Volume III, Treatise III, Chapter V

Of the Fault of Some Religious, Who in Religion Place Their Affection Upon Trifles, Having Left Considerable Estates in the World

Ir follows from what I have already said, that if a religious, when he forsakes the world and all its riches, does not at the same time disengage his affections from all things, he is not truly poor in spirit: for poverty of spirit essentially consists, not only in the bare depriving ourselves of all Earthly goods, but chiefly in cutting off and for ever destroying all inclination or affection towards them. If any inclination to them still remains in you, you cannot be truly said to have left them; no, you have only transplanted them out of the world into religion; for you retain them in your heart, and therefore you are not truly poor, but are only so in appearance, and by consequence only religious in the exterior; and therefore you are unjustly called religious, since it is only your body that is in religion, but your better part is still in the world.

From hence we may conclude, that, should a religious man, after he has generously renounced his worldly possessions, set his affections upon such trifles as a pretty cell, a good habit, choice books, or the like, he is no longer truly poor in spirit. The reason of this is the same as that already given, and is taken from the nature of true poverty of spirit, which consists in an entire disengagement of our affections from all things of this world, and such a person as we have now spoken of is by no means in this happy condition. He has only changed the affection he had for temporals in the world, to the affection for tem+ porals in religion, and has forsaken great things to cleave to little ones, and in the main he is as much engaged and attached to these little things in religion, as he could have been to greater in the world. Cassian treats this subject incomparably well. Jam at a loss, says he, when I would speak of that childish weakness of some religious, who, after they have bid adieu to what they had in the world, fall in love with trifle’ in religion, and seek their little conveniencies with the greatest zeal and solicitude; “so that their inclinations are sometimes more violently bent upon these trifles, than they were before upon the riches they had in the world. What does it signify to these men to have left great possessions, if they have not also left all irregular desires towards them? By retaining a desire and an inclination to little things, since they cannot aim higher at present, they discover too clearly that they have not quite destroyed their former passions, but only changed their objects. Their care and anxiety is still the same, yet they make little or no account thereof, as if different objects, and not disorderly passions, made avarice a crime. They are of opinion that we may leave great things to fix our affections upon less, and that it may be done for this reason; but they are in an error, for we renounce greater in order to despise smaller things with greater ease”—Cass. Coll. 4. Ab. Dan.,c. 2. For if our affections continue irregular, and avarice domineers in our hearts, it imports very little what is the cause, since our hearts are as much troubled and disquieted for trifles in religion, as they could have been for an estate in the world. The one and the other produce the same effect. Ifa man were to be deprived of the sun, were it not all one whether a plate of gold or of brass be put before his eyes, for he would be equally hindered from seeing the light. This is the sentiment of St. Mark the Abbot, who had the following conference with his own soul upon this matter. ‘ You will tell me, my soul, that we do not heap up riches, that we neglect getting an estate; but I answer thee, that the abuse of riches, not the true use of them, does a man prejudice, as we see in Abraham, Job, David, and several others, who were masters of great estates, and at the same time great favourites of Heaven, because they did not set their hearts upon their riches. We, though poor, yet nourish avarice in our hearts; and though we heap up neither gold nor silver, yet we pick up a great many trifles, to which we tie our affection, and suffer as much uneasiness from them as from all the riches in the world. We renounce all dignities, nor do we aspire to the greatness of the world; yet we court the praises of men, and desire to be honoured and looked upon as somewhat considerable”—JIn Biblioth. S.S. Pair. These disorders of our mind make us more unhappy and less excusable than worldlings, and we show a meaner spirit than they do. For they set their hearts upon what has at least some appearance of greatness in it, whereas we, after having forsaken all, debase ourselves by a degenerate pursuit of what we ought generously despise. We ought to increase in perfection, and grow into a perfect man, as St. Paul says; but we act quite contrary, and instead of becoming men by entering into religion, and by generously forsaking the world, and disengaging ourselves from it, we are, by an over-foolish affection to toys and childish baubles, become children. A child cries when you take his rattle from him, or deny him anything he calls for: just so, the parties we speak of, fret themselves, and are troubled, when they are deprived of anything they fancy, or when all their demands are not granted. And certainly it is a thing very ridiculous, and much to be pitied, to see a grave religious person, who had the courage once to contemn the world, become so strangely fond of trifles, as to be as uneasy and troubled at the parting with them, as a child is, when you deny it an apple or take away its baby.

“We religious”, says St. Bernard, ‘are the most miserable of all men, if we permit things of so little consequence to do us so much harm. For what blindness, or rather what folly and madness, is it to set our hearts thus shamefully upon trifles, after we have renounced things far more considerable! For if we have renounced all Earthly possessions and all carnal love to our parents, and confined ourselves within the walls of a monastery, and lastly, if we are come to religion to deny our own wills and freely submit to another’s in everything, what is it that we ought not to do in order to preserve the merit of all these good actions, and never to forfeit it by any folly or negligence!”—-Ad Mon. S. Bertin.

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