DP 210 [2]
If you wish to be led by Divine providence,
therefore, use prudence as a servant or assistant
who faithfully manages the goods of his lord.
This prudence is the mina (talent) given
to each of the servants to do business with,
of which they were to render an account
(in the Parable of the Talents):
"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey,
who called his servants
and entrusted his property to them.
To one he gave five talents of money,
to another two talents,
and to another one talent,
each according to his ability.
Then he went on his journey.
The man who had received the five talents
went at once
and put his money to work
and gained five more.
So also the one with the two talents
gained two more.
But the man who had received the one talent
went off, dug a hole in the ground
and hid his master's money.
"After a long time
the master of those servants returned
and settled accounts with them.
The man who had received the five talents
brought the other five.
'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents.
See, I have gained five more.'
"His master replied,
'Well done, good and faithful servant!
You have been faithful with a few things;
I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master's happiness!'
"The man with the
two talents also came,
'Master," he said,
'you entrusted me with two talents;
see, I have gained two more.'
"His master replied,
'Well done, good and faithful servant!
You have been faithful with a few things;
I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master's happiness!'
"Then the man who had received the one talent came.
'Master," he said, "I knew that you are a hard man,
harvesting where you have not sown
and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
So I was afraid and went out
and hid your talent in the ground.
See, here is what belongs to you.'
"His master replied,
'You wicked, lazy
servant
So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown
and gather where I have not scattered seed?
Well then, you should have
put my money on deposit with the bankers,
so that when I returned
I would have received it back with interest.
"'Take the talent from him
and give it to the one who has the ten talents.
For everyone who has will be given more,
and he will have an abundance.
Whoever does not have,
even what he has will be take from him.
And throw that worthless servant outside,
Into the darkness,,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"
(Matthew 25:14-30)
This prudence appears to a person
to be his own,
and he believes it to be his own
as long as he keeps shut up in him
the most implacable foe
of God and Divine providence,
namely, love of self.
This love dwells
in the interior qualities of every person from birth.
If you do not recognize it
(for it does not wish to be recognized),
it dwells secure, and it guards the door
to keep the person from opening it
and thus the Lord from casting it out.
A person opens that door
by refraining from evils as sins as though of himself,
with the acknowledgment
that he does so from the Lord.
It is this prudence
with which Divine providence acts in concert.
DP 211
The reason Divine providence acts so
secretly
that scarcely anyone knows of its existence
is to prevent mankind from perishing.
For a person's native character, which is his will,
never acts in accord with Divine providence.
A person's native character harbors
an innate hostility to that providence.
It is, in fact, that serpent
which seduced the first parents,
concerning which we are told,
I will put enmity between you
and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
and it shall trample your head . . ..
(Genesis 3:15)
The serpent is evil of every
kind.
Its head is love of self.
The woman's seed is the Lord.
The enmity put between the two
is the enmity between the love
in a person's native character and the Lord,
thus also between a person's own prudence
and the Lord's Divine providence.
For a person's own prudence
is continually raising its head,
and Divine providence is continually pressing it down.
If a person were to be conscious of
this,
he would be angered and enraged at God
and would perish.
But as long as he is not conscious of it,
he may become angry and enraged
at people, or at himself, and at fortune, too,
without perishing.
For this reason the Lord by His
Divine providence
continually leads a person in freedom,
and freedom appears to a person
no otherwise than as his own.
opposed to oneself in freedom
is like raising a heavy and resistant weight
from the ground by jackscrews,
whose power causes
the heaviness and resistance not to be felt.
It is also like someone's being in the hands
of an enemy who intends to kill him,
of which he is at the time unaware,
and having a friend lead him away
by secret passages
and afterward disclose the enemy's intent.
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