Untitled - Saints' Books

"
Enarr.
352 Material for Instructions. [PART n
perishable. Charity is all benignity to the poor, but am
bition is kind to the rich. 1 Charity bears all 2 in order
to please God; ambition submits to all evils for the sake
of vanity. Charity believes and hopes for all that ap
pertains to eternal glory; ambition believes all things,
hopes for all things, that tend to the 3
glory of this life.
Oh ! to how many thorns, fears, censures, refusals,
and insults must the ambitious submit in order to attain
a dignity, an office of honor !
How many thorns
await those that strive after honors!" 4 says St. Augus
tine. And in the end what do the ambitious gain but a
little smoke, which, when enjoyed, does not content the
heart, and speedily disappears. / have seen the wicked
highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon. And
I passed by,
and lo he was not? Besides, the Scripture
says that to him who seeks it honor becomes an occa
sion of disgrace. The promotion offools is disgrace? And,
according to St. Bernard, the greater the honor the
more the unworthy possessor, who has procured it by
his own exertions, is despised by others. 7 For the
more exalted the dignity, the more clearly the man who
is unfit for it shows his unworthiness by seeking to
obtain it. 8
Add to this the great dangers of eternal salvation
which arise from offices of honor. Father Vincent
Carafa once visited a sick friend who had just been
appointed to a situation of great emolument, but also of
sed divitibus."
" 1
Benigna est,
2
Omnia suffert
" pro vanitate."
3
Omnia "
credit, omnia sperat, sed quse sunt ad gloriam hujus
vitae."
4 "
5 "
In honorurn cupiditate, quanta spinae
!"
in Ps. 102.
Vidi impium superexaltatum, et elevatum sicut cedros Libani;
et transivi, et ecce non erat." Ps. xxxvi. 35.
6
Stultorum "
exaltatio, ignominia." Prov. Hi. 35.
"
7
Eo deformior, quo
illustrior." DC O;. 1. 2, c. 7.
8 "
Claras suas maculas reddit." Variar* 1. 12, n. 2.