majesty?^✦ —to hoard so much for this life, which tomorrow must end, and store up nothing for the other, which must last forever? —to tear yourself to pieces for earthly interests, and not take a single step for the goods of heaven? What greater blindness is there than this: knowing so surely that we must die, and that in that hour it will be decided what will forever become of our life, we still live so carelessly, as if we were going to live forever? For how much less do the wicked do, even though they must die tomorrow, than if they were going to live forever?²⁶ What greater blindness than, for the sweet lure of one appetite, to lose the birthright of heaven?^✦27 —to take such careful account of your property, and so little of your conscience? —to want all your things to be good, and not want your own life to be? Of these blindnesses you'll find so many in the world that people will seem to you as if they were under a spell and bewitched—so that though they have eyes, they do not see, and though they have ears, they do not hear; and though for earthly things their sight is sharper than a lynx's, for the things of heaven they have eyes duller than moles'. So it happened in figure to Saint Paul when he was on his way to persecute the Church: after he was thrown to the ground, though his eyes were open, he saw nothing.²⁸ That’s how it is with these wretched people: while they keep their eyes wide open to the things of the world, they keep them tightly shut to the things of God. V. On the many sins that exist in the world. 5. Misery. Given the darkness and the many snares in the world that we've discussed, what can you expect from it but falls and sins? This is the greatest of the world's evils, and the one that should most move us to hate it. It is with this consideration alone that Saint Cyprian tries to lead a friend to a contempt for the world. To that end he imagines climbing with him to a very high mountain from which the whole world can be seen, and from there he goes on pointing out to him, as with his finger, all the seas and lands, and every public square and tribunal, filled with a thousand kinds of sins and injuries found in every place—so that, seeing almost with his own eyes how many and how great the evils in the world are, he may understand how much it ought to be hated, and how much he owes to God for having drawn him out of it. So then, in keeping with this meditation, climb now yourself, brother, to this same mountain, and cast your eyes a little over the public squares, the palaces, and the courts and offices of the world, and there you will see so many kinds of sins, so many lies, so many slanders, so many deceits, so many false oaths, so many robberies, so many envies, so much flattery, so much vanity, and above all so much forgetfulness of God and so much contempt for one's own salvation, that you will not be able to help marveling and standing astonished at so much evil.²⁹ You will see most people living like brute beasts, following the surge of their passions, with no more regard for the law of justice or of reason than pagans would have who know nothing of God and think there is nothing more than being born and dying. You will see the innocent mistreated, the guilty pardoned, the good despised, and the wicked honored and exalted. You will see the poor and humble cast down, and favor counting for more in every affair than virtue. You'll see the laws put up for sale, the truth despised, shame gone, the arts ruined, the trades adulterated, and the ranks of society largely corrupted. You'll see many perverse people who deserve heavy punishments—people who by thefts, by deceptions, and by other evil means came into great wealth and came to be praised and feared by everyone. And you'll see both these people and others who barely possess more than the outward appearance of a human being placed in high offices and³⁰ dignities.³¹ Finally, you'll see money loved and adored in the world more than God; you'll see a great part of both divine and human laws corrupted by it, and in many places, nothing remains of justice but the name. And once you've seen all these things, you'll understand at once how rightly the Prophet said: The Lord set himself to look down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there was anyone who knew God or sought him; but all had gone astray and made themselves worthless, and there was no one who did good—not even one.³² And he complains no less through the prophet Hosea, saying that there was neither mercy, nor truth, nor knowledge of God in the land, but that malice, and lies, and thefts, and murders, and adulteries had spread through all of it, and that one blood fell upon another blood and one wickedness upon another wickedness. Finally, to see more clearly what the world is really like, fix your eyes on the head that governs it, and from that, you'll understand what shape the governed must be in. For if it's true that the Prince of this world (that is, of the wicked) is the devil, as Christ says, what can you expect from a body whose head is like that, and from a commonwealth whose governor is like that?^✦33 This alone is enough to show you that the world is just what its lovers are.³⁴ So what will this world be but a den of thieves, an army of highway robbers, a wallow of pigs, a galley of forced convicts, a lake of snakes and basilisks?^✦ So if the world is as bad as this, why shouldn't I abandon—says a philosopher—a place so foul, so full of treachery, deceit, and wickedness, where there's scarcely any loyalty, or pity, or justice; where every vice reigns; where the son desires his father's death, the husband his wife's, and the wife her husband's; where so few are those who don't steal or deceive, for many, both great and small, under honest names, pilfer and rob; and where, finally, so many fires burn of greed, lust, anger, ambition, and countless other evils? So who wouldn't want to flee such a world? That prophet certainly desired it who said: Oh that someone would take me to a desert, or to some place apart from travelers, so I might be free of this people's company, for they are all adulterers and gangs of transgressors!^✦ .³⁵ What I've said so far generally applies to the wicked, though no one can deny that in every walk of life there are many good people in the world, for whose sake God sustains it. So, having considered these things, see how much reason you have to hate something so evil—where, if God opened your eyes, you would see more demons and more sins than the dust motes that show in the sunbeams. And with this, let the desire grow in you to see yourself free of it—at least in spirit—sighing with the Prophet and saying: Who will give me wings like a dove's, and I will fly and be at rest?^✦36 . VI. How deceptive worldly happiness is. 6. Misery. These and many others like them are the taxes and counterweights that come with this wretched happiness of the world—so you can see how much more gall than honey, and how much more bitterness than sugar, it carries with it.³⁷ I'll leave off listing the many other evils it has. Because, besides this happiness and pleasure being so brief and so wretched, it is also filthy, because it makes men carnal and unclean; it is bestial, because it makes them beastly; it is mad, because it makes them mad and often drives them out of their minds; it is unstable, because it never stays the same; and finally, it is faithless and disloyal, because just when we need it most it fails us and leaves us hanging.³⁸ But one evil I will not leave untold—and it may well be the worst of all—which is that it is false and deceptive, because it looks like what it is not, promises what it does not give, and by this draws after itself the greater part of people, already ruined.³⁹ For just as there is real gold and fake gold, and real precious stones and fake ones that look precious but aren't, so too there are real goods and false ones, true happiness and false happiness that looks like happiness but isn't; and such is the happiness of this world, and that is why it deceives us with this counterfeit show.⁴⁰ For just as Aristotle says that there are often lies which, though they are lies, have more appearance of truth than the truths themselves, so in fact (and this is much worth noting) there are some evils which, though they are true evils, have more appearance of goods than the goods themselves; and such, without a doubt, is the happiness of the world, and that is why the ignorant are deceived by it, just as fish and birds are deceived by the bait set before them. For this is the nature of bodily things: they immediately present themselves to us with a cheerful face and with a flattering, alluring look that promises us joy and contentment; but once experience of things disabuses us, we then feel the hook under the bait, and we see clearly that not all that glittered was gold.⁴¹ So you'll find by experience that holds for everything in the world. If not, look at the pleasures of the newly married, and you'll see how, once the first days of marriage have passed, that day of their happiness soon begins to close in on them, and the dark night of cares, needs, and hardships that follow falls. For soon the burdens pile on: of children, of illnesses, of absences, of jealousy, of lawsuits, of difficult childbirths, of disasters, of pains, and finally of the inevitable death of one of the two, which sometimes comes very early and turns the joys of a marriage not yet finished into tears of lasting widowhood and solitude.⁴² So what greater deception, and what greater hypocrisy, is there than this? How happily the young woman goes to the marriage bed on her wedding day, because she has no eyes to see beyond what appears on the outside! But if she were given eyes to see the seedbed of hardships that are sown that day, she'd have much more reason to weep than to laugh! Rebecca longed to have children, and after she found herself pregnant and felt the children struggling in her womb, she said: If this is how it had to be, what need was there to conceive?^✦ . Oh, how many people end up disillusioned after getting what they wanted, because along the way they find something different from what they first promised themselves! So what should I say about offices, honors, positions of power, and dignities? They look so cheerful at first when they appear, but how many swarms of passions, cares, envies, and troubles emerge after that initial, deceptive brilliance! And what should we say about those who get tangled up in unchaste love?⁴³ How soft they find the entrances of this blind labyrinth at the start—but once they are inside it, how many hardships they must endure, how many bad nights they must bear, how many dangers they must put themselves in! For the fruit of that forbidden tree holds the fury of a venomous dragon—the cruel sword of a relative or a jealous husband—by which life, honor, fortune, and the soul are often lost in a single moment.⁴⁴ You can run through the lives of the greedy, the worldly, and those who seek glory through arms or court favor in the same way; in every one of them, you'll find great tragedies of sweet beginnings and disastrous ends. That is the nature of the cup of Babylon: gilded on the outside, but full of poison within.⁴⁵ So then, given all this, what is all the glory of the world but a sirens' song that lulls you to sleep, a sugar-coated poison that kills, a viper painted fair on the outside and full of venom within? If it flatters, it’s to deceive; if it lifts you up, it’s to cast you down; if it makes you glad, it’s to make you sad. Everything it gives, it gives with incomparable usury.⁴⁶ If a son is born to you and then dies, the grief of his death is seven times greater than the joy of his birth.^✦47 Loss hurts more than gain delights; sickness afflicts more than health gladdens; insult burns more than honor pleases. For I don't know what kind of inequality this was—that nature willed evils to be more powerful at causing pain than pleasures at giving joy. All of which, when carefully considered, plainly shows us how false and deceptive this happiness is. VII. A conclusion to what has been said above. Look closely, my brother, at the true nature of the world, even if its outward appearance suggests otherwise; consider what its happiness really is: brief, miserable, dangerous, blind, and full of sins and deceptions. So then, given this, what else is this world but—as a philosopher said—a chest of troubles, a school of vanities, a marketplace of deceptions, a labyrinth of errors, a prison of darkness, a road of robbers, a muddy swamp, and a sea of constant turmoil?⁴⁸ What is this world but barren land, a stony field, a wood full of thorns, a green meadow full of snakes, a flowering garden without fruit, a river of tears, a spring of cares, a sweet poison, a made-up fable, and a delightful frenzy?⁴⁹ What goods are there in it that aren't false, and what evils that aren't real? Its rest is full of anguish, its security has no foundation, its fear has no cause, its labors bear no fruit, its tears serve no purpose, its plans come to nothing, its hope is vain, its joy is feigned, and its pain is real.⁵⁰ In this you'll see how much this world resembles hell; if hell is nothing but a place of punishment and guilt, what else abounds more in this world than that? At least the Prophet testifies to this when he says that day and night it was surrounded on every side by sins, and that what was in it was toil and injustice.⁵¹ This is the fruit of the world, this the merchandise sold in it, this the trade found in every corner of it: toil and without justice—which are evils of punishment and evils of guilt.⁵² So if hell is nothing but a place of punishment and guilt, how can this world not also, in its own way, be called a hell—since there's so much of both in it? At least that's how Saint Bernard saw it, when he said that if it weren't for the seed of hope we have for the next life, this world would seem to him little less evil than hell.⁵³ 8. On how true happiness and rest are found only in God. and how impossible it is for them to be found in the world But since up to this point we've seen so clearly how miserable and deceptive the world's happiness is, what's left is for us to see now how true happiness and rest—which aren't found in the world—are found in God. If worldly people understood this well, they would have no reason to follow the world the way they do. And for this reason I mean to prove this so important truth briefly here—not so much by the authority and witness of the holy faith as by clear reason. You need to understand that no creature can find perfect contentment until it reaches its final end—the ultimate perfection that belongs to it by nature. Until it gets there, it must remain restless and discontented, like someone who feels the lack of what is still missing. So I ask: What is the final end of man, in the possession of which his happiness lies—what theologians call his objective beatitude?⁵⁴ It cannot be denied that this is God, who is both man's first principle and his final end. Just as it's impossible to have two first principles, it's impossible to have two final ends, because that would mean there were two gods. So, if God alone is man's final end and his ultimate blessedness, and it's impossible for there to be two final ends and two blessednesses, then it's impossible to find blessedness outside of God. Because, without a doubt, just as the glove was made for the hand and the scabbard for the sword (which is why these things fit no other uses well, but only these), so the human heart, created for God, can find rest in nothing except in God.^✦ With him alone it will be content, and apart from him, poor and needy. The reason for this is that, since the principal subject of blessedness is the understanding and the will of man (which are the two noblest powers in him), as long as these remain restless, he cannot be calm and at peace. It's certain that these two powers can never find rest except in God alone. For, as Saint Thomas says, "our understanding can never understand or know so many things that it has no capacity and natural desire left for knowing more, if there is more to know. And likewise, our will can never love or enjoy so many goods that it has no strength and capacity left for more, if more were given it."⁵⁵ And therefore these two powers will never rest until they find a universal object in whom all things are present—which, once known and loved, leaves no further truths to know and no further goods to enjoy. From this it follows that no created thing—even possession of the whole world—is enough to satisfy our heart, but only the One for whom it was created, who is God.^✦ Plutarch writes of a soldier who rose through the ranks until he became emperor. When he finally reached that long-desired position and still didn't find the contentment he sought, he said, "I have lived in every station, and in none have I found contentment." It's clear that what was created for God alone was not meant to find rest outside of Him. And so that you understand this even more clearly, look at the needle of a little sundial, because there you'll see this so necessary philosophy represented.⁵⁶ Once a needle has been touched by a lodestone, its nature is to point north, because God, who created the stone, gave it that natural inclination. You can see from experience the restlessness it carries, turning back and forth until its tip points that way; once it does, it stops and stays fixed, as if it were nailed in place.⁵⁷ You should understand that God created man with that same natural inclination and orientation toward Him, as toward his north, his center, and his final end.⁵⁸ Therefore, as long as a person remains away from Him, they will always be like that needle: restless and unsettled, even if they own all the treasures of the world. But once they turn back to Him, they will immediately come to rest, just as the needle does, because that is where they find their true rest. It follows that only the one who possesses God will be blessed, and that person will be closer.⁵⁹ to being blessed: the one who stands closer to God. And because the just, in this life, are closer to him, they are the most blessed—even though the world doesn't recognize their blessedness. The reason for this is that it doesn't consist in sensual and bodily pleasures, as the Epicurean philosophers located it—and after them the Moors, and after them the disciples of both schools, who are the bad Christians: with their mouths they renounce Muhammad's law, yet with their lives they keep no other, and in this life they seek no paradise but his.⁶⁰ If not, tell me: what else do many of the rich and powerful of this age do—especially in their youth—but go around seeking and trying every kind of pastime they can find? So what is this but making pleasure your final goal, like Epicurus, and looking for Muhammad's paradise in this world? How wretched you are, a disciple of such masters. Why don't you hate the life of those whose names you spit on and despise? If you want Epicurus's paradise here, be sure of this: you'll lose Christ's. Therefore, a human being's blessedness is not in the body, nor in the goods of the body (as the Moors place it), but in the spirit and in spiritual and invisible goods, as the great philosophers placed it and as Christians place it—though in a different way. This is what the Prophet meant when he said: All the glory and beauty of the king's daughter is hidden within, where she is adorned with gold and clothed in a thousand colors, and where she possesses such peace and joy as all the kings of the world have never had and never will have. Unless we mean to say that the princes of the earth had greater contentment than the friends of God—which many of them will deny, who very gladly left great estates and riches once they had tasted of God; and with them Pope St. Gregory will deny it too, for he tried both, and was carried by main force to the papal throne, and while he sat there he always wept and sighed for that poor cell he had left in the monastery, like a captive in the land of the Moors sighing for his homeland and freedom.⁶¹ 9. What has been said, proven by examples. But because this deception is so great and so widespread, I'll add another reason, just as powerful as the last, so that those who love the world may see how impossible it is to find the happiness they desire within it. You have to accept as a given—what is already well known—that far more is required for something to be perfect than for it to be imperfect; for something to be perfect, it must have all its perfections together, but for it to be imperfect, a single imperfection is enough. In the same way, you must accept that for a person to have perfect happiness, everything must be to their liking. If there is even one thing that displeases them, that single thing does more to make them miserable than everything else does to make them blessed. I've seen many people of high rank with vast incomes who still lived the saddest lives in the world, because the one thing they desperately wanted and couldn't get caused them far more torment than all their possessions provided contentment.⁶² Without a doubt, everything one possesses doesn't comfort as much as a single craving of this kind—like a thorn driven into the heart—torments. It isn't the possession of goods that makes a person blessed, but the fulfillment of their desires. Saint Augustine explained this divinely in his book De moribus Ecclesiæ: "As I see it, no one can be called blessed who has not obtained what they love, whatever the nature of what is loved."⁶³ Nor is the person who doesn't love what they possess blessed, even if what they possess is very good.⁶⁴ For the one who desires what he cannot attain suffers torment; and the one who attains what did not deserve to be desired suffers deception; and the one who does not desire what deserves to be desired is sick. It follows that our blessedness rests only in possessing and loving the Supreme Good; outside of that, it cannot find rest.⁶⁵ So these three things together—possession, love, and the Supreme Good—make a person blessed; apart from them, no one can be, no matter how much they may possess.⁶⁶ And although I could bring you many examples to confirm this, let one stand for them all: that of that famous favorite of King Ahasuerus, named Haman, who, feeling himself insulted because Mordecai, who guarded the palace gates, would not show him the courtesy he wanted, gathered his friends and his wife together and said these words to them: «You know how great my prosperity and court favor are, and how full I am of riches and of children and of everything the human heart can desire; yet for all that, I tell you that, having all these things, it seems to me I have nothing so long as Mordecai, who sits at the king's gate, will not show me the courtesy I want».^✦ So look, I beg you, at how much more that one single trouble did to make that heart miserable.⁶⁷ than all the prosperity he had to make him blessed. Notice also how far a person is in this life from being blessed, and how near to being miserable—since for the one, so many goods are needed, while for the other, a single defect is enough. By this measure, then, who in this world can escape being miserable? What king or emperor will ever be so powerful that he has everything as he wants it, with nothing to trouble him? Because even if opposition from other people completely disappeared, who could escape all nature’s blows, all the body’s illnesses, and all the soul’s fears and fantasies—the soul that so often is afraid with nothing to fear, and distressed for no reason? So how do you, poor little man, think you’ll find contentment by the world’s path, when the greatest princes and monarchs never found it that way? If attaining this good requires all goods together, when will you ever be so fortunate, living apart from God, that nothing is missing for you? That belongs to God. And if anyone in this life possesses them in any way, it is the one who loves and possesses God—for by the laws of friendship, among friends all things are held in common. If all these obvious reasons still don't convince you, and you prefer experience over reason, go to the wise Solomon. Tell him that since he sailed these waters more successfully than anyone, testing and uncovering every kind of worldly greatness and pleasure, he should tell you what he discovered: whether he actually found anything in it all that satisfied him. In the end, he will answer you, "Vanity of vanities, says Ecclesiastes; vanity of vanities, all is vanity."⁶⁸ Trust a man with such experience, who isn't speaking from speculation, but from what he saw with his own eyes. Don't think that you, or anyone else, will be able to discover anything more than he did. After all, what prince in history has ever been wiser, richer, better served, more glorious, or more renowned than he was? Who has ever tried more pastimes—hunting, music, women, fine clothing, the chase, or horsemanship—than he did?⁶⁹ And when he had tried all these things, he drew no other fruit from any of them but this that you have heard. So where are you going, trying to test what has already been tested? Don't think you'll find what he didn't find, since you have neither another world to search nor greater means for searching than he had. And since this man did not quench the thirst he had with so great a harvest, don't think you can quench it with the leftover gleanings.⁷⁰ This man already spent his time here; and it may be that for this very reason he fell, as Saint Jerome says in his letter to Eustochium. So why do you want to go after him too? But because people trust experience more than reason, God perhaps let this man try all the goods and pastimes of the world so that, after testing them, he might give this report of them that you've heard—so that by the labor of one the labors of all might be spared, and by the disillusionment of one all might be disillusioned and take warning from another's head.⁷¹ So, if this is how things are, I have every reason to cry out with the Prophet: "Children of men, how long will you be so heavy of heart?"^✦ Why do you love vanity and hunt after lies?^✦ . He is quite right to say vanity and lies. If there were nothing more to the things of the world than vanity (which means being nothing), that would be a small evil; but there is a greater one—the lie and the false appearance by which they make us believe they are something, when they are actually nothing. That is why Solomon also said: "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain."^✦72 It would be a small evil if it were only vain, if it weren't also deceitful. Vanity, once recognized, can do little harm; but the kind that is vanity while not appearing to be—that is the kind that does the real damage. In this you can see what a great hypocrite the world is, covering up the miseries it suffers. For just as hypocrites work to cover up the faults they commit, the wealthy of the world work to disguise the miseries they suffer.⁷³ The first pass themselves off as saints while they are sinners, and the second as blessed while they are miserable.⁷⁴ If you don't believe it, come closer: take their pulse and put your hand to the side of those who outwardly seem blessed, and you'll see how far what appears on the outside falls short of what goes on within.⁷⁵ Some plants in the field look beautiful from a distance, yet when you get close and touch them, they give off such a foul smell that you immediately pull away, correcting your eyes' deception with the touch of your hands.⁷⁶ Well, that is exactly how most of the rich and powerful of the world are. For if you look at the greatness of their estates and the splendor of their houses and servants, they alone seem to be the blessed ones; but if you come closer and smell the corners of their houses, you'll find that what they are is very different from how they appear. That is why many who initially desired their rank and station when they saw them from afar later turned away when they looked at them up close—as we read in many histories, even among the pagans.⁷⁷ And in the lives of the emperors we find that there was one who, though elected emperor by the whole army, would by no means accept it—and he was a pagan—only because he knew the thorns that lay hidden under that flower, which seemed so beautiful. So then, children of men—created in the image of God, redeemed by his Blood, and appointed to be companions of the angels!^✦ Why do you love vanity and chase after lies, thinking you'll find rest in those false goods that never gave it and never will?^✦ Why have you abandoned the table of the angels for the food of beasts?^✦ Why have you left the delights and fragrances of paradise for the stench and bitterness of the world? How is it that so many calamities and miseries you suffer in it every day are not enough to make you turn away from so cruel a tyrant?⁷⁸ In this, we seem like those wretched women who ruin themselves chasing a pimp—who eats up and gambles away everything they have, and on top of that drags them around and kicks them every day—yet they still, in miserable subjection and captivity, keep running after him.⁷⁹ To sum up everything said here: if so many reasons, examples, and experiences make it clear that the happiness and rest we all seek aren't found in the world, but in God, why don't we seek them in God? Saint Augustine warns us of this in a few words: "Search the sea and the land, and go wherever you please—for wherever you go, you'll be miserable if you don't go to God."⁸⁰