Volume II, Treatise VI, Chapter IV

Of the Causes and Remedies of Sadness

Let us now go to the root of the evil, and see what are the causes of sadness, that we may know its remedies, and how to apply them. Cassian and St. Bonaventure say, that sadness may arise from different causes. Sometimes it proceeds from our constitution, and from the circumstances of melancholy being the prevalent humour in our body; and that it is a disease that stands more in need of physicians than directors. However, we are to take notice, that this humour is nourished and augmented by those disquiet thoughts, in which we indulge; and that it is so very dangerous to let ourselves be carried away with these imaginations, that Cassian says, we ought with as much care to cast them from us, as we would cast off those against faith and purity. Sometimes we cannot precisely say, from whence this sadness proceeds. For it frequently happens, that without any occasion we fall on a sudden into such profound melancholy, that we take no pleasure in anything; that everything displeases us; that we avoid all company, even of our best friends, so that they can scarce get a word from us; and that even what we say, is full of coldness and peevishness. This shews, says Cassian, that our impatience and hastiness, do not always proceed from any subject given us by our brethren, but from a bad disposition within ourselves; and because we do not sufficiently curb our passions: so that the remedy we are to apply to this distemper, is not to withdraw ourselves from the conversation of others, but to mortify our passions. For without that, what place soever we should go to, or in what desert soever we should hide ourselves, we shall carry along with us the cause of our disquiet and impatience.

It is mentioned in the life of St. Enthimus the abbot, that one of his religious, whose hasty and choleric humour, was become insupportable to all the rest; resolved to quit the monastery, and to retire into the desert; imagining, that when he had no occasion to dispute with any body, but was alone, he should have no cause to be angry, but should live in peace. He executed his design, shut himself up in a cell; and had scarce entered into it, but a pitcher of water he had brought with him, happened to be thrown down: he goes and fills it again, and had no sooner set it upon the ground

but it was spilled again: he returns the second time to fill it, takes care also, how he sets it down, and yet the third time it was again spilled. Whereupon falling into a violent passion, he casts it against the ground, and breaks it into a thousand pieces. Afterwards coming to himself, he reflected on the great passion he had fallen into; and perceiving hereby that he ought not to ‘cast the cause of his passion and anger upon his brethren, but that he ought to attribute it to the little care he took to repress it, he returned presently to his monastery. You see, then, that if you have motions of anger and hastiness, you ought not to think they proceed from your neighbour, but from yourself. Mortify your passions, says Cassian, and by this means you will not only live in peace with your brethren, but according to these words of Scripture, even ‘beasts themselves will become tame, and live in peace with you.” (Job 5:23)

Sadness, says St. Bonaventure, does also sometimes proceed either from some cross or affliction that happens to us, or from our not having attained an object we earnestly sought after. St. Gregory and St. Austin are of the same opinion; and say, that sadness in worldly people, proceeds from their too great attachment to the things of the world; for it is certain, that he who loves anything, cannot be deprived of it without some pain or regret; whereas no occurrence can afflict him who is detached from all things, and who has God only for the object of his desires and comfort. There is no doubt, says Father Avila, that our desires cause disquiet and trouble in us; and that the more vehement they are, the more violent our disquiet is; and the less our desires are, the less also is our disquiet; so that when we have brought ourselves to desire nothing we then enjoy a perfect repose of mind. Lastly, we may truly say that our desires are our executioners, and keep us continually upon the rack, and are the cause of all our sufferings.

But to pass from things in general to a particular application; I say, that often that which causes trouble and sadness to a religious person, is because he has not a submission and indifferency for all things that obedience may enjoin him. He is in pain lest he be taken from a place where he finds himself comfortable; from an office which pleases him, and be assigned another to which he feels arepugnance. Behold what makes him melancholy and discontented:—“It is,” says St. Gregory, “because he desires what he has not; or fears to lose what he has; and this fear and hope continually agitate him, according to the state in which he seems to find himself happy or unhappy. He is ever unsteady, and feels within himself the different changes that happen in the things to which he is attached. But it is quite different with a religious who keeps himself always in an equal temper and disposition of mind, who is ready to embrace whatsoever obedience may enjoin, and who places his entire contentment in God; such a man is replenished with joy so perfect that nothing can trouble it. Superiors may take him out of the place and employment he is in, but they cannot deprive him of that satisfaction he enjoyed in it, because his satisfaction was tied neither to the place nor to the employment he was in, but only to the accomplishment of God’s will concerning him, and therefore wheresoever he is employed he is always equally satisfied. Wherefore if you desire always to be so, place always your contentment in the will of God, and permit it not to have any tie to any determinate thing, nor to follow its own inclination; for this is not the way to gain content, but a means never to compass it, and to have a thousand disgusts and discontents instead of it.

Lastly, to dive yet more deeply into this matter, it is ordinarily speaking, rather pride than melancholy that renders us sad; wherefore, so long as pride shall reign in you, assure yourself you shall never be. without discontent; for you will never want occasions of having it, and therefore you will never enjoy any quiet or sweetness

of repose. What I just now said of the effect of submission to whatsoever obedience shall require of us, may have place in what I am.about to say here; for very often, when we are afraid of certain employments, it is not the difficulty that accompanies them that makes us fear them, because those who seek after have ordinarily far greater: but it is pride, it is self-love, it is envy, whereby we would attract consideration or esteem to ourselves, which urges us to desire the one, and to avoid the other. Behold here the reason, why the more easy employments, seem to us so difficult, and painful; behold here what renders us discontented in the exercise of them; and what makes even the bare idea and apprehension of such an employment, alarm and afflict us, as it does.

The remedy of this sort of sadness, is to become humble, and to love the meanest employments. ‘“Learn of me,” says Jesus Christ, ‘““who am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls.”—(Mat. xi. 29.) If we imitate the humility of our Saviour, says St. Austin, upon these words, we shall be so far from feeling pain and difficulty in the practice of virtue, that we shall find it easy and delightfal; for what renders it hard, is the tie we have to our will and our own judgment; it is vanity, it is pride, it is love of ourselves and of our pleasures and ease. But humility easily surmounts all these obstacles, because it makes us have little or no esteem for ourselves; it makes us renounce our own will, contemn all the goods, pleasures, and vanities of the world; and this once gained, the practice of virtue is no longer difficult, but on the contrary is filled with all sweetness and satisfaction.

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project