Volume I, Treatise VIII, Chapter XIV

Of the Indifference a Religious Is to Have for All Charges and Functions Wherein Obedience Employs Him

THE indifference and resignation we here speak of must extend itself also to all those offices to which it shall please obedience to attach us. It is easy to know their number and functions. Let every person take a view of them in his mind, one after another, till he feels an equal inclination to them all. As to such offices as are more humble and contemptible, and to which, consequently, there is greater repugnance; our constitution will have us apply ourselves to such with all promptitude and readiness, when obedience calls. There is never more need of resignation, than in these sort of employs; because our natural pride gives us an aversion to them, and so there is more virtue and perfection in readily subjecting ourselves to them for the love of God, than in desiring such offices as are of greater note, and more honourable. If a person should bind himself to any great lord for all his life, to be willing to serve him in the lowest and basest offices of his family, if there were need; he would show doubtless in this, a greater zeal and affection for his service, than if he would only engage himself in the more honourable employs, which carry along with them in some manner their recompense. And the more talents he would have for those higher posts, the more affection would he show in employing himself in these servile occupations. It is the very same in religion. If you offer yourself to serve God only in the quality of a preacher or master of divinity, you would not do any great thing, nor would you testify any great zeal and fervour for his service; since these employs carry a sufficient recommendation to be desired for sake of themselves. But supposing you offer yourself for your whole life to his service, in the lowest and vilest ministries and charges which are most opposite to the pride of our nature, and most repugnant to our feelings; then it is you give a signal token of the zeal you have for his service. And the greater your talents are for high and sublime offices, the greater and more acceptable is this proof of your love. This very one thing might suffice to oblige us always to desire those charges which are more mean and subject; since in the house of God there are no offices of that nature. It is ordinarily said, that there are no mean persons about a king; because, in what quality soever they serve him, there is some honour annexed. How much greater, then, is it to serve God in any manner whatsoever, “since to serve him is to reign with him?”.

St. Basil, endeavouring to excite us to love servile and humble offices, adduces the example of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who exercised himself not once only in washing the feet of his apostles, but throughout his whole life, in obeying his blessed mother and St. Joseph in all things they enjoined him. For although the holy Scripture mentions nothing concerning him from the age of twelve years to thirty, only that ‘‘ he was subjected to them” (Luke 2:51),— it is nevertheless inferred thence, and from their extreme poverty, that he doubtless submitted himself to divers servile employs. “Let not, then, ‘a Christian,” says St. Austin, “think it beneath him, to do what Jesus Christ himself has done before him.” Since the Son of God disdained not for the love of us to exercise himself in the most humble and abject offices; let us not look upon it below us, to exercise ourselves in the same for his love, although it were for the durance of life.

_ But to come yet nearer to our object, I say, one of the chief

motives which should oblige us to embrace most willingly what is imposed upon us by obedience, is, that we rest assured, this employ is absolutely that which God exacts at the present of us. For as we said before, it ought to bea subject of great joy and comfort to us in allour occupations prescribed by obedience, to rest convinced that it is the will of God we then perform. Nothing affords our soul more content than this thought; God will have me at present do this, it is his holy will; we must not entertain any farther doubt, and must desire nothing more, since nothing can be better than the performing his divine will. Those who view objects in this manner are not at all solicitous when they are commanded one thing rather than another, or whether they are designed for any mean employ, or one of more note, since both are alike acceptable to them.

St. Jerom relates an example very applicable to our purpose. He says, that visiting upon an occasion the religious of the desert, he saw one, who, by the superior’s order, bore upon his shoulders twice a day a great stone for the space of a league, for no other end, than that his superior, who had another design in the thing, would teach him and others, by his example, to obey with submission, and to mortify their own own judgment. He - had at that time spent eight years in this practice. And to those, says this same saint, who knew not the price and merit of obedience, and whose pride and self-conceit hindered them from attaining the purity and simplicity of this virtue, it seemed but a childish business. Many asked him how he could bear this subjection; and even I myself, desirous to know what were his thoughts and sentiments during the time of this employ, proposed some questions to him concerning it. He answered me, that when he had finished his labour, he felt such joy and satisfaction in himself, as if he had performed the most important and honourable thing that could be enjoined him. And this answer made such an impression upon me, that from thenceforth I began to live as a true religious person ought. In fine, it is the part of a good and true religious to embrace things which appear most despicable in the exterior, and to imagine that in performing them we perform the will of God. And those who have this esteem of whatever obedience assigns them make great progress in virtue; because they nourish themselves with what is more pure. The performance of the divine will, which they make their daily food, is that “fat of corn, wherewith they are satiated.” (Psalms 147:14)

But some one will say, that to do the will of God in all things is indeed a great perfection; and in reality, I am always ready to do it in whatever office is assigned me; however, I could wish to do it in an honourable office. This is to err in the very principles themselves; because at the bottom it is nothing else than to desire that God should do your will, and not that you should accommodate yourself to his. It is not for you to prescribe conditions to God, and to desire him to grant you what you judge most agreeable; you must receive with blind obedience those he shall please to impose upon you, and conform yourself entirely to all he requires of you. “He, O Lord!” says St. Austin, “serves you as he ought, who desires not that you enjoin him what he pleases; but who makes it his business to desire, and accommodate himself to what you enjoin.” And the holy abbot Nilus, writing upon prayer: “Do not pray,” says he, “that what you desire may be done; but rather pray as you are taught to pray, that the will of God be accomplished in you.”

Let us reflect upon this—it is a very profitable point, and may be applied to any affliction whatever that befalls us. It is not for us, it is for God only to choose how and what we ought to suffer. Nor is it for you to choose what kind of temptation you would have; nor to say, I could have borne it with ease had it been any other; but for this, I am in no wise able to support it. The pains we suffer would not be pains, if they were such as depended upon our choice; and if you desire entirely to please God, you ought to entreat him, that he would guide and govern you as he pleases, and not as you please. If he assigns you what is most repugnant, and what you have the greatest difficulty to undergo; and nevertheless, you receive it, and support it with a perfect resignation; it is then you show your- ‘self a true imitator of Jesus Christ, who desired not that his own will, but the will of his Eternal Father, might be done. We cannot say we have a real conformity to God’s will, unless we commit ourselves totally into his hands, that he may dispose of us as he shall think fit, when and how he shall think fit, without any the last opposition or reserve on our part.

Blosius relates that St. Gertrude, being once in prayer for one who bore with great impatience the sufferings and temptations it pleased God to send her; our Lord said to her, Go and tell the person you pray for, that since the kingdom of heaven is not to be purchased but by sufferings, and those which I have sent her are not to her liking, she may choose such as are more to her desire. The holy virgin understood clearly by these words, and by the manner wherewith our Saviour uttered them, that it is a dangerous sort of impatience to wish to have sufferings of our own choice, and to say we cannot bear those sent from God, and that they are not conducive to our good. For all must be convinced, that what comes from God is precisely what is most for our advantage; and so we are to receive it with patience, by absolutely conforming ourselves to the divine will. To apply this more particularly to our present subject, as it is not for us to choose what pains and temptations we ought to suffer, but must receive, as from the hands of God, whatsoever he designs us; and be assured, at the same time, what he assigns us is for our greatter good: so, in like manner, it is not for us to make choice of what charge or office we would undertake; but we must accept, as from the hands of God, the charge assigned us by obedience, and be thoroughly convinced it is that in reality which is most useful and profitable to us.

We may add here another point, which appertains to very great perfection. It is to resign ourselves to the will of God, with such confidence as not to have the least curiosity to know what it shall please him to do with us. As it is the greatest sign of confidence a master can put in his servant, to rely so far upon him, as to deliver up to him the charge of all he has, without taking account of anything himself—“See,” says Joseph, “my prince has intrusted all he has so in my care, that he knows not what he has himself” (Genesis 39:8): so it isa proof of a great confidence in God, not to be desirous of knowing in what manner he designs to dispose of us. I am in good hands, and that is sufficient: “My destiny, O Lord, is in your hands.” (Psalms 30:16) With this I live in peace and security, nor do I desire to Know more.

As to the persons who are ambitious of posts and employs more honourable than those they are in, imagining they could do God greater service, and the neighbour greater good; they deceive themselves mightily, in believing these desires take rise from the zeal they have of God’s glory, and of the neighbour’s salvation. No! but these sentiments spring from their ambition, from their desire of being esteemed and honoured, from the love of their own convenience, and because the employ they seek after is either of great dignity, or more conformable to their own inclinations than that they at present are in. Were you in the world and independent of others, you would be at liberty to change one thing for another, in regard of its greater conveniency and good, because you could not do both. But it is not so in religion. We cannot leave one thing to undertake another; both must be performed. Every one must do his part, and if you occupy the higher office, another must take upon him the lower. But were you truly humble, you would endeavour to have others charged with the higher duties; because you would believe that they would perform them better than you could; and there would be less danger of your being carried away by sentiments of pride, and thoughts of vainglory.

In order to point out to us the grounds of election, in such matters as depend on our choice, St. Ignatius has left us profitable doctrine, quite applicable to the subject we treat of, and to several others of the like nature. He says, there are three degrees of humility; the most perfect of which is always, when offered two occasions of equally serving God, to choose that wherein we judge there is more abnegation of ourselves, and more subject. of contempt; the better to imitate Jesus Christ, who, for the love of us, would subject himself to the scorn and contempt of men. Another advantage we may yet draw hence is, that in these lowly functions there is less self-interest found than in the others; and so we have fewer occasions of seeking ourselves, and are less exposed to temptations of vainglory. In these lower offices we exercise, at one and the same time, the virtues of charity and humility; and particularly of humility, since it is by these things humility is preserved. But in higher and more important charges we only practise charity, with some risk of our humility; and this should suffice, not only to hinder us from aspiring to higher things, but should also make us dread them.

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