Volume III, Treatise I, Chapter VI

: that We Ought to Take Care not to Fall into Another Extreme, Which Ts

’ entirely to withdraw ourselves from conversing with our neighbour, upon pretence of applying ourselves to the care of our own salvation.

Bot if treating with our neighbour, as you may object, be filled with so many dangers, I will not expose myself to it, but live in retirement, to think only upon my own salvation; for I am more strictly bound to take care of myself than of others, and it is not just I should expose myself to lose my own soul to save the souls of others. This is another extreme, and another mode of going out of the way of our institutions. But the gospel furnishes us with a very just answer to this objection in the parable of the talents. It tells us that a man having a long voyage to make, divided his money amongst his servants, to take care of it; to one of them he gave five talents, to another two, and to a third one. The two first increased their money twofold, and were praised and recompensed by their master at his return: but the third, who had received one talent, buried it, and when he was called to account for it by his master, “he said: Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed; and being afraid, I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine. And his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed; thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it him that hath ten talents: for to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound; but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away; and the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”——Mat., xxv. 24, 30. St. Austin explains this parable much to our purpose, and says, that it is proposed to us by Jesus Christ, for the instruction of those who, being able profitably to serve the Church and their neighbour in the. dispensation of the word of God and in the help of souls, refuse to charge themselves therewith, under pretence that they have no wish to answer to God for the sins of their neighbour. Let them learn wisdom from this example, says the father; for at bottom, we perceive no cause of the damnation of this servant, but that he made no profit of the talent he had received, for he had neither lost it nor made an ill use of it; but on the contrary he had carefully hid it under ground, for fear of being robbed of it. Wherefore, says St. Ambrose, let us take care that we have not an account to render to God for our unprofitable silence. For there are two sorts of silence, a silence very profitable and efficacious, as the silence of Susanna, who held her ’ peace before men whilst she elevated her heart to God, and did far more by this than if she had spoken in her own defence. The other is unprofitable and vain, as when we may contribute to the salvation of our neighbour by our discourse, and we fail to do so. Now, as we shall render one day an account to God for our unprofitable words, so we shall render an account for our unprofitable silence. Moreover, he will. require of us a very exact and severe account hereof, by reason of the talent of his word which he has confided to us, and of the charge he has given to us to help souls. For he will not content himself with requiring an account of our own advancement, as he will require of those who ought not to labour in anything else; but he will require an account also of us of what we have done for the advancement of our neighbour; and if he finds that we have buried the talent, he will take it from us and punish us as bad servants. We have therefore two things to propose to ourselves at the same time—our own perfection, and that of our neighbour; and we are obliged to labour for both: so that the care of one ought not to hinder us from taking care of the other. The example also of the Son of God teaches us what method we ought to observe herein. The Gospel takes notice that having put himself in prayer in the garden of Olives, he rose three times from it, to go to visit his disciples, and presently. returned to it again. See here what we ought to do. We ought to pass from prayer to employments of charity, and from employments of charity presently to return back to prayer.

St. Bernard treats perfectly well this matter in applying to this subject these words of the bridegroom to the spouse: ‘‘ Arise, make haste, my beloved, my dove, my fair one, and come”—(Canticle of Canticles 2:10) “Who can doubt”, says he, “but that he calls her to the conquest of souls?” But how comes it to pass, adds the father, that he would have her rise in such haste? Had he not forbidden her to rise a little before? “Ye daughters of Jerusalem, I conjure ye by the goats and hinds of the country, that ye trouble not the repose of my beloved, and that ye do not wake her till she will wake herself”—(Canticle of Canticles 2:7) How comes it then to pass that she must not only rise, but that she must also make haste? He had a little before forbidden them to wake ‘her, and almost at the same moment he would have her get up, and that quickly too. What does this sudden change in the mind of the bridegroom signify? Can you think that it is perhaps out of levity and changeableness it happens? and that. now he will not have what he just before desired? It is no such thing. He only wishes to show us, that he would have us continually pass from the repose and sweet sleep of prayer and meditation, to the employments of charity and to the ministry of the salvation of souls. For the love of God cannot remain idle; it is a fire that by its continual activity, would put the whole world in a flame; and upon this consideration he would not only have her quit the repose and sweetness of contemplation, but to press and hasten herself, so that he may let us see his zeal and ardour for the salvation of souls. Do we not perceive, says St. Bernard, that the spouse had scarce taken any repose on the breast of her bridegroom? “His left hand was under my head”, says she, “and his right hand embraced me”—(Canticle of Canticles 2:6); but presently he awakes her, and commands her to employ herself in more profitable things. I say more profitable, continues this father,.because it was more profitable and more meritorious in the sight of God, to labour for the salvation of souls, and for her own salvation also at the same time, than to labour solely for her own. But this is not the first time that the bridegroom had thus treated his spouse. She had a long while had a desire to enjoy the repose and sweetness of contemplation in the embraces and kisses of her bridegroom. “Let him give me the kisses of his mouth”; and he answers her, “that her breasts are more delicious than wine”—(Canticle of Canticles 1:1); whereby he gives us to understand that she ought to have children, and that she ought to think of breeding them up and nourishing them. Remember, therefore, that you are a father, that you have children, that you ought to nourish them, and that you ought to quit your repose and tranquillity to take care of them. The holy Scripture gives us a figure of this in the person of Jacob. When he expected with impatience to possess Rachel, who was fair but barren, they gave him Lia, who was blear-eyed, but was proper to have children. The same happens here also: when the spouse sighs for the embraces of her bridegroom, he represents to her that she ought to be a mother, and that she ought to have children, and that “her breasts are more delicious than wine”. This signifies in effect, that the fruit which one brings forth in souls by the offices of charity, is more pleasing to God than the holy ebriety of contemplation. It is true Lia is not so fair as Rachel, but she is more likely to have children, and this quality is far more to be esteemed than the beauty of Rachel. It is the same in the active and contemplative life: the contemplative life is in truth more perfect than the active; but when the active life, that regards the employments of charity and the help of souls, is joined with the contemplative, it is without doubt far more perfect than the contemplative life alone. It is in this sense that St. Chrysostom interprets these words of St. Paul: “For I desired to be an anathema, and to be separated from Jesus Christ, for: the sake of my brethren, who according to the flesh are my kinsmen” (Romans 9:83) The apostle, says he, wished to be separated for some time from the conversation of Jesus Christ, and whatsoever sweetness he felt in the acts of the love of God which he continually produced, yet he wished to interrupt them, to apply himself the more to the salvation of souls: and it was in this manner that he wished to become anathema for the love of the neighbour. Now all the doctors agree that in this St. Paul made an act of charity sovereignly perfect; and consequently we see that the zeal of souls, which seems in a manner to separate us from God, unites us more closely to him. Hence we ought to feel convinced that the care we shall take in the advancement of our neighbour will not at all hurt our own, but, on the contrary, will help it, and be a means of our making greater progress in virtue and perfection. Clement Alexandrinus makes use of some comparisons to elucidate this truth. The more water, says he, that we draw out of wells, the clearer and the more wholesome it is to drink; but when we draw out none at all, it grows muddy and corrupts. The more we use a knife, the brighter it becomes; but if we make no use of it, it presently grows rusty. The flame diminishes not by communicating itself, but it rather becomes greater and more violent. Do we not likewise perceive, adds he, in human sciences, that he who teaches others learns himself by teaching them, and renders himself more able. and learned? It is the same in the science of God; it is by practice and communication that we become more profound and enlightened. The word of God is a two-edged sword, that cuts no less on the side that is next him who makes use of it, than on the side next those for whom it is used. That which I say to others does often regard myself, and perhaps I have as much need of it as they; and if I do not practise what I teach them, I presently feel my conscience reproach me, and cry out: ‘ Unhappy they who practise not what they teach”. The sins that are discovered to me in confession are an admonition to me to keep myself upon my guard, and a subject to give God thanks that he has not permitted me to all into the like faults, and to beg of him that he would always uphold me by his all-powerful hand. Likewise we learn by assisting others at their death to have death always present before our eyes, and to put ourselves in such a state that we may never be surprised by VOL. II. 4.

it. We learn by visiting prisons and hospitals, and by labouring to reconcile enemies, how many miseries and disorders there are in the world, and thereby we come to have a greater esteem of the happiness of our vocation. In a word, the offices in which charity employs us are so far from being an occasion of remissness, that, on the contrary, they help us to stand more carefully upon our guard, and to excite ourselves more and more to virtue and perfection.

Add to what I have said, the graces which God pours down upon such as exert themselves in employments of charity. For if he has promised so great recompenses to works of mercy which regard only the necessities of the body, how will he reward the works of charity that regard the necessities of the soul, and consequently are as far above the others as the soul is above the body? St. Chrysostom says, that these words of the gospel are addressed to those that do these works: “Give and it shall be given to you”— (Luke 6:38); and these others of the Proverbs, ““‘ the soul that blesseth, shall be made fat; and he that inebriates, shall be inebriated” (Proverbs 11:25) Those that feed others with spiritual food, and inebriate them with the love of Heavenly things, God will feed them also with consolation, and inebriate them with his love. Some compare them to the almoners, to whom princes give great sums to distribute, according to the alms they give. But this comparison is not very just; because if an almoner be faithful, he keeps nothing for himself of what is given him, and is not enriched by giving to others; whereas those that exercise spiritual works of charity enrich no less themselves than their brethren. St. Peter Chrysologus, who compares them to nurses of kings’ children, is more in the right. “As”, says he, “care ig taken that the nurses of kings’ children be fed with more delicate meats than ordinary, that thereby their milk may be better; so the King of kings takes care that the ministers of his word should always be nourished with the best meat of his table, that they may nourish his children with so much the better milk”.

But we above all others have a particular obligation to apply ourselves to works of charity towards our neighbour, since God has made it a means of our advancement, engaging us to it even by our vocation. It is thus the bull of our institution speaks of it, wherein Julius III., after having stated the end which our society proposes to itself, and the offices which it is obliged to exercise towards our neighbour: “Let it take care”, says he, “first of all, to have God before its eyes, and always to behold what it is engaged to by its institute, which is a sort of path that leads directly to him”. So that as the spiritual advancement of some religious orders consists in an exact observance of recollection and enclosure, of singing the divine office and of keeping certain fasts, and undergoing such other austerities as they are particularly obliged to; just so, our advancement and spiritual progress consist in acquitting ‘ourselves well of our duties and charities towards our neighbour; because it is to this that we are called, as the others are to solitude and retirement. We may say then to.those towards whom we exercise these charities, what St. Paul said to the Philippians and Thessalonians, “Ye are my joy and my crown” (Philippians 4:1) “Ye are our glory and our joy”—I. Thessal., ii. 20. “For it is certain”, says St. Ambrose, upon these words of the apostle, “that the progress of scholars ‘ is a joy and advancement to their master”. We ought, therefore, to make account that our perfection and merit consist in acquitting ourselves well of these duties, so that the spirit of prayer and retreat ought tq be a very laudable thing amongst us; yet such a spirit of prayer and retreat as would withdraw us from the help of souls and other offices of charity, would be a kind of temptation. Had you been in the world, or had God called you to another religious order that made it not its particular profession to apply itself to the salvation of souls, the inclination you should have to entertain yourself continually with God in retirement, and to think only of your own perfection, might perhaps come from the Spirit of God. But here it can be nothing else but an illusion of the Devil, who transforms himself into an angel _of light to deceive you, and to endeavour to withdraw you from your vocation, under the pretence of labouring for your own advancement, and of avoiding those dangers that are met with in treating with your neighbour. We ought to give ourselves to prayer, according to the spirit of our vocation, that is to say, with a view of obtaining new lights and new strength for the help of souls; so that we may be able to say with Job, “If I go to bed to sleep, I will say, when shall I rise again? And in the morning, I shall be impatient until the evening approaches” (Job 7:4) _ In fine, we ought to look upon prayer as a necessary preparation for the acquitting ourselves of our duties of charity; and the better you shall find yourself disposed for these employments when you leave your prayer, the more you may assure yourself 4B of your having made your prayer well; and the more the love of God will thereby have increased in your heart, the more zeal] and fervour ought you have on leaving it for gaining souls to God, and procuring’ that God should be loved and glorified by all the world. We read of a holy religious, of the order of St. Francis, that after he had for many years very profitably laboured in the conversion of the Indians, he had a great desire of retiring from the world in order to prepare himself to die well; and in effect he _ for this end retired into a monastery of his own order in Spain, where he lived in a very austere recollection. However, as often as he went to prayer, he seemed as if he saw Jesus Christ crucified tenderly making this complaint to him, “Why hast thou left me thus upon the cross, whilst thou searchest thy own repose and quiet?” And he was so touched with this vision, that he returned again to the harvest he had left, and therein served God again for a very long time. a

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