You have heard. “Be subject to God, and pray to
him”. How do you know whether you are?
If you obey his commandments. You will say that you have not been rewarded for
obeying him. Work in the vineyard, and at the end of the day ask for your
wages: he who sent you there will keep his word.
“All very well”, you say, “I obey God and I
pray, but what is your answer to this: I have a neighbour who is an evil-doer
yet lives in great prosperity. I know him to be dishonest, immoral, and
grasping; he is so proud and conceited that he does not even deign to
acknowledge my existence. How long am I expected to put up with that situation?”
Here is the remedy for your sickness: “Do not
envy the man who prospers in his way”.
Oh yes, he prospers, but in his own way, you labour but in God’s path.
He journeys gaily, but where will he arrive?
If Christ had promised you this world’s goods,
by all means be angry at an unbeliever doing well for himself. What did he
promise you? Eternal happiness when the dead rise again, and in this life his own lot. I repeat, the road he took;
and do you, a servant, a disciple, despise what your master underwent? You have
heard that a servant is not greater than his lord. For you he suffered what he,
the righteous one, did not deserve. What do you, a sinner, deserve?
(S. Augustini, Enarr. in Ps 36,9)
