Life of Father Hecker Part 30

"But," says Lallemant (and the reader will thank us for a detailed reply to this difficulty from so venerable an authority), "it is of faith that without the grace of an interior inspiration, in which the guidance of the Holy Spirit consists, we cannot do any good work. The Calvinists would determine everything by their inward spirit, subjecting thereto the Church herself and her decisions. . . . But the guidance which we receive from the Holy Ghost by means of His gifts presupposes the faith and authority of the Church, acknowledges them as its rule, admits nothing which is contrary to them, and aims only at perfecting the exercise of faith and the other virtues. The second objection is, that it seems as if this interior guidance of the Holy Spirit were destructive of the obedience due to superiors.

We reply: 1. That as the interior inspiration of grace does not set aside the a.s.sent which we give to the articles of faith as they are externally proposed to us, but on the contrary gently disposes the mind to believe; in like manner the guidance which we receive from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, far from interfering with obedience, aids and facilitates the practice of it. 2. That all this interior guidance, and even [private] divine revelations, must always be subordinate to obedience; and in speaking of them this tacit condition is ever implied, that obedience enjoins nothing contrary thereto. . . .

"The third objection is that this interior direction of the Holy Spirit seems to render all deliberation and all counsel useless. For why ask advice of men when the Holy Spirit is Himself our director?

We reply that the Holy Spirit teaches us to consult enlightened persons and to follow the advice of others, as He referred St. Paul to Ananias. The fourth objection is made by some who complain that they are not themselves thus led by the Holy Spirit, and that they know nothing of it. To them we reply: 1. That the lights and inspirations of the Holy Spirit, which are necessary in order to do good and avoid evil, are never wanting to them, particularly if they are in a state of grace. 2. That being altogether exterior as they are, and scarcely ever entering into themselves, examining their consciences only very superficially, and looking only to the outward man and the faults which are manifest in the eyes of the world, . . .

it is no wonder that they have nothing of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which is wholly interior. But, first, let them be faithful in following the light which is given them; it will go on always increasing. Secondly, let them clear away the sins and imperfections which, like so many clouds, hide the light from their eyes: they will see more distinctly every day. Thirdly, let them not suffer their exterior senses to rove at will, and be soiled by indulgence; G.o.d will then open to them their interior senses. Fourthly, let them never quit their own interior, if it be possible, or let them return as soon as may be; let them give attention to what pa.s.ses therein, and they will observe the workings of the different spirits by which we are actuated. Fifthly, let them lay bare the whole ground of their heart to their superior or to their spiritual father. A soul which acts with this openness and simplicity can hardly fail of being favored with the direction of the Holy Spirit" (_Spiritual Doctrine,_ 4th principle, ch. i. art. 3).

Father Hecker had himself suffered, and that in the earliest days of his religious life, from want of explicit instruction about this doctrine. Father Othmann, whom our readers remember as the novice-master at St. Trond, was too spiritual a man to have been ignorant of its principles. Yet he seemed to think that either no one would choose it in preference to the method in more common use, or that he would not find his novices ready for it. But to Father Hecker it was all-essential. "When I was not far from being through with my noviceship," he was heard to say, "I was one day looking over the books in the library and I came across Lallemant's _Spiritual Doctrine._ Getting leave to read it, I was overjoyed to find it a full statement of the principles by which I had been interiorly guided. I said to Pere Othmann: 'Why did you not give me this book when I first came? It settles all my difficulties.' But he answered that it had never once occurred to his mind to do so." Besides the Scriptures, Lallemant, Surin, Scaramelli's _Directorium Mystic.u.m,_ the ascetical and mystical writings of the contemplatives, such as Rusbruck, Henry Suso (whose life he carried for years in his pocket, reading it daily), Tauler, Father Augustine Baker's _Holy Wisdom_ (Sancta Sophia), Blosius, the works of St. Teresa, and those of St.

John of the Cross--these and other such works formed the literature which aided Father Hecker in the understanding and enjoyment of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Lallemant he returned to ever and again, and St. John of the Cross he never let go at all. It was always with him, always read with renewed joy, and its wonderful lessons of divine wisdom, expressed as they are with the scientific accuracy of a trained theologian and the unction of a saint, were to Father Hecker a pledge of security for his own state of soul and a source of inspiration in dealing with others.

To the ordinary observer a knowledge of the men and women of to-day does not give rise to much hope of the widespread use of this spirituality. But Father Hecker thought otherwise. He ever insisted that it must come into general preference among the leading minds of Christendom; for independence of character calls for such a spirituality, and that independence is by G.o.d's providence the characteristic trait of the best men and women of our times. G.o.d must mean to sanctify us in the way He has placed us in the natural order.

He believed that the Holy Spirit would soon be poured out in an abundant dispensation of His heavenly gifts, and that such a renewal of men's souls was the only salvation of society. Some may think that he was over-sanguine; many will not interest themselves in such "high" matters at all. But some of the wisest men in the Church are of his mind, notably Cardinal Manning. And the signs of the times, if interrogated with regard to the problem of man's eternal destiny, give no other answer than the promise of a new era in which the Holy Ghost shall reign in men's souls and in their lives with a supremacy peculiar to this age.

The following extract from _The Church and the Age,_ a compilation of Father Hecker's later essays, shows his estimate of the form of spirituality we have been discussing, as bearing upon the regeneration of society in general:

"The whole aim of the science of Christian perfection is to instruct men how to remove the hindrances in the way of the action of the Holy Spirit, and how to cultivate those virtues which are most favorable to His solicitations and inspirations. Thus the sum of spiritual life consists in observing and yielding to the movements of the Spirit of G.o.d in our soul, employing for this purpose all the exercises of prayer, spiritual reading, the practice of virtues, and good works.

"That divine action which is the immediate and princ.i.p.al cause of the salvation and perfection of the soul, claims by right the soul's direct and main attention. From this source within the soul there will gradually come to birth the consciousness of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, out of which will spring a force surpa.s.sing all human strength, a courage higher than all human heroism, a sense of dignity excelling all human greatness. The light the age requires for its renewal can come only from the same source.

The renewal of the age depends on the renewal of religion. The renewal of religion depends on a greater effusion of the creative and renewing power of the Holy Spirit. The greater effusion of the Holy Spirit depends on the giving of increased attention to His movements and inspirations in the soul. The radical and adequate remedy for all the evils of our age, and the source of all true progress, consist in increased attention and fidelity to the action of the Holy Spirit in the soul. 'Thou shalt send forth Thy spirit and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.'"

Lallemant's answer to the difficulty of excess of personal liberty in this method has been already given. Father Hecker's own is as follows:

"The enlargement of the [interior] field of action for the soul, without a true knowledge of the end and scope of the external authority of the Church, would only open the door to delusions, errors, and heresies of every description, and would be in effect only another form of Protestantism. But, on the other hand, the exclusive view of the external authority of the Church, without a proper understanding of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit in the soul, would render the practice of religion formal, obedience servile, and the Church sterile.

"The solution of the difficulty is as follows: The action of the Holy Spirit embodied visibly in the authority of the Church, and the action of the Holy Spirit dwelling invisibly in the soul form one inseparable synthesis; and he who has not a clear conception of this two-fold action of the Holy Spirit is in danger of running into one or the other, and sometimes into both, of these extremes, either of which is destructive of the end of the Church. The Holy Spirit, in the external authority of the Church, acts as the infallible interpreter and criterion of divine revelation. The Holy Spirit in the soul acts as the divine Life-giver and Sanctifier. It is of the highest importance that these two distinct offices of the Holy Spirit should not be confounded.

"The increased action of the Holy Spirit, with a more vigorous co-operation on the part of the faithful, which is in process of realization, will elevate the human personality to an intensity of force and grandeur productive of a new era to the Church and to society--an era difficult for the imagination to grasp, and still more difficult to describe in words, unless we have recourse to the prophetic language of the inspired Scriptures."

"The way out of our present difficulties," said Father Hecker, speaking of the conflicts of religion in Europe, "is to revert to a spirituality which is freer than that which Providence a.s.signed as the counteraction of Protestantism in the sixteenth century--to a spirituality which is, and ever has been, the normal one of the Christian inner life. That era accentuated obedience, this accentuates no particular moral virtue, but rather presses the soul back upon Faith and Hope and Love as the springs of life, and makes the distinctive virtue fidelity to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, impelling the Christian to that one of the moral virtues which is most suitable to his nature and to the requirements of his state of life, and other environments."

But from what has been said it must not be inferred that Father Hecker thought it safe to be without spiritual counsel, above all when the soul seemed led in extraordinary ways. He firmly believed in the necessity of direction, and that in the sense intended by spiritual writers generally. In practice he himself always consulted men of experience and piety. We have seen how he sought advice, and was aided by it at every crisis of his life. But he did not accept all that is said by some writers about the surrender of the soul to one's father confessor. He thought that confession was often too closely allied with direction, and he was convinced that many souls could profit by less introspection in search of sin, and more in search of natural and supernatural movements to virtue. He condemned over-direction, and thought that there was a good deal of it. He thought that there were cases in which spontaneity of effort was too high a price to pay for even the merit of obedience. His sentiment is well expressed by St. John of the Cross in the ninth chapter of _The Ascent of Mount Carmel:_

"Spiritual directors are not the chief workers, but rather the Holy Ghost; they are mere instruments, only to guide souls by the rule of faith and the law of G.o.d according to the spirit which G.o.d gives to each. Their object, therefore, should be not to guide souls by a way of their own, suitable to themselves; but to ascertain, if they can, the way which G.o.d Himself is guiding them."

Leave much to G.o.d's secret ways, was one of Father Hecker's principles. "When hearing some confessions on the missions," he once said, "and when about to give absolution, I used to say, in my heart, to the penitent, Well, no doubt G.o.d means to save you, you poor fellow, or He wouldn't give you the grace to make this mission. But just how He will do it, considering your bad habits, I can't see; but that's none of my business."

Leave much to natural or acquired inclinations, was one of his maxims. He was not deeply interested in souls who by temperament or training needed very minute guidance in the spiritual life; to him they seemed so overloaded with harness as to have no great strength left for pulling the chariot. But he would not interfere with them; he knew that it was of little avail to try to change such methods once they had become habitual; and he recognized that there were many who could never get along without them. At any rate he was tolerant by nature, and slow to condemn in general or particular anything useful to well-meaning souls.

"It is vain to rise before the light," was another motto. "Make no haste in the time of clouds." These two texts of Scripture he was fond of repeating. "When G.o.d shows the way," he once said, "you will see; no amount of peering in the dark will bring the sun over the hills. Pray for light, but don't move an inch before you get it. When it comes, go ahead with all your might." Self-imposed penances, self-a.s.sumed devotional practices he mistrusted. He was convinced that the only way sure to succeed, and to succeed perfectly, was either that shown by an interior attraction too powerful and too peaceful to be other than divine, or one pointed out by the lawful external authority in the Church.

When asked for advice on matters of conscience his decisions were generally quick and always simple. Yet he often refused to decide without time for prayer and thought, saying, "I have no lights on this matter; you must give me time." And not seldom he refused to decide altogether for the same reason. One thing annoyed him much, and that was the blank silence and stupid wonder with which some instructed Catholics listened to him as he spoke of the guidance of the Holy Spirit as the way of Christian perfection, treating it as beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, intricate in its rules, "mystical," and visionary; whereas Father Hecker knew it to be the one only simple method, with a minimum of rules, useful for all, readily understood. What follows is a brief outline of the entire doctrine in it practical use in the progress or the soul from a sinful life onwards; we have found it among his memoranda:

"What must one do in order to favor the reception of the Holy Spirit, and secure fidelity to His guidance when received? First receive the Sacraments, the divinely inst.i.tuted channels of grace: one will scarcely persevere in living in the state of grace, to say nothing of securing a close union with G.o.d, who receives Holy Communion only once or twice a year. Second, practise prayer, above all that highest form of prayer, a.s.sisting at Holy Ma.s.s; then mental and vocal prayer, the public offices of the Church, and particular devotions according to one's attrait. Third, read spiritual books daily--the Bible, Lives of the Saints, _Following of Christ, Spiritual Combat,_ etc. But in all this bear ever in mind, that the steady impelling force by which one does each of these outward things is _the inner and secret prompting of the Holy Ghost, and that perseverance in them is secured by no other aid except the same hidden inspiration._ Cherish that above all, therefore, and in every stage of the spiritual life; be most obedient to it, seeking meantime for good counsel wherever it is likely to be had."

Father Hecker was of opinion that a larger number of persons can be led to perfection than is generally supposed, and he would sound the call in the ears of Christians generally far more than is commonly done. He was also persuaded that there are many souls whose whole lives have been entirely, or almost entirely, free from the taint of mortal sin, and these he considered should be the most active spirits among Christians. He thought that more room should be made for them in our discourses, and that everybody should not be lumped together in one ma.s.s as hardened sinners or as penitents.

To these innocent men and women the mediatorship of Christ should be made as distinct as possible, the elevation of the soul to divine union through the Incarnation brought out fully, and the redemption of man from sin and h.e.l.l be included in it, and be absorbed by it.

Too many souls who have never sinned mortally fail to struggle for perfection, Father Hecker often said, because they never have heard any invitation but the call to repentance. The positive side of Christianity is the Incarnation, which lifts all men of good-will, repentant and innocent alike, into partic.i.p.ation with the Deity.

Father Hecker would talk by the hour of the need of bringing that view of our Lord's mission most prominently forward, the idea of redemption applying to innocent souls only on account of original sin, and by sympathy with their brethren infected by actual sin.

And he would show that even hard sinners could often be brought to a good life more surely, and be enabled more certainly to persevere, by forcibly emphasizing the Incarnation and its benefits than by any other method. Their blindness and selfishness hinder hard sinners from easily appreciating our Lord's sufferings as borne on their account. Father Hecker regretted that the idea of redemption was so often presented in a way to give the impression that atonement was the whole office of Christ. There are many souls for whom access to Christ as Mediator was more in consonance with the truth than access to Him as Redeemer, Mediator in that case including Redeemer, rather than the Redeemer absorbing the idea of Mediator. Redemption from original sin is, of course, necessary to the mediatorship of a fallen race. But our Lord became Redeemer that he might be Mediator; he cleansed us from sin that he might lift us up to the G.o.dhead; and in many souls Father Hecker knew that the process of cleansing began and ended with original sin and venial sins. Such souls often go their lives long with no compelling stimulus to perfection, because they cannot apply to themselves the accusations of sin commonly put into the directions for beginners.

Much has been already said of the aids to perfection which Father Hecker perceived in a right use of the liberty and intelligence of our times. He also insisted that the commercial and industrial features of our civilization were no obstacles to a high state of Christian perfection.

In a remarkable sermon, ent.i.tled "The Saint of Our Day," published in the third volume of the Paulist series, Father Hecker, after making a powerful exposition of the advantages of liberty and intelligence as helps to the interior life, insists that the opportunities and responsibilities peculiar to our civilization are capable of being sanctified to the highest degree. The model he proposes in this sermon is St. Joseph. He was no martyr, yet showed a martyr's fidelity by his trust in G.o.d.

"Called by the voice of G.o.d to leave his friends, home, and country, he obeys instantly and without a murmur. To find G.o.d and to be one with G.o.d, a solitary life in the desert was not necessary to St.

Joseph. He was in the world and found G.o.d where he was. He sanctified his work by carrying G.o.d with him into the workshop. St. Joseph was no flower of the desert or plant of the cloister; he found the means of perfection in the world, and consecrated it to G.o.d by making its cares and duties subservient to divine purposes.

"The house of St. Joseph was his cloister, and in the bosom of his family he practised the sublimest virtues. While occupied with the common daily duties of life his mind was fixed on the contemplation of divine truths, thus breathing into all his actions a heavenly influence. He attained in society and in human relationships a degree of perfection not surpa.s.sed, if equalled, by the martyr's death, the contemplative of the solitude, the cloistered monk, or the missionary hero.

"Our age is not an age of martyrdom, nor an age of hermits, nor a monastic age. Although it has its martyrs, its recluses, and its monastic communities, these are not, and are not likely to be, its prevailing types of Christian perfection. Our age lives in its busy marts, in counting-rooms, in workshops, in homes, and in the varied relations that form human society, and it is into these that sanct.i.ty is to be introduced. St. Joseph stands forth as an excellent and unsurpa.s.sed model of this type of perfection. These duties and these opportunities must be made instrumental in sanctifying the soul. For it is the difficulties and the hindrances that men find in their age which give the form to their character and habits, and when mastered become the means of divine grace and their t.i.tles to glory. Indicate these, and you portray that type of sanct.i.ty in which the life of the Church will find its actual and living expression.

"This, then, is the field of conquest for the heroic Christian of our day. Out of the cares, toils, duties, afflictions, and responsibilities of daily life are to be built the pillars of sanct.i.ty of the Stylites of our age. This is the coming form of the triumph of Christian virtue."

With all, moreover, Father Hecker insisted on the practice of the natural virtues, honesty, temperance, truthfulness, kindliness.

courage, and manliness generally, as preceding any practical move towards the higher life. He first explored the character and life of his penitent in search of what natural power he had, and then demanded its full exertion. He began with the natural man, and made every supernatural force in the sacraments and prayer aid in establishing and increasing natural virtue as a necessary preliminary and ever-present accompaniment of supernatural progress. Perhaps Father Hecker's antipathy to Calvinism sharpened his zeal for the natural virtues, and strengthened his advocacy of human innocence.

The craving for the supernatural, he was convinced, would be strong in proportion to the enlightenment of the natural reason; the need of the grace of G.o.d is, of course, most urgent in a sinful state, but it would be more quickly perceived in proportion to the possession of natural virtue. As the exercise of reason is necessary to faith and precedes its acts, so the integrity of natural virtue is the best preparation for the grace of G.o.d. Many pages of _The Aspirations of Nature,_ from which the following brief quotations are made, are devoted to the dignity of humanity and the need of placing the excellence of human nature in the foreground when considering how man may attain to a high supernatural state:

"Every faculty of the soul, rightly exercised, leads to truth; every instinct of our nature has an eternal destiny attached to it.

Catholicity finds its support in these and employs them in all her developments."

"The Catholic religion is wonderfully calculated and adapted to call forth, sustain, and perfect the tastes, propensities, and peculiarities of human nature. And let no one venture to say that these characteristics which are everywhere found among men are to be repressed rather than encouraged. This is to despise human nature, this is to mar the work of G.o.d. For are not these peculiarities inborn? Are they not implanted in us by the hand of our Creator? Are they not what go to const.i.tute our very individuality?"

Humanity is a word of vague meaning to most ears, but to Father Hecker its meaning was a living thing of value second only to Christianity. Here is his summary of the relation of Catholicity to human nature, taken from the same source as the foregoing:

"Catholicity is that religion which links itself to all the faculties of the mind, appropriates all the instincts of human nature, and by thus concurring with the work of the Creator affirms its own Divine origin."

We give the following extracts from letters of spiritual advice, to show Father Hecker's views of mortification:

"Exterior mortifications are aids to interior life. What we take from the body we give to the spirit. If we will look at it closely, two-thirds of our time is taken up with what we shall eat, and how we shall sleep, and wherewithal we shall be clothed. Two-thirds of our life and more is animal--including sleep. I do not despise the animal in man, but I go in for fair play for the soul. The better part should have the greater share. The right order of things has been reversed: _con_-version is necessary. Read the lives of the old Fathers of the Desert. They determined on leading a rational and divine life. How little are they known or appreciated in our day!

Their lives are more interesting than a novel and stranger than a romance."

"Self-love, self-activity, self-hood, is something not easily destroyed. It is like a cancer which has its roots extending to the most delicate fibres of our mental and moral nature. Divine grace can draw them all out. But how slowly! And how exquisitely painful is the process--the more subtle the self-love the more painful the cure."

"Never practise any mortification of a considerable character without counsel. The devil, when he can no longer keep us back, aims at driving us too far and too fast."

"How can the intellect be brought under direction of divine grace except by reducing it to its nothingness?--and how can this be done except by placing it in utter darkness? How can the heart be filled with the spirit of divine love while it contains any other? How can it be purified of all other inordinate love except by dryness and bitterness? G.o.d wishes to fill our intelligence and our hearts with divine light and love, and thus to deify our whole nature--to make us one with what we represent--G.o.d. And how can He do this otherwise than by removing from our soul and its faculties all that is contrary to the divine order?"

"All your difficulties are favors from G.o.d; you see them on the wrong side, and speak as the block of marble would while being chiselled by the sculptor. When G.o.d purifies the soul, it cries out just like little children do when their faces are washed. The soul's attention must be withdrawn from external, created things and turned inward towards G.o.d exclusively before its union with Him; and this transformation is a great, painful, and wonderful work, and so much the more difficult and painful as the soul's attention has been attracted and attached to transitory things--to creatures."

He was often heard repeating the following verse from _The Imitation_ (book iii. chap. x.x.xi.), as summarizing the necessary conditions of the active life: "Unless a man be elevated in spirit, and set at liberty from all creatures, and wholly united to G.o.d, whatever he knows and whatever he has is of no great weight." He wrote to a friend that he had studied that verse for thirty years and still found that he did not know all it meant.

We give what follows as characteristic of Father Hecker's manner as a director:

"At first, in all your deliberate actions, calm your mind, place yourself in the att.i.tude of a receiver or listener, and then decide.

Imperceptibly and insensibly grace will guide you."

"Don't care what people say; keep your own counsel. Use your own sense and abound in it; as the apostle says: 'Let every one abound in his own sense.' Don't try to get anybody to agree with you. No two noses are alike, much less souls. G.o.d never repeats."

"n.o.body nowadays wants G.o.d. Every one has the whole world on his shoulders, and unless his own petty ideas and schemes are adopted and succeed, he prophesies the end of the world. You are on the right road--push on! Our maxim is: Be sure you are right and then go ahead!"