Volume III, Treatise VI, Chapter III

That Though Our Rules Do not Oblige Under Pain of Sin, Yet We Ought Observe Them Exactly

Our rules and constitutions do not oblige us under pain of mortal sin, nor even of venial, no more than the commands of our superiors, unless, as our constitutions declare, they command on God’s part, or by virtue of holy obedience. Yet we ought take most particular care not to violate them for this reason, which is a kind of temptation the Devil ordinarily makes use of to make us careless in breaking them; nor can we, for the aforesaid reason, be even less exact in the observance of them. Our holy founder, not wishing, on the one hand, to bind us so fast to them as that they would be an occasion of sin; and, on the other, wishing to make us observe them with all possible exactness and perfection, says, that for this purpose “the love of God must succeed in place of the fear of offending him; and that it must be the desire of our greater perfection, and of the greater glory of God, which will move us to act”. He says also, in the beginning of our rules and constitutions, that the interior law of charity which the Holy Ghost has written in our hearts ought to move us to an exact observance of them, which is the same thing as the Son of God tells us in St. John, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) It is sufficient for any one who loves, to know the will of the person he loves. It is sufficient for a well-educated child to know the will of his father, he needs not the motive of fear to make him obedient; and he who contemns the rules and breaks them, because they bind not under pain of sin and damnation, shows himself neither to be a well-educated child nor even a good servant. In proof of this, I ask, what opinion would you form of a servant who would never do anything his master commanded him, unless he commanded it with sword in hand and under pain of death? What opinion would you have of a woman that should tell her bus-band, I will be an honest woman, if you be not unfaithful to me; but if you be, I am resolved to do what I please, how angry soever you may be with me for it? Behold here the very thing those do who break their rules because they bind not under pain of sin and damnation, which in effect is properly to imitate slaves, who do nothing but through fear of being punished. “The wicked”, as an ancient poet says, “abstain from sin from fear of being punished; but the good abstain from it for the love of virtue”.

St. Gregory relates, that a holy religious, called Marsius, being retired in solitude to Mount Marisque, put a chain upon one of his feet, which he fastened to a rock, that he might go no farther than the length of his chain. St. Bennet, hearing this, sent one of his religious to him, to tell him, “if you be a servant of God, let not an iron chain, but the chain of Jesus Christ, hold you”, And the holy man presently took off the chain from his foot, in obedience to what was commanded him, continuing, notwithstanding, to go no farther than when he was chained. Our holy founder also wishes to tie us to our rules, not with chains of iron, that is to say, with fear of sin and damnation, but with _ the chain of:the love of Jesus Christ; and it is this which ought _ oblige us to be still more faithful to our duty, and to remain in greater restraint.

We must, moreover, take notice here of two things. The first is, that when any of our rules and constitutions contains anything which either regards the vows we have made, or which is forbidden by the law of God, then we are obliged to the observance of this rule, under pain of mortal sin, not by virtue of the rule, but by virtue of the vow we have made or of the law which God has established. The second thing we ought to take notice of is, that though our rule does not bind of itself under pain of sin, yet there may be a sin in breaking it, when we do it through negligence, laziness, contempt of the rule, or through

VOL. U1. 21 some other motive of the same nature. St. Thomas has very well taken notice of this, when speaking of the rules of the order of St. Dominick, which of themselves do not bind, any more than our own do, under pain either of mortal or venial sin.

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