Thought for the Day – 30 October – “We build ourselves houses, in which the flesh may enjoy its lust and the eye its pride.”

Thought for the Day – 30 October – Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time, Year , Gospel: Luke 13:22–30

And someone said to him,
“Lord, will those who are saved be few?” … Luke 13:23

“Easy circumstances are generally thought a special happiness, it is thought a great point to get rid of annoyance or discomfort of mind and body, it is thought allowable and suitable, to make use of all means available, for making life pleasant.”

“We build ourselves houses, in which the flesh may enjoy its lust

and the eye its pride.”

Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

“Such advice is especially suitable to an age like this, when there is an effort on all hands to multiply comforts and to get rid of the daily inconveniences and distresses of life.
Alas! my brethren, how do you know, if you avail yourselves of the luxuries of this world without restraint but that you are only postponing and increasing by postponing, an inevitable chastisement?
How do you know but that, if you will not satisfy the debt of daily sin now, it will hereafter come upon you with interest?   See whether this is not a thought, which would spoil that enjoyment, which even religious persons are apt to take in this world’s goods, if they would but admit it.
It is said that we ought to enjoy this life as the gift of God.
Easy circumstances are generally thought a special happiness, it is thought a great point, to get rid of annoyance, or discomfort, of mind and body, it is thought allowable and suitable, to make use of all means available, for making life pleasant.   We desire and confess we desire, to make time pass agreeably and to live in the sunshine.   All things harsh and austere are carefully put aside.   We shrink from the rude lap of earth and the embrace of the elements and we build ourselves houses in which the flesh may enjoy its lust and the eye its pride.
We aim at having all things at our will.
Cold and hunger and hard lodging and ill usage and humble offices and mean appearance, are all considered serious evils.

And thus year follows year, tomorrow as today, till we think that this, our artificial life, is our natural state and must and ever will be.”