If he commit any iniquity (said God of David), I will correct him with the rod of men. This, and many other words of God teach us that, however sorry and reluctant God may be to afflict us, He will not spare a single stroke of chastisement so long as we cling to evils which degrade us, and will be the death of our souls. And they also teach us that the design of God in judging and afflicting us is merciful; that He has no pleasure in our suffering; that he intends to separate the evil in us from the good, to perfect us, and fit us for eternal blessedness. If we love evil in any form, or habitually do what is wrong, though we may hide our evil habit from men, we cannot hide it from God: nor can we evade those searching judgments by which He seeks to free us from our bonds of evil. And when the visitation comes, and the divine judgment is searching us through and through, let us learn and remember that God is not so much angry with us as with the evil that is in us: that He loves us, and because He loves us would make us quit our evil. Let us learn and remember that He will and can only remove His judgments from us as we remove from ourselves our sins. Cease to do perversely, learn to do well (said God in His judgment), then, if your sins he as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; if red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp