Continues to describe motive good. Speaks of oratories and
places dedicated to prayer.
I THINK it has now been explained how the spiritual person
may find as great imperfection in the accidents of images, by
setting his pleasure and rejoicing upon them, as in other
corporeal and temporal things, and perchance imperfection more
perilous still. And I say perchance more perilous, because, when a
person says that the objects of his rejoicing are holy, he feels
more secure, and fears not to cling to them and become attached to
them in a natural way. And thus such a person is sometimes greatly
deceived, thinking himself to be full of devotion because he
perceives that he takes pleasure in these holy things, when,
perchance, this is due only to his natural desire and temperament,
which lead him to this just as they lead him to other things.
2. Hence it arises (we are now beginning to treat of
oratories) that there are some persons who never tire of adding to
their oratories images of one kind and then of another, and take
pleasure in the order and array in which they set them out, so
that these oratories may be well adorned and pleasing to behold.
Yet they love God no more when their oratories are ornate than
when they are simple -- nay, rather do they love Him less, since,
as we have said, the pleasure which they set upon their painted
adornments is stolen from the living reality. It is true that all
the adornment and embellishment and respect that can be lavished
upon images amounts to very little, and that therefore those who
have images and treat them with a lack of decency and reverence
are worthy of severe reproof, as are those who have images so ill-
carved that they take away devotion rather than produce it, for
which reason some image-makers who are very defective and
unskilled in this art should be forbidden to practise it. But what
has that to do with the attachment and affection and desire which
you have [663] for these outward adornments and decorations, when
your senses are absorbed by them in such a way that your heart is
hindered from journeying to God, and from loving Him and
forgetting all things for love of Him? If you fail in the latter
aim for the sake of the former, not only will God not esteem you
for it, but He will even chasten you for not having sought His
pleasure in all things rather than your own. This you may clearly
gather from the description of that feast which they made for His
Majesty when He entered Jerusalem. They received Him with songs
and with branches, and the Lord wept;[664] for their hearts were
very far removed from Him and they paid Him reverence only with
outward adornments and signs. We may say of them that they were
making a festival for themselves rather than for God; and this is
done nowadays by many, who, when there is some solemn festival in
a place, are apt to rejoice because of the pleasure which they
themselves will find in it -- whether in seeing or in being seen,
or whether in eating or in some other selfish thing -- rather than
to rejoice at being acceptable to God. By these inclinations and
intentions they are giving no pleasure to God. Especially is this
so when those who celebrate festivals invent ridiculous and
undevout things to intersperse in them, so that they may incite
people to laughter, which causes them greater distraction. And
other persons invent things which merely please people rather than
move them to devotion.
3. And what shall I say of persons who celebrate festivals
for reasons connected with their own interests? They alone, and
God Who sees them, know if their regard and desire are set upon
such interests rather than upon the service of God. Let them
realize, when they act in any of these ways, that they are making
festivals in their own honour rather than in that of God. For that
which they do for their own pleasure, or for the pleasure of men,
God will not account as done for Himself. Yea, many who take part
in God's festivals will be enjoying themselves even while God is
wroth with them, as He was with the children of Israel when they
made a festival, and sang and danced before their idol, thinking
that they were keeping a festival in honour of God; of whom He
slew many thousands.[665] Or again, as He was with the priests Nabad
and Abiu, the sons of Aaron, whom He slew with the censers in
their hands, because they offered strange fire.[666] Or as with the
man that entered the wedding feast ill-adorned and ill-garbed,
whom the king commanded to be thrown into outer darkness, bound
hand and foot.[667] By this it may be known how ill God suffers
these irreverences in assemblies that are held for His service.
For how many festivals, O my God, are made Thee by the sons of men
to the devil's advantage rather than to Thine! The devil takes a
delight in them, because such gatherings bring him business, as
they might to a trader. And how often wilt Thou say concerning
them: 'This people honoureth Me with their lips alone, but their
heart is far from Me, for they serve Me from a wrong cause!'[668]
For the sole reason for which God must be served is that He is Who
He is, and not for any other mediate ends. And thus to serve Him
for other reasons than solely that He is Who He is, is to serve
Him without regard for Him as the Ultimate Reason.
4. Returning now to oratories, I say that some persons deck
them out for their own pleasure rather than for the pleasure of
God; and some persons set so little account by the devotion which
they arouse that they think no more of them than of their own
secular antechambers; some, indeed, think even less of them, for
they take more pleasure in the profane than in the Divine.
5. But let us cease speaking of this and speak only of those
who are more particular[669] -- that is to say, of those who
consider themselves devout persons. Many of these centre their
desire and pleasure upon their oratory and its adornments, to such
an extent that they squander on them all the time that they should
be employing in prayer to God and interior recollection. They
cannot see that, by not arranging their oratory with a view to the
interior recollection and peace of the soul, they are as much
distracted by it as by anything else, and will find the pleasure
which they take in it a continual occasion of unrest, and more so
still if anyone endeavors to deprive them of it.