God’s Fatherly Care for the Just is the greatest Privilege of Virtue
2 min • Digitized on December 21, 2021
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 130
By Venerable Louis of Granada
CHAPTER XII.
THE FIRST PRIVILEGE OF VIRTUE: GOD’S FATHERLY CARE OF THE JUST.
The greatest privilege attached to virtue is the care which God exercises over those who serve Him. From this as from a fountain-head flow all other favors. Though God’s providence is extended to all His creatures, yet He manifests a special care for His faithful servants.
To appreciate the greatness and goodness of God’s providence we must have experienced it, or attentively studied the Holy Scriptures, which, from the beginning to the end, treat either directly or indirectly of God’s care for His creatures.
Throughout the Bible we behold two characteristic features: on the one hand God commanding man to obey Him, and on the other promising him in return for this obedience inestimable rewards. To those who disobey He threatens the severest torments.
This doctrine is so distributed through the Bible that all the moral books contain God’s commands and promises and threats, while the historical books record the fulfilment of the same, manifesting how differently God deals with the just and with the wicked.
All that God commands us is to love and obey Him, and in return He offers us inestimable blessings for this life and the next.
The most important of these blessings is the fatherly love and care with which He watches over His children.
His solicitude for them exceeds that of any earthly father.
What man ever reserved for his children an inheritance comparable to that of eternal glory?
What man ever suffered for his children the torments endured by our Saviour? At no less a price than the last drop of His Blood He purchased the Kingdom of Heaven.
What can equal His constant care for us? We are ever present to His mind, and He constantly helps and supports us in all the labors of life.
“Thou hast upheld me by reason of my innocence,” says David, “and hast established me in Thy sight for ever.” [Ps. xl. 13.]
And again: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers. But the countenance of the Lord is against them that do evil things, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” [Ps. xxxiii. 16, 17.]