Reasons why Justice demands we Love and Serve God

February 8, 2022 • 2 min

From The Sinner’s Guide, page 14
By Venerable Louis of Granada

It is a truth so universally acknowledged that even the Epicureans, who endeavored to destroy all philosophy by denying a Divine Providence and the immortality of the soul, maintained, nevertheless, religion, or the worship due to God.

One of these philosophers [Cicero, “De Natura Deorum”] proves the existence of God by strong and undeniable arguments. He proclaims the greatness and sovereignty of His admirable perfections, which oblige us to reverence and adore Him, and shows that for this reason alone, independently of any other title, God has a right to our love and service.

If we treat a king, even out of his own dominion, with respect and honor purely because of the dignity of his person, though we owe him nothing, with how much more justice should we render honor and service to this King and Lord, Who, as St. John tells us, bears written “upon His garment and upon His thigh, King of Kings and Lord of Lords”! [Apoc. xix. 16.]

This is He who hath “poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth.” [Isa. xl. 12.] All beings are in His power; He disposes of them as He wills. It is He who propels the heavenly bodies, commands the winds, changes the seasons, guides the elements, distributes the waters, controls the stars, creates all things; it is He, in fine, Who, as King and Lord of the universe, maintains and nourishes all creatures.

Nor is His kingdom acquired or inherited. By His very nature it is for Him an inherent right. Just as man is above the ant, for example, so is the divine substance in an eminent degree above all created beings, and the whole universe is no more than one of these little insects compared to Him.

If this truth were so manifest to the Epicureans, otherwise unworthy of the name of philosophers, how much clearer ought it not be to us, who have been illumined by the light of true Christian philosophy! For this latter teaches us, in fact, that among the innumerable reasons which oblige us to serve God, this is the greatest; and though man were endowed with a thousand hearts and a thousand bodies, this reason alone should be sufficient to cause him to devote them all to His love and service.