Volume I, Treatise I, Chapter XIV

That We Should Behave Ourselves All Our Life-time in Religion, After the Same Manner We Did the First Day We Entered into U

Ay ancient religious asking the Abbot Agatho, how he should

behave himself in religion, the good abbot answered him, ‘ That

he should remember how he had behaved himself the first day

he had left the world, and was received into the convent; and that he should continue to do still, as he had done then.” If therefore you wish to know the most proper means of continuing always a good religious and improving much in virtue, reflect well upon the disposition you were in, when you first left the world, and entered into religion, and endeavour to continue always in the same state. Consider with what zeal and courage you then renounced everything, your parents, your friends, riches, pleasures, and all the conveniences of this life. Persevereé and still retain the same contempt of the world, the same forgetfulness of your parents and of all other conveniences of life, and thus you will become a good religious. Call to mind also with what earnestness and humility you begged to be admitted into religion, and remember that the same day you were assured of admittance, you thought the gates of heaven had been open to you. Remember what gratitude you then expressed, and how highly you conceived yourself obliged both to God and to religion. Persevere in the same sentiments of humility and spiritual comfort; be convinced that you are still under the same obligations, as you were the first day, and in this manner you cannot fail of making great progress. In fine, think often with what modesty and devotion you behaved yourself at first after your admittance; remember how obedient, how humble, how fervent, how exact, and how resigned you were then; continue always the same, and you will daily improve more and more, and continually advance in virtue and perfection.

This means is much recommended by holy men, as I shall shew hereafter, but first it is very necessary clearly to explain its import. I do not mean hereby, that you need not be more perfect now, than you were the first day you entered into religion, or that an ancient religious should content himself with the virtue of a novice. For religious orders are schools of perfection; he that has frequented them longer, ought to have learned, and improved himself more, than he who entered them later; and as in human sciences, he that has studied ten years, ought to know more than he who newly begins his studies; so a religious who has laboured for a long time to advance in virtue, ought without doubt to have made greater progress in his profession, than one who is but newly entered into religion. But, as a young student, who at first was very diligent in his studies, and afterwards grows idle, is told that if he pretends to become learned, he must continue to take his business still as much to heart, as he did at the beginning; so what I intend, by that which is said before, is, that you should preserve the same. fervour you brought with you, when treading. the paths of virtue, you first entered into religion. With what zeal and resolution did you then begin to serve God? Nothing could then impede you, nothing seemed hard; re-assume the same fervour now, pursue your great affair with the same courage, and by this means you will make great progress in virtue. This is what holy men would have us understand by the expedient I last spoke of.

St. Athanasius tells us that St. Anthony being desired by his disciples to give them some advice concerning their spiritual advancement, began his discourse to them in these words: ‘What I first must recommend to you all in general is, that you never relent in that fervour, with which you first embraced a religious life; but that you still go on,-always increasing it, as if you did but now begin.” (Athan. et Surius, tom. i. p. 386.) He repeated the same advice to them upon several other occasions, and the better to imprint it in their minds, when he was near his death, enjoined them the same thing, as his last will and testament, in such pathetic words as expressed in him the tenderness of a father. ‘ As tome,” says he, “‘my dear children, I am shortly entering into the way of my forefathers, according to the Scripture expression; for our Lord already calls me to him, and I have a longing desire to see my heavenly country; but before I go, I must remind you of one thing. That if you will not lose the fruit of all the time you have already spent, and of all the pains and hard labour you have undergone, ever since you entered into religion, you must imagine that you begin only today to embrace a religious life, and must live so, that the fervour and zeal which you had at your first entrance, may daily increase and acquire new strength.” If therefore you have a desire to advance in virtue, bear this continually in your mind, and suppose that you are every day to begin anew, and always to continue the same fervour, with which at first you began, by which means you will find it very easy to become a good religious.

St. Austin proposes another means, of which we have treated in one of the preceding chapters; “Forget,” says he, “all that is past, and imagine that every day you do but begin.” But to return to what we have quoted from St. Anthony, which he was used to explain by a familiar example, and said, that “we ought to apply with the same care and diligence to God’s service, as a good servant does to the concerns of his master.” A good servant, though he has served his master many years, and taken great pains and care in his affairs, yet he never refuses to do whatever lies in his power for him, but on the contrary rejoices to receive his master’s commands, and performs them with the same willingness and readiness, as he did the first day he entered into his service. This St. Bernard practised. He believed that all other religious were arrived at the height of perfection, and being come to the end of their course, they might very well dispense with themselves in many things (which is indeed an excellent antidote against judging rashly of others); but as for himself, he always imagined that he was as yet but a novice, and that it was not for him to take upon him the same liberty, nor to use the same privileges, which others might do, and for that reason he never abated anything of the exactness and rigour of his rule, nor exempted himself from any of the meanest offices of his monastery. He was always the most forward in doing whatsoever obedience prescribed; the first in sweeping the cloister, the first in washing the dishes, and when it happened that he was not well versed in, or could not do something he saw others do, he presently endeavoured to repair that defect, by taking some other work in hand that was far meaner than what his brethren were employed in. He either took a spade to dig the garden, or an axe to cleave wood, which afterwards he carried to the kitchen, and took great delight i in these offices, because he really believed he had very great need of practising them for his spiritual advancement. ‘There are many now-a-days not of his mind, who, when they are employed in such offices, say, that good example may perhaps require it, but in any other respect they do not think these practices necessary. I do not say, but that it is good to do such things for the example and edification of others, but that it were better to believe, that we ought to do them for our own advancement, since St. Bernard was persuaded, that he had need of them for his.

But to elucidate still more what we have already quoted from St. Anthony, we must make another observation, which is, that the saint was not satisfied with our not abating anything of that fervour we brought at first: but required that we should continually endeavour to increase it, by growing still better and better, and as if we did then only begin. Just as a man who is but newly entered into God’s service, and sees hitherto he has done nothing else but offended him, adds therefore every day penance upon penance, in order to make satisfaction for his past offences, and to render himself worthy of reward for the future.

In the same manner, ought we daily to apply ourselves, to gain and lay up new treasures for heaven, as if hitherto we had gathered no treasures, but rather made every effort to squander and lose them.

This is the means St. Gregory thinks most convenient for all sorts of persons, nay even for the mot perfect. And as perfect as the holy prophet David was, he did not, for all that, forbear to make use of it, as he himself signifies in these words, “I said to myself now I do but begin.” (Psal. Ixxvi. 11.) He had so much fervour and zeal for God’s service, that even in his old age he continued the same fervent desire and diligence to serve God, as if he had but then begun to serve him. It is likewise evident from the saying of the Wise Man, “When a man shall have finished his task, then he shall begin anew” (Ecclesiasticus 18:6); the more the true servants of God advance and approach to their end, which is perfection, the more they increase in fervour and redouble their activity. For as St. Gregory says, “Men who are digging for a great treasure, the deeper they dig the more earnestly and diligently they go on still in their work; for hoping they are not far from what they looked for, they imagine that a tittle more pains will bring them to it; and by these hopes they encourage themselves to work afresh, without being tired. In like manner those who truly take to heart the great affair of their salvation, the farther they are advanced in the way of perfection, and the nearer they approach, they are still the more pressing to arrive at it. There is but a little earth that hides your treasure from you, dig a little farther and you will discover it, take courage, make haste (Greg. 1. v. Mor. c. 3), and labour so much the harder, as you see the day nearer to approach (Hebrews 10:25), as the apostle counsels the Hebrews; as if he would say, that the nearer we draw towards our end, the harder we ought tolabour. When a stone falls down from above, the nearer it draws towards its centre, the quicker it moves, till it reaches it: so when a man walks diligently in the way of God and proposes no other end to himself, than to please him alone, the more he advances in perfection, and the nearer he approaches to him, who is his centre, and his last end, the more he hastens and labours to arrive thither. ‘Those who live thus, says St. Basil, are perfectly such as the apostle would have them be; “Perpetually careful, most fervent in spirit, knowing that it is God whom they serve.” (Romans 12:11) There are certain religious who have a great deal of fervour in the beginning, during the first year of their probation; but as soon as that is over, they begin to relent, and rather become tepid and negligent, than zealous and fervent. For those who are truly zealous, will never grow remiss in their devotion, but will always keep up the same fervour for their religious duties; and instead of being tired in God’s service, they desire nothing so much, as to serve him still better and better, according to those words of the royal prophet: “He who fears the’ Lord, will have great delight in his commandments.” (Psal. cxi. 1.)

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