Summa of the Christian Life: Selected Texts from the Writings of Venerable Louis of Granada, O.P. (Complete Set of 3) by Ven. Louis of Granada

Author:Ven. Louis of Granada [Granada, Ven. Louis of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TAN Books
Published: 2015-06-08T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 36

The Virtue of Religion

OUR obligation to worship God rests on the countless blessings He has bestowed on us and the infinite perfection and excellence that are His as the Creator. Even the tongues of angels could not fittingly describe the greatness of our obligation to worship God, for the obligation is as great as is the God to whom worship is due, and since He is infinite, so also are the love and honor and reverence that we owe Him. Moreover, all the reverence and love we owe to other creatures have their foundation and terminus in God. Hence, the obedience we owe to those who govern us, the reverence due to our parents, the respect we give to men of eminent holiness and virtue, and the gratitude we show to benefactors—all are in some way rooted in God. Therefore, whatever reverence and respect we owe to eminent persons, we owe also to God. This obligation is the most holy, the most just, the most beautiful, and the most serious that can be imagined. There is no nation so barbarous that it does not acknowledge the existence of God and does not worship Him in some fashion, although there may be many errors in its religion. So great is the love and service we owe to God that if the love and reverence of all the blessed in heaven, of all the cherubim and seraphim, and that of the Blessed Mother were added together, they would still fall short of the love that is due to God. For all these loves, however perfect, are still finite, while He to whom the love is due is infinite. Therefore, only God can love Himself as He deserves to be loved, and only in God is the law of charity perfectly fulfilled in an absolute sense.

According to this excellence of love that is proper to God alone, theologians measure the baseness of any offense against the sovereign Majesty. And since sin is an offense against the infinite God, it has an infinite gravity. Therefore, in justice, it merits an infinite punishment, which is the deprivation of the infinite good, although even this punishment does not perfectly satisfy for the offense.

Once we understand the gravity of an offense against God, we should also understand how necessary is the practice of religion. According to the rules of philosophy, as a thing is more evil, it is more opposed to that which is good. Therefore, if we realize how evil it is to commit any offense against God, we realize what a great good it is to honor and serve Him, and this is the proper function of the virtue of religion. Indeed, all the divine laws and even nature itself impel us to the practice of religion. It follows from this that there must be some true religion by which God can be fittingly worshipped and venerated, otherwise this natural inclination to worship God would be vain and useless.

The virtue of religion, as distinct

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