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230 CITY OF GOD
and the ancient beauty in which the Apostles have found
ed it, is lost; how it has sought foreign and deceitful
powders and paints to cover the horrid and distorted
ugliness of vice. In order that thou mayest penetrate
into this truth, thou must renew in thyself the considera
tion of the force and eagerness, with which the Divinity
seeks to communicate his goodness and perfection to
creatures. So great is the impetus of the river of God s
goodness overflowing on mankind, that only the free will
of man, which He has given to him in order to receive
its benefits, can raise a dam against it; and whenever,
through this free will, man resists the influence and force
of the divine Goodness, he (according to thy mode of
understanding), violates and grieves this immense love
in its
very essence. But if creatures would place no ob
stacle and permit its operations, the whole soul would
be inundated and satiated with participation in its divine
essence and attributes. It would raise the fallen from
the dust, enrich the indigent children of Adam, place
them above all their miseries and seat them with the
princes of his glory (I Kings 2, 8).
241. From this, my daughter, thou wilt understand
two things unknown to human wisdom. First, how
pleasing to the highest Goodness is the service of those
who, with an ardent zeal for God s glory, devote their
labor and solicitude toward removing the obstacles, which
men place to their own justification and the communica
tion of his favors. The satisfaction of the Most High,
arising from this work in others, cannot be estimated in
this mortal life. On this account the ministry of the
Apostles, the prelates, the priests and preachers of the
divine word are so highly exalted; for they succeed in
office those, who founded the Church and who labored
in its preservation and extension;
all of them are to be
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