s example, the saints
are wont to pray for wicked men, even their enemies, [Luke 6:27
f.] and to do all things for them after the example of Christ;
and forgetting their own injuries and rights, to take thought
only how they may rescue them from their evils, with which they
are far more cruelly tormented than with any evils of the body.
Even as St. Peter writes of Lot, that he "dwelt among them who
from day to day vexed the just soul with unjust works." [2 Peter
2:8]

You see, then, how deep an abyss of evils is here discovered, and
how great an opportunity for showing mercy and compassion, as
well as for overlooking our own trifling ills, if the love of God
dwell in us; since that which God permits us to suffer is as
nothing to that which those others endure. But the reason why
these things affect us so little is, because the eye of our heart
is not clear enough to see how great is the squalor and
wretchedness of a man lying in sin; that is, separated from God,
and in the possession of the devil. For who is there so hard of
heart that he must not sicken at the spectacle of those miserable
forms lying at our church doors and in our streets, their faces
disputed, and all their members hideously consumed with
putrifying sores; so that the mind is horror-struck at the
thought and the senses recoil from the sight! And what does God
intend, through these lamentable specimens of our flesh and
brotherhood, but to open the eyes of our mind, that we may see in
how much more dreadful a guise the soul of the sinner shows forth
its disease and decay, even though he himself go in purple and
gold, and tie among lilies and roses, as a very child of
paradise! Yet how many sinners are there to one of those wretched
creatures? When these evils on the part of our neighbors, so
great both in number and degree, are disregarded by us, it
follows that our one evil, be it never so trifling, will appear
as the sole evil, and the greatest of all.

But even in respect of bodily evils, the wicked are of necessity
in a worse plight than we. For what sweet and pure joy can be
theirs, so long as their conscience can find no peace? Or can
there be a more terrible evil than the unrest of a gnawing
conscience? Isaiah says, "The wicked are like the troubled sea,
when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is
no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." [Isaiah 57:20 f.] This
also, in Deuteronomy xxviii, applies to them: "The Lord shall