Virtue will obtain for us God as our reward, and every good thing with him
3 min • Digitized on October 27, 2021
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 313
By Venerable Louis of Granada
Virtue is an absolute good; it admits of no alloy of evil. For this reason God sends to the just this short but glorious message: “Say to the just man that it is well.” [Isaias. iii. 10.]
In all things, even in pain and toil, he shall find good, and therefore happiness, because “to them that love God all things work together unto good.” [Rom. viii. 28.]
Though the elements war upon him, and though the heavens fall, he can hold up his head without fear, for the day of his redemption is at hand. He shall be delivered from supreme evil, which is the company of Satan, for God, the Supreme Good, will be his portion.
God the Father will adopt him as His son; God the Son will receive him as His brother; and God the Holy Ghost will dwell in him as His temple.
Having sought first the kingdom of God and His justice, every blessing has been given to him. From all things he has drawn profit. Every creature has been an aid to him in serving God. Will you, then, be so cruel as to deprive yourself of a help so powerful and so profitable?
As philosophers tell us, good is the object of our will, which is the seat of love. Consequently the better a thing is the more deserving it is of our love. What, then, has so corrupted your will that it rejects this incomparable good?
Why will you not imitate David, who, though he had the care of a kingdom, tells us that he had the law of the Lord in the midst of his heart? [Ps. xxxix. 9.] He put all other considerations aside, and gave to virtue the noblest place, the centre of his heart. How different is the conduct of worldlings, who give vanity the first place in their hearts, and God’s law the lowest!
Note from the editor: It may be well to quote here two New Testament passages related to this topic:
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:19-21, RSVCE)
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? (Romans 8:32, RSVCE)