Volume III, Treatise VII, Chapter V

That We Must Never Omit Discovering Anything to Our Ghostly Jather Under Pretence that I Ts Inconsiderable

Tue Devil makes use of another means to hinder us from having recourse to our superior or confessor, which is to represent unto us that the thing in question is of no moment, that it is not necessary to go to him about trifles, and that one ought to be ashamed to importune him to no purpose for things of no importance. To this I answer, first, that he who aspires to perfection ought not to wait till there is a question of an important or necessary matter; but he ought always propose to himself that which is better and more perfect; and therefore how trivial soever the thing may seem to be, it is always good not to neglect it, but to give an account of it to his superior, because it is properly herein he shows that he aspires to perfection. In effect, one thing which edifies extremely, is to have recourse to our superior in the smallest matters, and the more aged or learned a person is, the more he will edify his brethren by this submission, because this is to make ourselves little and to become children again for the love of Jesus Christ. I answer, in the second place, that those things are not always inconsiderable which appear so to you. But it is the shame and repugnance you have to speak of them, that furnishes you with reasons to make you believe them such, and to persuade you that they are not worth speaking of. It is thus that when we are ashamed to confess anything, the Devil presently makes use of this criminal bashfulness, to persuade us that what we are ashamed to speak of is not in reality a mortal sin, and that therefore we are not obliged to accuse ourselves of it. How many has he abused in this manner, by hindering them from confessing those things they were obliged to confess, and hereby causing them to make sacrilegious confessions and communions! The very repugnance we feel to discover anything to our superior ought to be sufficient to make us suspect the reasons we believe we have for not discovering it, and ought fully convince us that we ought to speak of it. Cassian says, “that there needs no other reason to show us that a thing is bad in itself, than the desire we have not to speak of it, which is a pure temptation of the Devil”—Cass. de Inst. Renunt., lib. 4. And he adds that this was the opinion of the ancient fathers, who held it for an infallible mark that the thought came from the Devil when one had a shame to discover it unto his superior. ‘ All iniquity”, says the prophet, “stops its mouth” (Psalms 106:42), —and ‘‘whomsoever does ill”, says our Saviour, “hates the light” (John 3:20); wherefore as often as we seek to hide anything from the knowledge of our superior, there is reason to suspect that it is not good.

In the third place, how trivial soever the thing may be, yet it becomes considerable as soon as we hide it, and therefore it is good to declare it in the beginning, that we may soon apply a remedy thereunto; for it is easier to do so then than it will be afterwards. St. John Climacus says, that as the eggs which the hen sits on, or which are hid under the dunghill, by little and little come to have life and afterwards are hatched, so the bad thoughts that we hide in our hearts, without being willing to discover them to him who may hinder their progress, ordinarily produce very bad effects.

Another means which the Devil makes use of in order to hinder some from addressing themselves to their superior, is to make them believe that they will give him too much trouble; but it is a great error to entertain this thought. For it is the duty of your superior to hearken to you at all times, and it is in this that the principal care of his charge consists. You do him wrong, then, to think he imagines himself importuned by that which is one of his chief obligations. On the contrary, he is very well pleased to be employed in so essential a thing, upon which, as I have already said, depends the spiritual advancement of all religious. ° Cassian relates a thing to our purpose that happened to Sera~ pion the abbot, in his youth, and which he was wont to relate to his religious to excite them to give an account of all things to their superior. When I was yet only a novice, says the abbot, I was tempted with gluttony, so that I thought I could never be able to satisfy myself, insomuch that every day, after I had dined with the abbot Theonas, my superior, I secretly took a‘loaf as I rose from table, and I eat it at night without his knowledge. However, though gluttony had such power over me, yet I had no sooner eaten my loaf but remorse of conscience seized me, and the grief I then felt for my fault surpassed very much the plea- ‘ sure that I had in satisfying my appetite. The temptation, nevertheless, had such an ascendancy, that the next day I returned to steal another loaf and eat it in private as before, without daring to discover my temptation to my superior, till at length it pleased God to deliver me from it in the manner that I shall now tell you. Some hermits came to see the abbot Theonas, and entertaining themselves as they were wont to do after dinner in pious and spiritual discourses on God, it happened that this holy man in answering their questions spoke of gluttony, and of the power temptations get over us when they are kept secret. My c6nscience at the time gave me a thousand reproaches, and I thought that all he said was addressed to myself, and imagined that, without doubt, God had revealed my temptation and my fault unto him; so that being at once touched and astonished at his words, I began bitterly to lament within myself. Afterwards sorrow for my fault increasing in my heart, I could no longer restrain myself, but giving way to tears and lamentations, I cast myself at the holy abbot’s feet, and showing him the loaf I had stolen that very day, I publicly declared to him the fault I daily fell into, begging of him to pardon me and to impose some penance on me for it. The holy old man began then to comfort me, and said to me: Child, take courage: this heroic action you have now performed by publicly declaring your fault before the whole world, has for ever delivered you from this troublesome temptation. And you have to-day gained a greater victory over the Devil than that he had before gained over you; nor doI doubt but that God permitted that this temptation should have so much power over you because you kept it secret. Be therefore assured that since you have declared it, the infernal serpent will not for the future be able to do you hurt, but will fly far from you, because he cannot endure the light. The holy old man had scarce ended his words, when on a sudden a kind of inflamed vapour came out of my breast, which filled the cell with an insupportable stench; and then the ‘holy man turning towards me: You see, dear child, says he, how God deigns by effects to confirm my words, because you see yourself that the merit of discovering your fault has cast out the Devil, who cannot bear to be exposed to the light, or to have his craft discovered; wherefore, fear not that he will ever come back to torment you for the future. What this holy old man foretold me I found true; for I was never after afterwards disquieted with this temptation, nor ever anything like it entered more into my thoughts”—~Cass. Coll. ii. Ab. Moys., c. 11.

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