Volume II, Treatise III, Chapter IV

That They Whose Profession It Is to Labour for the Salvation of Others, Have Particular Need of Humility,

“THE greater you are,” says the wise man, “the more ought you to humble yourself in all things, and you will find grace in the eyes of God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:20) Great, doubtless, is the dignity annexed to the profession we have of labouring for the salvation of souls. We may truly say, that God has therein called us to a very eminent employment. For we are ordained to exercise in the church the same functions our Saviour assigned the apostles, which are, preach ing the Gospel, administering the sacraments, and distributing his precious body and blood; so that we can say with St. Paul, “that he has given us a ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18), for so the apostle calls the preaching of the Gospel, and administration of the sacraments whereby the grace of salvation is communicated. ‘‘ He has given to us,” says he, “the ministry of reconciliation; we therefore speak as ambassadors of Christ, and as though God did exhort you by us.” Itis by us, it is by those tongues of flesh which he has given us, he is pleased to speak to souls, and to touch men’s hearts; and hence we have far more need of humility than others, and that for two principal reasons. The first is, that the more sublime our vocation and employment are, the more are we exposed to the attacks of pride and vanity. The highest mountain is most exposed to the storm. The sublimity of our functions makes us be respected and honoured by every one—it makes us be looked upon as saints and new apostles, and even as persons who sanctify those that approach them. Now, there must be a very deep foundation of humility to hinder so lofty an edifice from tumbling down; there must be a great stock, and solidity of virtue, to keep one from falling under so weighty a charge, as it is very hard without being proud to see one’s self universally honoured. There are but few who can look down from a very high place without getting a dizziness, and how many, through want of humility, have fallen from the height whereon they were stationed! How many, also, have been seen to soar aloft, like the eagle, on the wings of virtue, and to become afterwards no better than night birds by reason of their pride? That solitary, who is spoken of in the “Lives of the Saints,” Pocomus and Palemon, who walked upon glowing coals without burning himself, wrought, without doubt, many miracles; but he happened unfortunately to grow proud thereupon, and to despise others so much, that looking upon himself as infinitely above them, he said to them—“He indeed is holy who walks on fire without burning himself, which of you could do that?” For this vanity St. Palemon reproved him very severely, but without effect; for the unhappy man, a little while after, fell into debauchery, and met a very deplorable end. Sacred history abounds in similar examples.

We have therefore particular need of the foundation of humility, for without it, we run the hazard of falling into pride, and into the greatest of all, which is spiritual pride. St. Bonaventure illustrates this doctrine still more when he says, that there are two sorts of pride; the carnal, which. arises from temporal things, and the spiritual, which proceeds from spiritual things, and that the latter is much greater, and more criminal than the former. The reason he gives for it is clear; it is, he says, because tho proud man is properly a robber, for he takes away what is another’s, against the will of him to whom it belongs; he takes away the glory which belongs only to God, which God has particularly reserved to himself, and which he declares by the prophet Isaias, “he will not give unto another.”—(Isa. xlii. 8.) He, I say, takes this away, as much as depends on him, and appropriates it to himself, as his own. Now he who is proud of the goods of nature, as of his strong constitution, his birth, brilliancy of wit, knowledge, and all other like qualities, does without doubt commit robbery; because all these things belong to God; but since these things are of but little value, and are, as it were, useless and cast-off furniture, his crime is so much the less. But he who prides himself in the spiritual gifts which God has bestowed on him, and in the fruit, which through his means, God produces in souls; he, I say, is a great criminal, and robs God of his glory; he is a notorious robber, who takes away the most precious treasures of the house of God, and which God has purchased at the price of his blood and life. St. Francis was so much afraid of falling into this sort of pride, that he addressed himself often to God in this manner—O Lord, if thou art pleased to bestow thy gifts upon me, be thou the guardian thereof thyself, for I have a diffidence in myself, and I am a great robber, who may perhaps prove bankrupt to thee. Let us manifest a similar fear; we have much more reason to do so, than this great saint, because we are not so humble as he; and let us beware of falling into so dangerous a pride. God. has put his treasures into our hands, as things committed to our trust and charge; let us not become bankrupts; let us not retain any part of them, so as to appropriate iv to ourselves, but let us faithfully restore whatever belongs to him.

It was not without a great mystery, that the Saviour of the world, when he appeared to his disciples on the day of his ascension, reproached them first with their incredulity and hardness of heart, and commanded them afterwards to go and preach the gospel all over the earth, and gave them power to work miracles. He gave us to understand thereby; that he who is to be raised to great employments of grace, ought first humble and abase himself, from the sense he has of his own weakness and misery, in order that though he should afterwards work miracles, and soar to heaven, he may still remain impressed with the sense of his own meanness and nothingness, without attributing to himself any thing but his own unworthiness. Theodoret observes to this purpose, that it was for the same reason, that when God was pleased to choose Moses, to be the leader and conductor of his people, and to work so many miracles by him, he commanded him first to put his hand into his bosom, and was pleased that he should draw it out all covered with leprosy—even that very hand which was to divide the waters of the Red Sea, and perform afterwards so many other miracles.

The second reason why we have more need of humility than others, is, that we may thereby render our ministry more useful for the salvation of souls; so that it is not only necessary for our own perfection, and to hinder pride and vanity from destroying us; but also to win our neighbour more easily to God, and to make greater progress in the conversion of souls. Now, one of the means most conducive to this, is humility; that we may know how to have a

. diffidence in ourselves, and that instead of laying any stress upon our own strength, ability, and prudence, we may place all our confidence in God, according to the words of the wise man; “trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) The reason of this is, as I shall hereafter show more at large, that, by diffidence in ourselves, we place all our confidence in God alone, and we lay all upon him; so that he is obliged more particularly to help us. The conversion of souls, O Lord, is thy work, and not ours; put thy hand therefore unto it, since we can do nothing of ourselves. This is what we ought to say to Almighty God, if we would have him bless our endeavours; but when we trust to such means as our own reason furnishes us with, we then give ourselves a share therein; and we cannot attribute any thing to ourselves, without taking it from God. It is with this, as with the two scales of a balance, when one rises the other sinks; whatever we attribute to ourselves, we take from God, and thereby we rob him of the glory and honour of which he is the true owner; and who knows but this may be often the cause of our reaping so little fruit in the conversion of souls?

We read in the life of St. Ignatius, that being at Rome, and knowing little of the Italian language, he profited so much in gaining souls by the Christian exhortations which he made ina plain and homely way, that often when the exhortation was ended, the auditors went to throw themselves down at their confessors’ feet; and their hearts were so touched with sorrow—such were their sighs and groans, that they could scarce utter a word. The reason was, that he founded all the strength of his discourse, “not on the persuasive words of human wisdom, but on demonstration of the spirit, and of the power of the Holy Ghost.” (1 Corinthians 2:4) Now as he had a diffidence in himself, and put all his confidence in God, God also gave so great power and virtue to what he said, that all his words seemed as so many burning arrows, wherewith he pierced the hearts of his hearers. And the reason why we convert so few souls, is, perhaps, because we think too much of our talents—because we rely too much on human means; on the strength of our reasoning—on our elegance of style, and our flowery discourse, and because, in consequence, we yield to self-complacency.

Well! says the Almighty God, I will so order it, that you shall believe you have said the best things in the world, and the best adapted to your purpose, but when you shall find most satisfaction in yourselves, and think you have succeeded most, then shall it be that you shall have least success, and that the words of the ® prophet

“VOL, I.

Osee shall be verified in you—“Give them, O Lord; what wilt thou give?” “Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.”“ (Osee 9:14) That same name of Father, which is given you, when you are called father-preacher, will be to yourself a vain and useless name; for you shall have no spiritual children, you shall have no milk to give them; at least the milk which you shall give them shall not nourish them. This is the chastisement which he deserves, who usurps what belongs only to God, and appropriates it to himself. I do not say, however, that you should not study, and weigh exactly all that you are to preach; but that is not enough—you must also carefully recommend it to God with tears, and after you have laboured and taken a great deal of pains to examine and digest it, you must still say: “We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was but our duty to do.”—({Luke xvii, 20.) And after all, what is it that I can do? I can make a little noise with my words at most, like that of a musket charged only with powder; but it belongs to thee, O Lord, to touch the heart. ‘<The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, he turned it wheresoever he listeth;’ (Proverbs 21:1), it is thy part alone, O Lord, to touch hearts; for how are we able to succeed therein of ourselves; and without thy grace of what effect can all discourses be, and all the human means we use, to attain so supernatural an end, as is the conversion of souls? When therefore we think that we promote the good of souls, and are successful, on what do we then ground that vain complacency which we give way to, as if that success were our own work? ‘Shall the axe,” says our Lord by the prophet Isaias, “boast itself against him that heweth therewith, or shall the saw magnify itself against him that draweth it? As if the rod should shake against him that lifts it up, or as if the staff should take pride and exalt itself, which is but a piece of wood.”—(Isa. x. 15.) This is a representation of what we are, as to the conversion of souls. We are but pieces of wood, who have no motion in ourselves, but what it pleases God to give us. We have no reason, therefore, to pride ourselves on anything; and it is to him ‘alone that we ought to attribute the success of what we do.

He is so jealous, lest we should lay any stress on our own strength, or upon human helps, and will have us so absolutely give him the glory of everything, that it was for that reason, he was pleased to choose for the preaching of the gospel and conversion of the world, not learned and eloquent men, but simple fishermen, and those who were uncouth andignorant. ‘God had chosen,” says St. Paul, “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the strong.” Would you know why he has done so? “It is,” adds the apostle, “that no flesh should glory in his presence, but that according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:27,28) If the preachers of the gospel had been powerful princes, and had planted it all over the earth with an armed force, the conversion of the world might have been attributed to the terror of their arms, Or if, for that purpose, God had chosen great orators, who by their profound knowledge, and great eloquence, would convince the philosophers, the success might have been attributed to the force of their rhetoric and learning, and the glory of Jesus had been thereby so much diminished; but he has done otherwise, and would not suffer, that “the wisdom and eloquence of man should share in preaching the gospel, lest the cross of Christ should thereby be made of no effect.” (1 Corinthians 1:17) St. Austin says, “that the Saviour of our souls, with a view to put down the pride of the haughty, employed not orators to draw sinners to him, but by the means of a simple fisherman he gained even emperors.” Cyprian, he adds, “was a great orator, but before him, Peter had been a fisherman, and it was by the means of that fisherman, that not only orators but emperors also submitted to the faith.” —(Tract. xi. sup. Joan.)

The holy scripture is full of examples by which we see that God made use of weak instruments for the execution of the greatest things, that he might the better imprint this truth in our hearts, that we ought never glorify ourselves in anything, but attribute the glory of all to God alone. This we learn from the famous victory which Judith, a weak woman, and all alone, gained over an army of above forty thousand men. And we are taught this by the victory David gained over Goliah, when very young, and with no other arms than his sling, he laid him on the ground with one blow, and triumphed over the Philistines, “that all the earth should know,” says the scripture, “that there is one God who takes care of Israel, and that all this assembly should find that it is not by the sword or the spear that the Lord gives victory in battles, but that it proceeds from him alone.”—(1 Reg. xvii. 46, 47.) Those are the words God said to Gedeon, who had brought together two and thirty thousand men against the Madianites, whose army consisted of above an hundred and thirty thousand. He expresses further the same thing“You have,” says God, “too many men with you to make me deliver the Madianites into your hands.”— (Judg. vii. 2.) Let us reflect a little with admiration upon the reason which God assigns. You shall not conquer, becanse you have too many men with you. If he had said you willnot be able to conquer, because they have a great number of men, and you but few, that, one would think, had been more conformable to reason. But no! this would be to reason like man; whereas to reason like God, is to say, you will not be able to conquer, because you are too numerous. And why so? “Lest,” continues the Lord, “Israel should glorify itself therein, and say that it was delivered by its own strength.”—(Judg. v. 2.) Wherefore God commands Gedeon to take only three hundred men with him, and to fight the enemy, and gives him a signal victory, without putting him to the necessity of even drawing a sword. The sound of the trumpets which they carried in one hand, and the clashing of the water-pots, and the light of the torches which they carried in the other, were the means used by God to render the enemy so panic-struck, that breaking their own ranks, they defeated themselves, and killed one the other in great numbers. Now the Israelites could not say that they overcame by their own strength; and that was all the acknowledgment that God designed to bring them to. If then in temporal things, wherein there is some proportion between the means we use, and the end we propose to ourselves, between the forces we have and the victory, God will not have us give the glory of anything to ourselves, but acknowledge that the gaining of battles, and the good success of affairs proceed from him. If in the order of natural things, neither he who plants, nor he who waters, is properly anything; if it is not the gardener but God alone that makes the plants grow, and the trees bear fruit, what must it be in the order of grace, in the conversion of souls, in the progress of virtue, and in all other spiritual affairs, where human strength is so bounded, and our means so limited, that they bear no proportion to so sublime anend? ‘Wherefore, neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but God that gives the increase.“ (1 Corinthians 3:7) He alone by his grace makes the plants we cultivate increase and fructify; he alone can strike men with fear and terror; he alone can make them detest sin, and quit their wicked ways. For as for us, what can we do but make a little sound with the trumpet of the Gospel? Nevertheless, if we do at the same time keep down our body by mortification, and make our light shine before men by an exemplary life, we shall da a great deal, for by that.means God will give us the victory.

- Let us draw from. all this two maxims, which will be of great. comfort to us in the exercise of our ministry, and which will serve very much to render it useful both for our own particular advancement, and that of ‘our neighbours also. The first is, to have a diffidence in ourselves, as has been already said; to put all.our confidence in God, and to attribute all our good success to him alone. ‘Let us not be elated with anything,” says St. Chrysostom, ‘but let us acknowledge ourselves to be useless, that we may prove useful both to ourselves and others” (Hom. xxxvili. ad pop. Antioch).; and St. Ambrose admonishes us, if we will advance the good of souls to practice what St. Peter teaches—“If any man speaks, let him speak as the words of God; if any man minister, let it be as from the power, that God administereth, that God may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom appertains praise and dominion for ever and ever.” (1 Peter 4:11) Let us attribute nothing to ourselves, let us rob God of nothing, and let us not have any vain complacency in anything whatsoever.

The second maxim, which we ought to draw from what has been said, and which is very necessary for us, is, “not to be discouraged on account of our own weakness and misery.” For who is it, that. seeing himself called to a charge so high, and an end so sublime, as is that of converting souls, of delivering them from the bondage. of sin, and from the darkness of heresy and infidelity—who is it, I. say, that considering these things, and reflecting upon himself, would. not lose courage when he is sensible of the disproportion between his own strength and so great an undertaking? He may say perhaps, this concerns not me, I have more need to be converted than. any one; I am very sensible of my own weakness, and I am the Icast and most incapable of all; but he is mistaken when he reasons thus; it is even by reason of his weakness that God designs him. for so great.a work. Moses could not be persuaded, that he was’ the person who should perform so marvellous an action, as to deliver the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, so that. excusing himself to Almighty God, who gave him that commission,, ‘“who am J,” says he, “that I should go unto Pharao, and that L should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 1 beseeck of thee, O Lord, send whom thou wilt send; I am slow of speech, and a slow tongue.” Listen now to what God says: “Go, I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”—-(Exodus 4:12)

The same thing happened to the prophet Jeremias. God sent him to prophecy to the nations; whereupon he excused himself, ‘and said: “Ah, Lord, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child!“ (Jeremias 1:6) And it is for that very reason that thou must go0, and it is such a one that God seeks; whereas if thou hadst great parts, he would not perhaps have chosen thee, lest thou shouldst rob him of the glory of what thou doest, and attribute it partly to thyself. God seeks out the humble, who cannot attribute any thing to themselves, and it is by them he accomplishes the greatest objects.

The holy scripture tells us, that when the disciples were returned from their mission, the Saviour of souls seeing the fruit they had reaped, and the miracles they had wrought, rejoiced and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto little ones: Yea, father, for so it hath pleased thee.”—(Mat. xi, 25.) Happy the simple, happy the humble, and happy they who do not attribute any thing to themselves. They are those whom God raises; it is by them that he performs the wonders of his grace; those he chooses for instruments of the greatest things, to work great conversions, and to promote exceedingly the good of souls. Let nobody, therefore, lose courage: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom of heaven.” (Luke 12:832) And you who compose the Society of Jesus, who are at present the weakest and the least numerous of all, be not discouraged on that account; for it has pleased your heavenly father to give you power over the souls and hearts of men. “T will be favourable to you at Rome,” (In ejus vita. 1. 2. ¢. xi.) said Jesus Christ, when he appeared to our holy founder as he was going thither, and from which miraculous apparition our order, which was then forming, took afterwards the name of the Society of Jesus. This name shews us, that it is not only to the order of St. Ignatius we are called, but even to the Society of Jesus, and it assures us at the same time of the protection which he promised to our founder. So that since it is Jesus Christ who is properly our head and leader, we must not be weary nor lose courage in so great an enterprise, as that of the salvation of souls, to which it has pleased God to call us.

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project