Honor and Shame

Plant in the garden of your memory, the tree of the holy Cross; it produces a very efficacious medicine against all the suggestions of the devil. Of this most noble and fertile tree, the root is humility and poverty; the bark, labor and penitence; the branches, mercy and justice; the leaves, true honor and modesty; the scent, sobriety and abstinence; the beauty, chastity and obedience; the splendor, right faith and firm hope; the strength, magnanimity and patience; the length, long-suffering and perseverance; the breadth, benignity and concord; the height, charity and wisdom; the sweetness, love and joy; the fruit, salvation and life eternal.

This is the greatest wisdom—to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

Very often, when the sinner looks at the greatness and multitude of his guilt, he is ashamed to confess that which he has done; and although he may deeply grieve for his sins, yet, foolishly hiding them in his own conscience, he is ashamed to reveal them to whom he ought. Fool! Why be ashamed to say to man that which you are not ashamed to do in the sight of the Lord? Away with such shame. Hasten to the priest; reveal your secret and confess your sin: otherwise, contrition of heart will be of no avail, if, when there is an opportunity, confession of mouth does not follow.