The Warfare of the Soul Part 9

[8] Ps. li, 2.

[9] Zech. iv, 6.

[10] Cor. xii, 3.

[11] Eph. iii, 16.

[12] "St. Thomas and many other grave doctors say that it is by reason of the war that the devil is accustomed to make against those that are in prayer, that the Church, directed by the Holy Ghost, ordains that we should begin all the canonical Hours with this verse, 'O G.o.d, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me.' Whereby we implore G.o.d's a.s.sistance in prayer against the snares and temptations of the enemy."--Quoted by Rodriguez, _Christian Perfection_.

[13] St. Luke xxii, 44.

[14] St. Matt. xxvi, 44.

[15] St. Bernard, _Serm. in Dedicat. Eccles._, III.

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CHAPTER VII

TRAINING THE INNER LIFE

I. _Environment and Character_

A psychological principle we should never lose sight of is that the att.i.tude of mind and heart towards all moral questions is just what we choose to make it. Surround a man with debasing a.s.sociations, and let him yield to the resulting influences, and he becomes debased. On the other hand, the influence of a pure and n.o.ble environment makes for purity and n.o.bility of character. Every man in his inner character, and in that outward expression of character that we call life, is the product of the influences to which he yields himself.

One of our chief dangers, however, is that many influences flow out from our daily environment of which we are quite unconscious. We are not always in a position to realize our surroundings and their effect, and even when we can realize them, it is often beyond our power to control them. But before an external influence can work any hurt to us, there must be something {91} within that answers to it. A child may pa.s.s unscathed through an environment of vice, because there is nothing in the child-heart that responds to the call of sin.

Our Lord had this in mind, perhaps, when He laid it down as a condition necessary to entrance into the Kingdom of G.o.d that we should become as little children,[1] and He was able to make this condition quite absolute, because while no man can control his external environment and the consequent influences, he can, by the deliberate use of his will, acting in the power of the Holy Ghost, create, in very large measure, whatever interior condition he wishes. By his daily course he can develop a moral and spiritual interior that will habitually respond with alacrity to the evil and be deaf to the good; or, on the other hand, one that will not only rise up quickly to entertain every good influence and suggestion, but will in a large measure (though never wholly in this life) be even unconscious like little children of the presence of evil influences.[2]

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So let us learn how to create an interior environment in which the Holy Ghost will be the dominant force. Otherwise Satan will surely surround us with so much of sin, that becoming accustomed to it, and to the thought of it, we shall be unable to resist the effort he will make to use our faculties as instruments for his work.

Nor must we wait until conscious of his approach before seeking to create the proper interior environment. In most cases it will then be too late. It is not easy to surround ourselves with an atmosphere of good and pious thought in the moment of a.s.sault. We must be beforehand with him. In times of peace we must prepare for war.

We may be quite sure that it is with the intention of affording us the opportunity to do this that G.o.d often gives us rest from the attacks of the enemy. He does not mean us to lie idle at such times, but to seize the opportunity to train for future battles, just as soldiers in barracks engage in daily drill that they may be more efficient fighters when again called to take the field. "After thou hast escaped these {93} temptations, or else if our Lord hath so kept thee (as He doth many by His mercy), that thou hast not been troubled much by any such, then it is good for thee that thou beware of turning thy rest into idleness."[3]

Let us consider how Satan uses certain of our faculties as instruments of sin, and see how by a definite system of spiritual exercises we can so forestall him that he will find nothing in us ready for his use.

II. _Educating the Memory_

How much sin, for example, is due to the action of memory! It is indeed strange that this wonderful faculty, which more than any other operates to give unity, consistency, and proportion to our life, should be so often used to call up past sins that we may sin them over again in will if not in deed. We linger with pleasure, by the exercise of this faculty, over past sins, making them our own again, staining our souls once more with that which we thought had been buried forever in the far-off years.

We bring to renewed life old revenges, ancient hates, and revel again amid scenes of impurity which can never be re-enacted in real life.

Such {94} acts, frequently indulged, grow into a habit, and the habit becomes necessity when the memory not only easily and naturally reverts to those events and conditions of the past that were bound up with sin, but becomes so trained that it must recall the evil, and can only with great stress, difficulty, and distaste be made to recall that which is good.

If, on the other hand, by persistent acts of will we force the memory to recall the righteous pa.s.sages from our past, far-off happenings sweet and holy, we, little by little, train it to retain these righteous things, while all other impressions grow more and more dim as the years go by.

Those who have practised such methods find that after a time the memory, even when left alone, will engage itself with that which is good, just because it has become accustomed to it, and will reject the evil (in many cases, of itself, without the direct interposition of the will), because long exercise has so trained it that in its ordinary operation evil memories are repugnant to it.

Therefore keep the memory definitely busy. Too often when we think it is browsing, as it were, carelessly among the fields of the past, it is, as a matter of fact, being subtly directed by Satan, until, ere we know it, it has fallen upon some evil thing whose touch is poison.

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III. _Guiding the Imagination_

So likewise with the imagination. Perhaps no human faculty is responsible for so much sin, and there is a peculiar heinousness in sins of the imagination. In His mercy G.o.d has limited our sphere of sin. There are certain evils impossible for us because He has withheld us from the condition necessary for their commission.

Instead, therefore, of being grateful for such a blessed limitation, we use the imagination to conjure up impossible situations. We create new worlds for ourselves, new theatres for our exploits of pride and wickedness, and in them, through will and imagination, we enact the sin that it would be impossible to commit in our actual external lives.

This strong activity of the imagination can and must be directed. If this mysterious faculty be so p.r.o.ne to produce its own creations, if we indeed will dream of things that do not belong to the present moment, let them be holy things.

Yes, let the imagination run as fast as it will, check it in nothing save in the subjects of its activity. Let it transport us to heavenly places. Let it picture to our astonished vision the things that will be hereafter, the company of heaven, {96} the companionship of the Saints, the glory of the Lamb.

Or, if these ranges be too lofty, let the fancy create new earthly theatres for our activity. Let us picture ourselves following Jesus as He "went about doing good";[4] let us see Him healing the lepers, opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, blessing the little children; let us bring vividly before us the great example of His life; and let the picture so burn itself, through the power of the imagination, into the very fabric of the brain, that we cannot choose but make it the model for our own lives.

So, after a time, the imagination will become so trained that it will ever be creating holy things, and presenting them for our consideration, and will become incapable, in the end, of producing any picture that could not find ready reflection in the stainless mirror of the human mind of our Blessed Lord.

When we consider the method of thus training the inner man, we find that our course must be shaped by means of certain practices, which should be strenuously pursued if real progress is to be made. These practices will be, as a Kempis says particularly of one of them, as a rudder guiding the ship, keeping it on its proper course. {97} Those we shall consider especially are: (1) Constancy of mind and will; (2) Patience; (3) Calmness; (4) Diligence.

IV. _The Practice of Constancy_

Thomas a Kempis says, "The beginning of all evil temptations is inconstancy of mind, and small confidence in G.o.d, for as a ship without a rudder is tossed to and fro by the waves, so the man who is slack and quits his purpose is many ways tempted."[5]

G.o.d, knowing human weakness and incapacity, requires but little of man, but He does emphatically require that this little be resolutely purposed, and definitely executed. The soldier who threshes wildly about the field, however fiercely and courageously, is not the one to contribute to the victory. He who sets a definite purpose before him; who knows just what he wants to do, and allows nothing to shake his purpose, is the one on whom the commander can depend to accomplish something in the battle.

So in our spiritual warfare the most important factor is definiteness of purpose, and constancy in executing it. The Christian warfare must be conducted by rule. When I arise each morning {98} to the work of another day, I must know, as far as possible, what that work is; I must know the particular method by which it is to be performed; I must have submitted it all to G.o.d so that, feeling a.s.sured of "a right judgment in all things," I shall be able to go forward to my duty without doubt or hesitation. The army that knows not when to fight, whose officers are in confusion and uncertainty regarding the next move, falls an easy prey to the enemy. But let the same army be provided with a definite plan of campaign; let every officer and man, each in his place, know just what he is to do under every condition that may arise; and the enemy will have no easy task to defeat it.

This all points to the necessity of the Christian having a Rule of Life, and holding fast to it; allowing himself to be drawn off to nothing else until that be fulfilled. Satan has a subtle way at times of seeking to disturb our spirit of constancy by suggesting something that, in itself, is better and higher than that we have resolved upon.

But let us not be deceived by this clever move on his part. If we have undertaken a definite thing for G.o.d, that is the highest and best for us until it be accomplished; and the thought that any thing can be more pleasing to Him is but a wile of the devil; and to entertain the {99} suggestion is to be guilty of pride. Better a small and humble service well performed, than great things poorly done. "Our advancement and perfection consist not in the performance of very extraordinary things, or in the being employed in the highest and most labourious offices of religion, but only in doing our ordinary actions well, and in acquitting ourselves well of whatsoever obedience employs us in, be it ever so mean or easy."[6] So Christian perfection, against which all temptation is directed, consists in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

The conclusion of the matter is that we cannot be safe unless our whole life is lived by definite, practical rule; a rule for rising in the morning, for prayers, for our Bible reading, our Communions, our Confessions, for the commonest details of our daily routine, leaving nothing to be decided by chance or whim. A life thus ordered and carried out with constancy of purpose and will, for the glory of G.o.d, is a standing {100} menace to Satan's power. He fears it, because he knows that it possesses a power against which his long experience and consummate skill are as nothing.

V. _The Practice of Calmness_

A life lived as has been described above is one that will be dominated by a spirit of calmness, a calmness born of strength. The strong man is always the calm man. An agitated spirit is the evidence of a conscious weakness. The soldier who has faith in his commander, who knows he can rely on the weapons furnished him, and who is certain that his strength is greater than that of his enemy, is not excited in the face of attack. He receives it with serenity because he feels a.s.sured of what the result will be. It is uncertainty that brings agitation; it is the uncertainties of life that produce the worry that kills--and worry means want of faith. But the Christian soldier is beset by no uncertainties. If, in unswerving trust, he keeps his will firm for G.o.d, knit up with the perfect human will of our Lord, he knows there are no contingencies in the warfare he is waging. There can be but one issue,--that of complete and glorious victory.

If this a.s.surance concerning the issue produces calmness, the spirit of calm will in its turn react {101} upon us for the greater certainty of the victory.[7] The heart that is calm is the one that is capable of seeing all things in their true nature and relation. Such a heart is not easily deceived by the tempter, nor can it be frightened by the clamour of his onslaught. With steady hand it parries his deadliest thrusts, and a.s.suming the offensive is able in its turn to inflict mortal wounds upon the power of Satan wherever it may be manifested.

VI. _The Practice of Patience_