Not Judging Even Ourselves

Thought I'd share this reflection from St. Francis de Sales on today's Gospel - Luke 6:36-38. It's beautiful.

"I should have to listen while you tell me all the little things that have been happening, and even then, patience and resignation are the only possible source of healing. After this winter-time of coldness, a blissful summer will come and we shall be consoled.

Alas, daughter, we always hanker for sweetness, happiness, and delicious consolation; but bitterness and dryness are really more fruitful. And although St. Peter loved the mount of Tabor and fled from the mount of Calvary, the latter was nevertheless of greater profit than the former, and the blood that is shed on the one is more desirable than the radiance shed on the other. Our Lord is already treating you as being stronger and more grown-up; try to live up to this. It is better to eat bread without sugar than sugar without bread.

The anxiety and grief you feel from realizing your nothingness is not pleasant; for although the cause is good the effect is not. No, my dear daughter, this knowledge of our nothingness should not trouble us but should have a soothing, humbling, and chastening effect; it is self-esteem which makes us impatient at seeing ourselves vile and abject. Come now, I entreat you by the love of him whom we both love, of Jesus Christ, to live consoled and peaceful in your infirmities. I glory in my infirmities, says our great St. Paul, so that the power of my Savior may dwell in me. Yes, indeed, for our misery is as a throne to make manifest the sovereign goodness of Our Lord."