Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/225

would have been hopeless, and his perdition certain. But in order that this disaster might be repaired, it became necessary for God to draw near to man in another way, uniting Himself to him anew, although imperfectly, by the ties of mercy. Punishment was the new bond of union between the Creator and the creature, and in it mercy and justice were mysteriously joined: mercy being the connecting link, and justice vindicated in the penalty assigned.

If we cease to view suffering and sorrow in the light of a penalty, we not only deprive them of their power to reunite the Creator and the creature, but we also destroy their expiatory and purifying effect on man. If grief is not a penalty, it is an unmitigated evil; if it is a penalty, it still remains an evil through its origin, sin; but it is also a great good, on account of its freeing from the defilement of sin. The universality of sin renders necessary the universality of purification, in order that all mankind may be cleansed in its mysterious waters. This is the reason why all who are born, suffer from their birth up to the time of their death. Sorrow is the inseparable companion of life in this dark valley filled with our sighs, tears and lamentations. Every man is a suffering being, and all that is not sorrow is foreign to man's condition. If he views the past, he feels regret that it is no more; if he regards the present, he is distressed because the past seems more happy; and if he thinks of the future, he is distressed because all is enshrouded in mystery and gloom. How- ever slightly he may reflect, he is reminded that the past, the present and the future comprise all, and that this all is nothing. The past is already past, the present is