Volume III, Treatise V, Chapter XVI

Of Too Much Solicitude for the Things Which Relate to the Body, and How Necessary It Ts to Avoid All Singularity in This Point

THE same rule which recommends a moderate and reasonable care of our health, condemns our too much solicitude for it; and the latter shall be the subject of the following discourse, as we have sufficiently treated of the former. It is very hard to observe a medium in all things, but most of all in what concerns our body, since self-love, which is its agent-general, immediately turns physician. It says this is bad for the breast, that for the stomach, this offends the head, that is bad for the eyes; and thus under pretence of necessity, sensuality and squeamishness are insensibly introduced.

St. Bernard inveighs much against those who are too solicitous for their health, and who, under colour of preserving it, are very nice in their diet. These, says he, are Hippocrates’ and Galen’s scholars, not the disciples of Jesus Christ; for it is not in holy writ, but in books of medicine, they find the various properties they attribute to food. ‘All sorts of pulse”, they say, “are windy; cheese lies heavy upon the stomach; milk does the head harm; pure water is very hurtful to the breast; colewort breeds melancholy humours; leeks beget choler; and fish taken out of | stagnant or muddy water agrees not with my constitution. What a strange thing is this”, St. Bernard goes on, “that our rivers, plantations, gardens, and cellars, can scarce provide you a dinner which you can eat! Consider that you are a religious, not a physician, and that there is question of your profession, not of your constitution”. After this, he lays down four reasons which are very proper to persuade us to live up to the rules of the community, and to avoid all singularities. “First, have pity upon yourself”, says the saint, “and consult your own quiet”, for these singularities bring uneasiness with them, and expose you to it every moment. <At one time you will fear that what you ask will not be given you, or that it will be given unwillingly; at another, you will be obliged to wait too long; and for the one time that your request will be granted, it will be rejected twenty times. In a word, no one knows all the inconveniencies which flow from hence, but those who have unfortunately experienced them; and it is a great ease to a man to be able to live like the rest of the religious. ‘Secondly, do not give those who serve thee so much trouble”; reflect that you make the refectorian, cook, and server at table, take a great deal of pains, and that they seem to have scarce any other employment than to wait upon you. “Thirdly, beware of giving too much trouble to the house”; consider that you increase it very much by your singularities, It is not very troublesome to prepare necessaries for the community at large; but, besides this, to be obliged to gratify your whims without necessity, is very troublesome and inconvenient. “In fine, be tender (1 do not say) of

your own conscience, but of your brother’s”. He sits by you, eats

what is given him, whilst you scandalize him: through squeam-

ishness you will not eat that with which he is contented. But suppose he should really believe that you do this out of necessity, you still give him occasion of murmuring, either because sufficient care is not taken of you, or because superiors fail in providing for you as they ought.

But some perhaps may quote these words of St. Paul to Timothy, and urge them in their own defence: “Drink no more water, but use a little wine, by reason of the weakness of your stomach and of your frequent infirmities”—I. Tim., v.23. To this, says St. Bernard, I answer, first, that it is not a rule which St. Paul makes for himself, but an advice he gives to another, and that it is not an indulgence which Timothy had previously sought for, but one which of his own accord the apostle granted him. But your case is not the same; you have petitioned to be treated better than others, and therefore I have reason to fear that under the colour of a reasonable care of your health, the prudence of the flesh has seduced you, and that sensuality has a great share in what you think to be pure necessity. Take notice, adds the same father, that St. Paul gives this counsel not to a simple religious, but to a holy bishop, upon whose health the good of the infant Church of Christ in a great degree depended. ‘“‘ Give me, however, one like Timothy, and I will treat him with pearls and liquid gold. But if you still insist upon this authority of the apostle, and will have it prevail, pray do not forget that St. Paul, when he advised Timothy the use of wine, prescribed a very small quantity of it”. °

Abstinence from wine was what St. Jerom first of all advised Eustochium to practise in order to preserve her chastity. “A spouse of Jesus Christ”, says he, “ought to look upon wine as poison”, and observe how well these words agree with St. Paul’s, “there is luxury in wine” (Ephesians 5:18) ‘These are the first weapons the Devil uses against youth. The disquiet of avarice, the swelling of pride, and the charms of ambition are not so dangerous. Wine and youth doubly inflame our sensual appetite: why therefore do we cast oil upon a flame? What need of more fire to a body that already burns?” But to resume our present subject: I do not pretend to recommend anything to religious, which Saints Basil, Bernard, Bonaventure, and several other holy men have not already earnestly recommended, which is no more than to endeavour to live like the rest of the community in everything, and to avoid all singnilarities as much as we are able. Now, to engage us in this practice, one would think it were sufficient to consider how by this means we free not only ourselves from several vexations and uneasinesses, but also several others, as has been already proved. If, therefore, we consult nothing but our own interest and ease, we should do well to conform to the rules of the community, though some little inconvenience might arise from it, because the advantage we derive from these petty singularities is never so considerable as is our. peace of mind. “But what ought chiefly determine us in this matter is to reflect that we shall edify our brethren, content our superiors, and be the more pleasing to God. We ought to take particular notice of this, as it is a salutary doctrine, and the practice of it very holy; for to live up to the rigour and severity of our rule—to be contented with the common treatment—to seek no dispensation, to claim no privilege or distinction in anything, is one of the greatest sacrifices we can make to God in religion, and one of the mortifications best calculated to please him, to serve ourselves, and to edify our brethren. We have bound ourselves by our profession to a state of penance and to the practice of mortification; let, therefore, our exact performance of all the usual and ordinary duties of religion be the subject to exercise our penance and mortification upon. For whatever we shall be able to do besides, the saints and spiritual directors would have us so regulate it, that there remain with us sufficient strength to meet the principal mortifications of religion, which consist in these practices. It will be in vain for you to wear a hair-cloth and to afflict your body with long disciplines, for your superiors will make little or no account of either, so long as you are not content with what satisfies the community, or so long as you seek ° after distinction or delicacy in your lodging, clothes, or diet. Continue, therefore, to adopt those means of doing penance which your profession furnishes you with, for you are sure that these are permitted you, that there is nothing more agreeable in the sight of God, and that your superiors will rejoice at your practice of them. Besides, you need not be afraid of vain-glory iA this point, for thus you will do penance without being taken notice of by the rest. This is to lead a life common and uniform in appearance, but in the sight of God it is a very distinguished life, which leads to the most solid piety and perfection.

. On the contrary, exemptions and particular privileges, though under the most specious pretexts, do the greatest prejudice imaginable to religious communities. And the truth of this is so clear, that St. Bonaventure thinks them one of the chief causes of laxity in religious discipline. Though you have lived long in

VOL. M1. 20 religion, says he, and done very great service in it, yet you cease not to do it an injury: those who entered it after you do not see your interior, nor consider how much you laboured before their admission. They consider only the example you give them in the observance of the rules, and hence they are always desirous that the seniors should lead the way, and that, as they have been the first received in religion, they should likewise be the first in the exact observance of its rules, in order to serve as guides to those whom the same zeal binds to the same duties. Whenever the contrary happens, they are either scandalized at the bad example of the seniors, or what is worse, follow their steps, and, like them, quickly relax. St. Ignatius, foreseeing the consequence of those particularities, and willing to obviate such inconveniencies as may arise from them, ordained that every one before his admission into the society should be asked “if he would be content to live like the rest of his brethren, without claiming the least exemption or privilege in anything whatsoever, but abandoning himself totally to the care and conduct of his superiors”. Particularly, he would have this question put to such as are scholars, and who might one day fill the highest offices and be principal men in the society; for such persons seem to be the most ready to claim exemptions and privileges. They, however, are not aware that the least privilege they claim does a great deal of harm to religion; for another that thinks he has done as much as they, and stands in as great need of the like indulgence, will desire to be treated in the same manner. And perhaps another, who, though he has not done altogether so much as the former, may claim the same, and after him a third and fourth; and by this means religious discipline will be weakened and utterly destroyed. St. Bernard calls such men enemies to peace and union; and without doubt it would have been better if they never preached, wrote books, or performed anything extraordinary, than to have distinguished themselves from others by such privileges as these, for the harm they do this way is more than the good they do otherwise.

For this reason our holy founder forbids all such exemptions and particularities amongst us, nor will he have one that has been preacher, teacher of divinity, or superior, claim on that account any privilege; on the contrary, he wishes that we be fully persuaded that one of the greatest injuries which can be inflicted on the society, is to give cause to believe that for any reason whatsoever a claim would be made for indulgence, or for treatment different from that which others receive. It particularly behoves the seniors and the more learned to edify and instruct others; it is their duty to maintain and strengthen religious discipline by their example, “in conforming themselves to the most humble”’—Zom., xii. 16,—as the apostle says, and it is this seniority and learning ought to promote in religion.

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