Volume III, Treatise II, Chapter II

Why We Bind Ourselves by Vow to These Three Virtues

But some say, why do you bind yourself by vow to observe poverty, chastity, and obedience, since they may be observed without such ties or engagements as these? All divines answer with St. Thomas, that vows are necessary, because a religious life essentially consists in them, and that without vows it cannot be a state of perfection. The reason of this is, because the state of perfection necessarily supposes a perpetual obligation to perfection: for when we say it is a state, it is the same as to say that it is a stable and permanent thing; so that as religion cannot be a state of perfection without a perpetual obligation to perfection, it consequently cannot subsist without vows, whereby it contracts this obligation. What causes bishops, says St. Thomas, to be in a state of perfection, which parish priests are not, is, because the latter are not always obliged to the care of souls, but may disengage themselves from it whensoever they please; but the pastoral care and solicitude of bishops carries along with it a perpetual obligation, with which the authority of the pope only can dispense. The same difference is likewise found between the perfection of a secular and of a religious; for though it may happen that a secular may be more perfect than a religious is, yet it is true that the secular is not in a state of perfection, and that the religious is in one; because the perfection of a secular | not being confirmed by vows, as that of a religious is, it conse~ quently has not that constancy and stability in good, which that of a religious has, inasmuch as regards the state of the one and the other. A secular person leads a very pure and holy life today, and to-morrow he relents; but a religious is always in a state of perfection, although he be not perfect; because he is obliged to perfection by those vows which always engage him, and from which it is not in his power to disengage himself. Accordingly, a holy man being asked whether it were possible to gain Christian perfection in the world, he answered that it was possible, but that he had rather have one degree of grace in religion than two in the world; because in religion, where we are separated from the world, which is a capital enemy of grace, and where we are continually excited to virtue by good example, grace is easily preserved and augmented; whereas, in the world, it is very easily lost, and is very hard to be preserved. Hence he concluded that in religion, a less grace with such secure guards to preserve it; and with so many helps to augment it, was to be preferred to a far greater, with all the dangers wherewith persons are surrounded in the world.

We may hence learn how great is the error of some novices, who imagine that if they were in the world, they should live in so great piety and retirement as to edify their neighbour by their example. This is an illusion of the Devil, who only seeks under this pretence to deprive them of the inestimable good they possess, and to draw them out of religion. For in the world perhaps they might have in the beginning the same fervour; they might go every week to confession, they might make their prayer, and withdraw themselves far from the occasions of sin; but as they are no longer under the government of any one, they are obliged. to do nothing under a perpetual obligation: and as every moment they will find new obstacles, so they will this day quit their prayer; the next day, dispense with themselves in going to confession; the day after, expose and distract themselves in company, and at length unhappily come to destroy themselves. It is not the same in religion; for a religious has not the liberty to dispense with himself in his spiritual exercises, nor to disengage himself from the obligation he has contracted by his vows, which is that “triple cord”, of which the wise man speaks, ‘“‘that is very difficult to be broken”——Lccel., iv. 12.

Thus we see then, that it is properly the vows which make the kind of life to which they oblige, to be a religious state and a state of perfection. Many saints also hold that the apostles are the authors of it, and that when they renounced all things to follow Jesus Christ, they laid within themselves the foundation of this state, confirming by vow the offer they made to him, and that from thence the Catholic Church took up the practice of consecrating its members to God by means of these vows,

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project