It is not out of hatred that the Lord chides human beings, for he suffered for us when he could have destroyed us because of our faults. For he is a good Teacher who has the consummate ability to censure with words of rebuke. His words of reproach are like a whip that scourges the sluggish mind of people. And then, once he scourges them, he can move on to exhorting them. For those who are not motivated by praise are spurred on by censure. And those whom censure cannot rouse to salvation, as if they were dead, are by denunciation roused to the truth. For the whip and correction are suited in every circumstance to wisdom.

It is said with regard to sinners, You whipped them, but they did not suffer.^[1] The perceived whips of this world, inflicted on living bodies, whether those whipped want them or not, produce pain. But God’s whips are of a kind that to some of those who are whipped they cause pain but for others who are whipped, they do not. Let us see if we can explain what it means to suffer from the whips of God and what it means not to suffer: why those with evil natures do not suffer from the whips of God while those who do suffer from the whips of God are blessed. Wisdom says, Who will apply whips to my thoughts and seals of prudence to my lips so that they^[2] would not spare me in my errors and so that my sins will not lead me to perdition?^[3] Pay attention to the words who will apply whips to my thoughts. There are, therefore, whips that whip the thought. They are the whips of God that whip thought because the Word, joining itself to the soul and guiding it to the knowledge of its sins, whips it. It whips the blessed soul so that it suffers under its whips because the Word comes and penetrates the soul at its core, but it does not drive away the one who is reproved. But if someone is found to be insensitive to this whip, so to speak, it will be said of him, You have whipped them, but they did not suffer.^[4] Although the same word of accusation is pronounced in order to penetrate the mind of the one who has a spotted conscience^[5] from some sin, if one of the listeners suffers for this word to the point where it can be said of him, You have seen that such a person was moved deeply^[6] while another who hears does not suffer but remains insensitive to the one who is accusing him, surely of the insenstive one it will be said, You have whipped them, but they have not suffered.^[7]

Forgetful of freedom and grace and desiring the Egyptian foods, the people were found guilty of murmuring against God and against Moses.^[1] They say, Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the leeks, the garlic and the onions. Now, however, they add, our life has dried up, and we see nothing before us but this manna.^[2] The sweet things are rejected, the bitter desired. A grave, debilitating illness leads the soul to want to take what is harmful and to despise and reject what is useful and good for salvation. Thus they refused the manna, that is, Christ, saying, We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one comes from.^[3] Christ says in reproof, If you believed Moses, you would also believe me, because it is of me that he wrote.^[4] Indeed, I am the living bread come down from heaven.^[5] Did they not reject the holy manna when they said to Pilate, who wanted to release Jesus, Release not him but Barabbas?^[6] Barabbas was a notorious thief,^[7] and by asking for his release they professed to have in a certain sense desired, from among the thief’s crimes, the leeks, the onions and the garlic, those unpleasant Egyptian foods that make one cry. To those who murmured, in fact, the divine majesty offered meats that did not restore but instead ruined those who ate them.^[8] It says in Scripture, The natural person does not understand the things of the Spirit:^[9] every sluggard lives in concupiscence.^[10] It is right that the spiritual person asks that the desires of his flesh be taken from him.^[11] All these things show that it is wicked to desire and to ask of God things that are harmful to the soul, and especially to ask for them with murmuring. If a soul desires to enter the promised land,^[12] it must guard itself from offending God with such a desire.