Volume III, Treatise II, Chapter I

That the Perfection of a Religious Consists in an Exact Observance of the Vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience

Berork I speak of these vows individually, I shall say a little of them collectively; and first, I say, that they are the chief and principal means we have in a religious state to attain perfection. St. Thomas says, that a religious is in the state of perfection; and this doctrine is taken from St. Denis, and is universally received by divines. It is not that as soon as we take the habit we are perfect, but that we then make profession to aspire to perfection. For the state of a religious life is not like the state of episcopacy. We consider perfection in a bishop as a thing already acquired, but we consider it in a religious as a thing he is obliged to acquire. The one ought to be already perfect; and it is sufticient for the other to endeavour to become so. The same St. Thomas founds the difference between these two states on the words of our Saviour, remarking that in the counsel Jesus Christ gives of voluntary poverty, which implies a vocation to a religious life, “he does not suppose that he to whom he gives it is already perfect, but that he will become so if he practises the counsel he gives. For he says not, if thou art perfect, go and sell what thou hast, but only, if thou art willing to be perfect”— Mat., xix. 21. He acted quite otherwise when he appointed St. Peter bishop, for he asked him thrice not only if he loved him, but if he loved him more than all the others; and this he did to show what charity and what perfection the state of episcopacy requires in those that are elevated to it, so that the state of a religious life and the state of episcopacy are two states of perfec- ‘tion, but after a different manner; because the one supposes it already, and does not give it; and the other does not suppose it,

a but gives it. At the moment you become religious, you are not obliged to be perfect, but you are obliged to aspire to perfection. Hence St. Jerom says, that “it is a prevarication or apostacy in a religious not to desire to be perfect”. And St. Eusebius tells us, “that as it is the way to sanctity and perfection to retire into the desert, so it is in like manner the way to damnation not — to live piously in it”. St. Thomas also tells us, that a religious who aspires not after perfection, and uses not all his endeavours to become perfect, is not truly religious; because he does not perform that for which alone he ought to have embraced a religious life, “Our life ought to be conformable to our name, and our profession ought to be known by our actions”.

Now the chief means we have in religion to acquire perfection consist in the three vows we make, of poverty, chastity, and obedience, as is. perfectly well explained by St. Thomas, The state of a religious life, says he, may be considered three ways; either as an exercise that leads to perfection; or as a tranquil state which excludes worldly cares; or as a sacrifice which we make of ourselves and property to God. If it is considered as an exercise which leads to perfection, we shall find that it destroys in us all the obstacles that oppose the love of God in our hearts—which obstacles are of three kinds. The first is covetousness of temporal goods, which is destroyed by the vow of poverty; the second is concupiscence, or the desire of carnal pleasures, which is destroyed by the vow of chastity; and the third is the disorder of our own will, which is destroyed by the vow of obedience. But if we look upon it as a state that frees us from all kind of care, according to the words of the apostle, “T would have ye be without care or solicitude’—I. Cor., vii. 32,—we shall see that these three vows which we make entirely free us from three sorts of the principal cares with which seculars are molested. For the vow of poverty delivers us from the first, which is the care of riches; the vow of chastity delivers us from the second, which is the care of governing a family and the bringing up of children; and the vow of obedience, by which we entirely abandon ourselves to the guidance of our superior, delivers us from the third, which is the care of behaving and conducting ourselves properly in the different occurrences of this life. Finally, if we consider it as a sacrifice which we make of ourselves to God, we shall find that this sacrifice becomes entire and perfect by means of the same vows. For

-— a all the goods that men possess are reduced to three; to those of fortune, which regard riches; to those of the body, which regard pleasure; and to those of the soul, which regard the will and desires. We entirely sacrifice the first by the vow of poverty; we entirely sacrifice the second by the vow of chastity; and we entirely sacrifice the third by the vow of obedience, whereby a religious renounces his own will, and puts himself into the hands of his superior, whom he beholds and takes in place of God: so that in what manner soever we look upon this state, we shall always find that the three vows we make in it, are the principal means we have of attaining perfection.

It is related in the chronicles of the order of St. Francis, that Jesus Christ once appearing to this saint, and having commanded him to make three offerings: You know, O Lord, answers the saint, that I have already offered you all I have, and that I am yours, and that I have nothing left but this habit and cord, which in like manner are also yours; what, therefore, can I offer you? I wish I had for this purpose another heart and soul; but since I have nothing which I have not already given you, bestow, O Lord, something new upon me, that I may make an offering of it to you, and that thereby I may obey you. Then our Saviour commanded him to put his hand into his bosom, and to offer him what he should find there. And the saint having obeyed him, drew out a large piece of gold, which he presently offered him; our Saviour gave him the same command twice more, and the saint having drawn out each time the like piece of gold, he in like manner still offered it to him: to whom our Saviour then declared, that the three pieces of gold signified his three vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, of which this great saint had made so perfect an offering to God, that his conscience, as he said, never reproached him with having broken them in anything. Let us endeavour to imitate him in this kind of offering, that our conscience may never be able to reproach us with anything, and that we may truly say with Job, “My heart has reproached me with nothing throughout my whole life”’ (Job 27:6)

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project