Untitled - Saints' Books

"
CHAP, ix.i The Zeal of the Priest. \
77
meant to say, that a priest who endeavors, though with
out success, to bring
back an obstinate sinner to God
shall have a greater reward, because his labor is greater.
IV.
The End, the
Means, and the Labors of the Priest who has
Zeal.
i. THE END TO BE PROPOSED.
If we wish to receive from God the reward of our
labors for the salvation of souls, we must do all not
through human respect, nor for our own honor or tem
poral gain, but only for God and for his glory; other
wise, instead of a reward we shall receive punishment.
Great should be our folly, says St. Joseph Calasanctius,
were we to seek from men a temporal remuneration for
our labors. The office of saving souls, says St. Bernard,
is in itself very dangerous, since we shall have once to
render an account of the actions of others. 1 And St.
Gregory writes: "The priest possesses as many souls as
he is instructing subjects."
With the divine aid we
shall be able to avoid sin and merit a reward in the work
of saving others; but he who performs this work for any
other end than to please God, shall be abandoned by
God; and without the divine assistance, how shall he be
able to avoid sin ? And how, says St. Bonaventure, shall
they avoid sin who receive "
holy Orders, seeking not
3
the salvation of souls, but temporal gain,"
or whose
motive, as St. Prosper says, is not to become better, but
" 1
Maximum periculum de factis alterius rationem reddere." In Heb.
c. 13, lect. 3.
2
"Quot regendis subditis praeest, reddendae apud eum (Christum
Judicem) rationis tempore, ut itadicam, tot solus animas habet. Mor.
1.
24, c. 30.
3
Ad sacros Ordines " accedunt, non salutem animarum, sed quaestum
pecuniarum qu?srentes."
De Pra-p. ad M. c. 8.
12