Volume III, Treatise I, Chapter II

What a Glorious Enterprise It Is to Labour for the Salvation of Souls— How Precious and Meritorious This Labour Is

Tue salvation of souls is an end so noble and sublime, that it is for it God descended from Heaven and became man; and for it he chose his apostles, vouchsafing that, of catchers of fish, they should become fishers of men. St. Denis says, “that to cooperate with God in the salvation of souls, is the most divine of all employments” —De Celes. Hier., e. 3. And St. Chrysostom assures us that there is “nothing more pleasing to God than the salvation of souls; neither is there anything that he takes more to heart” —Hom. ii. and 40 sup. Genes. “It is his will”, says the apostle, ‘that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth’—I. Tim., ii. 4. And does not God himself tell us by the prophet Ezechiel, saying: “Is the death of a sinner my.will? is it not rather nfy will that he be converted and live?”—-(Ezechiel 18:23) In fine, God desires the salvation of all men, and therefore we can do nothing more pleasing to him than to labour for their salvation. Hence, “though your riches should be ever so great”, says St. Chrysostom, “and though you should give all you have to the poor, yet you would do far more by converting one soul than by doing all this”. St, Gregory says it is a greater miracle to convert a sinner than to raise the dead to life; and in effect the salvation of a sinner isa | far greater work of God than the creation of the world. To be

convinced of this, we need but consider what the one and the other cost him. The creation of the world cost him only a word; “he said, and all things were made: he commanded, and alj things were created”- (Psalms 148:5) _ But the salvation of men cost him much more than words; it cost him his blood and his life. Does not Jesus Christ himself sufficiently declare to us of how great merit it is in the sight of God to employ ourselves in the salvation of souls, when he says in St. John, “It is for this reason that my Father loves me, because I lay down my life?”—~ (John 10:17) The saints remark very justly, that “he says not his Father loves him because by him all things were created”, but only that his Father loves him because he lays down his life. And why does he give his life, but in order to save men? And hence we see that there is nothing more pleasing to God than to labour for the salvation of souls. St. Thomas explains in the same sense what our Saviour says in the same place: “As my Father knows me, so I know my Father, and I give my life for my flock”— (John 10:15) Jesus Christ, says the doctor, would not only express by these words that, as his Father knows him by a full and perfect knowledge, so he knows also his Father in the same manner; for he had already said it, as we see by these other words: “No one knows the Son but the Father, nor does any one know the Father but the Son”—Mat., xi. 27. But as it is the duty of a good son to do what he feels to be most pleasing to his father,—and if asked why he did so, he could answer, because he knows his father very well, and knows what he likes best,—even so our Saviour having said that a good pastor gives his life for his sheep, and wishing to anticipate the question that might have been put him, why he gave so precious a life for so vile a thing? he answers it beforehand, by saying: “I know my Father very well, and I lay down my life for my sheep”; as if he would say: I know my Father’s sentiments; I know very well that his sheep are very dear unto him, and it is this makes me cheerfully give my life for them. We ought to act on the same principle; this knowledge of the bounty of God to man, and of the love he has for those that labour for the salvation of souls, ought engage us to employ ourselves therein with all our strength. St. Chrysostom observes on this subject, that Jesus Christ having thrice demanded of St. Peter if he loved him, he gave no other answer to all the assurances that St. Peter gave him of this, but only, “Feed my sheep’ (John 21:17); as if he would have said: It is true you love me indeed, but you cannot testify this your love better, than by labouring with me for the salvation of the souls I have redeemed with my blood.

We may also judge of the excellency of this employment, and how pleasing it is to God, by the greatness of the price that ‘is annexed thereunto; and this is first seen in our Saviour himself, and by the glorious recompense that followed his death. “For it is for this”, says the apostle, “that God exalted him, and ‘gave him a name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend in Heaven, Earth, and Hell, and all tongues shall confess that Jesus Christ is in the glory of his Father” (Philippians 2:9), etc. King David gives us to understand the same, when he says of the Messias, “that upon his way he will drink of the water of the torrent, and for this reason his ‘head shall be exalted”— (Psalms 109:7) This is the sense of these words also of the prophet Isaias: “If he gives his life for sinners, he will see a long posterity”—Isa., liii. 10; that is to say, that for all he will have suffered for men, he will be glorified eternally by his Father. “He”, says St. James, “who shall bring back a sinner from his evil ways, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20) And St. Gregory says hereupon, that if the saving a man from corporal death, who must die sooner or later, be an action worthy to be recompensed, what recompense does he not deserve who delivers a soul from everlasting death, and is the cause that it eternally enjoys God in glory? The Scripture likewise is not content to gay, “that those who shall teach wisdom to men”, as Jesus Christ did, “shall have life everlasting” (Ecclesiasticus 24:81); it Says moreover, “that those who show the way of justice to many, shall shine like stars for all eternity” (Daniel 12:3) God himself assures us by the mouth of Jeremias, that, “if we separate what is precious from what is vile, we shall be like his mouth”—Jerem., xv. 19. That is to say, if we disengage souls from the servitude of sin, who are so precious and dear to him, he will love us tenderly. This is a way of speaking we sometimes make use of; for example, that we love a person as our own life and as our own eyes. God makes use of the same phrase, somewhat after the same manner, saying, we shall be as his own mouth; and by that he gives us sufficiently to understand how precious a soul is in his sight, and how dear those that labour for the salvation of souls become to him.

It is related of St. Catherine of Sienna, that when she saw a preacher go through the streets, she presently ran out to kiss the ground upon which he had walked. One day being asked why she did so, she answered that God had clearly let her see how great the beauty was of a soul in-grace, and therefore she had so great a veneration for those who were employed in the conversion of souls, that she could do no less than give some mark hereof by kissing the ground which they had walked upon, Now it is to the dignity of this employment that God has called us. The end of our institute is to codperate with him in the most sublime and excellent function in the world, which is the salvation of souls. Hence we may truly say with the apostle, that “‘ we are God’s assistants, and that men ought to look upon us as ministers of Jesus Christ, and as dispensers of the mysteteries of God”—I. Cor., in. 9. Can anything therefore be imagined more dignified than an employment which the Son of God himself came upon Earth to exercise, for which he sacrificed both his blood and his life, and by which we are called children of God, according to the words of the evangelist, ‘ blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God”? (Matthew 5:9) For the gospel, by this word peace-maker, according to St, Jerom and Theophilact, not only understands those who, after having overcome their own passions, enjoy peace within themselves, or those who procure peace and union between men, but likewise all such as procure peace between God and men, by converting sinners and reconciling them to God. Happy then are these peace-makers! They shall with justice be called children of God; because it is an employment which the Son of God himself exercised, “reconciling all things to his Father, and pacir fying, by the blood he shed upon the cross, whatsoever is upon Earth, and whatsoever also is in Heaven” (Colossians 1:20) It was for this reason, that the angels sung at his nativity, ‘¢ Glory be to God on high, and peace upon Earth to men of good will’—- (Luke 2:14) _ From allthis, we ought to derive three things for our spiritual profit. The first is a great. love and esteem for our ministry; because it is so sublime, so pleasing to God, and so profitable to our neighbour. The second is a very great confusion on seeing ourselves called to so sublime a ministry, weak as we are, and at the same time considering how difficult it is to render a good account of ourselves, we are, notwithstanding, charged with the salvation and perfection of others. This was the counsel which St. Francis Xaverius, a most apostolical man, of ‘consummate virtue, and arrived to avery great height of perfection, gave to the fathers of Portugal, in a letter he wrote to them. JI advise you, my brethren, says he, that when you think of the greatness of the ministry which you exercise, and of the esteem men make of you, that you think of nothing else but of humbling and confounding yourselves before God, according to the words of the prophet, ‘when I was exalted I humbled myself, and filled myself with confusion”—Ps., lxxxvu. 16. One of the first fathers of our society, and one of the most eminent for his piety and learning, said, that when he considered the excellency of the end for which the society was instituted, and cast his eyes upon himself, he was so confounded to find how incapable and unworthy he was of so sublime a ministry, that he not only found no vanity in being called to it, but on the contrary, made it a new subject of his confusion and debasement. It is thus we ought to do, and by this means neither the consideration of the excellency of our employment, nor the esteem that men shall have of us, nor the honours they shall give us, will ever be of prejudice to us. The third thing which the consideration of our ministry ought to produce in us, is a serious application to our spiritual advancement; for, as I shall show hereafter, we ought to have laboured very solidly for our own perfection, and be very well advanced towards our own salvation, to be able profitably to labour for the salvation and perfection of others,

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