Volume II, Treatise II, Chapter XII

That a Religious Ought to Abstain from All Kind of Bantering and Raillery

“Do not trifle away your time,” says St. Basil, in childish jests, very unbecoming one that aspires to perfection.” —(Exhort. ad. fil. spir. a xiii.) He adds, that a Christian who jests and turns things into ridicule must needs be negligent and very tepid in the service of God; since all devotion and true compunction of heart are thereby destroyed. And he particularly advises us, never to dis+ grace ourselves, who are religious, by playing the buffoon or jester. St. Bernard urges this point home, and says very well, that “jesting or raillery in a secular man’s mouth passes for what it is, but in the mouth of a priest it is akind of blasphemy. His mouth is consecrated, and ought to speak what is holy; in him it isa crime to utter a jest, but to accustom himself to them is a sacrilege:” (Lib. de consid. ad Eugen.) for it is the same as to apply what is dedicated to God and his church to profane uses. The saint still prosecutes this matter in the words of Malachy; “the lips of a priest shall be the treasury of knowledge, it is from his mouth we must learn the law of God; (Malachias 2:7) not foolish, idle jests and stories.” St. Bernard would not only have, “all scurrilous jests and drollery, which some pretenders to this art call by a softer name, and wish to have pass for innocent wit, be banished from the mouth, but from the ears also;” and bids us, if we chance to fall into company where it is practised, to behave ourselves as if we were amongst detractors, showing our dislike of it, by our looks, and endeavouring to turn the discourse, by introducing something more grave and profitable. If the very hearing of these trifles be a fault, what must it be tospeak them? “It is a shame,” says St. Bernard, to applaud these follies by laughing at them, but it is a greater shame to be guilty of them, and to move others to laughter.” - Clement of Alexandria, agrees with the saints, Basil, Bernard, and Bonaventure, in saying, that “all our words take their source from our hearts and manners; our tongue discovers both our thoughts and actions, and consequently all vain and idle discourse shows a levity of mind, and a tendency to immorality.” The gospel tells us that, “the mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart.” (Matthew 12:34) We know by the sound when a bell is cracked, or a vessel is empty; in the same manner, “we know by a man’s words how his head and heart are affected. St. Chrysostom, upon the words of the apostle, “let nothing that is bad come out of your mouth,” (Ephesians 4:29) says, “that such as your heart is, such are your words and deeds.” St. Ignatius the martyr, being asked why he pronounced the name of Jesus so often in the middle of his torments? answered, that he could not hinder himself from naming what was engraven in his heart; and opening his breast after his death, they found this sacred name of Jesus written on both sides — of his heart in golden letters. He that loves jesting and raillery has the world and its follies, not the name of Jesus, written in his heart; and hence it is, that such as pride themselves on showing their wit and exciting laughter, are so far from being spiritual men, that they deserve not the name even of religious. Father Avila is of the same opinion. Interpreting these words of St. Paul, “scurrility which is always impertinent,” (Ibid. 5:4) he says, that scurrility does not at all become either religious modesty or Christian gravity; and the author of his life tell us, that he was never guilty of it himself. Metaphrastes says, that St. Chrysostom never spoke himself, nor permitted any other in his presence to speak a scurrilous or bantering word: andthe ancient fathers were so averse from this kind of language, that St. Basil would have a religious found guilty of this fault, to be shut up in his cell and deprived of all conversation for a week together. This penance was a kind of excommunication, and made use of to this end, and that those who had committed this misdemeanour should not infect others by their bad company, but should live alone to their confusion, and be made to feel, that he deserves not to converse with religious who does not behave himself like a religious.

We read in the life of St. Hugh, abbot of Cluny, that M. Durant, archbishop of Toulouse, who had formerly been one of his monks, and who was fond of bantering and exercising his wit, was frequently told of this fault by the abbot, who assured him, that he would suffer for it in the other world. The archbishop died, and soon after appeared to a holy monk of Cluny called Seguinus, with his mouth all swelled and full of ulcers, and begged with many tears, that he would desire his abbot Hugh to pray for his deliverance from those cruel torments he was suffering in purgatory, upon account of his jests, which he had not left off before he died. As soon as Seguinus had told this vision to the abbot, he appointed seven days’ silence to seven of his religious, in order to satisfy for the archbishop’s fault. One of the seven religious broke silence, which made the archbishop appear once more to Seguinus, and complain that the disobedience of that one monk was the cause why his release from purgatory was deferred. The abbot being informed of this, and finding that one of his religious had failed in obeying his orders, commanded another to keep seven days’ silence: which being done the archbishop appeared the third time to Seguinus in - his pontifical robes, with his mouth perfectly cured, and his looks serene and cheerful; and having requested of Segninus to return his thanks to the good abbot and his religious, he disappeared.

Above all, we must have a particular care to avoid offensive jests, which though they be uttered only as witticisms, yet fail not to wound the neighbour; because under cover, they attack his temper, which is.not of the best; or his parts, which are not the most brilliant, or something else in which he is defective. This is the worst sort of bantering, and the more witty, the more injurious; because it makes the deeper impression on the minds of the hearers, and is, in consequence, longer remembered by them. There are even secular persons pleasant, facetious, and esteemed men of parts and good humour, who can be cheerful without doing prejudice to any one While they continue to.excite this innocent mirth, their company i8 courted, but if, in their bon mots, they become sharp and satirical, they are hated; and sooner or later, they will meet some one, who will retort on them, and repay them with usury. I shall not enlarge upon this subject, having sufficiently treated of it in the first volume; where I spoke of all such language as is contrary to fraternal charity.

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project