Volume III, Treatise VI, Chapter IV

The Levity of the Matter Commanded by the Rule Is No Excuse for Our Violating It. This Circumstance, on the Contrary, Renders Us More Inexcusable, ~

To make us neglect the observance of certain rules the Devil makes use of another stratagem, which is to persuade us that they are of no great importance, and that our perfection consists not in the observance of them; so that, with the assistance of our tepidity and negligence, he easily prompts us to transgress them. Now it is necessary to arm ourselves against this temptation, and for this purpose, I say, that the levity of the matter does not render the fault more excusable, but in some manner aggravates it. This is the doctrine of St. Austin, who, speaking of the disobedience of our first father, says, that as the obedience of Abraham was enhanced in proportion to the difficulty of the thing commanded, “so the disobedience of Adam was so much the more criminal, because there was no difficulty in doing what was required of him”. For what excuse could be made for refusing to obey so easy a command as not to eat of the fruit of a single tree, since there were so many other trees of which he might freely eat, and which probably were much better? What would he have done then, if God had commanded him something very diffcult—if, for example, he had commanded him to sacrifice his wife, as he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son? How could he ever prevail on himself to sacrifice her out of obedience, he who chose rather to disobey and displease God in eating the forbidden fruit, than to displease her? We can say, in like manner, that the facility of observing our rules renders the breaking of them more criminal and less excusable; and St. Bonaventure is of the same opinion, when he says, “the more easily a thing can be performed, the more guilty we are in not performing it”, We might, perhaps, have some excuse were we to obey a very difficult command, but what excuse can we have when the thing required of us is so easy? Moreover, how can I believe that you would obey in hard things when you disobey in those that are most easy? It is to be believed that he who does not perform lesser things will never perform greater; and he, says St. Bernard, that cannot command his tongue or his appetite cannot be a good religious. This maxim was considered a first principle by the ancient fathers; and it is for this reason that they always began their exercises with abstinence; for he, say they, who cannot overcome himself in certain exterior things where the victory is more easy, how can he be able to overcome himself interiorly where the difficulty is far greater? How can he be able to defend himself against the malice of his invisible enemies, if he cannot even resist those he sees? This may help us to discern what is true and false in the desires we may sometimes have of doing great things for the love of God, such as to endure all sorts of pains and mortifications, and even to go and suffer martyrdom amongst infidels. For if amongst our hrethren we are not able to bear a light mortification—if we break sometimes one rule, sometimes another, only to avoid the asking leave of a superior—what can be expected of us in difficult matters? ‘‘ Many”, says St. Bonaventure, “would wish to die with Jesus Christ, yet they would not endure a hard word for Jesus Christ. Now he who trembles at the noise of a leaf shaken by the wind, how will he have courage to await the blow of a sword ready ta light upon him?” Ifa word said to us is able to trouble us and make us lose our repose, what will happen when persecutions shall be raised against us—when they will bring false witnesses to accuse us of things of very great moment, and when we shall perceive that all the world believes them? And hence the same saint exhorts us, “to accustom ourselves to suffer patiently even the least things, for he will never be able to overcome great ones who has not learned to surmount small difficulties”.

Denis the Carthusian relates (in Scal. Relig. art. 16) that a novice who had great fervour in the beginning, afterwards, as it often happens, came to fall into great negligence and tepidity. All things at first seemed easy to him, but a little while after, all the exercises of mortification and humility became very heavy and painful, and amongst other things he could not suffer the outward coarse habit which the novices wore during their noviceship. One day as he slept he saw in his dream Jesus Christ, who was laden with a heavy cross, and who, by his efforts to get up a

ra ladder which was very straight, exceedingly increased his pain. The novice, touched with compassion, presently offered himself to our Saviour to help him to carry his cross; but our Saviour, looking upon him with indignation, said to him: How dare you pretend to carry my cross, which is so heavy, since you feel it painful for love of me to carry even your habit, which weighs so little in comparison of my cross? At the same instant the vision diappeared, and the novice awoke very much confounded at this reproach, and at the same time fully resolved to suffer all things for Jesus Christ; so that ever after the coarse and contemptible habit, which he felt difficult to carry, became a subject of joy and contentment to him.

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