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Interrogation 2

First question. Again the monk appeared on his ladder as before, saying: ”O Christ the Judge, you bore the most painful suffering by your own free will. Why then should I not possess honor and be proud in the world?”

Second question. ”You gave me temporal goods. Why then should I not own what I want?”
Third question. ”Why did you give me the limbs of my body, if I may not move and exercise them at will?”
Fourth question. ”Why did you give law and justice if not for seeking revenge?”
Fifth question. ”You let us have quiet and rest, but why did you arrange for us to experience weariness and tribulation?”
Answer to the first question. The Judge answered: ”Friend, human pride is so long endured as to exalt humility and show forth my goodness. And since pride was not created by me but invented by the devil, it must be shunned, because it leads to hell. But humility must be kept, because it leads to heaven. I, God, taught this by my word and example.”
Answer to the second question. ”I have given and conceded temporal goods to people in order that they might make rational use of them and exchange created goods for something uncreated, that is, for me, their Lord and Creator, by praising and honoring me for my good creation and by not living in accordance with the desires of the flesh.”
Answer to the third question. ”A person is given the limbs of the body in order that the soul might see in them a certain likeness of the virtues and so that they might be the soul's instruments for duty and virtue.”
Answer to the fourth question. ”Justice and law were indeed established by me so that they might be fulfilled with supernatural charity and compassion and so that godly unity and harmony might be cemented among humans.”
Answer to the fifth question. ”I gave people bodily rest and quiet in order to strengthen the weakness of the flesh and to endow the soul with fortitude and virtue. But because the flesh sometimes grows thoughtlessly insolent, one must cheerfully endure tribulations and all other such corrective measures.”

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