The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales Part 26

[Footnote 2: Job xxi. 13.]

[Footnote 3: Prov. xiv. 13.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid. xv. 15.]

UPON THE DEGREES OF TRUE DEVOTION.

Loving devotion, or devout love, has three degrees, which are: 1. When we perform those exercises which relate to the service of G.o.d, but with some sluggishness. 2. When we betake ourselves to them with readiness. 3. When we run and even fly to execute them with joy and with eagerness.

Our Blessed Father ill.u.s.trates this by two very apt comparisons.

"Ostriches never fly, barn door fowls fly heavily, close to the ground, and but seldom; eagles, doves, and swallows fly often, swiftly and high. Thus sinners never fly to G.o.d, but keep to the ground, nor so much as look up to Him.

"Those who are in G.o.d's grace but have not yet attained to devotion, fly to G.o.d by their good actions rarely, slowly, and very heavily; but devout souls fly to G.o.d frequently and promptly and soar high above the earth."[1]

His second comparison is this:

"Just as a man when convalescent from an illness walks as much as is necessary, but slowly and wearily, so the sinner being healed from his iniquity walks as much as G.o.d commands him to do, but still only slowly and heavily, until he attains to devotion. Then, like a man in robust health, he runs and bounds along the way of G.o.d's commandments; and, more than that, he pa.s.ses swiftly into the paths of the counsels and of heavenly inspirations. In fact, charity and supernatural devotion are not more different from one another than flame from fire, seeing that charity is a spiritual fire, and when its flame burns fiercely is called devotion.

Thus devotion adds nothing to the fire of charity except the flame, which renders charity prompt, active, and diligent, not only in observing the commandments of G.o.d, but also in the practice of the counsels and heavenly inspirations."

[Footnote 1: _The Devout Life_. Part i. c. i.]

THE TEST OF TRUE DEVOTION.

It was his opinion that the touchstone of true devotion is the regulation of exercises of piety according to one's state of life. He often compared devotion to a liquid which takes the form of the vessel into which it is put. Here are his words to Philothea on the subject [1]: "Devotion," he says, "must be differently practised by a gentleman, by an artisan, by a servant, by a prince, by a widow, by a maiden, by a wife, and not only must the practice of devotion be different, but it must in measure and in degree be accommodated to the strength, occupations, and duties of each individual. I ask you, Philothea, would it be proper for a Bishop to wish to lead the solitary life of a Carthusian monk? If a father of a family were as heedless of heaping up riches as a Capuchin; if an artisan spent the whole day in church like a monk; if a monk, like a Bishop, were constantly in contact with the world in the service of his neighbour, would not the devotion of each of these be misplaced, ill-regulated, and laughable? Yet this mistake is very often made, and the world, which cannot or will not distinguish between devotion and indiscretion in those who think themselves devout, murmurs against and blames piety in general, though in reality piety has nothing to do with mistakes such as these."

He goes on to say: "When creating them, G.o.d commanded the plants to bring forth their fruits, each according to its kind; so He commands christians, who are the living plants of His Church, to produce fruits of devotion, each according to his state of life and calling."

At the close of the same chapter, our Blessed Father says: "Devotion or piety, when it is real, spoils nothing, but on the contrary perfects everything. Whenever it clashes with the legitimate calling of those who profess it, you may be quite certain that such devotion is spurious. 'The bee,' says Aristotle, 'draws her honey from a flower, without injuring that flower in the least, and leaves it fresh and intact as she found it.'"

[Footnote 1: _The Devout Life_. Part i. c, 3.]

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SERVANT OF G.o.d.

Some think that they are not making any progress in the service of G.o.d unless they feel sensible devotion and interior joy continually, forgetting that the road to heaven is not carpeted with rose leaves but rather bristling with thorns. Does not the divine oracle tell us that through much tribulation we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven? And that it is only taken by those who do violence to themselves? Our Blessed Father writes thus to a soul that was making the above mistake:

"Live wholly for G.o.d, and for the sake of the love which He has borne to you, do you bear with yourself in all your miseries. In fact, the being a good servant of G.o.d does not mean the being always spiritually consoled, the always feeling sweet and calm, the never feeling aversion or repugnance to what is good. If this were so, neither St. Paul, nor St. Angela, nor St.

Catherine of Siena, could have served G.o.d well. To be a servant of G.o.d is to be charitable towards our neighbour, to have, in the superior part of our soul, an unswerving resolution to follow the will of G.o.d, joined to the deepest humility and a simple confidence in Him; however many times we fall, always to rise up again; in fine, to be patient with ourselves in our miseries, and with others in their imperfections."

Another error into which good people fall is that of always wanting to find out whether or not they are in a state of grace. If you tranquillize them on this point, then they begin to torment themselves as to the exact amount of progress they have made, and are actually making, in this happy state of grace, as though their progress were in any way their own work. They quite forget that though one may plant and another water, it is G.o.d who gives the increase.

In order to cure this spiritual malady, which borders very closely upon presumption, he gives in another of his letters the following wise counsel:

"Remember that all that is past is nothing, and that every day we should say with David: Now only am I beginning to love my G.o.d truly. Do much for G.o.d, and do nothing without love, let this be your aim, eat and drink for this."

THAT DEVOTION DOES NOT ALWAYS SPRING FROM CHARITY.

"Do not deceive yourself," he once said to me, "people may be very devout, and at the same time very wicked." "But," I said, "they are then surely not devout, but hypocrites!" "No, no," he answered, "I am speaking of true devotion." As I was quite unable to solve this riddle, I begged him to explain it to me, which he did most kindly, and, if I can trust my memory, more or less as follows:

"Devotion is of itself and of its own nature a moral and acquired virtue, not one that is supernatural and infused, otherwise it would be a theological virtue, which it is not. It is then a virtue, subordinate to that which is called Religion, and according to some is only one of its acts;[1] as religion again is subordinate to one of the four cardinal virtues, namely justice. Now you know that all the moral virtues, and even the theological ones of faith and hope, are compatible with mortal sin, although become, as it were, shapeless and dead, being without charity, which is their form, their soul, their very life. For, if one can have faith so great as to be able to move mountains, without charity, and yet, precisely because charity is absent, be utterly worthless and wicked; if it is possible to be a true prophet and yet a bad man, as were Saul, Balaam, and Caiphas; to work miracles as Judas is believed to have done, and yet to be sinful as he was; if we can give all our goods to the poor, and suffer martyrdom by fire, without having charity, much more may we be devout without being charitable, since devotion is a virtue less estimable in its nature than those which we have mentioned. You must not then think it strange when I tell you that it is possible to be devout and yet wicked, since we may have faith, mercy, patience, and constancy to the extent of which I have spoken, and yet, with all that be stained with many deadly vices, such as pride, envy, hatred, intemperance, and the like."

"What then," I asked, "is a truly devout man?" He answered: "I tell you again that, though in sin, one may be truly devout. But such devotion, though a virtue, is dead, not living," I rejoined: "But how can this dead devotion be real?" "In the same way," he replied, "as a dead body is a real body, soulless though it be." I rejoined: "But a dead body is not really a man." He answered: "It is not a true man, whole and perfect, but it is the true body of a man, and the body of a true man though dead. Thus, devotion without charity is true, though dead and imperfect. It is true devotion dead and shapeless, but not true devotion living and fully formed. It is only necessary to draw a distinction between the words, _true_, and _complete_ or _perfect_, which is done so clearly by St. Thomas,[2] in order to find the solution of your difficulty. He who possesses devotion without charity has _true_, but not _perfect_ or _complete_ devotion; in him who has charity, devotion is not only true but perfect. By charity he becomes good, and by devotion devout; losing charity he loses supernatural goodness and becomes sinful or bad, but does not necessarily cease to be devout. This is why I told you that one could be devout and yet wicked.

So also by mortal sin we do not necessarily lose faith or hope, except we deliberately make an act of unbelief or of despair."

He had expressed a somewhat similar idea in the first chapter of his Philothea, though I had not then noticed it. These are his words:

"Devotion is nothing more than a spiritual agility and vivacity, helped by which charity acts more readily; or better, helped by which we more readily elicit acts of charity. It belongs to charity to make us keep G.o.d's commandments, but it belongs to devotion to make us keep them promptly and diligently. This is why he who does not observe all the commandments of G.o.d cannot be considered either good or supernaturally devout, since in order to be good we must have charity, and to be devout we must have besides charity great alertness and prompt.i.tude in doing charitable actions."[3]

In another of his books, speaking to Theotimus, he says:

"All true lovers of G.o.d are equal in this, that all give their heart to G.o.d, and with all their strength; but they are unequal in this, that they give it diversely and in different manners, whence some give all their heart, with all their strength, but less perfectly than others. This one gives it all by martyrdom; this, all by virginity; this, all by the pastoral office; and whilst all give it all by the observance of the commandments, yet some give it with less perfection than others."[4]

We must remember that true devotion cannot be restricted to the practice of one virtue only; we must employ all our powers in the wors.h.i.+p and service of G.o.d. One of the chief maxims of Blessed Francis was that the sort of devotion which is not only not a hindrance but actually a help to us in our legitimate calling is the only true one for us, and that any other is false for us. He ill.u.s.trates this teaching to Philothea by saying that devotion is like a liquid which takes the shape of the vessel into which it is put.

He even went further, boldly declaring that it was not simply an error but a heresy to exclude devotion from any calling whatever, provided it be a just and legitimate one. This shows the mistake of those who imagine that we cannot save our souls in the world, as if salvation were only for the Pharisee, and not for the Publican, nor for the house of Zaccheus. This error which approaches very nearly to that of Pelagius, makes salvation to be dependent on certain callings, as though the saving of our souls were the work of nature rather than of grace. Our Blessed Father supports his teaching in this matter by many examples, proving that in every condition of life we may be holy and may consequently save our souls, and arrive at a very high degree of glory.

He concludes by saying: "Some even have been known to lose perfection in solitude, which is often so helpful for its attainment, and to have regained it in a busy city life which seems to be so unfavourable to it.

Wherever we are, we can and ought to aspire to the perfect life."

[Footnote 1: S. Thomas 2a, 2ae, Quaest, lx.x.xi., art. 2.]

[Footnote 2: 2a, 2ae, Quaest, lx.x.xii. to lx.x.xviii.]

[Footnote 3: _The Devout Life_, Part i., chap. 1.]

[Footnote 4: Book x., chap. 3.]

UPON PERFECT CONTENTMENT IN THE PRIVATION OF ALL CONTENT.

It is true that the devout life, which is nothing but an intense and fervent love of G.o.d, is an angelic life and full of contentment and of extraordinary consolation. It is, however, also true that those who submit themselves to the discipline of G.o.d, even while experiencing the sweetness of this divine love, must prepare their soul for temptation. The path which leads to the Land of Promise is beset with difficulties--dryness, sadness, desolation, and faint-hearted fears--and would end in bewildering discouragement, did not Faith and Hope, like Joshua and Caleb, show us the fair fruits of this much to be desired country, and thus animate us to perseverance.

But He who brings light out of darkness, and roses out of thorns, who helps us in all our tribulations, and performs wonders in heaven and earth, makes the happy souls whom He leads through His will to His glory to find perfect content in the loss of all content, both corporal and spiritual when once they recognize that it is the will of G.o.d that they should go to Him by the way of darkness, perplexity, crosses, and anguish.

In saying this I am putting into my own words the thoughts of our Blessed Father as expressed in the eleventh chapter of the sixth book of his _Treatise on the Love of G.o.d_.

UPON THE WILL OF G.o.d.

Meditating this morning on that pa.s.sage of Holy Scripture which tells us that the life of man is in the good will of G.o.d,[1] I reflected that to live according to the will of the flesh, that is, according to the human will, is not really life, since the prudence of the flesh is death; but that to live according to the will of G.o.d is the true life of the soul, since the grace attached to that divine will imparts a life to our soul far higher than the life our soul imparts to our body.

The divine will is our sanctification, and this sanctification is the gate of eternal life; of that true life in comparison with which the life which we lead on earth is more truly a death. To live in G.o.d, in whom is true life, is to live according to His will.

Our life, then, is to do His will. This made St. Paul say that he lived, yet not he himself, but that Jesus Christ lived in him,[2] because he had only one will and one mind with Jesus Christ, I was rejoiced to find that unconsciously my thoughts on this subject had followed closely in the track of our Blessed Father's when he meditated on the same pa.s.sage. This I discovered on reading these words in one of his letters:

"This morning, being alone for a few moments, I made an act of extraordinary resignation which I cannot put on paper, but reserve until G.o.d permits me to see you, when you shall know it by word of mouth. Oh! how blessed are the souls who live on the will of G.o.d alone. Ah! if even to taste a little of that blessedness in a pa.s.sing meditation is so sweet to the heart which accepts that holy will with all the crosses it offers, what must the happiness be of a soul all steeped in that will? Oh! my G.o.d, what a blessed thing is it not to bring all our affections into a humble and absolute subjection to the divine love! This we have said, this we have resolved to do, and our hearts have taken the greatest glory of the love of G.o.d for their sovereign law. Now the glory of this holy love consists in its power of burning and consuming all that is not itself, that all may be resolved and changed into it. G.o.d exalts Himself upon our annihilation of ourselves and reigns upon the throne of our voluntary servitude."

[Footnote 1: Psalm xxix. 6.]

[Footnote 2: Gal. ii. 20.]

HIS RESIGNATION TO THE WILL OF G.o.d.