Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/231

the Divinity, that it is for us a circle, which includes us. Whether we are drawn toward the center or carried toward the circumference, we are equally attracted to it; and to gravitate toward it, is to gravitate toward God, who is the inevitable limit of all our movements with this difference, that certain kinds of suffering draw us to a tender and compassionate God; others, to an irritated and just God; and others yet, to the God of pardon and mercy. Pleasure engenders suffering as a penalty; resignation and sacrifice produce suffering as a remedy. How great is the folly of the children of Adam! They cannot escape suffering, and they attempt to evade that form of it which is a remedy, only to endure it as a punishment!

How great is God in all his designs, and how admirable the divine skill with which he draws good out of evil, order out of disorder, and harmony out of discord! From human liberty results the dissonance of sin, from sin the degradation of the species; and suffering is at the same time a misfortune for corrupted nature and a punishment for sinful nature. As a misfortune it is inevitable, as a penalty it is redeemable, for redemption is grace, and grace is displayed in punishment. Thus, the most tremendous act of the justice of God becomes the greatest act of his mercy. Through it, man, aided by God, may redeem himself, by the free acceptance of suffering; and this sublime willingness instantly changes suffering into a remedy of incomparable efficacy. Every negation of this doctrine necessarily introduces disorder into humanity through sin, since it inevitably leads to the negation of several essential attributes of God, and to the radical negation of human liberty. The question considered in this aspect is one of those