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Principle and foundation II

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” – Luke 12:34

Again the notes you have on this are great and so I will simply expound on those points for you below.
From the brief points I mention below you can also expound upon them with your various other notes.

In this conference we will begin by looking at God’s supreme dominion over all things and the purpose of
existence in the plan of God so that we can put all things in their proper order and direct ourselves to our
last end.

This conference is called “Principle and foundation” because we must first know where we are going
before we head out. We must first direct attention in the right path. We must first have a firm and clear
foundation before we begin. All that follows in the next few conferences rests ultimately on these firm
principles which we are setting out.

If someone wants to build a great and magnificent building, he must first lay the foundation. The larger
the building the deeper must be the foundation and so in essence the more effort you put into
understanding and conforming to the principles of these introductory conferences the greater will be your
retreat and greater will be your reward by an abundant out pouring of Gods grace and the more lasting
will be the benefits obtained from this retreat. Remember that God is never out done in generosity.

St. John who was taken up to see heavenly things tells us in the Apocalypse that Our Lord declares to
him in His great majesty and power that He is “The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end”
Apoc 1:8

Our Lord is telling with forceful words that all things were created by God. But it doesn’t stop there! They
were created by God for God! Yes, for the Glory of God. God like any creator creates for Himself. All
things, including the least significant creature were created to give glory to God.

This then is why you were created, to know, love and serve God and thereby attain to the glory of eternal
life. You were not only created by God and for God like the rest of creation but you were created for
eternal life with God. God wants us to be intimately united to Him for all eternity.

Men and angels being rational in nature are the only ones capable of violating the order intend by God on
account of the free will that God had given them. We often in our blindness mistake the means for the
end. Since we are both rational and animal in nature God has given us created things in order that we may
use them to attain to eternal life (i.e. food is necessary to preserve our existence). However these means
are often seen to be an end in themselves independent of God. And here is where the sin lye’s. In fact the
very definition of sin is turning away from God and turn to creatures. Thus in every since we violate the
basic principle, that all things were created by God and for God. By attaching ourselves to things we
begin to loose sight of our end.
St. Augustine speaking on this cry’s out “In this lay my sin: that I sought pleasure, nobility (honor), and
truth not in God but in the beings that He had created, myself and others. Thus I Fell into sorrow and
confusion and error.” - The confessions, Pg.23

So true is this principle that the Holy Ghost tells us "In all things remember thy last end, and you shall
never sin" - Eccles 7:40 . This is because in directing all things to our last end we will see that all things
are merely a means to an end and so we will order all things to that end accordingly. With this in mind we
will begin to understand what all the saints rightly understood, namely that all things of this world are
passing and transitory. This is why St. James tells us that “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this
world becomes an enemy of God.” (4:4). We become enemies of God by making the things of this world
our end instead of seeing all things from the perspective of God and eternal life. For this reason St. Peter
refers to the Christians as “Strangers and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11). We ought to be as pilgrims and
strangers as regards the things of this world. We should see that we shall not posses them for long and that
ultimately they don’t belong to us since we shall render an account for them. A pilgrim is quick to realize
that he is passing by and so he lays no firm foundation in any place since he knows that he is but passing
by. So should we also be with regards the things of this world. We should not allow ourselves to be
blinded by the riches, honors and positions of this world, but we should fear on account of them, since the
more that is given us, the more we shall have to render an account for.

If we seek a disorderly joy in the things of this world without having our ultimate end in perspective we
distort the purpose for which we were created and in a diabolic manner pervert the divine order of things
(as intended by God).

St. Paul in his day in speaking of the people in his own day says that men had made their belly their God
(Phil 3:19). Men today continue to do the same thing. They continue to labour zealously and blindly
simply to try and satisfy their lusts and desires for material things. They spare nothing to obtain what they
desire and yet they forget that all things will pass away and that one day they will have to render account
for this disorder love for created things. But I will say in defense of the pagans/non-Catholics that I would
marvel at the foolishness of Catholics who claim that they will obtain eternal life with endless joys and
yet who live as though they are fixed in the things of this world.

These worldly things can not satisfy man since he was created for higher things (the beatific vision. Man
by nature is above these things and so nothing below him can satisfy him. For this reason did St.
Augustine say “My heart shall not rest until it rests in thee O’ Lord”.

Here then is the simple order of Things –

All things material and spiritual were created by God and for God –
I must see that things without reference to God are vain and offensive to Him. Nothing can be loved in
itself without reference to God. To love a thing purely for the sake of it without reference to God is sinful
or if not it can lead to sin. I.e. To eat for the sake of eating and not for the sake of nourishing our body can
lead to gluttony.

Today this disorder has many difference faces. Don’t allow yourselves to be deceived. Even if we are
generous with what we have it doesn’t mean that we have a detachment from creatures. Many such people
who give money and other such things to help the Church often still have a great attachment to earthly
comforts and run from mortification and crosses that God sends them or that the Church asks of them
(Lenten fasts). While some may be generous with something’s (i.e. giving money) but unrelenting in other
things (i.e. I don’t want my son to be a religious because I don’t want to give him up, or bad friendships
etc). The disorder still remains although we seem to deceive ourselves into thinking that it’s not there or
that Fr. X is not referring to me.

St. Anthony Mary Claret tells us that “God has you and is your owner, and of all there is in you, so that
every affection which is not directed to Him, every word that is not to His praise, every deed that is not
done for love of Him, is a theft and an injustice.” (Pg. 23). He calls it a theft, because we take from what
duly and rightfully belongs to God.

With these things in mind we must seek to have a proper indifference to things so that we are always
ready to get rid of those things which are a hindrance to our salvation or give up those that God wants us
give up. If by God’s providence something we posses is destroyed, lost, stolen, we should be ready to
acknowledge that this is Gods will and that He knows what is best for us. This is not always easy. But it’s
not easy simply because by our concupiscence we often allow ourselves to be blinded or sidetracked from
our ultimate end. In the light of Eternity all created things are SS tells like grass (James 1:10) for they
shall pass away. They are here today and gone tomorrow. If we form the habit of seeing things with the
eyes of faith in the perspective of eternal life we will quickly grasp that all things are empty and that they
only have their purpose in God for whom they were all created.

“He who wishes the end (heaven) wishes the means” – If we desire to attain heaven we must desire the
means to it. The means we are seeking to obtain here is the ordered desire towards all created things so
that we don’t loss sight of our end and perish as a consequence.

Our Lord tells us that it is easier for a camel to pass through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19). Well what I am telling you is that you are that rich man. Why? Because
the very reason that a rich man will not enter the kingdom of heaven is not because of his wealth since
wealth, health and all created things are good in themselves and gifts of God. But it is because of his
foolish attachment to his material things that He shall go to Hell. You see it is difficult for one who has an
abundance of the things of this world to detach himself from the inordinate love of them and then to try
and raise his heart and mind to the things of God and eternity. But I said that that rich man is you because
one need not be rich to be attached to things. We are so foolish that we are often so attached to the most
frivolous and absurd things. Such is the heart of man. Unless we detach ourselves from the love of created
things we shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. This is what our Lord is telling us. This can only be done
by seeing Our Lord and the Alpha and the Omega. Make this the point of your meditation.

If the rich young man had understood this and prayed for the grace to live according to this principle he
would not have rejected our Lords offer to follow Him and nor would he have walked away sad (Matt
19:22). He walked away sad, because he realized that Our Lord was asking to detach Himself from his
earthly goods. He had forgotten that this is only inevitable since we shall all die one day. If he had seen all
things in the light of eternity Our Lords request would have only been all to easy but for one attached to
creatures the battle to let go is very difficult. Let us make the effort to do so now while we still have time,
for as St. Alponsus says so well “We shall die as we have so lived”. If we live order in all things towards
God, we shall die in that state also.

Pray: To the Holy Ghost for the give of Counsel – How have I made use of earthly things?
Ask yourself – Why was I created? Do I see that I must love and serve God in the way he so desires? How
should I make use of the things I posses or those things I seek to posses? Do I have an indifference to
things? Do I seek to use all that I have for the greater glory of God for which they were intended? Have I
used the little that I have well or has it been disorderly?

For Meditation:
Picture yourself before majestic presence of Our Lord and your patron saints and imagine that you are
about to render account for you use of material and spiritual goods that you have been given. Have I
understood the purpose for which all things were created?