St. Michael's Lent 2026 - Reading #19 - Discernment
Reading
What makes a ruler happy? Not long reigns and subdued enemies — Augustine lists a harder standard.
"But we say that they are happy if they rule justly; if they are not lifted up amid the praises of those who pay them sublime honours, and the obsequiousness of those who salute them with an excessive humility, but remember that they are men; if they make their power the handmaid of His majesty by using it for the greatest possible extension of His worship; if they fear, love, worship God; if more than their own they love that kingdom in which they are not afraid to have partners; if they are slow to punish, ready to pardon; if they apply that punishment as necessary to government and defence of the republic, and not in order to gratify their own enmity."
Every clause converts to a father’s office.
He finishes the measure: "If they grant pardon, not that iniquity may go unpunished, but with the hope that the transgressor may amend his ways; if they compensate with the lenity of mercy and the liberality of benevolence for whatever severity they may be compelled to decree; if their luxury is as much restrained as it might have been unrestrained; if they prefer to govern depraved desires rather than any nation whatever; and if they do all these things, not through ardent desire of empty glory, but through love of eternal felicity, not neglecting to offer to the true God, who is their God, for their sins, the sacrifices of humility, contrition, and prayer. Such Christian emperors, we say, are happy in the present time by hope, and are destined to be so in the enjoyment of the reality itself, when that which we wait for shall have arrived."
Self-governance before governance — Discernment’s last test.
Reflection
Now read that standard again and substitute your own office, because you hold one. A father is a small emperor, and every clause converts. Happy is the father who disciplines for the child's amendment, never to vent his anger. Who is slow to punish, ready to pardon, and compensates necessary severity with liberality of benevolence. Who remembers, amid the deference of small people who think he hangs the moon, that he is a man. Who would rather master his own appetites than command anyone.
This is the standard, and its center of gravity is the last item: self-governance before governance.
The week of discernment ends with the truest test yet — not what you rule, but how; and not how you rule them, but how you rule you. Tomorrow the season turns from seeing clearly to the thing sight is for: worship.