Volume II, Treatise I, Chapter XVIII

That It Ts Always Necessary to Exercise Ourselves in Mortification; How Advanced Soever We be in Virtue

St. BERNARD says, that in the exercise of mortification, we must always carry the hook in our hands; and that there is no person, how mortified soever, who stands not in need of pruning or retrenching something or other. ‘ Believe me,” says he, “that which is cut, sprouts out anew; that which is cast away, returns; that which is extinct, takes fire again; and that which appears asleep, awakes upon a sudden. It is not sufficient therefore,” adds the saint, “‘to have pruned it once, we must cut it often, and even daily if possible; for if you will not deceive yourself, you will always find something to cut, and to retrench within yourself.”——(Ser. lviii. sup. Cant.) The hedges which we see in certain gardens furnish us with a very fit comparison for this’ subject. The myrrh and the box are cut with so much art, that here they represent the figure of a lion, there that of an eagle, and also a variety of other figures. But if the gardener be not very careful to cut off the leaves and little branches, which shoot out every moment, in a very short time, we shall not see the form of an eagle, nor of a lion, nor of any thing else; because nature continually, according to its custom, shoots forth new wood and leaves. The same happens here; though you should be a lion or an eagle; though you seem to yourself so strong, as to fear nothing; nevertheless, if you do not daily cut and retrench something by mortification, you will soon become like a monster without shape; because the root of the evil, which is within us, shoots forth new branches every moment; so that there is always something to be mortified within us. “What progress soever you may have made in virtue,” says St. Bernard, “you deceive yourself, if you believe you have entirely destroyed all vices within you; for you have only brought them under, and whether you will or not, the Jebusite will always remain with you. Jt is an enemy you may overcome, but you will never be able to exterminate.” “I know,” says St. Paul, “that there is nothing good within me, that is to say within my flesh.”— (Romans 7:17) And the same saint discoursing upon these words, says, that the apostle had said very little, if he had not presently added, that sin made its abode in him; saying, “I do not the good which I would do, but execute the evil I would not. But if I do what I would not, then it is not I that do it, but it is sin that dwells within me.” “Wherefore, hereafter,” adds. the saint, “you must either prefer yourself to the apostle, or acknowledge with him, that you are not exempt from vice.”—(Ser. Iviii. sup. Cant.)

St. Ephraim is of the same opinion, when he says, that “the war which soldiers make is short, but that which a religious man is obliged to, lasts all his life.” It is a greater labour to mortify our passions and sensual appetites, than to cut or polish the hardest stone. For, besides that the stone of itself makes no actual resistance to the cutter, it is certain, that when it is once polished, it becomes not rough again or uneven, as it was before. But what opposition do we not find in overcoming our passions? And when we have once got the mastery over them, do they not again rebel every moment against us, and continually re-assume new strength? We must, therefore, always endeavour anew, without any relaxation, to overcome them. St. Jerom, writing upon these words of the prophet, “Sing a hymn to our Lord upon the harp,” (Psal. xcvii. 5), says, that as we cannot play any agreeable air upon a harp, if all the strings be not in tune; and that one of them being broken or slackened, causes discord in all the rest; so one irregular passion is sufficient to discompose the harmony of our soul, and hinder it from wafting any pleasing music to God’s ears. When all our passions are equally subdued, it is then that “we sing his praises upon an instrument of music of ten strings;” (Psal. xxxii. 2); but.to be able to subdue them in this manner, it is absolutely necessary -we should continually exercise ourselves in mortification.

It was for this reason, that the ancient fathers continually tried. those, who were already advanced in perfection, by all sorts of mortifications and contempts. Because they who seemed to have

-entirely gained the virtue of mortification, lost, by little and little, the spirit of docility, together with the habit they had got in suffering, when their superiors, looking upon them already as men of consummate virtue, ceased to make any farther trial of them. For as the most fertile land becomes full of weeds, and produces nothing but thorns and thistles, if we neglect to cultivate it; so let a Christian be ever so perfect, if this perfection be not cultivated by a continual exercise of penance and mortification, he will soon become like a wild and fruitless field, full of thorns and rushes; that is, full of many bad thoughts, and of a vain and dangerous confidence in himself. So that all persons stand in need of mortification, not only such as have any bad or corrupt inclinations, but even those also, who have very good ones; not only those who are still imperfect, and are newly entered into the way of virtue, but those also, who have made great progress therein; and lastly, not only those who have sinned, but those also who have preserved their baptismal innocence. Wherefore, generally speaking, all stand in need of mortification; some to acquire, others to preserve virtue. How good and sure-footed soever a horse may be, it is always good to keep a stiff rein, and to let him now and then feel the spur.

“If any one will follow me,” says our Saviour, “let him deny himself, and daily take up his cross.” (Luke 9:28) Which is as much as to say, that we ought to let no day pass, without mortifying our will in something or other. If you neglect to do this, says St. John Climacus, believe you thereby suffer a very great loss; and that you lose a day, and that it isa day in which you could not properly call yourself religious. “Friends,” said the Emperor Titus, when he had passed a day without conferring favours, “I have lost this day. a And for that day he looked upon himself, as not to have been; and esteemed it also as a day that ought not to be counted in his reign. But, without doubt, it is far more essential for a religious to mortify himself, and renounce his own will, than it is for kings and emperors to bestow their favours.- For it is the character of a religious person, to perform whatsoever he had no mind to do, and to do nothing that he has a mind to: perform.. St. Francis Borgia in this, as well as in other things, has given us an excellent example to imitate. He said, that he found everything that he eat very bitter, and disagreeable to his palate, upon the day he had not chastised his body by some penance and mortification; and added, that he would be inconsolable, if he knew he should die upon a day, in which he had not mortified his senses, nor performed some penance. He therefore, let no day pass without having mortified himself. Moreover, he begged this grace of Almighty God, that all the pleasures of this ae might become a punishment and cross unto him, and that sufferings might be to him instead of pleasure. It is in this that the third and most sublime degree of mortification does consist, and therefore he said, that till he had arrived to it, he wished much attention might not be paid to him. He watched continually to make war against his body; he daily found out means of mortifying and treating it ill; and gave the title of friend to whatsoever helped him to afflict it. When he walked in the sun in summer time, and was scorched and extremely incommoded thereby; our friend, says he, treats us as he should do. He gave the same title to cold, wind, rain, the gout and pain of the heart, to which he was very much subject. Lastly, those that persecuted him, and spoke ill of him, he also called his friends; because all these helped him to conquer and subdue his body, which he looked upon as his mortal enemy. But he was not content with these occasions of suffering and mortification, which-daily presented themselves, but he sought and found out new ways of mortifying himself. Sometimes he put gravel and pebbles into his shoes, that he might feel pain in his feet whilst he walked. He walked very slowly in summer time, in the heat of the sun, to suffer the heat so much the longer; and did the same in winter, even in the middle of the snow, to suffer more cold. By his drawing the hairs out of his temples, they were become quite bald; and when he could not give himself the discipline, he found other means of mortifying himself, either by pinching it, or inflicting some other punishment upon his body. In his sickness he sought out new pains, to add to those he suffered; for when they gave him loathsome physic, he took it at several draughts very slowly, as if it had been some pleasant soup; when he took any pills, how bitter soever they were, he always chewed them, and kept them a long time in his mouth. Thus did he apply himself to the mortification of his senses, aud the crucifying his flesh. And it was hereby, he arrived at so high a pitch of sanctity and perfection.

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project