The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales Part 31

"Yet if there were no other profit from them than that resulting from the mortification of a soul which loves G.o.d, that would be much.

"In fact, we must not desire evil things at all; good things we must desire only in moderation; but desire supremely, and in a limitless degree, that one only divine Good, G.o.d Himself."

AGAINST THE MAKING OF RASH VOWS.

A certain person of my acquaintance[1] having learnt on good authority that Blessed Francis had in his early youth made a vow to say his rosary every day, wished to imitate him in this work of piety, and yet did not like to make the vow without first consulting him.

He received the answer: "Beware of doing so." My friend replying: "Why do you refuse to others the advice which you took for yourself in your youth?"

Blessed Francis continued: "The very word _youth_ decides the question, because I made the vow at that time with less reflection, but now that I am older I say to you, Do not do it. I do not tell you not to say your rosary; on the contrary, I advise you as earnestly as I can, and even conjure you not to allow a single day to pa.s.s without reciting that prayer, which is most pleasing to G.o.d, and to the Blessed Virgin. But do it from a firm and fixed purpose, rather than from a vow, so that if you should happen to omit it either from weariness or forgetfulness, or any other circ.u.mstance, you may not be perplexed by scruples, and run the risk of offending G.o.d. For it is not enough to vow, we must also pay our vow, and that under pain of sin, which is no small matter. I a.s.sure you that this vow has often been a hindrance to me, and many a time I have been on the point of asking to be dispensed, and set free from it, or at least of having it changed into some other work of equal worth, which might interfere less with the discharge of my duties."

"But," rejoined this person, "is not what is done by vow more meritorious than what is done only from a firm and settled purpose?" "I suspected that was it," replied Blessed Francis; "in that case who do you wish should profit by what you do?" "A fine question," cried the other, "my neighbour, do you think? No, certainly, I want to gain it for myself." "Then there is nothing more to be said," replied Blessed Francis. "I see I have been making a mistake, I imagined, of course, that you wished to make your vow to G.o.d, for G.o.d, and for His sake, and so by your vow to merit or gain something for G.o.d. What! Are we to talk of our merits and graces as if He needed them, and were not Himself absolute merit and infinite goodness and perfection?"

Our Blessed Father loved to see this bird beating its wings against the bars of its cage. At last to let him fly, he said: 'But what then is merit, but a work pleasing to G.o.d, and a work done in His grace, and by His help, and for His love--a work which He rewards with increase of grace and glory?' "Certainly," said the other, "that is how I, too, understood it."

"Well, then," replied he, "if you understand it thus, why do you contend against your understanding and your conscience? Are we not meriting for G.o.d, when we do a good work in a state of grace and for the love of G.o.d?

And ought not the love of G.o.d which seeks nothing but His interests, that is to say, His glory, to be the chief end and final aim of all our good works, rather than the reward we thereby merit, which is merely an accessory?"

"And of what use to G.o.d are the merits and good works of men?" continued the other. "For one thing," replied he, "G.o.d thereby saves you from taking a false step. You are standing on the brink of a precipice, and you have your eyes shut. Let me give you a helping hand."

"In very truth, no good works of ours, though done in a state of grace and for the love of G.o.d, can increase His interior and essential glory. The reason is that this glory, being G.o.d Himself and consequently infinite, can neither be increased by our good actions nor diminished by our sins; and it is in this sense that David says that G.o.d is G.o.d and has no need of our goods.[2] It is not thus, however, with the exterior glory which is rendered to Him by creatures, and for the obtaining of which He drew them forth out of nothingness into existence. This is finite, by reason of its subject, G.o.d's creature, and therefore can be increased by our good works done in and for the love of G.o.d, or, on the other hand, diminished by our evil actions, by which we dishonour G.o.d, and rob Him of His glory, though only of glory which is exterior and outside of the divine nature.

"Now that we do increase the exterior glory of G.o.d by our good works, done as I have said, is evident from the testimony of the Apostle, when he calls the man who is purified from sin by justifying grace: _A vessel unto honour sanctified and profitable to the Lord prepared unto every good work._[3]

"Indeed, it is the very fact that a work done in grace increases the exterior glory of G.o.d, which makes it meritorious, His goodness being pledged by His promise to glorify those who glorify Him, and to give the crown of justice to those who fight the good fight, and who do, or endure, anything for the glory of His name. This is why I said that we must merit for G.o.d, that is to say, we should refer our actions to the glory of G.o.d, and act out of love for Him. So we shall merit eternal life, provided always we be free from mortal sin, since G.o.d is not pledged to give the glories of heaven to any but those who shall labour in His grace.

"If, on the other hand, we wish to merit for ourselves, that is to say, if we positively intend that the whole aim of our labour be the reward of grace, or glory, which we hope for: and if we do not, in performing our good works seek first and chiefly the glory of G.o.d; then we really merit nothing for ourselves, since we do nothing for G.o.d. The reason of this is that there is so close a relationship between merit and reward (the two Latin names for them, _meritum_ and _merces_, having the same root and meaning), that one cannot exist without the other any more than a mountain without a valley, or paternity without sonship.

"You see now that in the theory you have unwittingly adopted you entirely destroy the nature of true merit, and are in danger of being shipwrecked on the same rock as those heretics of our day who hold that good works are unprofitable for salvation. I am convinced, as you may well believe, that you are as far from wishing to run the risk with them as you are from sharing their belief.

"Remember this, that in order to do a good work in true charity you must not make your own interest your ultimate aim, but G.o.d's interest, which is nothing else but His exterior glory. The more, too, that you think of G.o.d's interest the more He will think of yours, and the less you trouble yourself about reward, the greater will your reward be in heaven, because pure love, never mercenary, looks only to the good of the beloved one, not to its own.

This is the end and aim of the sacred teaching that we must seek first the _Kingdom of G.o.d_, that is to say, His glory, knowing a.s.suredly that in seeking this all good things will be added unto us.

"He who only wishes to merit for himself does nothing for G.o.d and merits nothing for himself: but, on the other hand, he who does everything for G.o.d and for His honour merits much for himself.

"In this game he who loses, wins; and he who thinks only of winning for himself, plays a losing game. His good works are, as it were, hollow, and weigh too lightly in the divine balance. He falls asleep on his pile; of imaginary spiritual wealth, and awakening finds he has nothing in his hands. He has laboured for himself, not for G.o.d, and therefore receives his reward from himself and not from G.o.d. Like a moth, he singes his wings in the flame of a merit which is truly imaginary, no work being really meritorious except that which is done in a state of grace, and with G.o.d for its last end."

"All this," replied the person, "does not at all satisfy me on the point which I brought forward, namely, as to whether work done by vow is not more meritorious than that which is done without it, seeing that to the action of the particular virtue which is vowed is added that of the virtue of religion which is the vow."

"Certainly," replied our Blessed Father, "as regards the question whether it is more meritorious to say the Rosary by vow rather than of one's free choice, it is undoubtedly, as you say, adding one act of virtue to another to do so in discharge of one's vow, for is not prayer the highest of all religious actions? Again, if I pray with devotion and fervour, am I not adding to prayer another religious action, which is devotion? If I offer to G.o.d this prayer, as incense, or a spiritual sacrifice, or as an oblation, are not sacrifice and oblation two religious actions? Moreover, if by this prayer I desire to praise G.o.d, is not divine praise a religious act? If in praying I adore G.o.d, is not adoration one also?

"And if I pray thus with devotion, adoration, sacrifice, oblation, and praise, have we not here five acts of the virtue of religion added by me to the sixth, which is prayer?"

"But," rejoined the other, "the vow is more than all that." "If," replied Blessed Francis, "you say that the act of making a vow is in itself more than all these six together, you must really bring me some proof of its being so."

"I mean," said the other, "than each of these acts taken separately,"

"That," returned our Blessed Father, "is not the opinion of the Angelical Doctor,[4] who, when enumerating the eleven acts of religion, places the making a vow only in the eighth rank, with seven preceding it, namely, prayer, devotion, adoration, sacrifice, oblation, the paying of t.i.thes, and first-fruits; and three after it: the praise of G.o.d, the taking of lawful oaths, and the adjuring of creatures in G.o.d.

"It is not that the act of making a vow is not an excellent thing; but we have no right to set it above other virtues which surpa.s.s it in excellence, and other good works of greater worth. We must leave everything in its place, going neither against the order of reason nor against that of divine charity. A man who boasts too much of his n.o.ble birth provokes scrutiny into the genuineness of his claim and risks its being disallowed."

"All the same," persisted this person, "I maintain that a good work done by vow is more meritorious than one done without it, charity, of course, being taken for granted." "It is not enough," replied Francis, "to take charity for granted. We must also suppose it to be greater in the man who does the action with a vow than in the one who does it without; for if he who says some particular prayer, because bound by vow, has less charity than he who says the same without being so bound, he, doubtless, has, and you will not deny it, less merit than the other, because merit is not in proportion to the vow made, but to the charity which accompanies it, and without which it has neither life nor value."

"And supposing equal charity, vow, or no vow," resumed the person, "will not the action done by vow have greater merit than the other?" "It will only have the same eternal glory for its reward," replied our Blessed Father, "in so far as it has the same amount of charity, and thus each will receive the same reward of eternal life.

"But as regards accidental glory, supposing that there were a special halo for the vow which would add a fourth to the three of which schoolmen treat, or, if you wish, that there should be as many special and accidental halos of glory as there are kinds of virtue, they will be unequal in accidental glory.

"But then we should have to prove that this multiplicity of halos, or accidental glories, exists, in addition to the three of which the schoolmen speak. This I would ask you now to do, though I am doubtful as to the result."

"Of what then does it avail you," said the other, "to have made that vow about which I have been consulting you?"

"It renders me," replied our Blessed Father, "more careful, diligent, and attentive in keeping my word to G.o.d, in binding myself closer to Him, in strengthening me to keep my promise (for I do not deny that there is something more stable in the vow than in mere purpose and resolution), in keeping myself from the sin I might incur, if I should fail in what I have vowed, in stimulating me to do better, and to make use of this means to further my progress in the love of G.o.d," "You do not then pretend to merit more on account of it?" said the other. "I leave all that to G.o.d," replied Francis, "He knows the measure of grace which He gives, or wishes to give me. I desire no more, and only as much as it may please Him to bestow on me for His glory. Love is not eager to serve its own interests, it leaves the care of them to its Beloved, who will know how to reward those who love Him with a pure and disinterested love."

I close this subject with two extracts from the writings of our Blessed Father. In the first he says: "I do not like to hear people say, We must do _this_, or _that_, because there is more merit in it. There is more merit in saying, 'We must do all for the glory of G.o.d.' If we could serve G.o.d without merit--which cannot be done--we ought to wish to do so. It is to be feared that by always trying to discover what is most meritorious we may miss our way, like hounds, which when the scent is crossed, easily lose it altogether."

[Footnote 1: Undoubtedly M. Camus himself. Note.--It is considered by critics that M. Camus puts much of his own into the month of St. Francis in this section.--[Ed.]]

[Footnote 2: Psal. xv. 2.]

[Footnote 3: 2 Tim. ii. 21.]

[Footnote 4: S. Thom. 2a, 2ae, Quaest, xxiii. art. vii.]

UPON THE PRO-Pa.s.sIONS OF OUR LORD.

I have been asked whether our Lord Jesus Christ had pa.s.sions. I cannot do better than answer in the exact words of our Blessed Father, taken from his Theotimus. He says:

"Jesus Christ feared, desired, grieved, and rejoiced. He even wept, grew pale, trembled, and sweated blood, although in Him these effects were not caused by pa.s.sions like to ours. Therefore the great St. Jerome, and, following his example, the Schools of Theology, out of reverence for the divine Person in whom they existed, do not dare to give the name of pa.s.sions to them, but call them reverently pro-pa.s.sions, to show that in our Lord these sensible emotions, though not pa.s.sions, took the place of pa.s.sions. Moreover, He suffered nothing whatever on account of them, excepting what seemed good to Him, governing and controlling them at His will. This, we who are sinners do not do, for we suffer and groan under these disorderly emotions, which, against our will, and to the great prejudice of our spiritual peace and welfare, disturb our souls."[1]

[Footnote 1: Book I. chap. 3.]

HIS VICTORY OVER THE Pa.s.sIONS OF LOVE AND ANGER.

Blessed Francis candidly owned that the two pa.s.sions which it cost him the most to conquer were "love of creatures and anger." The former overcame by skill, the latter by violence, or as he himself was wont to say, "by taking hold of his heart with both hands."

The strategy by which he conquered love of creatures was this. He gave his affections an altogether new object to feed upon and to live for, an object absolutely pure and holy, the Creator. The soul, we know, cannot live without love, therefore all depends on providing it with an object worthy of its love. Our will is like our love. "We become earthly," says St.

Augustine, "if we love the earth, but heavenly if we love heaven. Nay more, if we love G.o.d, we actually, by partic.i.p.ation, become G.o.dlike. Osee, speaking of idolaters, says: _They became abominable as those things were which they loved_".[1] All our Saint's writings breathe love, but a love so holy, pure, and beautiful as to justify itself in every expression of it:--_Pure words ... justified in themselves ... sweeter than honey and the honeycomb._

As regards the pa.s.sion of anger, which was very strong in him, he fought against it, face to face, with such persevering force and success that meekness and gentleness are considered his chief characteristics.

[Footnote 1: Osee ix. 10.]

UPON OUR Pa.s.sIONS AND EMOTIONS.

One day, at a time when I was writing a treatise on the subject of the human pa.s.sions--which treatise was afterwards published among my Miscellaneous Works--I went to him to be enlightened upon several points.

After having answered my questions, and satisfied my mind, he asked me: "And what will you say about the affections?" I must confess that this question surprised me, for though I am quite aware of the distinction between the reasonable and the sensitive appet.i.te, I had no idea that there was such a difference between the pa.s.sions and the affections, as he told me existed. I imagined that when the pa.s.sions were governed by reason, they were called affections, but he explained to me that this was not so at all. He said that our sensitive appet.i.te was divided into two parts: the concupiscent and the irascible....

The reasonable appet.i.te is also divided, like the sensitive, into the concupiscent and the irascible, but it makes use of the mind as its instrument.

The sensitive concupiscent appet.i.te is again subdivided into six pa.s.sions: 1, love; 2, hate; 3, desire; 4, aversion; 5, joy; 6, sadness. The irascible comprises five pa.s.sions: 1, anger; 2, hope; 3, despair; 4, fear; 5, courage.