"Some people have so high an opinion of their own perfection that should
they discover any failings or imperfections in themselves they are thrown
into despair. They are like people so anxious about their health that the
slightest illness alarms them, and who take so many precautions to preserve
this precious health that in the end they ruin it."
Our Blessed Father wished us to profit, not only by our tribulations, but
also by our imperfections, and that these latter should serve to establish
and settle us in a courageous humility, and make us hope, even against
hope, and in spite of the most discouraging appearances. "In this way," he
said, "we draw our healing and help from the very hand of our adversaries."
To a person who was troubled at her imperfections, he wrote thus: "We
should, indeed, like to be without imperfections, but, my dearest daughter,
we must submit patiently to the trial of having a human, rather than an
angelic, nature. Our imperfections ought not, indeed, to please us; on the
contrary, we should say with the holy Apostle: _Unhappy man, that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death!_[1] But, at the same time,
they ought not to astonish us, nor to discourage us: we should draw from
them submission, humility, and mistrust of ourselves; never discouragement
and loss of heart, far less distrust of God's love for us; for though He
loves not our imperfections and venial sins, He loves us, in spite of them.
"The weakness and backwardness of a child displeases its mother, but she
does not for that reason love it less. On the contrary, she loves it more
fondly, because she compassionates it. So, too, is it with God, who cannot,
as I have said, love our imperfections and venial sins, but never ceases to
love us, so that David with reason cries out to Him: _Have mercy on me, O
Lord, for I am weak._"[2]
[Footnote 1: Rom. vii. 24.]
[Footnote 2: Psalm vi. 3.]