We must not be apprehensive that, if we seek the gift
of love from the Lord with deep devotion, if we say from the bottom of our
hearts, Give us today our daily bread, he will permit our hearts to be narrowed
by the rigidity of hatred. Indeed, he
implies this hardness of the stone, when he says, which one of you, if
(his son] asks his father for bread, will give him a stone?
We must not be afraid that, if we entreat him for
strength against the temptations of the ancient enemy, saying with our
whole heart, 'Lord, increase our faith, ' he will allow us to perish from
the venom of unbelief. By the word ‘serpent’ the poison of unbelief with which the human race is rightfully represented, when it is said, Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a
serpent in place of a fish? If we implore the Lord for the hope of heavenly
goods through which we may be able to scorn both adversity and prosperity in
the present, we must not fear that he will turn away his ears, and allow us, in
our despair over what is to come, to look back, that is, to look for the
poisonous advantages of the tottering world which we have left behind, The harmful
change of a good intention, and the turning back to fleshly concupiscence, is rightly compared to
the venom of a scorpion which it carries behind, that is, in its tail, when it
is said, 'Or if he asks for an egg, will hand him a scorpion’?
Accordingly, dearly beloved, let us ask those things
of the Lord, that he may grant the fresh nourishment of pure charity, sincere
faith, and certain hope; and take from us the hardness of hatred, the poison faithlessness,
the sting of despair which tends to tends to drag us back to the things that
pass. Without any doubt we will receive what we ask for.
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