An extract from 'Sermons Upon Various Subjects by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori'
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We have not been created for this earth; we have been created for the blessed kingdom of Paradise. For this reason it is, says St. Austin, that God mingles so much bitterness with the delights of the world, in order that we may not forget him and eternal life."Si cessaret Deus et non misceret amaritudines felicitatibus soeculi oblivisceremur ejus." If, living as we do amid so many thorns in this life, we are strongly attached to it, and long so little after Paradise; how little should we not value Paradise, if God were not to embitter continually the pleasures of this earth? And if we have offended God, we must needs be punished for it, either in this world or in the next. St. Ambrose says that God is merciful as well when he punishes, as when he does not; "Quam pius quam clemens in utroque Deus cum miseretur aut vindicat." The chastisements of God are the effect of his life; they are, to be sure, punishments, but punishments which ward off from us eternal punishment, and bring us to everlasting happiness.