Volume III, Treatise I, Chapter XI

The Same Subject Continued

Tue zeal I speak of is a very efficacious means to produce fruit in our neighbour fur other reasons: first, because it is a fire, as I have before said; for as fire fails not to convert all things into itself when the matter is well disposed, or else disposes it when it is not, in like manner, when we shall be well inflamed with this fire, with this zeal of the love of God, we shall not fail to communicate it to others, and to convert them in some measure into ourselves, making them as much inflamed as we ourselves are, according to the words of the apostle: “1 wish all that hear me this day may become like myself” (Acts 26:29) But if we find they are not as yet sufficiently disposed, we must labour incessantly to make them so. Charity cannot be idle; it is a fire which is never in repose; it is in constant activity; “It works great effects wherever it is, and where it does not work great ones, it is certain that it is not great”—Greg., Hom. iii. in Evang.

In the second place, this zeal is very conducive to the salvation of the neighbour, because it makes us apply ourselves to it with ardour. So far from dragging us by force, which indeed would be shameful, it moves us of itself to seek all occasions of doing good. When zealous, we are always ready to embrace those that present themselves, and would always be very glad to do more than we do. Now this is without doubt a very great point of perfection; for it is certain that, when we give our mind to anything, we act quite differently, and succeed far better. Zeal being the animating principle, if we have it not, we languish, and consequently it is of great importance to be abundantly possessed of it.

In the third place, zeal makes us seek, and even makes us find, the means of helping souls; for a good will is very inventive, and succeeds admirably in finding out means to obtain what it desires. ‘‘ Wherever this good will is found”, says St. Bonaventure, “the effects necessarily follow, as far as opportunity permits”. Be not afraid that he who has an ardent zeal will ever want matter or means for the salvation of his neighbour: if he finds not an opportunity in his cell, he will go and seek it abroad; and if he finds it not where he seeks it, he will go to the hospitals and prisons, where he will not fail to find it. The zealous labourers in the vineyard of our Lord find always something to do. Hence the Holy Ghost calls them sometimes hunters, as in these words: ‘I will send them many hunters, who shall hunt them from the mountains and from all the hills, and out of the hollow places of the rocks”—Jerem., xvi. 16. He sometimes calls them fishers also: “I will make. ye fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19) It is because neither fishers nor hunters wait till the fish or the game come to put themselves into their hands; but they. cast their nets, lay their snares, and day and night make every effort to take them. The Devil labours continually for the ruin of souls; is it not, therefore, just that we should continually labour for their salvation?

In the fourth place, when we have zeal all things become easy. We surmount all difficulties, and feel no pain in anything. It seems that St. Denis would attribute to this zeal the firmness and constancy with which our Saviour supported all the pains of his passion. He says that he was assisted in this combat by the aversion he had for sin, and applies to this subject the words of the prophet Isaias: “I have trod the wine-press alone, and amongst all the gentiles there was not so much as one man with me. I have trod them under foot in my fury, I have broken them in pieces in my anger, and my indignation has assisted me” —Zs., xiii. 3, 5.

In the last ‘place, when we are thoroughly penetrated with this zeal, we become thereby far more fervent in prayer, because in this case we cease not to pray till we have obtained of God what we beg of him. It isin this manner that many saints have often interposed themselves between God and men to appease his wrath, and have not ceased their intercession till they had disarmed him. We read in the life of St. Ignatius, that knowing a young man of Paris to be carrying on sinful commerce with a woman, and having very often without success endeavoured to withdraw him from it, he at last resolved one day to go out of town, and await him in a place near which the young man must necessarily pass to go to her. This was a great pond of water; the saint went into it, up to the neck, in a very cold season, and when he saw him passing by, he began to cry out with all his strength: Go, miserable wretch; go and enjoy your unhappy courtships, whilst I will do penance to stop the wrath of God, which is ready to fall upon you! God has already his arm lifted up to strike you! Hell is open to devour you! do you not fear the chastisements that are prepared for you? This extraordinary example of zeal and charity surprised this young man so much that he stopped on a sudden, and, powerfully touched by God, full of confusion and astonishment, he returned back, and for ever renounced that infamous engagement, from which he could not before free himself.

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