18. Providence And
Prayer
When we reflect on the
infallibility of God’s foreknowledge and the unchangeableness of the decrees of
providence, not infrequently a difficulty occurs to the mind. If this
infallible providence embraces in its universality every period of time and has
foreseen all things, what can be the use of prayer? How is it possible for us
to enlighten God by our petitions, to make Him alter His designs, who has said:
“I am the Lord and I change not”? (Mal. 3: 6.) Must we conclude that prayer is
of no avail, that it comes too late, that whether we pray or not, what is to be
will be?
On the contrary, the
Gospel tells us: “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matt. 7: 7). A commonplace
with unbelievers and especially with the deists of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, this objection in reality arises from an erroneous view
as to the primary source of efficacy in prayer and the purpose for which it is
intended. The solution of the objection will show the intimate connection
between prayer and providence, since (1) it is founded upon providence, (2) it
is a practical recognition of providence, and (3) it co-operates in the
workings of providence.
Providence, the primary
cause of efficacy in prayer
We sometimes speak as
though prayer were a force having the primary cause of its efficacy in
ourselves, seeking by way of persuasion to bend God’s will to our own; and
forthwith the mind is confronted with the difficulty just mentioned, that no
one can enlighten God or prevail upon Him to alter His designs.
As clearly shown by St.
Augustine and St. Thomas (IIa IIae, q. 83, a. 2), the truth is that prayer is
not a force having its primary source in ourselves; it is not an effort of the
human soul to bring violence to bear upon God and compel Him to alter the
dispositions of His providence. If we do occasionally make use of these
expressions, it is by way of metaphor, just a human way of expressing
ourselves. In reality, the will of God is absolutely unchangeable, as
unchangeable as it is merciful; yet in this very unchangeableness the efficacy
of prayer, rightly said, has its source, even as the source of a stream is to
be found on the topmost heights of the mountains.
In point of fact, before
ever we ourselves decided to have recourse to prayer, it was willed by God.
From all eternity God willed it to be one of the most fruitful factors in our
spiritual life, a means of obtaining the graces necessary to reach the goal of
our life’s journey. To conceive of God as not foreseeing and intending from all
eternity the prayers we address to Him in time is just as childish as the
notion of a God subjecting His will to ours and so altering His designs.
Prayer is not our
invention. Those first members of our race, who, like Abel, addressed their
supplications to Him, were inspired to do so by God Himself. It was He who
caused it to spring from the hearts of patriarchs and prophets; it is He who
continues to inspire it in souls that engage in prayer. He it is who through
His Son bids us, “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek and you shall find:
knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7: 7).
The answer to the
objection we have mentioned is in the main quite simple in spite of the mystery
of grace it involves. True prayer, prayer offered with the requisite
conditions, is infallibly efficacious because God has decreed that it shall be
so, and God cannot revoke what He has once decreed.
It is not only what
comes to pass that has been foreseen and intended (or at any rate permitted) by
a providential decree, but the manner also in which it comes to pass, the
causes that bring about the event, the means by which the end is attained.
Providence, for
instance, has determined from all eternity that there shall be no harvest
without the sowing of seed, no family life without certain virtues, no social
life without authority and obedience, no knowledge without mental effort, no
interior life without prayer, no redemption without a Redeemer, no salvation
without the application of His merits and, in the adult, a sincere desire to
obtain that salvation.
In every order, from the
lowest to the highest, God has had in view the production of certain effects and
has prepared the necessary causes; with certain ends in view He has prepared
the means adequate to attain them. For the material harvest He has prepared a
material seed, and for the spiritual harvest a spiritual seed, among which must
be included prayer.
Prayer, in the spiritual
order, is as much a cause destined from all eternity by providence to produce a
certain effect, the attainment of the gifts of God necessary for salvation, as
heat and electricity in the physical order are causes that from all eternity
are destined to produce the effects of our everyday experience.
Hence, far from being
opposed to the efficacy of prayer, the unchangeableness of God is the ultimate
guaranty of that efficacy. But more than this, prayer must be the act by which
we continually acknowledge that we are subject to the divine governance.
Prayer, an act of
worship paid to Providence
The lives of all
creatures are but a gift of God, yet only men and angels can be aware of the
fact. Plants and animals receive without knowing that they are receiving. It is
the heavenly Father, the Gospel tells us, who feeds the birds of the air, but
they are unaware of it. Man, too, lives by the gifts of God and is able to
recognize the fact. If the sensual lose sight of it, that is because in them
reason is smothered by passion. If the proud refuse to acknowledge it, the
reason is that they are spiritually blinded by pride causing them to judge all
things not from the highest of motives but from what is often sheer mediocrity
and paltriness.
If we are of sound mind,
we are bound to acknowledge with St. Paul that we possess nothing but what we
have received: “What hast thou that thou hast not received?” (I Cor. 4:7.)
Existence, health and strength, the light of intelligence, any sustained moral energy
we may have, success in our undertakings, where the least trifle might mean
failure —all these are the gifts of Providence. And, transcending reason, faith
tells us that the grace necessary for salvation and still more the Holy Ghost
whom our Lord promised are pre-eminently the gift of God, the gift that Jesus
refers to in these words of His to the Samaritan woman, “If thou didst know the
gift of God” (John 4: 10).
Thus when we ask of God
in the spirit of faith to give health to the sick, to enlighten our minds so
that we may see our way clearly in difficulties, to give us His grace to resist
temptation and persevere in doing good, this prayer of ours is an act of
worship paid to Providence.
Mark how our Lord
invites us to render this daily homage to Providence, morning and evening, and
frequently in the course of the day. Recall to mind how He, after bidding us, “Ask
and it shall be given you” (Matt. 7: 7), goes on to bring out the goodness of
Providence in our regard: “What man is there among you, of whom if his son
shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone? Or if he shall ask him a fish, will
he reach him a serpent? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things
to them that ask Him?” (Matt. 7: 7, 9-11.) Our Lord’s statement carries its own
proof. If there is any kindness in a father’s heart, does it not come to him
from the heart of God or from His love?
Sometimes indeed God
might be said to reverse the parts, when through His prevenient actual graces
He urges us to pray, to render due homage to His providence and obtain from it
what we stand most in need of. Recall, for instance, how our Lord led on the
Samaritan woman to pray: “If thou didst know the gift of God and who He is that
saith to thee: Give me to drink: thou perhaps wouldst have asked of Him, and He
would have given thee living water... springing up into life everlasting” (John
4: 10, 14). The Lord entreats us to come to Him; He waits for us patiently, always
eager to listen to us.
The Lord is like a
father who has already decided to grant some favor to His children, yet prompts
them to ask it of Him. Jesus first willed that the Samaritan woman should be
converted and then gradually caused her to burst forth in heartfelt prayer; for
sanctifying grace is not like a liquid that is poured into an inert vessel; it
is a new life, which the adult will receive only if he desires it.
Sometimes God seems to
turn a deaf ear to our prayer, especially when it is not sufficiently free from
self-interest, seeking temporal blessings for their own sake rather than as
useful for salvation. Then gradually grace invites us to pray better, reminding
us of the Gospel words: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice: and
all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6: 33).
Indeed at times it seems
that God repulses us as if to see whether we shall persevere in our prayer. He
did so to the Canaanite woman. The harshness of His words to her seemed like a
refusal: “I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of
Israel... It is not good to take the bread of the children and to cast it to
the dogs.” Inspired undoubtedly by grace that came to her from Christ, the
woman replied: “Yea, Lord: for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from
the table of their masters.” “O woman, “ Jesus said, “great is thy faith. Be it
done to thee as thou wilt” (Matt. 15: 23, 26-28). And her daughter was
delivered from the demon that was tormenting her.
When we really pray, it
is an acknowledgment, a practical and not merely abstract or theoretical
acknowledgment, that we are under the divine governance, which infinitely
transcends the governance of men. Whether our prayer takes the form of
adoration or supplication or thanksgiving or reparation, it should thus
unceasingly render to providence that homage which is its due.
Prayer co-operates in
the divine governance
Prayer is not in
opposition to the designs of Providence and does not seek to alter them, but
actually co-operates in the divine governance, for when we pray we begin to
wish in time what God wills for us from all eternity.
When we pray, it may
seem that the divine will submits to our own, whereas in reality it is our will
that is uplifted and made to harmonize with the divine will. All prayer, so the
Fathers say, is an uplifting of the soul to God, whether it; be prayer of
petition, of adoration, of praise, or of thanksgiving, or the prayer of
reparation which makes honorable amends.
One who prays properly,
with humility, confidence, and perseverance, asking for the things necessary
for salvation, does undoubtedly co-operate in the divine governance. In stead
of one, there are now two who desire these things. It is God of course who
converted the sinner for whom we have so long been praying; nevertheless we
have been God’s partners in the conversion. It is God who gave to the soul in
tribulation that light and strength for which we have so long besought Him; yet
from all eternity He decided to produce this salutary effect only with our
co-operation and as the result of our intercession.
The consequences of this
principle are numerous. First, the more prayer is in conformity with the divine
intentions, the more closely does it co-operate in the divine governance. That
there may be ever more of this conformity in our prayer, let us every day say
the Our Father slowly and with great attention; let us meditate upon it, with
love accompanying our faith. This loving meditation will become contemplation,
which will ensure for us the hallowing and glorifying of God’s name both in
ourselves and in those about us, the coming of His kingdom and the fulfilment
of His will here on earth as in heaven. It will obtain for us also the
forgiveness of our sins and deliverance from evil, as well as our
sanctification and salvation.
From this it follows
that our prayer will be the purer and more efficacious when we pray in Christ’s
name and offer to God, in compensation for the imperfections of our own love
and adoration, those acts of love and adoration that spring from His holy soul.
A Christian who says the
Our Father day by day with gradually increasing fervor, who says it from the
bottom of his heart, for others as well as for himself, undoubtedly cooperates
very much in the divine governance. He co-operates far more than the scientists
who have discovered the laws governing the stars in their courses or the great
physicians who have found cures for some terrible diseases. The prayer of St.
Francis, St. Dominic, or, to come nearer to our own times, St. Teresa of the
Child Jesus, had an influence certainly not less powerful than that of a Newton
or a Pasteur. One who really prays as the saints have prayed, co-operates in
the saving not only of bodies but of souls. Every soul, through its higher
faculties, opens upon the infinite, and is, as it were, a universe gravitating
toward God.
Close attention to these
intimate relations between prayer and providence will show that prayer is
undoubtedly a more potent force than either wealth or science. No doubt science
accomplishes marvelous things; but it is acquired by human means, and its
effects are confined within human limits. Prayer, indeed, is a supernatural
energy with an efficacy coming from God and the infinite merits of Christ, and
from actual grace that leads us on to pray. It is a spiritual energy more
potent than all the forces of nature together. It can obtain for us what God
alone can bestow, the grace of contrition and of perfect charity, the grace
also of eternal life, the very end and purpose of the divine governance, the
final manifestation of its goodness.
At a time when so many
perils threaten the whole world, we need more to reflect on the necessity and
sublimity of true prayer, especially when it is united with the prayer of our
Lord and of our Lady. The present widespread disorder must by contrast
stimulate us constantly to reflect that we are subject not only to the often
unreasoning, imprudent government of men, but also to God’s infinitely wise
governance. God never permits evil except in view of some greater good. He
wills that we co-operate in this good by a prayer that becomes daily more
sincere, more humble, more profound, more confident, more persevering, by a
prayer united with action, in order that each succeeding day shall see more
perfectly realized in us and in those about us that petition of the Our Father:
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” At a time when Bolshevism is
putting forth every effort against God, it behooves us to repeat it again and
again with ever deepening sincerity, in action as well as in word, so that as
time goes on God’s reign may supersede the reign of greed and pride. Thus in a
concrete, practical way we shall at once see that God permits these present
evils only because He has some higher purpose in view, which it will be granted
us to see, if not in this world. at any rate after our death
PART IV :
SELF-ABANDONMENT TO PROVIDENCE
19. Why And In What
Matters We Should Abandon Ourselves To Providence
The doctrine of
self-abandonment to divine providence is a doctrine obviously founded on the
Gospel, but it has been falsely construed by the Quietists, who gave themselves
up to a spiritual sloth, more or less renounced the struggle necessary for the
attainment of perfection, and seriously depreciated the value and necessity of
hope or confidence in God, of which true self-abandonment is a higher form.
But it is possible also
to depart from the Gospel teaching on this point in a sense entirely opposite
to that of the Quietists with their idle repose, by going to the other extreme
of a useless disquiet and agitation.
Here as elsewhere the
truth is the culminating point lying between and transcending these two extreme
conflicting errors. It behooves us therefore to determine exactly the meaning
and import of the true doctrine of self-abandonment to the will of God if we
are to be saved from these sophistries, which have no more than a false
appearance of Christian perfection.
We shall first see why
it is we should practice this self-abandonment to Providence, and then in what
matters. After that we shall see what form it should take and what is the
attitude of Providence toward those who abandon themselves completely to it.
We shall get our
inspiration from the teaching of St. Francis de Sales, [50] Bossuet, [51] Pere
Piny, O.P., [52] and Pere de Caussade, S.J. [53]
Why we should abandon
ourselves to divine providence
The answer of every
Christian will be that the reason lies in the wisdom and goodness of
Providence. This is very true; nevertheless, if we are to have a proper
understanding of the subject, if we are to avoid the error of the Quietists in
renouncing more or less the virtue of hope and the struggle necessary for
salvation, if we are to avoid also the other extreme of disquiet,
precipitation, and a feverish, fruitless agitation, it is expedient for us to
lay down four principles already somewhat accessible to natural reason and
clearly set forth in revelation as found in Scripture. These principles
underlying the true doctrine of self-abandonment, also bring out the motive
inspiring it.
The first of these
principles is that everything which comes to pass has been foreseen by God from
all eternity, and has been willed or at least permitted by Him.
Nothing comes to pass
either in the material or in the spiritual world, but God has foreseen it from
all eternity; because with Him there ii no passing from ignorance to knowledge
as with us, and He has nothing to learn from events as they occur. Not only has
God foreseen everything that is happening now or will happen in the future, but
whatever reality and goodness there is in these things He has willed; and
whatever evil or moral disorder is in them, He has merely permitted. Holy
Scripture is explicit on this point, and, as the councils have declared, no
room is left for doubt in the matter.
The second principle is
that nothing can be willed or permitted by God that does not contribute to the
end He purposed in creating, which is the manifestation of His goodness and
infinite perfections, and the glory of the God-man Jesus Christ, His only Son.
As St. Paul says (I Cor. 2: 23), “All are yours. And you are Christ’s. And
Christ is God’s.”
In addition to these two
principles, there is a third, which St. Paul states thus (Rom. 8:28) : “We know
that to them that love God all things work together unto good: to such as,
according to His purpose, are called to be saints” and persevere in His love.
God sees to it that everything contributes to their spiritual welfare, not only
the grace He bestows on them, not only those natural qualities He endows them
with, but sickness too, and contradictions and reverses; as St. Augustine tells
us, even their very sins, which God only permits in order to lead them on to a
truer humility and thereby to a purer love. It was thus He permitted the
threefold denial of St. Peter, to make the great Apostle more humble, more
mistrustful of self, and by this very means become stronger and trust more in
the divine mercy.
These first three
principles may therefore be summed up in this way: Nothing comes to pass but
God has foreseen it, willed it or at least permitted it. He wills nothing,
permits nothing, unless for the manifestation of His goodness and infinite
perfections, for the glory of His Son, and the welfare of those that love Him.
In view of these three principles, it is evident that our trust in Providence
cannot be too childlike, too steadfast. Indeed, we may go further and say that
this trust in Providence should be blind as is our faith, the object of which
is those mysteries that are non-evident and unseen (fides est de non visis) for
we are certain beforehand that Providence is directing all things infallibly to
a good purpose, and we are more convinced of the rectitude of His designs than
we are of the best of our own intentions. Therefore, in abandoning ourselves to
God, all we have to fear is that our submission will not be wholehearted
enough. [54]
In view of Quietism,
however, this last sentence obliges us to lay down a fourth principle no less
certain than the principles that have preceded. The principle is, that
obviously self-abandonment does not dispense us from doing everything in our
power to fulfil God’s will as made known in the commandments and counsels, and
in the events of life; but so long as we have the sincere desire to carry out
His will thus made known from day to day, we can and indeed we must abandon
ourselves for the rest to the divine will of good pleasure, no matter how
mysterious it may be, and thus avoid a useless disquiet and mere agitation.
[55]
This fourth principle is
expressed in equivalent terms by the Council of Trent (Sess. VI, cap. 13), when
it declares that we must all have firm hope in God’s assistance and put our
trust in Him, being careful at the same time to keep His commandments. As the
well-known proverb has it: “Do what you ought, come what may.”
All theologians explain
what is meant by the divine will as expressed: expressed, that is, in the
commandments, in the spirit underlying the counsels, and in the events of life.
[56] They add that, while conforming ourselves to His expressed will, [57] we
must abandon ourselves to His divine will of good pleasure, however mysterious
it may be, for we are certain beforehand that in its holiness it wills nothing,
permits nothing, unless for a good purpose.
We must take special
note here of these words in the Gospel of St. Luke (16: 10) : “He that is
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is greater.” If
every day we do what we can to be faithful to God in the ordinary routine of
life, we may be confident that He will give us grace to remain faithful in
whatever extremity we may find ourselves through His permission; and if we have
to suffer for Him, He will give us the grace to die a heroic death rather than be
ashamed of Him and betray Him.
These are the principles
underlying the doctrine of trusting self-abandonment. Accepted as they are by
all theologians, they express what is of Christian faith in this matter. The
golden mean is thus above and between the two errors mentioned at the beginning
of this section. By constant fidelity to duty, we avoid the false and idle
repose of the Quietist, and on the other hand by a trustful self-abandonment we
are saved from a useless disquiet and a fruitless agitation. Self-abandonment
would be sloth did it not presuppose this daily fidelity, which indeed is a
sort of springboard from which we may safely launch ourselves into the unknown.
Daily fidelity to the divine will as expressed gives us a sort of right to
abandon ourselves completely to the divine will of good pleasure as yet not
made known to us.
A faithful soul will
often recall to mind these words of our Lord: “My meat is to do the will of Him
that sent me” (John 4: 34). The soul finds its constant nourishment in the
divine will as expressed, abandoning itself to the divine will as yet not made
known, much as a swimmer supports himself on the passing wave and surrenders
himself to the oncoming wave, to that ocean that might engulf him but that
actually sustains, him. So the soul must strike out toward the open sea, into
the infinite ocean of being, says St. John Damascene, borne up by the divine
will as made known there and then and abandoning itself to that divine will
upon which all successive moments of the future depend. The future is with God,
future events are in His hands. If the merchants to whom Joseph was sold by his
brethren had passed by one hour sooner, he would not have gone into Egypt, and
the whole course of his life would have been changed. Our lives also are
dependent on events controlled by God. Daily fidelity and trusting
self-abandonment thus give the spiritual life its balance, its stability and
harmony. In this way we live our lives in almost continuous recollection, in an
ever-increasing self-abnegation, and these are the conditions normally required
for contemplation and union with God. This, then, is the reason why our life
should be one of self-abandonment to the divine will as yet unknown to us and
at the same time supported every moment by that will as already made known to
us.
In this union of
fidelity and self-abandonment we have some idea of the way in which asceticism,
insisting on fidelity or conformity to the divine will, should be united with
mysticism, which emphasizes self-abandonment.
In what matters we
should abandon ourselves to divine Providence
Once we have complied
with the principles just laid down, when we have done all that the law of God
and Christian prudence demand, our self-abandonment should then embrace
everything. What does this involve? In the first place, our whole future, what
our circumstances will be tomorrow, in twenty years and more. We must also
abandon ourselves to God in all that concerns the present, in the midst of the
difficulties we may be experiencing right now; even our past life, our past
actions with all their consequences should be abandoned to the divine mercy.
We must likewise abandon
ourselves to God in all that affects the body, in health and sickness, as well
as in all that affects the soul, whether it be joy or tribulation, of long or
brief duration. We must abandon ourselves to God in all that concerns the good
will or malice of men. [58] Says St. Paul: [59]
If God be for us, who is
against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?... Who then shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations? Or distress? Or famine? Or
nakedness? Or danger? Or persecutions? Or the sword?... I am sure that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to
come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Could there be a more
perfect self-abandonment in the spirit ; of faith, hope, and love? This is an
abandonment embracing all the vicissitudes of this world, all the upheavals
that may convulse it, embracing life and death, the hour of death, and the
circumstances, peaceful or violent, in which we breathe forth our last sigh.
The same thought has
been expressed in the psalms: “Fear the Lord... for there is no want to them
that fear Him. The rich have wanted, and have suffered hunger: but they that
seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good (Ps. 33: 10) ; “0 how great is
the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that
fear Thee! Which Thou hast wrought for them that hope in Thee.... Thou shalt
hide them in the secret of Thy face from the disturbance of men. Thou shalt
protect them in Thy tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues” (Ps.
30:20-21).
And again Job: “I have
not sinned: and my eye abideth in bitterness. Deliver me, O Lord, and set me
beside Thee and let any man’s hand fight against me” (17:3).
Thus, as recorded in the
Book of Daniel (13:42), the daughter of Helcias, the worthy Susanna, abandoned
herself to God under the vile calumnies of the two ancients.” O eternal God, “
she cries, “who knowest hidden things, who knowest all things before they come
to pass, Thou knowest that they have borne false witness against me: and behold
I must die, whereas I have done none of these things which these men have
maliciously forged against me.” It is recorded in the prophecy how the Lord
heard the prayer of this noble woman: “And when she was led to be put to death,
the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young boy whose name was Daniel. And he
cried out with a loud voice: I am clear of the blood of this woman. Then all
the people, turning themselves toward him, said: What meaneth this word that
thou hast spoken?” Inspired by God, the young Daniel then showed how her two
accusers had borne false witness. Separating them one from the other, he
questioned them apart in the presence of the people, and thus all unintentionally
they showed by their contradictory statements that they had lied.
What is our practical
conclusion to be? It is this, that in doing our utmost to carry out our daily
duties we must for the rest abandon ourselves to divine providence, and that
with the most childlike confidence. And if we are really striving to be
faithful in little things, in the practice of humility, gentleness, and
patience, in the daily routine of our lives, God on His part will give us grace
to be faithful in greater and more difficult things, should He perchance ask
them of us; then, in those exceptional circumstances, He will give to those
that seek Him exceptional graces.
In psalm 54: 23 we are
told: “Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall not
suffer the just to waver forever.... But I will trust Thee, O Lord.”
Imbued with these same
sentiments, St. Paul writes to the Philippians (4: 4) : “Rejoice in the Lord
always: again, I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord
is nigh. Be nothing solicitous: but in everything, by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of
God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus.”
Again, in order to
exhort us to have confidence, St. Peter tells us in his First Epistle (5: 5):
Be ye humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in
the time of visitation: casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of
you. Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith:
knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us into His eternal glory in Christ
Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will Himself perfect you and confirm
you and establish you.
“Blessed are they that
trust in Him” (Ps. 2: 13).” They that hope in the Lord, “ says Isaias, “shall
renew their strength.... They shall walk and not faint” (40: 31).
We have a perfect model
of this abandonment to divine providence in St. Joseph, in the many
difficulties that beset him at the moment of our Lord’s birth at Bethlehem, and
again when he heard the mournful prophecy of the aged Simeon, and during all
the time that elapsed from the flight away from Herod into Egypt until the
return to Nazareth.
Following his example,
let us live our lives in that same spirit, fulfilling our daily duties, and the
grace of God will never be wanting. By His grace we shall be equal to anything
He asks of us, no matter how difficult it may sometimes be.
20. The Manner In Which
We Must Abandon Ourselves To Providence
We have said that it is
because of the wisdom and goodness of providence that we should put our trust
in it and abandon ourselves completely to it; and further, that, provided we
fulfil our daily duties, this self-surrender should then embrace everything,
all that concerns both soul and body, remembering that if we are faithful in
small things grace will be given us to be faithful in what is greater.
Now let us see what
forms this confidence and self-abandonment must take according to the nature of
events as these do or do not depend on the will of man; let us see what spirit
should animate it, what virtues should inspire it.
On the various ways of
abandoning oneself to providence according to the nature of the event [60]
In order to have a
proper understanding of the doctrine of holy indifference, it is well to point
out, as spiritual writers frequently do, [61] that our self-abandonment must be
in different ways in so far as events independent of the human will call for a
type of self-abandonment different from that required by the injustice done to
us by men, or our personal sins and their consequences.
Where it concerns events
independent of the human will (such as accidents impossible to foresee,
incurable diseases), our self-abandonment cannot be too absolute. Resistance
here would be useless and would only serve to make us more unhappy; whereas, by
accepting them in the spirit of faith, confidence and love, these unavoidable
sufferings will become very meritorious. [62] In times of affliction, as often
as we say, “Thy will be done, “ we acquire new merit, and thus what is a real
trial becomes a means of great sanctification. Moreover, even in trials that
may come upon us, but which perhaps will never materialize, self-abandonment is
still of great profit. In preparing to sacrifice his son with perfect
self-abandonment, Abraham gained much merit, even though in the event God
ceased to demand it of him. By the practice of self-abandonment trials present
and to come thus become means of sanctification, the more so as it is inspired
by a more intense love for God.
Where it concerns
sufferings brought upon us through the injustice of men, their ill will, their
unfairness in their dealings with us, their calumnies, what must our attitude
be?
St. Thomas, [63]
speaking of the injuries and undeserved reproaches, the insults and slanders
that affect only our person, declares we must be ready to bear them with
patience in compliance with our Lord’s words: “If one strike thee on thy right
cheek, turn to him also the other” (Matt. 5: 39). But, he continues, there are
occasions when some answer is called for, either for the good of the person who
injures us, to put a stop to his insolence, or to avoid the scandal such
slanders and calumnies may cause. If we do feel bound to retaliate and offer
some sort of resistance, let us put ourselves unreservedly in God’s hands for
the success of the steps we take. In other words, we must deplore and reprove
these acts of injustice not because they are wounding to our self-love and
pride, but because they are an offense against God, endangering the salvation
of the guilty parties and of those who may be led astray by them.
So far as we are
concerned, we should see in the injustice men do to us the action of divine
justice permitting this evil in order to give us an opportunity of expiating
other and very real failings, failings with which no one reproaches us. It is
well also to see in this sort of trial the action of divine mercy, which would
make of it a means to detach us from creatures, to rid us of our inordinate
affections, our pride and luke-warmness, and thus oblige us to have immediate
recourse to a fervent prayer of supplication. Spiritually these acts of
injustice are like the surgeon’s knife, very painful at times but a great
corrective. The suffering they cause must bring home to us the value of true
justice; not only must it lead us to be just in our dealings with our neighbor,
but it must give birth in us to the beatitude of those who, as the Gospel says,
hunger and thirst after justice and who shall indeed have their fill.
And so, instead of
upsetting and embittering us, men’s contempt for us may have a very salutary
effect, by impressing us with the utter vanity of all human glory and with the
sublimity of the glory of God as the saints have understood it. It is the way
leading to that true humility which causes us to accept contempt and to love to
be treated as objects worthy of contempt. [64]
Lastly, what is to be
our attitude regarding all those vexations of every kind that are the result
not of the injustice of others, but of our own failings, our own indiscretions
and weaknesses?
In these failings of
ours and their consequences, we must distinguish the element of disorder and
guilt from the salutary humiliations resulting from them. Whatever our
self-love may have to say, we can never regret too keenly any inordinateness
there may have been in our actions, on account of the wrong it has done to God,
and the harm it has done to our own soul and, as an almost invariable
consequence, to the soul of our neighbor. As for the salutary humiliation
resulting from it, we must accept it with complete self-abandonment according
to the words of the psalm (118: 71-77) : “It is good for me that Thou hast
humbled me: that I may learn Thy justifications. The law of my mouth is good to
me, above thousands of gold and silver.... I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments
are equity: and in Thy truth Thou has humbled me. O let Thy mercy be for my
comfort.... Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, and I shall live: for Thy law
is my meditation.”
These humiliations
resulting from our personal failings are the true remedy for that exaggerated
estimate of ourselves to which we so often cling in spite of the disapproval
and contempt others show for us. It even happens that pride hardens us to
humiliations from a purely external source, and causes us to offer to ourselves
the incense others refuse us. This is one of the most subtle and dangerous
forms of self-love and pride, and, to correct it, the divine mercy makes use of
those humiliations which are the result of our own failings; in its loving
kindness it makes those very failings contribute to our progress. Hence, while
laboring to correct ourselves, we should accept these humiliations with perfect
self-abandonment.” It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me, O Lord.” It is
the way leading to a practical realization of those profound words of the
Imitation, so fruitful to one who has really understood them: “Love to be
unknown and accounted as nought.” By this doctrine we must live according as
the occurrences do or do not depend on ourselves.
The spirit that should
animate our self-abandonment to Providence
Is it a spirit that
depreciates our hope of salvation on the plea of advanced perfection, as the
Quietists claimed? Quite the contrary: it must be a spirit of deep faith,
confidence, and love.
The will of God, as
expressed by His commandments, is that we should hope in Him and labor
confidently in the work of our salvation in the face of every obstacle. This
expressed will of God pertains to the domain of obedience, not of self-abandonment.
This latter concerns the will of His good pleasure on which depends our still
uncertain future, the daily occurrences in the course of our life, such as
health and sickness, success and misfortune. [65]
To sacrifice our
salvation, our eternal happiness, on the plea of perfection, would be
absolutely contrary to that natural inclination for happiness which, with our
nature, we have from God. It would be contrary to Christian hope, not only to
that possessed by the common run of the faithful, but also to that of the
saints, who in the severest trials have hoped on “against all human hope, “ to
use St. Paul’s phrase (Rom. 4: 18), even when all seemed lost. Nay, to
sacrifice our eternal beatitude in this way would be contrary to charity
itself, by which indeed we love God for His own sake and desire to possess Him
that we may eternally proclaim His glory.
The natural inclination
we have from God which leads us to desire happiness is not a disorder, for it
already contains the initial tendency to love God the sovereign good more than
ourselves. As St. Thomas has pointed out, [66] in our own organism the hand
naturally tends to prefer the interests of the body to its own and to sacrifice
itself, if necessary, for the safety of the body. And our Lord Himself says
that the hen instinctively gathers her little ones under her wing, ready to
sacrifice herself if necessary to save them from the hawk, the reason being
that, all unconsciously, she prefers the welfare of the species to her own. In
a higher form this same natural tendency is to be found in man: in loving what
is highest in himself He loves his Creator even more; to cease to desire our
perfection and salvation would be to turn our back upon God. [67] There can be
no question, therefore, of our sacrificing the desire for salvation and eternal
happiness, as the Quietists imagined, on the plea of advanced perfection.
Far from it:
self-abandonment involves the exercise in an eminent degree of the three
theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity, as it were fused into one. [68]
It is nevertheless true
to say that God purifies our desire from the self-love with which it may be
tinged by leaving us in some uncertainty about it and so inducing us to love
Him more exclusively for His own sake. [69]
We should abandon
ourselves to God in the spirit of faith, believing with St. Paul (Rom. 8: 28)
that “all things work together unto good” in the lives of those who love God
and persevere in His love. Such an act of faith was that made by holy Job who,
when deprived of his wealth and his children, remained submissive to God,
saying: “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away.... Blessed be the name of the
Lord” (Job 1:21).
In the same spirit
Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son in obedience to God’s command, abandoning
himself in the deepest faith to the divine will of good pleasure in all that
concerned the future of his race. We are reminded of this by St. Paul when he
tells us in the Epistle to the Hebrews (11:17) : “By faith Abraham, when he was
tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son (to whom it was said: in Isaac shall thy seed be called),
accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead.” Far less exacting
are the trials we have to endure, though on account of our weakness they
sometimes seem to weigh heavily upon us.
At any rate, let us
believe with the saints that whatever the Lord does He does well, when He sends
us humiliations and spiritual dryness as when He heaps honors and consolations
upon us. As Father Piny remarks, [70] nowhere is there a deeper or more lively
faith than in the conviction that God arranges everything for our welfare, even
when He appears to destroy us and overthrow our most cherished plans, when He
allows us to be calumniated, to suffer permanent ill-health, and other
afflictions still more painful. [71] This is great faith indeed, for it is to
believe the apparently incredible: that God will raise us up by casting us
down; and it is to believe this in a practical and living way, not merely an
abstract and theoretical way. We find verified in our lives these words of the
Gospel: “Every one that exalteth himself [like the Pharisee] shall be humbled:
and he that humbleth himself [like the publican] shall be exalted” (Luke 18:
14). Also we find verified these words of the Magnificat: “He hath put down the
mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry
with good things: and the rich He hath sent empty away” (Luke 1: 52). Every one
of us must by humility be numbered among these little ones, among those that
hunger for divine truth which is the true bread of the soul.
While fulfilling our
daily duties, then, we must abandon ourselves to almighty God in a spirit of
deep faith, which must also be accompanied by an absolutely childlike
confidence in His fatherly kindness. Confidence (fiducia or confidentia), says
St. Thomas, [72] is a steadfast or intensified hope arising from a deep faith
in the goodness of God, who, according to His promises, is ever at hand to help
us—Deus auxilians. [73]
As the psalms declare: “Blessed
are they that trust in the Lord” (2: 12) ; “They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Sion: he shall not be moved forever that dwelleth in Jerusalem”
(124: 1) ; “Preserve me, O Lord, for I have put my trust in Thee” (15: 1) ; “In
Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me not be confounded” (30: 1).
St. Paul (Rom. 4: 18)
reminds us how Abraham, in spite of his advanced years, believed in the divine
promise that he would be the father of many nations, and adds: “Against hope,
he believed in hope.... In the promise also of God he staggered not by
distrust: but was strengthened in faith,, giving glory to God: most fully
knowing that whatsoever He has promised, He is able to perform.”
We, too, while fulfilling
our daily duties, should look to our Lord for the realization of these words of
His: “My sheep hear My voice: and I know them, and they follow Me... and no man
shall pluck them out of My hand” (John 10: 27). As Father Piny notes, [74] to
do one’s duty in all earnestness and then to resign oneself with entire
confidence into our Lord’s hands is the true mark of a member of His flock.
What better way can there be of hearkening to the voice of the good Shepherd
than by constantly acquiescing in all that He demands of us, lovingly
beseeching Him to have pity on us, throwing ourselves confidently into the arms
of His mercy with all our failings and regrets? By so doing, we are at the same
time placing in His hands all our fears for both the past and the future. This
holy self-abandonment is not at all opposed to hope, but is childlike
confidence in its holiest form united with a love becoming ever more and more
purified.
Love in its purest form,
in fact, depends for its support upon the will of God, after the example of our
Lord who said: “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may
perfect His work” (John 4:34) ; “Because I came down from heaven, not to do My
own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 5: 30). Thus no more perfect
or nobler or purer way of loving God can be found than to make the divine will
our own, fulfilling God’s will as expressed to us and then abandoning ourselves
entirely to His good pleasure. For souls that follow this road, God is
everything: eventually, they can say in very truth: “My God and my all.” God is
their center; they find no peace but in Him, by submitting all their
aspirations to His good pleasure and accepting tranquilly all that He does. At
times of greatest difficulty St. Catherine of Siena would remember the Master’s
words to her: “Think of Me and I will think of thee.”
Rare indeed are the
souls that attain to such perfection as this. And yet it is the goal at which
we all must aim. St. Francis de Sales says:
Our Lord loves with a
most tender love those who are so happy as to abandon themselves wholly to His
fatherly care, letting themselves be governed by His divine providence, without
any idle speculations as to whether the workings of this providence will be
useful to them, to their profit, or painful to their loss, and this because
they are well assured that nothing can be sent, nothing permitted by this
paternal and most loving heart, which will not be a source of good and profit
to them. All that is required is that they should place all their confidence in
Him. [75]... When, in fulfilling our daily duties, we abandon everything, our
Lord takes care of everything and orders everything.... The soul has nothing
else to do but to rest in the arms of our Lord like a child on its mother’s
breast. When she puts it down to walk, it walks until she takes it up again,
and when she wishes to carry it, she is allowed to do so. It neither knows nor
thinks where it is going, but allows itself to be carried or led wherever its
mother pleases. So this soul lets itself be carried when it lovingly accepts
God’s good pleasure in all things that happen, and walks when it carefully
effects all that the known (expressed) will of God demands. [76]
Then it can truly say
with our Lord: “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me” (John 4: 34).
Therein it finds its peace, which even now is in some sort the beginning of
eternal life within us—inchoatio vitae aeternae.
21. Providence And The
Duty Of The Present Moment
“All whatsoever you do
in word or in work, all things do ye in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him” (Col. 3: 17). To understand more
clearly how we should live from day to day trusting in God, and in a spirit of
self-abandonment, it is well to pay close attention to the duty of the present
moment and the graces offered us to fulfil it.
We will speak first of
the duty which presents itself at every moment, as the saints have understood
it, and then we will clarify their attitude from the teaching of Scripture and
theology, which is applicable to us all.
The duty of the present
moment as the saints understood it
The duty at any given
moment conveys, frequently under a modest exterior, the expression of God’s
will regarding ourselves and our individual lives. Thus it was our Lady lived
her life of union with God, by accomplishing His will in the daily routine of
duties of her simple life, a life outwardly commonplace like that of any other
person in her lowly rank. Thus, too, did the saints live, doing the will of God
as it was revealed to them from one moment to the other, without allowing
themselves to be upset by unforeseen reverses. Their secret consisted in
submitting constantly to the divine action in the shaping of their lives. In
that action they recognized all they had to do and suffer, duties to be
accomplished, crosses to be borne. They were persuaded that what is happening
at the moment is a sign that either God wills or permits it for the good of
those seeking Him. Even the evil they experienced taught them something: by
taxing their patience it showed them by contrast what must be done to avoid sin
and its disastrous consequences. Thus the saints see in the sequence of events
a sort of providential schooling. Moreover, they are convinced that behind the
succession of external happenings runs a parallel series of actual graces which
are continually being offered to enable us to draw great spiritual profit from
these events, whether painful or pleasing. The sequence of events, if looked at
in the right perspective, is an instructive course on the things of God, a sort
of extension of revelation or application of the Gospel truths continuing down
to the end of time.
A distinction is made in
almost every sphere between theoretical, abstract teaching and practical or
applied teaching. The same holds good in the spiritual order, where, in His own
way, almighty God imparts these two kinds of instruction, the one in the Gospel
and the other in the course of our lives.
This important truth
about life is often completely disregarded. As a rule, no sooner do we meet
with contradictions and reverses than we utter nothing but complaints and
murmurings. We find that this illness has come upon us just when there is so
much to be done; that something indispensable is denied us; that someone is
depriving us of the necessary means, or placing insurmountable obstacles in our
way as regards the good we must accomplish or the apostolate to which we have
devoted ourselves.
In these or even more
painful circumstances the saints would confess that fundamentally the one thing
necessary is to do the will of God from day to day. God never commands the
impossible. Each moment has a duty which God makes really possible for every
one of us and in the fulfilment of which He appeals to our love and generosity.
If, then, as a result of
our failings, something happens to distress us, it is a providential lesson
which we must accept in all humility and thus derive some profit from it. If,
through no fault of our own, God permits us to be deprived of certain help,
this is because that help is not really necessary for our sanctification and
salvation. The saints find that in a sense nothing is wanting to them unless it
be a greater love for God. If only we knew the inner meaning of those incidents
we call hindrances, contradictions, reverses, disappointments, misfortunes, and
failures, we should of course deplore any disorder they might involve (and the
saints deplored it, were pained by it far more than we), but we should also
reproach ourselves for complaining and give more consideration to the higher
purpose God is pursuing in all that He wills and even in His divine permission
of evil. [77]
Should we wonder that
the ways of providence are some times mysterious and that reason is
disconcerted at the mystery? “The just man liveth by faith” (Rom. 1: 17), says
the Scripture, and in particular he lives by the mystery of providence and its
ways. Eventually he realizes that, far from being contradictory, the mystery
cannot be rejected without every phase of our life becoming a contradiction.
More than once the
Scripture declares: “The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to
hell and bringeth back again.” [78]
The more the divine
action makes us die to sin and its consequences, the more it detaches us from
all that is not God Himself, and the more it vivifies us. It has been said that
sometimes grace is a destroyer; yet, in its workings within us, it does not
destroy, but perfects any good there is in nature, restoring and sublimating
it. We may say of grace as was said of God: “It killeth and maketh alive” (I
Kings 2: 6).
As Pere de Caussade
remarks, when explaining these ways of Providence, [79] “The more obscure the
mystery is to us, the more light it contains in itself”; for its obscurity is
due to a radiance too intense for our feeble vision.
Moreover, what happens
to each of us personally from one moment to the other by the will and
permission of Providence, is of greater instruction for us. Therein we may see
the expression of the divine will in our regard at the present moment. In this
way, too, within us is formed that experimental knowledge of God’s dealings
with us, a knowledge without which we can hardly direct our course aright in
spiritual things or do any lasting good to others. [80] In the spiritual order
more than anywhere else real knowledge can be acquired only by suffering and
action. Though our Lord’s holy soul from the moment of His coming into the
world enjoyed the beatific vision and an infused knowledge, yet He willed also
to have an experimental knowledge, that knowledge which is acquired from day to
day and enables us to view things under that special aspect which contact with
reality gives when they have been infallibly foreseen. We foresee that a very
dear friend who is sick has not long to live, yet when death does come and if
our eyes are open to see, it will provide a new lesson in which God will speak
to us as time goes on. This is the school of the Holy Ghost, in which His
lessons have nothing academic about them, but are drawn from concrete things.
And He varies them for each soul, since what is useful for one is not always so
for another. Although we must not be superstitious and think we see a deep
meaning in what is merely accidental and of no significance, let us in all simplicity
listen to what Providence has to say to each one of us personally in these
concrete lessons it gives. We must not treat this doctrine in a purely material
and mechanical way; it is a question of being supernaturally-minded in
everything, in all simplicity and without disputings or foolish questionings.
The author just quoted
says: [81]
The will of God in the
present moment is an ever bubbling source of sanctity.... All you who thirst,
learn that you have not far to go to find the fountain of living waters; it
gushes forth quite close to you right now; therefore hasten to find it. Why,
with the fountain so near, do you tire yourselves with running about after
every little rill?... O unknown Love! It seems as though Your wonders were
finished and nothing remained but to copy Your ancient works, and to quote Your
past discourses. And no one sees that Your inexhaustible activity is a source
of new thoughts, of fresh sufferings and further actions... of new saints.
The heart of Jesus is a “source
of graces ever new.”
As age succeeds age the
saints have no need to copy the lives or writings of those who have gone
before; they need only to live their lives in continuous self-abandonment to
God’s secret inspirations. In this they and their predecessors are alike, in
spite of differences peculiar to the age and the individual. Could we but see
the divine light it contains, the present moment would remind us that
everything may contribute to our spiritual advancement in the love of God, as
means or instrument, or at least as occasion, by way of trial or by way of
contrast. In the order intended by Providence this present moment is in some
way related to our last end, to the one thing necessary; and thus each instant
of fleeting time has some sort of relation with the unique instant of
unchanging eternity.
Could we but grasp this
truth, then not only the time of mass or our hours of prayer and visits to the
Blessed Sacrament would be a source of sanctification to us, but every hour of
the day would take on a supernatural significance and remind us that we are on
our way to eternity. Hence the pious practice of blessing each hour as it
begins, calling down the divine benediction upon it. At every moment we should
be at God’s service; there is no moment of the day that has not some duty for
us to fulfil, some duty toward God or our neighbor, the duty at least of
patiently waiting when external action is no longer possible. Every minute must
find us hallowing the name of God as though there were nothing more to keep us
here in time, as though the next moment must see our entry into eternity.
In the World War this
was the attitude of the more spiritually-minded when under gunfire. In those
three-minute intervals before firing recommenced, they would say to themselves:
“One moment, perhaps, and then death, “ and they would live the present moment
as though it were the prelude to eternity.
This, too, was the
attitude of the saints, not only in exceptional circumstances, but in the
ordinary routine of their lives: they never lost the sense of God’s presence.
Now light is thrown on this attitude of theirs by the Gospel principles we
mentioned and which are as applicable to us as to them.
The teaching of
Scripture and theology on the duty of the present moment
In his First Epistle to
the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote (10: 31) : “Whether you eat or drink, or
whatsoever else you do, do all for the glory of God”; and to the Colossians he
said (3: 17) : “All whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things do ye in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”
Our Lord Himself said
(Matt. 12:34-36) : “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A
good man out of a good treasure bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out
of an evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say to you, that every
idle word that men speak, they shall render an account of it in the day of
judgment.”
The full significance of
this doctrine is elucidated by St. Thomas (Ia IIae, q. 18, a. 9), who teaches
that in the concrete, hic et nunc, no deliberate act is morally indifferent;
every one of our deliberate acts is either good or bad. The reason is that
every deliberate act in a rational being should itself be rational or directed
to a morally good end, and in the Christian every deliberate act should be
directed at least virtually to God. If this is done, then the act is good,
otherwise it is bad; no other alternative is possible. Our very recreations and
amusements, the walks we take, all must have some morally good purpose. To take
a walk is of course indifferent when considered in the abstract; to walk in one
direction rather than in another may also be indifferent. But our walk must
have in view a rational purpose: for example, to repair or renew our strength
so as to apply ourselves once again to our appointed task. And thus our very
amusements assume a moral significance and value in our lives as rational
beings.
To adopt the metaphor of
a well-known preacher, our deliberate acts are like drops of rain falling on a
mountain peak at the watershed. Some water flows to the right into one river
and so eventually to the ocean; the rest flows to the left to join another
river flowing down to another sea far off in the opposite direction. So also it
is with our deliberate acts: they are either directed to what is good and so
eventually to God, or they are directed to evil. Not one of these acts, when
presented in the concrete reality of life, is indifferent.
This teaching may at
first sight appear severe. That is not so: a virtual or implicit intention is
all that is needed, renewed each morning at prayer-time and as often as the
Holy Ghost inspires us to lift up our hearts to God.
Nay more, it is a
consoling doctrine, for it follows that in the lives of the just every
deliberate act that is not sinful is at once morally good and meritorious,
whether it be easy or difficult, trivial or heroic.
Again, when rightly
understood and really lived, this doctrine is a source of sanctification. It
leads to the reflection that what God does at any particular moment is well
done and is a sign of His will. Thus Job, deprived of all things, saw in this
the will of God trying Him for his sanctification; thus instead of cursing this
most painful episode of his, he blessed the name of the Lord. Let us, then,
learn to recognize in what is happening every moment something positively
intended by God, or at any rate divinely permitted, and always directed to some
higher good purpose. In this way, no matter what happens, we shall always be at
peace.
The whole doctrine is
summed up by St. Francis de Sales in these few words: “Every moment comes to us
pregnant with a command from God, only to pass on and plunge into eternity,
there to remain forever what we have made it.”
To see thus constantly
in the duty of the present moment the expression of the divine will comes
principally from the gift of wisdom, which enables us in a manner to see in
God, the first cause and last end, every event whether painful or pleasing.
That is why, as St. Augustine says, this gift corresponds to the beatitude of
the peacemakers: that is, the beatitude of those who preserve their peace where
many an other will be troubled and who will often restore to those who are in
deep trouble the peace they have lost.” Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called the children of God”. (Matt. 5: 9).
22. The Grace Of The
Present Moment And Fidelity In Little Things
We were saying that the
duty we must accomplish with every succeeding hour is the expression of God’s will
for each one of us individually hic et nunc and thus conveys a certain
practical instruction very valuable for sanctification. It is the Gospel
teaching as applied to the various circumstances of our lives, a real
object-lesson imparted by almighty God Himself.
If we could only look on
each moment from this point of view, as the saints did, we should see that to
each moment there is attached not only a duty to be performed, but also a grace
to be faithful in accomplishing that duty.
The spiritual riches
contained in the present moment
As fresh circumstances
arise, with their attendant obligations, fresh actual graces are offered us in
order that we may derive the greatest spiritual profit from-them. Above the
succession of external events that go to make up our life, there runs a
parallel series of actual graces offered for our acceptance, just as the air
comes in successive waves to enter our lungs and so make breathing possible.
This succession of
actual graces which we either agree to make use of for our spiritual benefit,
or, on the other hand, neglect to do so, constitutes the history of each
individual soul as it is written down in the book of life, in God, to be laid
open some day for our inspection. It is thus that our Lord continues to live in
His mystical body, and especially in His saints, in whom He continues a life
that will know no end, a life that at every moment requires new graces and new
activities.
Our Lord has said:
I will ask the Father,
and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not,
nor knoweth Him: but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and
shall be in you.... He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your
mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you (John 14:16, 26).
To those who will
listen, the Holy Ghost is in all things their guide from day to day, and by His
grace He engraves the law of God upon the soul, doing this either directly
Himself or through the preaching of the Gospel. St. Paul tells the Corinthians:
“Do we need (as some do) epistles of commendation to you or from you? You are
our epistle... being manifested, that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered
by us, and written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God: not in
tables of stone, but in the fleshy tablets of the heart” (II Cor. 3: I-3). And
thus in the souls of men is being written the interior history of the Church,
to be continued down to the end of time. It is this history which is set out
symbolically in the Apocalypse, and only at the last day will it be read with
clarity of perception.
This is how Pere de
Caussade puts it in the following remarkable passages:
Oh, glorious history!
grand book written by the Holy Spirit in this present time! It is still in the
press to turn out holy souls. There is never a day when the type is not
arranged, when the ink is not applied, when the pages are not printed. We are
still in the dark night of faith. The paper is blacker than the ink.... It is
written in characters of another world, and there is no understanding it except
in heaven.... If the transposition of twenty-five letters is incomprehensible
as sufficing for the composition of an almost infinite number of different volumes,
each admirable of its kind, who can explain the works of God in the
universe?... Teach me, divine Spirit, to read in this book of life. I desire to
become Thy disciple and, like a little child, to believe what I cannot
understand and cannot see. [82]
What great truths are
hidden even from Christians who imagine themselves most enlightened!... To
effect this union with Him, God makes use of the worst of His creatures as well
as of the best, and of the most distressing events as well as of those which are
pleasant and agreeable. Our union with Him is even the more meritorious as the
means enabling us to maintain it are the more repugnant to nature. [83]
The present moment is
ever filled with infinite treasures; it contains more than you have capacity to
hold. Faith is the measure. Believe, and it will be done to you accordingly.
Love also is the measure. The more the heart loves, the more it desires; and
the more it desires, so much the more will it receive. The will of God presents
itself to us at each moment as an immense ocean that no human heart can fathom;
but what the heart can receive from this ocean is equal to the measure of our
faith, confidence and love. The whole creation cannot fill the human heart, for
the heart’s capacity surpasses all that is not God. The mountains that are
terrifying to look at, are but atoms for the heart. The divine will is an abyss
of which the present moment is the entrance. Plunge into this abyss and you
will always find it infinitely more vast than your desires. Do not flatter
anyone, nor worship your own illusions; they can neither give you anything nor
take anything from you. You will receive your fullness from the will of God
alone, which will not leave you empty. Adore it, put it first, before all other
things.... Destroy the idols of the senses.... When the senses are terrified,
or famished, despoiled, crushed, then it is that faith is nourished, enriched,
and enlivened. Faith laughs at these calamities as the governor of an
impregnable fortress laughs at the futile attacks of an impotent foe. [84]
When the will of God is
made known to a soul, and has made the soul realize His willingness to give
Himself to it—provided that the soul, too, gives itself to God—then under all
circumstances the soul experiences a great happiness in this coming of God, and
enjoys it the more, the more it has learnt to abandon itself at every moment to
His most adorable will. [85]
God is like the ocean,
sustaining those who in all confidence surrender themselves to Him and do
everything in their power to follow His inspirations as a ship will respond to
a favorable breeze. This is what our Lord meant when He said: “The spirit
breatheth where he will and thou hearest his voice: but thou knowest not whence
he cometh and whither he goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit (John
3: 8).
How sublime is this
doctrine! As the present minute is passing, let us likewise bear in mind that
what exists is not merely our body with its sensibility, its varying emotions
of pain and pleasure; but also our spiritual and immortal soul, and the actual
grace we receive, and Christ who exerts His influence upon us, and the Blessed
Trinity dwelling within us. We shall then have some idea of the infinite riches
contained in the present moment and the connection it has with the unchanging
instant of eternity into which we are some day to enter. We should not be
satisfied with viewing the present moment along the horizontal line of time, as
the connecting link between a vanished past and an uncertain temporal future;
we ought rather to view it along that vertical line of time which links it up
with the unique instant of unchanging eternity. Whatever happens, let us say to
ourselves: At this moment God is present and desires to draw me to Himself. In
one of the most painful moments of St. Alphonsus’ life, when the beloved
congregation he had just founded seemed all but lost, he heard these words from
the lips of a lay friend of his: “God is always present, Father Alphonsus.” Not
only did he renew his courage, but that hour of pain became one of the most
fruitful of his life.
Let us in all reverses
give heed to the actual graces offered us with each passing minute for the
fulfilment of present duty. We shall thus realize more and more how great must
be our fidelity in little things as well as in great.
Fidelity in little
things
Our Lord tells us (Luke
16: 10) : “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that
which is greater.” Again, in the parable of the talents He says to each of the
faithful servants: “Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast
been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25: 21). We have here a most important lesson
on the value of trivial things, one very often ignored by those who are
naturally high-minded, who take the first step on the wrong path when their
sense of dignity degenerates into pride. We cannot lay too much stress on this
point in considering the fidelity we ought to show to the grace of the present
moment.
As often noted, in many
cases where souls have given themselves to God in all sincerity and have made
generous, even heroic efforts to prove their love for Him, a critical moment
comes when they must abandon a too personal way of judging and acting—though it
may be of a high order—so as to enter upon the path of true humility, that “little
humility” which loses sight of self and looks henceforward on God alone.
At that moment two
widely different courses are possible: either the soul seeks for itself the
course to take and pursues it, or it fails to do so, sometimes going so far
astray in its upward path as to go back again without being altogether aware of
it.
To see this path of true
humility is to discover in our everyday life, from morning to night,
opportunities of performing seemingly trivial acts for the love of God. But the
frequent repetition of these acts is of immense value and leads to a delicacy
of attitude to God and our neighbor which, if constant and truly sincere, is
the mark of perfect charity.
The acts then demanded
of the soul are very simple and pass by unnoticed. There is nothing in them for
self-love to take hold of. God alone sees them, and the soul thinks it is
offering Him, so to speak, nothing at all. And yet these acts, St. Thomas says,
[86] are like drops of water continually falling on the same spot: eventually
they bore a hole in the rock. The same real effect is gradually produced by the
assimilation of the graces we receive. They penetrate the soul and its
faculties, at the same time sublimating them and gradually bringing everything
to the required supernatural focus. Without this fidelity in little things
actuated by the spirit of faith and love, humility, patience and gentleness,
the contemplative life will never penetrate the active, the ordinary everyday
life. Contemplation will be confined, as it were, to the summit of the
intellect, where it is more speculative than contemplative; it will fail to
permeate our whole existence and manner of life and will remain almost
completely barren whereas it should become every day more fruitful.
This is a matter of
supreme importance. St. Francis de Sales more than once speaks of it. [87] St.
Thomas says the same thing in another way when he teaches, as we have already
seen, that in the concrete reality of life no deliberate act is hic et nunc
morally indifferent. [88] In a rational being every deliberate act should be
rational, should have an “honorable” end in view, and in the Christian every
act should be directed at least virtually to God as to the supreme object of
love. This truth brings out the importance of the multifarious actions we have
to perform day by day. Perhaps they are trivial in themselves, nevertheless
they are of great importance relative to God and the spirit of faith and love,
of humility and patience that should actuate us in performing them and offering
them to Him.
This critical moment of
which we are speaking marks a difficult crisis in the spiritual life of many
fairly advanced souls, who then run the risk of falling back again.
If a soul that has shown
itself generous or even heroic, after reaching this point is still far too
personal in its manner of judging and acting and does not see the need of a
change, it continues on its way with a merely acquired impetus, and its prayer
and activities are no longer what they should be. There is a real danger here.
The soul may become stunted and its development arrested like one dwarfed
through some deformity. Or it may take a false direction. Instead of true
humility, it may almost unawares develop a sort of refined pride, which
scarcely appears at first except in the small details of daily life. For that
reason this will remain unknown to a spiritual director living apart from those
he directs. This pride will steadily take the form of an amused condescension,
and subsequently develop into an acerbity of manner in our relations with our
neighbor, permeating the whole life of the day and thus stultifying everything.
This acerbity may lead to rancor and contempt for our neighbor, whom
nevertheless we should love for God’s sake.
A soul that has come to
this pass will not easily be led to make those holy considerations which are
necessary for it to return to the point whence it went astray. Such a soul
should be recommended to our Lady’s care; in many cases she alone can lead it
back into the right path. [89]
The remedy for this evil
is to make the soul very attentive to the grace of the moment and faithful in
trivial things.
To quote Pere de
Caussade once more:
Actions are not
determined by ideas or by a confusion of words which by themselves would only
serve to excite pride.... We must make use only of what God sends us to do or
to suffer, and not forsake this divine reality to occupy our minds with the
historical wonders of the divine work instead of gaining an increase of grace
by our fidelity. The marvels of this work, which we read about for the purpose
of satisfying our curiosity, often only tend to disgust us with things that
seem trifling but by which, if we do not despise them, the divine love effects
very great things in us. Fools that we are! We admire and bless this divine
action in the writings that relate its history; and when it is ready to
continue this writing on our hearts, we keep moving the paper and prevent it
writing by our curiosity, that we may see what it is doing in and around us....
For love of Thee, O my God, and for the discharge of my debts, I will confine
myself to the one essential business, that of the present moment, and thus
enable Thee to act. [90]
This is what is meant by
the common saying, Age quod agis. And so, if we are really doing our utmost day
by day to be faithful to God in little things, He will certainly give us
strength to be faithful to Him in difficult and very painful circumstances, if
through His permission that should be our lot. Thus will be realized the words
of the Gospel: “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof”; [91] “He that is
faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater.”
[92]
23. The Attitude Of
Providence Toward Those Who Abandon Themselves Completely To It
Fidelity to daily duty
by docile correspondence to the graces offered us every moment, soon receives
its reward in that special assistance which Providence gives to those who
practice this childlike self-surrender. This assistance, it may be said, is
shown mainly in three ways, which it will be well to emphasize: thus Providence
gives special guidance to those souls in their darkness; it defends them against
whatever is hostile to their spiritual welfare; and it intensifies their
interior life more and more.
In what way God guides
those souls that abandon themselves to Him
He enlightens them
through the gifts of wisdom and understanding, knowledge and counsel, which
with sanctifying grace and charity we received in baptism and to a greater
degree in confirmation. In imperfect souls these gifts, together with those of
piety, fortitude, and filial fear, are, so to speak, shackled by more or less
inordinate inclinations, so that such souls are living but a superficial life,
which prevents them from being attentive to the inspirations of the Master of
the interior life.
These gifts have been
likened to the sails of a boat by which it readily accommodates itself to the
least stir of a favorable wind. In imperfect souls, however, the sails are
furled and will not respond to the breeze. On the other hand, when the soul
does what it can to fulfil its daily obligations and steer its bark as it
should, abandoning itself to God, He visits it with His inspirations, at first
latent and confused, which if well received, become more and more frequent,
more insistent and luminous.
Then, amidst the joyful
and painful events of life, the clash of temperaments, in times of spiritual
dryness, amidst the snares of the devil or of men, their suspicion and their
jealousies, the soul in its higher regions at any rate remains always at peace.
It enjoys this serenity because it is intimately persuaded that God is guiding
it and, in abandoning itself to Him, it seeks only to do His will and nothing
more. Thus it sees Him everywhere under every external guise and makes use of
everything to further its union with Him. Sin itself, by its very contrast,
will recall the infinite majesty of God.
Then is increasingly
realized the words of the Apostle St. John to the faithful for whom he wrote
his First Epistle: “Let the unction you have received from God abide in you.
And you have no need that any man teach you: but as His unction teacheth you of
all things, and is truth, and is no lie” (I John 2:27).
The soul has then less
need of reasonings and methods in its prayer and meditation, or for its
guidance; it has become more simplified in its mode of thought and desire. It
follows rather the interior action of God in its soul, which makes itself felt
not so much by the impression of ideas, as through the instinct or the
necessity imposed by circumstances where only one course is possible. It
perceives at once the depth of meaning in some phrase from the Gospels which
has not previously impressed it. God gives it an understanding of the
Scriptures such as He gave to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. The
simplest sermons are a source of enlightenment and it discovers treasures in
them; for God makes use of these means that He Himself may enlighten the soul,
just as a great artist may use the most ordinary implement, the cheapest
pencil, to execute a great masterpiece, a wonderful picture of Christ or the
Blessed Virgin.
In God’s dealings with
souls that abandon themselves to Him, much remains obscure, mysterious,
disconcerting, impenetrable; but He makes it all contribute to their spiritual
welfare, and some day they will see that what at times to them was the cause of
profound desolation was the source of much joy to the angels.
Moreover, God enlightens
the soul by means of this very darkness and just when He appears to blind it.
When the things of sense, which once so charmed and fascinated us, are
obliterated, then the grandeur of spiritual things begins to be seen. A fallen
monarch, like Louis XVI after losing his throne, sees more clearly than ever
before the sublimity of the Gospel and of the many graces he has received in
the past. Formerly he scarcely gave them a thought, being too absorbed in the
external splendors of his kingdom. And now it is the kingdom of heaven that is
revealed to him.
An important law in the
spiritual world is that the transcendent darkness of divine things is in a
sense more illuminating than the obviousness of earthly things. We have an
illustration of this in the sensible order. Surprising as the truth may at
first appear, we see much farther in the darkness of the night than in the
light of day. The sun, in fact, must first be hidden before we can see the
stars and have a glimpse of the unfathomable depths of the sky. The spectacle
presented to us on a starry night is sometimes incomparably more beautiful than
anything to be seen on even the sunniest day. In the daytime, doubtless, our
view may extend far over the surrounding country, and even to the sun itself,
though its light takes eight minutes to reach us. But in the darkness of the
night we see at a single glance thousands of stars, although the light from
even the nearest requires four and a half years to reach us. From the spiritual
point of view the same holds true: as the sun prevents our seeing the stars, so
in human life there are things which by their glare obstruct our view of the
splendors of the faith. It is fitting, then, that from time to time in our lives
Providence should subdue this glare of inferior things so as to give us a
glimpse of something far more precious for our soul and our salvation.
Indeed, in the spiritual
order, as in the physical, there is often an alternation of day and night; it
is mentioned more than once in the Imitation. If we are saddened at the
approach of twilight, God could well answer us by saying: How can I otherwise
reveal to you all those thousands of stars which can be seen only at night?
Thus is verified the
truth of our Lord’s words when He said: “He that followeth me walketh not in
darkness” (John 8:12). The light of faith dispels the lower darkness of
ignorance, sin, and damnation, says St. Thomas. [93] Moreover, since this
divine darkness is owing to a higher light which is too intense for our feeble
vision, it does enlighten us in its own fashion and gives us a glimpse into the
abyss of the heavens, into the deep things of God, into the mystery of the ways
of Providence. St. Paul says: [94]
We speak wisdom among
the perfect: yet not the wisdom of the world, neither of the princes of this
world that come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a
wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory:
which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they
would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written: That eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard: neither hath it entered into the heart of man,
what things God hath prepared for them that love him. But to us God hath
revealed them by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep
things of God.
God has His own way of
enlightening souls concerning His intimate life and the secrets of His ways.
Sometimes He seems to blind them, yet, in reality, just when an inferior light
disappears, then it is that He gives them a more sublime light. For the saint,
the darkness of death is followed immediately by the light of glory. Those
around him are saddened to see this present life coming so quickly to an end;
he is happy to see it drawing to its close, for it means his entry into
everlasting life.
If at times in our lives
everything seems desperate, and, as Tauler says, the masts have gone overboard
and the ship is reduced to a mere hulk in the midst of the tempest, then is the
moment to abandon ourselves to God fully and completely, without reserve. If we
do so with all our heart, God will at once take into His own hands the
immediate direction of our lives, for He alone can save us.” The Lord leadeth
the just by right ways and showeth him the kingdom of God” (Wis. 10: 10).
The soul that abandons
itself to God is defended by Him against the enemies of its spiritual welfare
This is what St. Paul
tells us in the Epistle to the Romans (8: 31) : “If God be for us, who is
against us? He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things.” The Book of Wisdom
says of the just who in confidence abandon themselves to God: “With His right
hand He will cover them, and with His holy arm He will defend them” (5: 17).
All things are
controlled by Providence; the least circumstance, however insignificant, is in
its hands. With Providence there is no such thing as chance; and so by some
little unforeseen incident it can easily upset the cunning calculations of
those hostile to spiritual good. We have an example of this in the life of
Joseph, who was sold by his brethren. Had not the Ismaelite merchants, by
chance apparently, passed by just when his brothers had decided to put him to
death, he would have been left there in the cistern where they had thrown him.
But it was then and not an hour later, as was ordained by God from all
eternity, that the merchants arrived on the scene, and Joseph was thus sold
into slavery. And so, being led into Egypt, he was later to be a benefactor to
those who had wished to destroy him. Let us recall also the story of Esther, of
the prophet Daniel, and of many others. j Similar and more striking are the
circumstances surrounding the birth of our Lord. Herod had organized all the
forces at his disposal to put the Messias to death and had then requested the
wise men from the East to obtain for him precise information about the child.
But, “having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod,
they went back another way to their own country” (Matt. 2: 12).” Then Herod,
perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men,... sending, killed all the men
children that were in Bethlehem and in all the borders thereof” (ibid., 2: 16),
but an angel, appearing in sleep to Joseph, commanded him to save the child
from the king’s wrath and flee into Egypt.
In the lives of the just
it is not miraculous that their guardian angels intervene at God’s command to
inspire some holy thought in them, whether they be asleep or awake; it is a
providential occurrence by no means rare in the lives of those who abandon
themselves completely to God. In the Book of Psalms (90: 10) we are told: “There
shall be no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.
For the Lord hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy
ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a
stone.” We must not tempt God, of course; but in the fulfilment of our daily
duties we must resign ourselves humbly into His hands, and those who thus
abandon themselves to Him, He will protect as a mother protects her children.
If He allows persecution, often bitter persecution, to come upon them, as He
did in the case of His own Son, nevertheless He will not allow the just to lose
courage, but will sustain them in invisible ways and, if in a moment of
weakness they should fall, as Peter did, He will raise them up again and lead
them on to the haven of salvation.
The soul that abandons
itself to God instead of resisting its enemies, so the saints tell us, finds in
them useful allies. Says Pere de Caussade: [95]
There is nothing that is
more entirely opposed to worldly prudence than simplicity; it turns aside all
schemes without comprehending them, without so much as a thought about them....
To have to deal with a simple soul is, in a certain way, to have to deal with
God. What can be done against the will of the Almighty and His inscrutable
designs? God takes the cause of the simple soul in hand. It is unnecessary to
study the intrigues of others against it.... The divine action makes the soul
adopt such just measures as to surprise even those who wish to take it by
surprise. It profits by all their efforts.... They are the galley-slaves who
bring the ship into port with hard rowing. All obstacles turn to the good of
this soul.... All it has to fear is lest it should take part in a work and so
disturb it... in which it has nothing to do but peacefully to observe the work
of God, and follow with simplicity the attractions He gives it.... The soul in
the state of abandonment can abstain from justifying itself by word or deed.
The divine action justifies it.
Thus it is in the lives
of the saints, and, in due proportions, the way they have followed ought to be
ours also.
Not infrequently we hear
people who are beset by difficulties say in a flippant sort of way: “Why worry?”
That is a sheer materialistic and egotistic conception of the doctrine we are
here considering. The animating principle of this doctrine is a trustful
self-abandonment to Providence. If this trustful self-abandonment is no longer
present, as in such recipes for life as that “why worry?” then nothing is left
but a body without a soul, a formula of no greater value than the moral energy
of the person who utters it. When one has departed from this way of salvation,
all that is left of the noblest maxims on life is a dead formula that will
serve as an excuse for anything. Yet to all is offered the light of life in the
Gospel. The consecrated host elevated every morning on our altars is offered up
for all, and all can unite themselves with this oblation. In place of that
confidence in God which should accompany our daily task, for us to substitute
an arrogant assurance based on purely human calculations is a tremendous
misfortune. Man then sets himself up in the place of God; he destroys the
theological virtues within him. He is poles asunder from the doctrine we are
considering here, which is pre-eminently that of life.
God quickens more and
more the interior life of souls that abandon themselves to Him
Not only is He their
protector and guide, but He quickens them by His grace, by the virtues and the
gifts of the Holy Ghost, and also through the fresh inspirations He is
continuously sending them. Moreover, He is quickening them even when He appears
to strip them, even to death itself, according to these words of St. Paul: “To
me to live is Christ: and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). For many life consists
in sport or art or some intellectual activity, such as science or philosophy.
But for such souls as we are speaking of, life is simply Christ, or as St. Paul
says, union with Christ. Christ is their life, says St. Thomas, [96] in the
sense that He is the constant motive of their most profound vital activity. It
is for Him they live and act continuously; not for any human purpose but in
very truth for the Lord, who quickens them more and more, making this life of
theirs depend upon just those things that apparently must destroy them, even as
Christ Himself made of His cross the most potent instrument of our salvation.
This profound teaching
was expressed with remarkable clearness by a seventeenth century Dominican,
Pere Chardon, in his book, La Croix de Jesus. [97] He points out that the
divine action, in gradually detaching us from all that is not God, sometimes in
most painful ways, tends by that very detachment to unite us more and more
closely to Him. Loss is thus turned into gain. As grace increases within us, it
becomes at once a source of separation and of union; the progressive separation
is simply the reverse side of the union. Says Chardon:
For fear lest a too
frequent enjoyment of consolations should arrest the soul’s inclination to
Himself, God interrupts the flow of the stream in order to make the soul yearn
more ardently for the source.... He withdraws His graces to give Himself
instead. He steals gently through the soul, making Himself master of the
faculties and all their concerns that He may cause it to rejoice in the one
necessary good, which must be loved only in that same solitude in which the
supremacy of its being is isolated from all else.
Thus with the
disappearance of an inferior light and life, another light appears, to
illuminate our life in a way far more sublime.
When an apostle is
struck down with paralysis in the midst of his apostolate and in the prime of
life, people often imagine that his influence is at an end, whereas it ought to
be, as it often is, the beginning of something higher, the direct external
apostolate giving place to that hidden yet profound apostolate which exerts its
influence on souls through prayer and self-immolation in Christ and thereby
causes to overflow upon them the chalice of superabounding redemption.
Act of self-abandonment
This whole doctrine is
beautifully summed up in the following anonymous prayer inspired by St.
Augustine:
O my God, I leave myself
entirely in Thy hands. Turn and turn again this mass of clay, as a vessel that
is fashioned in the potter’s hand (Jer. 18: 6). Give it a shape; then break it
if Thou wilt: it is Thine, it has nothing to say. Enough for me that it serves
all Thy designs and that nothing resists Thy good pleasure for which I was
made. Ask, command. What wouldst Thou have me to do? What wouldst Thou have me
not to do? Lifted up, cast down, in persecution, in consolation, in suffering,
intent upon Thy work, good for nothing, I can do no more than repeat with Thy
holy Mother: “Be it done unto me according to Thy word.”
Give me that love which
is beyond all loves, the love of the cross—not those heroic crosses with a
glory that might foster self-love, but those ordinary crosses which we bear
with so much distaste—those daily crosses with which our life is strewn and
which at every moment we encounter on our way through life: contradictions,
neglect, failures, opposition, false judgments, the coldness or impulsiveness
of some, the rebuffs or contempt of others, bodily infirmities, spiritual
darkness, silence and interior dryness. Only then wilt Thou know that I love
Thee, even though I neither know nor feel it myself; and that is enough for me.
This is truly holiness
of a high order. Were there but a few such moments of great affliction in our
lives, we should then have reached the topmost heights and have come very nigh
to God. Now every moment God is inviting us to live this way and lose ourselves
in Him. Especially at such moments as these it can be truly said: “The Lord
leadeth the. just by right ways and showeth him the kingdom of God” (Wis. 10:
10).
24. Providence And The
Way Of Perfection
If one thing more than
another should interest us in the providential plan, it is the way of
perfection traced out by God from all eternity. The itinerary of this ascent
has been described by all the great spiritual writers, but some have given
special consideration to its relations with Providence. Among these is St.
Catherine of Siena. We propose to give here the main outlines of her testimony
on this subject, which she received from on high.
If we choose St.
Catherine’s testimony in preference to that of other saints, this is because
she has a broad view of concrete realities, and thus we can easily apply what
she says to the spiritual needs of persons in every state of life. Moreover,
her style, though never descending from the sublime, is so realistic and
practical that it is suited to every type of mind. It almost attains to the
loftiness and simplicity of the Gospels.
It has often been
remarked how perfect is the harmony between the teaching of St. Thomas and that
expounded by St. Catherine in her ecstasies and written down by her
secretaries, in that book which has been called the Dialogue.
Nowhere is this
doctrinal harmony more striking than on this subject of Christian perfection
and the path which, in the designs of Providence, must lead to it. As evidence
of this we shall consider the following points:
1) In what especially
does perfection consist?
2) Is perfection a
matter of strict precept or is it simply a matter of counsel?
3) Is the light of faith
sufficient for Christian perfection, or is there also required the light which
comes from the gift of wisdom? And is this light normally in proportion to our
degree of charity, of our love for God?
4) In the designs of
Providence, what purifications are necessary for us to arrive at perfection?
Can we acquire it without passing through the so-called passive purifications,
the patient and loving endurance of the crucifixion of the senses and the
spirit?
5) Is every interior
soul called by Providence to an infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith
illumined by the gift of wisdom, and to that union with God which is the result
of this contemplation and which is widely different from such extraordinary
graces as revelations and visions? In other words, according to the
providential plan is the highest point reached normally in the development of
the life of grace here on earth (the normal prelude to our heavenly life), of
the ascetical order, or does it pass to the mystical order? Is our own activity
under the influence of grace its distinctive characteristic, or is it rather
our docility in responding to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost?
In reply to these
questions we will quote from the Dialogue certain passages that deal expressly
with this subject.
In what Christian
perfection especially consists
Does it consist mainly
in bodily mortifications or in practices of piety or in the knowledge of divine
things? St. Catherine of Siena replies with St. Thomas (IIa IIae, q. 184, a. 1)
that Christian perfection consists principally in charity, primarily in the
love of God and secondarily in the love of our neighbor.
This doctrine is very
clearly expressed in the Dialogue (chapter 11) [98] where we read:
Some time ago, if thou
remember, when thou wert desirous of doing great penance for my sake, asking, “What
can I do to endure suffering for Thee, O Lord?” I replied to thee, speaking in
thy mind, “I take delight in few words and many works.” I wished to show thee
that he who merely calls on me with the sound of words, saying: “Lord, Lord, I
would do something for Thee, “ and he who desires for my sake to mortify his
body by many penances, but does not renounce his own will, was wrong in
thinking this to be pleasing to me.... I, who am infinite, seek infinite works,
that is, unlimited surgings of the heart. [99] I wish therefore that the works
of penance, and of other corporal exercises, should be observed merely as
means, and not as the fundamental perfection of the soul. For if the principal
affection of the soul were placed in penance, I should receive a finite thing
like a word, which, when it has issued from the mouth, is no more, unless it
has issued with affection of soul, which conceives and brings forth virtue in
truth. It is by means of this interior virtue that the finite operation, which
I have called a word, is united with the affection of love.
If it is otherwise we
shall have no more than the material side of perfection; the soul and
inspiration of the interior life will no longer be there. In the same passage
she tells us: “We must not make our final end to consist in penance, or in any
external act; these, as I have said, are finite works.... It is good at times
for us to discontinue them, whether this arise from necessity or from obedience
(whereas there must never be any interruption in that life which consists in
the love of God).... The soul ought therefore to adopt them as means, and not
as an end... they please when they are performed as the instruments of virtue,
and not as a principal end in themselves.” This last sentence brings out the
necessity of avoiding the opposite extreme in neglecting bodily mortification
as practiced by all the saints.
Merit consists in the
virtue of love alone, directed by the light of true discretion, without which
the soul is worth nothing. Discretion gives me this love endlessly,
boundlessly, since I am the supreme and eternal truth. The soul can therefore
place neither laws nor limits to her love for me; but her love for her
neighbor, on the contrary, is ordered in certain conditions. It is within the
scope of charity not to cause the injury of sin to self so as to be useful to
others; for if one single sin sufficed for the production of an act of great
consequence, it would not be a charity dictated by prudence to commit it.
Holy discretion ordains
that the soul should direct all her powers unreservedly to my service with a
manly zeal and that her love for her neighbor be such that she would lay down a
thousand times, if it were possible, the life of her body for the salvation of
souls, prepared to endure whatever torments so that her neighbor may have the
life of grace.
This, then, is what
Christian perfection consists in especially, principally in a generous love for
God, and secondarily in a love for our neighbor which is not just affection,
but translates itself into action.
This is why St.
Catherine of Siena loves to speak of charity as giving life to all the virtues,
[100] as rendering their acts meritorious of eternal life. [101] It is the
mother of them all; it is the bridal garment of God’s servants; [102] it is
like a tree which, when planted in the soil of humility, lifts high to the
heavens its blossoms and its abundance of fruit, the fruit of eternal life.
[103] The saint frequently insists on the impossibility of separating love for
our neighbor from the love of God, the love of our neighbor being simply the
radiation of the love we have for God, its sure sign and token. [104] The love
of our neighbor, she adds, cannot be really efficacious unless we love him in
God and for His sake. It is compared to a vessel filled at a fountain: “If a
man carry away the vessel and then drink from it, the vessel becomes empty, but
if he keeps his vessel standing at the fountain while he drinks, it always
remains full.” [105]
If you wish friendship
to endure, if you would continue long to refresh yourself from the cup of
friendship, then leave it to be filled continuously at the fount of living
water, otherwise it will no longer be capable of satisfying your thirst.
We find precisely the
same teaching in the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas. For him, too, perfection
consists principally in charity, which gives life to all the virtues and unites
us to our last end, to God the author of grace; for by charity we love God more
than ourselves, more than all else, and for His sake everything that is at all
worthy of love.
Without charity nothing
is of any value for eternal life. No knowledge, not even the knowledge of
divine things can bear any fruit unless it is united with the love of God. Such
knowledge, says the saint, may be infected with the poison of pride, [106] and
frequently it will obtain far more light from prayer than from study, that
light of life, at once simple yet sublime, the source of contemplation, by which
knowledge is unified and rendered fruitful.
Perfection and the
precept of love
Does this perfection,
consisting in a high degree of charity, come under the commandments or is it
merely a matter of counsel?
The teaching of St.
Thomas is that this perfection comes under the supreme commandment, not however
as something to be realized immediately but as the ideal at which all
Christians must aim, each according to his condition, some in the religious
life, others in the world. [107] The Angelic Doctor declares explicitly that
Christian perfection consists essentially in a generous fulfillment of the
commandments, especially of those two commandments that concern the love of God
and of our neighbor; the actual practice of the three counsels, poverty, chastity,
and obedience is only accidental, enabling us to arrive at a perfect love for
God more readily and more surely. Such perfection, in fact, is still attainable
even in the married state and in the midst of worldly occupations, as is
evidenced in the lives of a number of the saints. [108]
This same teaching we
find in St. Catherine of Siena. In her Dialogue she points out that the supreme
commandment has no limits, as its phrasing shows: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength and
with all thy mind” (Luke 10: 27). This law of love is not binding merely up to
a certain degree beyond which charity becomes simply a matter of counsel; every
Christian is bound to aim at perfection in love. We read in the Dialogue: “Thou
seest how discreetly every soul... should pay her debts, that is, should love
me with an infinite love and without measure.” [109] Indeed, St. Catherine
distinctly states that, although it is possible to observe the commandments
without the actual exercise of the three evangelical counsels, nevertheless the
perfect fulfilment of the commandments is impossible without the spirit
animating the counsels, that spirit of detachment from creatures which is
simply one aspect of the love of God and which must always increase in us.
This point is well
expressed by the saint in God’s words to her:
Inasmuch as the counsels
are included in the commandments, no one can observe the latter who does not
observe the former, at least in spirit, that is to say, that they possess the
riches of the world humbly and without pride, as lent to them and not their
own; for they are only given to you for your use, through My goodness, since
you only possess what I give you and can retain only what I allow you to retain.
I give you as much of them as I see to be profitable for your salvation, and in
this way should you use them, for a man, so using them... observes the counsels
in spirit, having cut out of his heart the poison of disordinate love and
affection. [110]
As St. Paul said, we
should use these things as though we used them not. This means “to possess the
things of this world not as their servants but as their lords, “ and not be
enslaved by them as a miser by his wealth. [111] Thus in every state of life we
shall so walk as to gain eternal life, advancing daily in charity as the
supreme commandment requires, and as Eucharistic communion enables us to do by
strengthening the soul in the measure of its desires. [112]
By following this path
the soul may reach the perfection of charity even in this world, may reach such
a pure and mighty love for God and souls that it will be prepared to accept
insults, contempt, affronts, ridicule, persecution, everything, for the honor
of our Lord and the salvation of one’s neighbor. [113]
Perfection and the light
which the gift of wisdom imparts in prayer: the visitation of the Lord
To attain this high
degree of charity in which Christian perfection principally consists, are the
light of faith and the use of vocal prayer sufficient? Must we not have
recourse besides to mental prayer, in which the Holy Ghost illuminates the soul
by the light of His gifts?
Prayer, the saint tells
us, is one of the great means of arriving at perfection. [114] True prayer,
founded in the knowledge of God and of self, consists in the fervor of desire.
[115] Vocal prayer must be accompanied by mental prayer, or it will be like a
body without a soul. [116] Again, we must abandon vocal for mental prayer when
God invites us to do so. We read in the Dialogue:
The soul should season
the knowledge of herself with the knowledge of My goodness, and then vocal
prayer will be of use to the soul who makes it, and pleasing to Me, and she
will arrive, from the vocal imperfect prayer, exercised with perseverance, at
perfect mental prayer; but if she simply aims at reciting a certain number of
stereotyped phrases, and for vocal prayer abandons mental prayer, she will
never arrive at it.... Let her be attentive when I visit her mind sometimes in
one way and sometimes in another, in a flash of self-knowledge or of contrition
for sin, sometimes in the broadness of My charity, and sometimes by placing
before her mind, in diverse ways, according to My pleasure and the desire of
the soul, the presence of My truth.... The moment she is aware of My imminent
presence she must abandon vocal prayer; then, My visitation past, if there
should be time, she can resume the vocal prayers, which she had resolved to
say... of course provided it were not the divine office which clerics and
religious are bound and are obliged to say.... If they at the hour appointed
for saying it should feel their minds drawn and raised by desire, they should
so arrange as to say it before or after My visitation.... And so, by practice
and perseverance, she will taste prayer in truth and the food of the blood of
My only begotten Son, and therefore I told thee that some communicated
virtually with the body and blood of Christ, although not sacramentally; that
is, they communicate in the affection of charity, which they taste by means of
holy prayer, little or much, according to the affection with which they pray.
They who proceed with little prudence and without method taste little, and they
who proceed with much, taste much. For the more the soul tries to loosen her
affection from herself, and fasten it in Me with the light of the intellect,
the more she knows; and the more she knows, the more she loves and, loving
much, she tastes much. [117]
St. Catherine shows
clearly how those who have reached the state of union have their understanding
illumined by an infused supernatural light.
“The eye of the
intellect, “ she says, [118] “is lifted up and gazes into My Deity, when the
affection behind the intellect is nourished and united with Me. This is a sight
which I grant to the soul, infused with grace, who, in truth, loves and serves
Me.” It is in this sense that we say generally that St. Thomas received much
more enlightenment in prayer than from study. [119] It is that infused
contemplation which we shall find St. John of the Cross speaking of later on
and which usually, he says, is granted to the more advanced and to the perfect.
[120] St. Catherine continues:
The doctors, confessors,
virgins, and martyrs, all of them had this infused knowledge and received their
inspiration therefrom, each in a different way, according to the demands of
their own or their neighbor’s salvation.... This supernatural light is given by
grace to the humble who are desirous of receiving it... but the proud blind
themselves to this light, because their pride and the cloud of self-love
prevents them from seeing this light. Wherefore, in examining the books of the
Scripture, they interpret it merely in a literal sense. They get not to the
marrow of it, because they have deprived themselves of the light by which the
Scripture was written and is interpreted. [121]
We see it to be the
general rule, as St. Thomas already declared, [122] that this vital
illumination proceeding from the gift of wisdom is bestowed to a degree
corresponding to that of charity. Hence St. Catherine continues: “Under the
guidance of this light we love, because love follows the intellect. The greater
the knowledge, the greater the love, and the greater the love, the greater the
knowledge. Thus the one feeds the other.” [123] If those who write about
Raphael or Michelangelo let nothing pass in the effort to exhaust their
subject, then surely we should neglect nothing that will enable us to probe
more deeply into the Gospel and really live by the holy mass.
“The tongue is at a loss
to recount the joy felt by him who goes on this, the true road, for even in
this life he participates in that good which has been prepared for him in
eternal life.” [124] As St. Thomas says: “It is a certain commencement of
eternal life.” [125]
This state of union is
described in chapter 89, where it is distinguished absolutely from the visions
and revelations spoken of in chapter 70. In this state are combined an
experimental knowledge of our own poverty and a quasi-experimental knowledge of
God’s infinite goodness; they are, says the saint, like the lowest and the
highest points on a circle that will continue to expand until we enter heaven.
[126] This graceful image brings out clearly the intimate connection between
these two kinds of experimental knowledge, and shows the great difference
between them and that knowledge which is purely abstract and speculative. We
have here the very essence of the spiritual life.
In the same chapter we
read:
Growing, and exercising
herself in the light of self-knowledge, she (the soul) conceives displeasure at
herself and finally perfect hatred, at the same time acquiring a true knowledge
of My goodness, and thereby being inflamed with love. She begins to unite
herself to Me, and to conform her will to Mine, and experiences a joy and a
compassion hitherto unknown. The joy she experiences is that of loving Me;...
at the same time she lovingly grieves at the offense committed against Me, and
at the loss of her fellow-creature.... She is in a state of desolation at not
being able to give glory as she would wish, and in the agony of her desire she
finds it delightful to satiate herself at the table of the holy cross. [127]
This brings us to the
very center of the mystery of redemption.
The contemplation
involved in this union with God distinctive of the Christian life in its full
perfection is evidently an infused contemplation, for in chapters 60 and 61 we
read:
If My servants are
confused at the knowledge of their imperfection, if they give themselves up to
the love of virtue, if they dig up with hatred the root of spiritual
self-love... they will be so pleasing to Me... that I will manifest Myself to
them.... My charity is manifested in two ways; first, in general, to ordinary
people. The second mode of manifestation... is peculiar to those who have
become My friends.... When I reveal Myself to her it makes itself felt in the
very depths of the soul, by which such souls taste, know, prove and feel it.
Sometimes I even reveal Myself to the soul by arousing in her sentiments of
love, and endowing her with the spirit of prophecy. [128]
But, as is evident from
chapter 70, this last favor is no longer normal but extraordinary.
Providential trials and
union with God
Obviously the union with
God we have been considering presupposes mortification or active purification,
which we must impose upon ourselves in order to extinguish within us the
concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of
life. But, over and above this, does it presuppose passive purifications or the
patient and generous acceptance of crosses?
Most certainly it does.
Nothing could be more definite than St. Catherine’s teaching on this point when
she speaks of temptation, of the trials of the just, and of the different sorts
of tears, which must be carefully distinguished according as they proceed from
the love of self or from pure love.
When faced with
temptation, the soul can always resist in virtue of the merits of the blood of
the Savior; God never commands the impossible. These temptations, when they are
resisted, bring a deeper knowledge of ourselves and of God’s goodness and
strengthen us in virtue. [129]
Again, God sends trials
to purify us from our failings and imperfections, and to put us to the
necessity of growing in His love when there is no longer air to breathe but in
Him. [130] The way the soul welcomes these trials is the test of its
perfection. [131] Then, after shedding the unfruitful tears of self-love and
those caused by servile fear which dreads the punishment rather than the sin,
the soul by degrees comes to experience the tears of pure love. Thus in chapter
89 the saint tells us:
Inasmuch as she (the
soul) has not yet arrived at great perfection, she often sheds sensual tears,
and if thou askest Me why, I reply: because the root of self-love is not
sensual love, for that has already been removed (by mortification and the
preliminary trials)... but it is a spiritual love with which the soul derives
spiritual consolations or loves some creature spiritually.... Therefore, when
such a soul is deprived of the thing she loves, that is, internal or external
consolation (the former coming from Me, the latter from the creature), and when
temptations and the persecutions of men come on her, her heart is full of
grief. And, as soon as the eye feels the grief and suffering of the heart, she
begins to weep with a tender and passionate sorrow, pitying herself with the
spiritual compassion of self-love.... But growing, and exercising herself in
the light of self-knowledge, she conceives displeasure at herself and finally
perfect self-hatred.... Immediately her eye... cries with hearty love for Me
and for her neighbor, grieving for the offense against Me and her neighbor’s
loss.... Her heart is united to Me in love.... This is the last stage in which
the soul is blessed and sorrowful. Blessed she is through the union which she
feels herself to have with Me, tasting the divine love; sorrowful through the
offenses which she sees done to My goodness and greatness, for she has seen and
tasted the bitterness of this in her self-knowledge, by which self-knowledge,
together with her knowledge of Me, she arrived at the final stage. Yet this
sorrow is no impediment to the unitive state. [132]
We are reminded by it
how our Lord’s own afflictions were ever united to a perfect peace, even on the
cross. [133]
The purifications
leading up to this state of union are plainly those same passive purifications
which are treated of later on at such great length by St. John of the Cross. In
proof of this it will be sufficient to read chapter 24: “How God prunes the
living branches united to the stem in order to make them bear abundant fruit”;
chapter 43: “Of the advantage of temptations”; chapter 45: “Who those are whom
the thorns germinated by the world do not harm”; and finally chapter 20: “How,
without enduring trials with patience, it is impossible to please God.”
Conclusion: the general
call
What conclusion are we
to come to? The passages we have just quoted, lead to the following
conclusions: This union with God which normally constitutes the full perfection
of the Christian life is something more than a purely active union, the result
of our own personal activity under the influence of grace; it is also a passive
union, the result of our docility to the Holy Ghost and the divine inspirations
we receive through His sevenfold gifts, and these again normally increase with
charity.
Thus the soul will
normally arrive at the contemplative way in prayer, in reading the Scriptures
and in assisting at mass, contemplating ever more profoundly the infinite value
of the sacrifice of the altar, which perpetuates in substance the sacrifice of
the cross. It will arrive also at the contemplative way of exercising the
apostolate, in which, far from losing its union with God, it will preserve that
union so that others may acquire it.
Is every interior soul
called to this state of union? St. Catherine gives the answer to this question
when she explains, in chapter 53, these words of our Lord: “If any man thirst,
let him come to Me and drink.... Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water” (John 7:37-38). The Dialogue says:
You were all invited
generally and in particular, by My Truth, My Son, when, with ardent desire, He
cried in the temple, saying: “Whosoever thirsteth, let him come to Me and
drink.” [134]...So that you are invited to the fountain of living water of
grace, and you must come to Me, therefore, through My Son, with perseverance,
keeping by Him who was made for you a bridge, not being turned back by any contrary
wind that may arise, either of prosperity or of adversity, and to persevere
until you find Me, who am the giver of the water of life, by means of this
sweet and amorous Word, My only begotten Son.... The first condition required
is for you to have thirst, because only those who thirst are invited: “Whosoever
thirsteth, let him come to Me and drink.” He who has no thirst will not
persevere, for fatigue causes him to stop, persecution frightens him and no
sooner does it begin to assail him than he retreats. He is afraid because he is
alone.... You must then have thirst.... A man who is full of love and that of
his neighbor, suddenly finds himself the companion of many royal virtues. Then
the appetite of the soul is disposed to thirst. Thirst, I say, for virtue, and
the honor of My name and salvation of souls.... Wherefore then he follows on
with anxious desire, thirsting after the way of truth, in which he finds the
fountain of the water of life, quenching his thirst in Me, the ocean of peace.
[135]
St. Catherine expresses
the same idea under another symbol in chapter 26, where the Father bids her
pass over the bridge that binds earth to heaven, which is none other than
Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.” These pierced feet of the Savior are
steps by which thou canst arrive at His side, which manifests to thee the
secret of His heart.... Then the soul is filled with love, seeing herself so
much loved. Having passed the second step, the soul reaches out to the third,
that is, to the mouth, where she finds peace.”
Lastly, what is the sign
by which we may recognize that the soul has arrived at perfect love? The Lord
explains this to Catherine from chapter 74 to chapter 79:
It now remains to be
told thee how it can be seen that souls have arrived at perfect love. This is
seen by the same sign that was given to the holy disciples after they had
received the Holy Spirit, when they came forth from the house, and fearlessly
announced the doctrine of My Word, My only begotten Son, not fearing pain, but
rather glorying therein. Those who are enamored of My honor, and famished for
the food of souls, run to the table of the Holy Cross.
Their only ambition is
to suffer and endure untold hardships in the service of their neighbor. They
run eagerly in the path of Christ r crucified, for it is His doctrine they
accept, and they slacken not their pace on account of the persecutions,
injuries, or pleasures of the world. They pass by all these things with
fortitude and tranquil perseverance, their heart transformed by charity,
tasting this sweetness of this food of the salvation of souls and ready to
endure all things. This proves that the soul is in perfect love, loving without
consideration of self.... If these souls love themselves, they do so for My
sake, caring only for the praise and glory of My name.... In the midst of
injuries it is patience that is resplendent, asserting her royal
prerogative.... Such as these do not feel any separation from Me, whereas in
the case of others, I come and go, not that I withdraw from them My grace, but
the feeling of My sensible presence. I do not act thus to these most perfect
ones who have arrived at a very high degree of perfection and are entirely dead
to their own will, but I remain continually with them by My grace, giving them
that feeling of My sensible presence.
Here obviously we have
the exercise of charity and the gift of wisdom, each in an eminent degree,
through which, St. Thomas says, [136] we are given a quasi-experimental
knowledge of God present within us. This, surely, is the mystical life, the
culminating point of the life of grace as it normally develops and the prelude
to the heavenly life.
Those acquainted with
the spiritual teaching of St. Thomas will realize how closely it agrees with
the ascetic utterances of St. Catherine of Siena. In our opinion they are the
expression of the traditional doctrine, which is content to lay stress on the
right points in the reading of the Gospels and Epistles.” He that abideth in
charity abideth in God, and God in Him” (I John 4:16) ; “His unction teacheth
you of all things” (ibid., 2:27) ; “The Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our
spirit that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of
God and joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with Him, that we may
also be glorified with Him” (Rom. 8: 16-17) ; “For you are dead: and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you
also shall appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4).
Have we forced the sense
of these passages from the Dialogue? On the contrary, it is better to
acknowledge that they cannot be comprehended fully. As Raphael was wont to say,
“to comprehend is to equal, “ and to grasp the full meaning of the passages
quoted, the same spirit of faith, the same exalted charity would be necessary
as was possessed by St. Catherine of Siena.
Such, according to this
witness, is the way of perfection God has traced out from all eternity in His
providential plan to lead souls to their final destiny. It is the way that leads
to the fountain of living water.” If any man thirst, let him come to Me and
drink.... Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”; “He that shall
drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever” (John
7:37-38;4:13).
PART V : PROVIDENCE,
JUSTICE AND MERCY
25. Providence And
Divine Justice
Now that we have spoken
of providence in itself and its attitude to souls, we may suitably consider it
in its relations with divine justice and with divine mercy. As in us prudence
is connected with justice and the rest of the moral virtues, which it directs,
so also in God providence is united with justice and mercy, these being the two
great virtues of the love of God in our regard. Mercy has its foundation in the
sovereign good in so far as it is of itself diffusive and tends to communicate
itself externally. Justice, on the other hand, is founded in the indefeasible
right of the sovereign good to be loved above all things.
These two virtues, says
the psalmist, are found combined in all the works of God: “All the ways of the
Lord are mercy and truth” (Ps. 24: 10). But, as St. Thomas remarks, Cf. St.
Thomas, [137] in certain of the divine works, as when God inflicts
chastisement, justice stands out the more prominently, whereas in others, in
the justification or conversion of sinners, for example, it is mercy that is
more apparent.
This justice, which we
attribute analogically to God, is not that commutative justice which regulates
mutual dealings between equals: we cannot offer anything to God that does not
belong to Him already. It is a distributive justice, analogous to that which a
father shows toward his children or a good monarch toward his subjects. Thus,
by reason of this justice of His, God first of all sees to it that every
creature receives whatever is necessary for the attainment of its end.
Secondly, He rewards merit and metes out punishment to sin and vice, especially
if the sinner does not ask for mercy.
We shall do well to
consider how providence directs the action of justice (1) during the course of
our earthly existence, (2) at the moment of death, and (3) after death.
Providence and justice
in the course of our earthly existence
Providence and justice
combine in this present life to give us whatever is necessary to reach our true
destiny: that is, to enable us to live an upright life, to know God in a
supernatural way, to love and to serve Him, and so obtain eternal life.
There is a great
inequality, no doubt, in circumstances, natural and supernatural, among men
here on earth. Some are rich, others are poor; some are possessed of great
natural gifts, whereas others are of a thankless disposition, weak in health,
of a melancholy temperament. But God never commands the impossible; no one is
tempted beyond his strength reinforced by the grace offered him. The savage of
Central Africa or Central America has received far less than we have; but if he
does what he can to follow the dictates of conscience, Providence will lead him
on from grace to grace and eventually to a happy death; for him eternal life is
possible of attainment. Jesus died for all men, and among those who have the
use of reason only those are deprived of the grace necessary for salvation who
by their resistance reject it. Since He never commands the impossible, God
offers to all the means necessary for salvation.
Moreover, not
infrequently providence and justice will make up for the inequality in natural
conditions by their distribution of supernatural gifts. Often the poor man in
his simplicity will be more pleasing to God than the rich man, and will receive
greater graces. Let us recall the parable of the wicked rich man recorded in
St. Luke (16: 19-31) :
There was a certain rich
man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of
sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s
table. And no one did give him: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into
Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died.... And lifting up his eyes when he
was in torments, he saw Abraham... and he cried and said: Father Abraham, have
mercy on me.... And Abraham said to him; Son, remember that thou didst receive
good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is
comforted and thou art tormented.
This is to declare in
effect that, where natural conditions are unequal, providence and justice will
sometimes make up for it in the distribution of natural gifts. Again, the
Gospel beatitudes tell us that one who is bereft of this world’s enjoyments
will in some cases feel more powerfully drawn to the joys of the interior life.
This is what our Lord would have us understand when He says: “Blessed are the
poor in spirit.... Blessed are the meek... that suffer persecution for justice’
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” [138]
The love of Jesus goes
out to those servants of His nailed to the cross, because then they are more
like Him through the effective oblation they make of their entire being for the
salvation of sinners. In them He continues to live; in them He may be said to
prolong down to the end of time His own prayers and sufferings, and above all
His love, for perfect love consists in the complete surrender of self.
For some there comes a
time when every road in life is barred against them; humanly speaking, the
future holds out no prospect whatever to them. In some cases this is the moment
when the call comes to something higher. Some there are who spend long years
confined to a bed of pain; for these henceforth there is no way open but the
way of holiness. [139]
And so providence and
justice, while giving to each one what is strictly necessary, will often make up
for any disparity in natural conditions by the bestowal of grace. They reward
us, even in this life, for the merits we have gained, reminding us, too, of our
solemn duties by salutary warnings and well-deserved corrections, which are no
more than medicinal punishments for the purpose of bringing us back into the
right path. In this way will a mother correct her child if she loves it with a
really enlightened, ardent love. When these salutary corrections are well
received, we make expiation for our sins, and God takes the opportunity of
inspiring us with a more sincere humility and a purer, stronger love. There is
a sharp distinction between souls according to their willingness or
unwillingness to listen to these warnings from God.
Providence and justice at
the moment of death
As a general rule those
who have paid heed during life to the warning of God’s justice and to the
indefeasible right of the sovereign good to be loved above all things are not
taken unawares when death comes, and in that supreme moment they find peace.
Wholly otherwise is it usually with those who have refused to give ear to the
divine warnings and who during life have confounded hope with presumption.
If there is one thing
that is dependent on Providence, it is the hour of our death.” Be ye also
ready, “ says our Lord, “for at what hour you think not the Son of man will
come” (Luke 12: 40). The same is true of the manner of our death and the
circumstances surrounding it. It is all completely unknown to us; it rests upon
Providence, in which we must put all our trust, while preparing ourselves to
die well by a better life.
Looked at from the point
of view of divine justice, what a vast difference there is between the death of
the just and that of the sinner! In the Apocalypse (20: 6, 14) the death of the
sinner is called a “second death, “ for he is already spiritually dead to the
life of grace, and if the soul departs from the body in this condition it will
be deprived of that supernatural life forever. May God preserve us from that
second death. The unrepentant sinner, says St. Catherine, [140] is about to die
in his injustice, and appear before the supreme Judge with the light of faith
extinguished in him, which he received burning in holy baptism (but which he
has blown out with the wind of pride) and with the vanity of his heart, with
which he sets his sails unfurled to all the winds of flattery. Thus did he
hasten down the stream of the delights and dignities of the world at his own
will, giving in to the seductions of his weak flesh and the temptations of the
devil.
The remorse of
conscience (which is not to be confused with repentance) is then aroused with
such lively feelings, that it gnaws the very heart of the sinner, because he
recognizes the truth of what at first he knew not, and his error is the cause
of great confusion to him.... The devil torments him with infidelity in order
to drive him to despair. [141]
What are we to say of
this struggle which finds the sinner disarmed, deprived of his living faith now
extinguished in him, deprived also of a steadfast hope, which he has failed to
foster as he ought by committing himself daily to God and laboring for Him? The
wretched sinner has placed all his hopes in himself, not realizing that
everything he possessed was but lent and must one day be accounted for. He is
deprived, too, of the flame of charity, of the love of God which he has now
utterly lost. He finds himself alone in his spiritual nakedness, bereft of all
virtue. Having turned a deaf ear to the many warnings given during life, now,
whichever way he turns, he sees nothing but cause for confusion. Due
consideration was not given to divine justice during life; now it is the full
weight of that justice which makes itself felt, while the enemy of all good
seeks to persuade the sinner that for him henceforth there is no mercy. How we
should pray for those who are in their agony! If we do, then others will pray
for us when our last moment comes.
In those last moments
mercy still accommodates itself to the sinner, as it did to Judas when our Lord
said at the last supper (Matt. 26: 24) : “Woe to that man by whom the Son of
man shall be betrayed. It were better for him, if that man had not been born.”
Our Lord has not yet said who it is that is about to betray Him: He is too
tender-hearted to reveal it. And then, the Gospel continues, “Judas that
betrayed Him answering said: Is it I Rabbi? He saith to him: Thou hast said it.”
In delaying to put the question until the rest of the Apostles had done so,
Judas feigns innocence, as if that were possible with one who even in this
world reads the secrets of the heart. Notice, says St. Thomas commenting on
these words, with what gentleness Jesus continues to call him friend and
answers: “Thou hast said it”; as if to say, “It is you, not I, who say so, who
are revealing it.” Once again our Lord shows Himself full of compassion and
mercy, closing His eyes to the sins of men so as to give them one more salutary
warning and lead them to repentance. In Him are realized those touching words
of the Scripture: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful” (Ps. 102: 8) ; “overlooking
the sins of men for the sake of repentance” (Wis. 11: 24) ; “Let the meek hear
and rejoice” (Ps. 33: 3).
In view of these final
warnings from God, we may well ask how the sinner dare accuse God of being a
tyrant. No, it is the sinner who is his own tyrant; it is the sinner who has no
consideration for himself; and none for God either, since he refuses Him the
joy of applying to him what He said of the prodigal: “This my son was lost and
is found” (Luke 15: 24).
If the sinner will only
disburden his conscience by a sincere confession, making acts of faith, of
confidence in God, and contrition, at the last moment the divine mercy will
enter in to temper justice and will save him. By reason of God’s mercy every
man may cling to hope at death if he so wills, if he offers no resistance.
Remorse will then give place to repentance.
Otherwise the soul
succumbs to remorse and abandons itself to despair, a sin far more heinous than
any of the preceding, as in that neither infirmity nor the allurements of
sensuality can excuse, a sin by which the sinner esteems his wickedness as
outweighing God’s divine mercy. And once in this despair, the soul no longer
grieves over sin as an offense against God, it grieves only over its own
miserable condition, a grief very different from that which characterizes
attrition or contrition.
Blessed is the sinner
who like the good thief then repents, reflecting that, as St. Catherine says,
[142] “the divine mercy is greater without comparison than all the sins which
any creature can commit.”
Happier still is the
just soul that throughout life has given due thought to the loving fulfilment
of duty and, after the merits won and the struggle sustained here on earth, yearns
for death in order to enjoy the vision of God, even as St. Paul desired “to be
dissolved and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1: 23).
As a rule a great peace
fills the soul of the just in their last agony, a peace the more profound the
greater their perfection; and this is often most true of those who during life
have had the greatest dread of the divine justice. For them death is peaceful
because their enemies have been vanquished during life. [143] Sensuality has
been reduced to subjection under the curb of reason. Virtue triumphs over
nature, overcoming the natural fear of death through the longing to attain
their final end, the sovereign good. Being conformed to justice during life,
conscience continues tranquil, though the devil seeks to trouble and alarm it.
At that moment, it is
true, the value of this present time of trial, which is the price of virtue,
will be more clearly seen, and the just soul will reproach itself for not
having made better use of its time. But the sorrow it then experiences will not
overwhelm it; it will be profitable in inducing the soul to recollect itself
and place itself in the presence of the precious blood of our Savior, the Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world. In the passage from time to
eternity there is thus an admirable blending of God’s mercy and justice. In his
dying moments the just man anticipates the bliss prepared for him; he has a
foretaste of his destiny which may sometimes be seen reflected in his
countenance.
God’s providence and
justice in the next life
After death God’s
providence and justice intervene forthwith in the particular judgment.
Revelation tells us so in the parable of the wicked rich man and the beggar
Lazarus, whose souls were judged once and for all the moment they quitted this
earth. Equally clear is St. Paul’s teaching in more than one passage: “We must
all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive
the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether good or evil”;
[144] “I have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ”; [145] “I have
finished my course.... As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of
justice which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not
only to me, but to them also that love His coming”; [146] “It is appointed unto
man once to die, and after this the judgment.” [147]
It was the universal
belief of the early Church that the martyrs entered at once into heaven and
that unrepentant sinners, like the bad thief, received their punishment immediately
after death.
The nature of this
particular judgment is to be explained from the condition of the soul when
separated from the body. Once the body has been left behind, the soul has
direct vision of itself as a spiritual substance, in the same way that the pure
spirit has direct vision of itself, and in that instant it is made aware of its
moral condition. It receives an interior illumination rendering all discussion
useless. God passes sentence, which is then transmitted by conscience, the echo
of God’s voice. The soul now sees plainly what is its due according to its
merits and demerits, which then stand out quite distinctly before it. This is
what the liturgy expresses symbolically in the Dies Irae: Liber scriptus
proferetur, in quo totum continetur. The soul will see whatever has been
written down in the book of life concerning it. [148]
Justice will then mete
out condign punishment for sins committed, to last for a time or for eternity.
Mortal sin still unrepented at the moment of death will be henceforth like an
incurable disease, but in something that cannot die, the immortal soul. The
sinner has turned his back unrepentantly on the sovereign good, has in practice
denied its infinite dignity as the last end, and has failed to revoke this
practical denial while there was yet time. It is an irreparable disorder and a
conscious one. Remorse is there, but without repentance; pride and rebellion
will continue forever and with them the punishment they deserve. But above all
it involves the perpetual loss of the divine life of grace and the vision of
God, of supreme bliss, the sinner clearly realizing that through his own fault
he has failed forever to attain his destined end. [149]
Here the justice of God
is seen to be infinite; it is a mystery that surpasses our understanding, as
does the mystery of His mercy.
Here on earth the
concepts or ideas we are able to have of divine justice and the rest of God’s
perfections must always remain limited, confined, and that in spite of the
correction we apply in denying all limitation. These concepts represent the
divine attributes as distinct from one another, though we did say that there is
no real distinction between them. It follows that these restricted ideas harden
the spiritual features of God somewhat, as the human features are hardened when
we attempt to reproduce them in little squares of mosaic. Our concept of
justice being distinct from that of mercy, divine justice appears to us not
only infinitely just but absolutely unyielding, and His mercy appears to be
sheer caprice.
In heaven, however, we
shall see how the divine perfections, even those to all appearances directly
opposed, are intimately blended, identified in fact, yet without destroying one
another in the Deity, in God’s intimate life, of which we shall then have
distinct and immediate knowledge.
We shall then see that
nowhere but in God do justice and mercy exist in their pure state, free from
all imperfection, and that just as in us the cardinal virtues are
interconnected and inseparable, so also in Him justice cannot exist unless it
is united with mercy, and conversely there can be no such thing as mercy apart
from justice and providence. [150]
This is what is revealed
to the saints from the moment of the particular judgment, which is immediately
followed by their entry into glory.
There will be another
manifestation of justice in the general judgment after the resurrection of the
body, according to the words of the Creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ... who
shall come to judge the living and the dead.” Our Lord tells us (Matt. 24:
30-46) : “All tribes of the earth... shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven with much power and majesty. And He shall send His angels with
a trumpet and a great voice: and they shall gather together His elect from the
four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of
them.” If Jesus had not been the Son of God, how could He, a poor village
artisan, have uttered such words as these? It would have been the height of
foolishness, whereas everything goes to show that it is the essence of wisdom.
This general judgment is
evidently expedient, because man is not merely a private person, but is a
social being, and this judgment will reveal to all men the rectitude of
Providence and its ways, the reason also of its decisions and their outcome.
Divine justice will then appear in all its sovereign perfection in contrast to
the frequent miscarriage of human justice. Infinite mercy will be revealed in
the case of repentant and pardoned sinners. Every knee will bend before Christ
the Savior, triumphant now over sin, the devil, and death. Then will appear
also the glory of the elect: he who was humbled will now be exalted, and the
kingdom of God will be established forever in the light of glory, in love and
in peace. [151]
This is the kingdom we
long for when day by day we say in the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will
[signified to us in Thy precepts and in the spirit of the counsels] be done on
earth as it is in heaven.” [152]
26. Providence And Mercy
We have been considering
the relations between providence and divine mercy in the distribution of the
means necessary for all to attain their end, in rewarding merit and chastising
sin and wickedness. It now remains for us to speak of providence in its
relation to divine mercy. God’s mercy seems at first sight to differ so widely
from His justice as to be directly contrary to it; it appears to set itself up
in opposition to justice, intervening in order to restrict its rights. Yet in
reality there can never be any opposition between two divine perfections;
however widely they may differ from each other, the one cannot be the negation
of the other. As we have already seen, they are so united in the eminence of
the Deity, the intimate life of God, as to be completely identified.
Far from setting itself
up in opposition to justice and putting restrictions upon it, mercy unites with
it, but in such a way as to surpass it, as St. Thomas says. [153] In psalm 24:
10, we read: “All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (i. e., justice), “
but, adds St. James, “Mercy exalteth herself above judgment [justice].” [154]
In what sense is this to be understood? Says St. Thomas: [155]
In this sense, that
every work of justice presupposes and is founded upon a work of mercy, a work
of pure loving kindness, wholly gratuitous. If, in fact, there is anything due
from God to the creature, it is in virtue of some gift that has preceded it....
If He owes it to Himself to grant us grace necessary for salvation, it is because
He has first given us the grace with which to merit. Mercy (or pure goodness)
is thus, as it were, the root and source of all the works of God; its virtue
pervades, dominates them all. As the ultimate fount of every gift, it exercises
the more powerful influence, and for this reason it transcends justice, which
follows upon mercy and continues to be subordinate to it.
If justice is a branch
springing from the tree of God’s love, then the tree itself is mercy, or pure
goodness ever tending to communicate, to radiate itself externally.
We shall best understand
this by a consideration of our own lives. Our best course will be to proceed,
as we did with justice, by considering the relations between providence and
mercy first of all in this present life, then at the moment of death, and
lastly in the next life.
Providence and mercy in
the course of our present life
If in this present life
divine justice gives to each of us whatever is required for us to live rightly
and so attain our end, mercy, on the other hand, gives far beyond what is
strictly necessary, and it is in this sense that it surpasses justice.
In creating us, for
example, God might have established us in a purely natural condition, endowing
us with a spiritual, immortal soul, but not with grace. Out of pure goodness
from the very day of creation He has granted us to participate supernaturally
in His intimate life by bestowing on us sanctifying grace, the principle of our
supernatural merits.
Again, after the fall,
He might have left us in our fallen condition so far as justice is concerned.
Or He might have raised us up from sin by a simple act of forgiveness conveyed
through the mouth of a prophet after we had fulfilled certain conditions. But
He has done something infinitely greater than this: out of pure mercy He gave
us His only Son as a redeeming victim, and it is possible for us at all times
to appeal to the infinite merits of the Savior. Justice loses none of its
rights, but it is mercy that prevails.
Once Jesus had died for
us, all we needed was to be guided by interior graces as well as by the
preaching of the Gospel; but divine mercy has given us far more than this: it
has given us the Eucharist, in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated
in substance on our altars and the fruits of that sacrifice are applied to our
souls. [156]
Finally, those of us who
have been born into Christian and Catholic families have received incomparably
more from the divine mercy than the bare essentials God has given to the savage
of Central Africa. With those essentials God has given to the savage, provided
the first prevenient graces are not resisted, the savage will receive whatever
further graces are required for salvation; but we have received much more than
this from our very childhood. When we consider the matter, we realize that we
have been led on by the invisible hands of Providence and Mercy, preserving us
from many a false step and raising up each one of us individually when we have
fallen.
Again, if divine justice
rewards the merits we have acquired even in this life, the gifts of mercy go
far beyond anything we have deserved.
In the collect for the
eleventh Sunday after Pentecost we pray: “Almighty and eternal God, who in the
abundance of Thy goodness dost surpass the merits and even the desires of Thy
suppliants: pour out Thy mercy upon us, forgive us the things our conscience
must fear, and grant us what we cannot presume to ask. Through our Lord Jesus
Christ, etc.” [157]
The grace of absolution
from mortal sin is not something that can be merited, it is a gratuitous gift.
And how often has that grace been granted us!
Again, by no merit of
ours could we obtain the grace of communion; it is the fruit of the sacrament
of the Eucharist, which of itself produces that grace within us, even daily if
we wish. And how many communions has not the divine mercy granted us! Let us
bear in mind that if we are faithful in fighting against all attachment to
venial sin, each successive communion becomes substantially more fervent than
the last, since each successive communion must not only preserve but increase
charity within us, thus disposing us to receive our Lord on the morrow with a
substantial fervor, a readiness of desire not merely the same but more intense.
This law of acceleration
governing the love of God in the souls of the just must, if we are alive to it,
arouse our admiration. It will be seen that, just as the stone falls more
rapidly as it approaches the earth which is attracting it, so is it with the
souls of the just: the more nearly they approach to God and therefore the
greater the force of His attraction, the more rapid must their progress be. We
then grasp the meaning of these words of the psalm (32: 5) : “The earth is full
of the mercy of the Lord.” Even the sinner can say with the psalmist: “Return,
O Lord,... we are filled in the morning with Thy mercy: and we have rejoiced,
and are delighted all our days” (Ps. 89: 14).
If we could only see the
whole span of our life as it is written down in the book of life, how many
instances should we find where providence and mercy have intervened to piece
together again the chain of our merits which again and again perhaps we have
broken by our sins! But at the final moment mercy intervenes in a manner no
less gracious.
Providence and mercy at
the moment of death
If at that moment
justice alone were to enter in, all those who had led a life of sin would die
as they had lived. After so many warnings from Providence had been neglected,
the final warning would receive no better response; remorse would not give
place to a salutary repentance. Thanks to the mercy of God, however, this last
appeal is more insistent. If His justice inflicts the punishment due to sin,
here again His mercy will outstrip it by pardoning. To pardon means to “give
beyond” what is due. The rights of justice are safeguarded, but mercy outweighs
it by constantly inspiring the sinner, as death approaches, to make a great act
of love for God, and of contrition, which will wipe away sin and the eternal
punishment mortal sin incurs. And so, through the intervention of mercy,
through the infinite merits of the Savior, through the intercession of Mary
refuge of sinners, and of St. Joseph patron of the dying, for many persons
death is something very different from the way they lived. These are the
laborers of the eleventh hour whom the Gospel parable speaks of (Matt. 20:9) ;
they receive eternal life, as do the rest, in proportion to the few meritorious
acts they have per formed before death, when already in their agony. Such was
the death of the good thief who, touched by the loving kindness of Jesus dying
on the cross, was converted, and he had the happiness of hearing from the
Savior’s lips: “This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23: 43).
These interventions of
mercy at the moment of death are one of the sublimest features of the true
religion. This was often clearly enough shown during the World War, when a man,
dying a tragic death after absolution, was saved, who in ordinary
circumstances, in the midst of his occupations and pleasures, would perhaps
have been lost.
So, too, where there are
Catholic hospitals, many a poor soul, heeding the warning that the disease from
which he is suffering is soon to carry him off, there prepares himself for a
happy death. He listens to some sister speaking to him on this subject and then
to the priest who finally reconciles him to God after thirty or forty years of
a life spent practically in indifference, a life that has left much to be
desired.
The divine mercy extends
appealingly to every one of the dying. Jesus said: “Come to Me, all you that
labor and are burdened: and I will refresh you” (Matt. 11:28). He dies for all
men: as the beautiful prayers for those in their agony remind us, He is the
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The death of the
repentant sinner is one of the greatest manifestations of divine mercy. Some
striking examples of it are given us in the life of St. Catherine of Siena
written by her confessor, Blessed Raymund of Capua. [158] Two condemned
criminals, who were being tortured with hot pincers, were blaspheming
ceaselessly, and then through her prayers the unhappy wretches received a
vision of our Lord, who appeared covered with wounds, inviting them to repent
and promising them forgiveness. At that same moment they begged earnestly for a
priest and with heartfelt contrition confessed their sins. Thereupon their
blasphemies were turned to praise, and they went joyfully to their death as to
the gateway of heaven. Those who witnessed the incident were struck with
amazement and could assign no reason for such a sudden change in their interior
dispositions.
On another occasion the
saint herself was present at the execution of the young nobleman, Nicholas
Tuldo, who had been condemned to death for criticizing the government. When she
saw how desperately he clung to life, refusing to accept what seemed to him so
unjust a punishment, she herself prepared his soul to appear before God. Her
account of the death-scene is given in a letter to her confessor, Raymund of Capua:
Seeing me at the place
of execution, he began to smile, and wanted me to make the sign of the cross
upon him. I did so and then I said to him: “On your knees, sweetness my
brother. You are going to the marriage feast. You are about to enter into everlasting
life.” He prostrated himself with great gentleness, and I stretched out his
neck; and bending over him, I reminded him of the blood of the Lamb. His lips
said nought save “Jesus’, and “Catherine. ‘, And so saying, I received his head
in my hands, closing my eyes in the divine goodness, and saying, “I will.”
Then I saw, as might the
clearness of the sun be seen, the God-man, the wound in His side being open. He
was permitting a transfusion of that blood with His blood, and adding the fire
of holy desire given to that soul by grace to the fire of His divine charity.
[159]
But if the death of the
sinner is a manifestation of the divine mercy, far more beautiful is the death
of the saint who has always remained faithful. His last moments are, as a rule,
peaceful because he has vanquished his enemies during life and his soul is now
prepared for the passage to eternity. Uniting himself with all the masses then
being celebrated, he makes of his death a last sacrifice of reparation,
adoration, thanksgiving, and supplication to obtain thereby that last grace of
final perseverance which carries with it the assurance of salvation.
Providence and mercy
after death
Mercy and justice, the
Scripture tells us (Ps. 24: 10), combine in every one of God’s works; but whereas
mercy is the more prominent in some, as in the conversion of the sinner, in
others justice predominates, as in the case of punishment due to sin.
Thus it is that, as St.
Thomas says, [160] after death “mercy intervenes on behalf of the reprobate, in
the sense that the punishment they receive is less than they deserve.” Were
justice alone to enter in, they would suffer still more. St. Catherine of Siena
is of the same mind. [161] Mercy is there to temper justice even for those who
have fomented hatred among others, between class and class, nation and nation,
even for the most perverse, for monsters like Nero, who have shown a refinement
of malice, an obstinacy of will that spurned all advice.
Obviously, with the
souls in purgatory divine mercy is still more active, inspiring them with the
loving desire to make reparation, which tempers a little that keen purifying
pain they are undergoing and confirms them in their assurance of salvation.
In heaven divine mercy
shines forth in the saints according to the intensity of their love for God.
Our Lord will greet them with the words recorded in St. Matthew (25: 34) :
Come, ye blessed of My
Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me
to drink: I was a stranger, and you took Me in: naked, and you covered Me:
sick, and you visited Me: I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then shall the
just... answer Him saying: Lord, when did we see Thee hungry... thirsty... and
came to Thee? And the King answering shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as
long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me.
What joy will be ours in
that first instant of our entering into glory, when we shall receive the light
of glory in order to see God face to face, in a vision that will know no end,
whose measure will be the unique instant of changeless eternity.
How consoling is the
thought of this infinite mercy, which transcends all wickedness and is
inexhaustible. For this reason no relapse into sin, however shameful, however
criminal, should cause a sinner to despair. There can be no greater outrage
against God than to consider His loving kindness inadequate to forgive. As St.
Catherine of Siena tells us, “His mercy is greater without any comparison than
all the sins which any creature can commit.” [162]
In this matter we should
keep before our minds these words from the psalms, words that the liturgy is
constantly putting before us:
The mercies of the Lord
I will sing forever.... For Thou hast said: Mercy shall be built up forever in
the heavens. Thy truth shall be prepared in them.... Thou art mighty, O Lord,
and Thy truth is round about Thee, Thou rulest the power of the sea.... Thou
hast humbled the proud one....
The Lord is
compassionate and merciful: longsuffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not
always be angry: nor will He threaten forever.... For according to the height
of the heaven above the earth, He hath strengthened His mercy toward them that
fear Him.... As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord
compassion on them that fear Him: for He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that
we are dust.
Man’s days are as grass:
as the flower of the field so shall he flourish. For the spirit shall pass in
him, and he shall not be.... But the mercy of the Lord is from eternity and
unto eternity, upon them that fear Him. [163]
May the Lord deign that
these words be revealed in us also, that we may glorify Him forever.
Rarely have the
relations between mercy, justice, and providence been better expressed than in
the Dies Irae. [164]
Day of wrath and doom
impending, David’s word with Sibyl’s blending! Heaven and earth in ashes
ending!
O, what fear man’s bosom
rendeth, When from heaven the Judge descendeth, On whose sentence all
dependeth!
Death is struck, and
nature quaking, All creation is awaking, To its Judge an answer making.
Lo! the book exactly
worded, Wherein all hath been recorded; Thence shall judgment be awarded.
When the Judge His seat
attaineth, And each hidden deed arraigneth, Nothing unavenged remaineth.
King of Majesty
tremendous, Who dost free salvation send us, Fount of pity, then befriend us!
Think, kind Jesu! my
salvation Caused Thy wondrous incarnation; Leave me not to reprobation.
Faint and weary Thou
hast sought me, On the cross of suffering bought me; Shall such grace be vainly
bought me?
Righteous Judge! for sin’s
pollution Grant Thy gift of absolution, Ere that day of retribution.
Through the sinful woman
shriven, Through the dying thief forgiven, Thou to me a hope hast given.
Low I kneel, with heart
submission, Crushed to ashes in contrition; Help me in my last condition!
Spare, O God, in mercy
spare him! Lord all-pitying, Jesu blest, Grant them Thine eternal rest. Amen.
Let us acquire the habit
of praying for those in their last agony, that the divine mercy may incline to
them. Then others will assist us when the moment of our own death arrives.
Where or how we shall die, we know not; it may be quite alone; but if we have
prayed frequently for the dying, if again and again we have said with attention
and from our hearts: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at
the hour of our death, “ then at the supreme moment mercy will incline to us
also. [165]
27. Providence And The
Grace Of A Happy Death
One of those vital
questions that should be of the deepest interest to every soul, no matter what
its condition, is the question of a happy death. On this subject St. Augustine
wrote one of his last and finest works, the Gift of Perseverance, in which he
gives his definite views on the mystery of grace.
By the Semi-Pelagians on
the one hand and Protestants and Jansenists on the other, this vital question
has been understood in widely different, even fundamentally opposite, senses.
These two contrary heresies prompted the Church to define her teaching on this
point more precisely and to declare the truth in all its sublimity as the
transcendent mean between the extreme errors.
A brief summary of these
errors will give us a better appreciation of the truth and a clearer
understanding of what the grace of a happy death really is. We shall then see
how this grace may be obtained.
The doctrine of the
Church and the errors opposed to it
The Semi-Pelagians
maintained that man can have the initium fidei et salutis, the beginning of
faith and a good desire apart from grace, this beginning being subsequently
confirmed by God. According to their view, not God but the sinner himself takes
the first step in the sinner’s conversion. On the same principles the
Semi-Pelagians maintained that, once justified by grace, man can persevere
until death without a further special grace. For the just to persevere unto the
end, it is enough, they said, that the initium salutis, this natural good will,
should persist.
It amounted to this,
that God not only wills all men to be saved, but wills it to the same extent in
every case; and further, that precisely the element which distinguishes the
just from the wicked—the initium salutis and those final good dispositions
which are to be found in one and not in another, in Peter and not in Judas—is
not to be referred to God as its author; He is simply an onlooker.
It meant the rejection
of the mystery of predestination and the ignoring of those words of our Lord: “No
man can come to Me, except the Father, who sent Me, draw him” (John 6: 44),
words that apply both to the initial and to the final impulse of our hearts to
God.” Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15: 5), our Lord said. As the Second
Council of Orange recalled against the Semi-Pelagians, St. Paul added: “Who
distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received?” (I Cor.
4:7) ; “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of
ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God” (II Cor. 3: 5). If this is true of
our every thought, still more true is it of the least salutary desire, whether
it be the first or the last.
St. Augustine, too,
pointed out that both the first grace and the last are in an especial way
gratuitous. The first prevenient grace cannot be merited or in any way be due
to a purely natural good impulse, since the principle of merit is sanctifying
grace, and this, as its very name implies, is a gratuitous gift, a life wholly
supernatural both for men and for angels. Again, the final grace, the grace of
final perseverance, is, as St. Augustine pointed out, a special gift, a grace
peculiar to the elect, of whom our Lord said: “No one can snatch them out of
the hand of My Father” (John 10: 29). When this grace is granted, he added, it
is from sheer mercy; if on the other hand it is not given, it is as a just
chastisement for sin, usually for repeated sin, which has alienated the soul
from God. We have it exemplified in the death of the good thief and that of the
unrepentant one.
For St. Augustine the
question is governed by two great principles. The first is that not only are
the elect foreseen by God, but they are more beloved by Him. St. Paul had said:
“Who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received?” (I
Cor. 4:17.) Later on we find St. Thomas saying that “since the love of God is
cause of whatever goodness there is in things, no one thing would be better
than another, if God did not will a greater good for one than for the other”
(Ia, q. 20, a. 3).
The other principle,
formulated by St. Augustine in express terms, is that God never commands the
impossible, though in commanding He admonishes us to do what we can and to ask
for grace to accomplish what we ourselves cannot do: Deus impossibilia non jubet,
sed in jubendo monet et facere quod possis et petere quod non possis. These
words, taken from his De natura et gratia, [166] are quoted by the Council of
Trent [167] and bring out how God desires to make it really possible for all to
be saved and observe His precepts, and how in fact He does so. As for the
elect, He sees to it that they continue to observe His precepts until the end.
How are these two great
principles, certain and beyond dispute, to be intimately reconciled? Before
receiving the beatific vision, no created intellect, of men or of angels, can
perceive how this can be. It must first be seen how infinite justice, infinite
mercy, and a sovereign liberty are reconciled in the Deity, and this requires
an immediate vision of the divine essence.
As we know, these
principles laid down by St. Augustine against Semi-Pelagianism were in
substance approved by the Second Council of Orange. Thus it remains true that
the grace of a happy death is a special grace peculiar to the elect.
At the opposite extreme
to Semi-Pelagianism, Protestantism and Jansenism distorted the first principle
formulated by St. Augustine by rejecting the second. On the pretext of
emphasizing the mystery of predestination, they denied the all embracing
character of God’s saving will, maintaining also that in some cases God
commands the impossible, that at the moment of death it is not possible for all
to be faithful to the divine precepts. We know what the first proposition of
Jansenius was, [168] that certain of God’s commandments are impossible for some
even among the just, and this not merely when they are negligent or have not
the full use of reason and will, but even when they have the desire to carry
out these precepts and do really strive to fulfil them: justis volentibus et conantibus.
Even for them the carrying out of certain precepts is impossible because they
are denied the grace that would make it possible.
Such a proposition must
drive men to despair and shows how wide is the gulf separating Jansenism from
the true doctrine of St. Augustine and St. Thomas: Deus impossibilia non jubet.
This grave error involves the denial of God’s justice and hence of God Himself;
a fortiori it denies His mercy and the offering of sufficient grace to all.
Indeed it means the rejection of true human liberty (libertas a necessitate),
so that finally sin becomes unavoidable and is sin no longer, and hence cannot
without extreme cruelty be punished eternally.
From the same erroneous
principles, Protestants were led to declare not only that predestination is
gratuitous, but that good works, in the case of adults, are not necessary for
salvation, faith alone sufficing. Hence that saying of Luther’s: Pecca fortiter
et crede fortius: sin resolutely, but trust even more resolutely in the
application of Christ’s merits to you and in your predestination. This is no
longer hope, but is an unpardonable presumption. Jansenism and Protestantism,
in fact, oscillate between presumption and despair, without ever being able to
find true Christian hope and charity.
Against this heresy the
Council of Trent defined [169] that “Whereas we should all have a steadfast
hope in God, nevertheless (without a special revelation) no one can have
absolute certainty that he will persevere to the end.” The Council quotes the
words of St. Paul: “Wherefore, my dearly beloved (as you have always
obeyed...), with fear and trembling work out your salvation.... For it is God
who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish according to His good will”
(Phil. 2: 12) ; “He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed, lest he
fall” (I Cor. 10: 12). He must put all his trust in the Almighty, who is alone
able to raise him up when he has fallen and keep the just upright in a corrupt
and perverse world.” And he shall stand: for God is able to make him stand”
(Rom. 14: 4).
And so the Church
maintains the Gospel teaching in its rightful place above the vagaries of
error, above the extreme heresies of Semi-Pelagianism and Protestantism. On the
other hand, the elect are more beloved of God than are others and, on the other
hand, God never commands the impossible, but in His love desires to make it
really possible for all to be faithful to His commandments.
It remains true
therefore, as against Semi-Pelagianism, that the grace of a happy death is a
special gift [170] and, as against Protestantism and Jansenism, that among
those who have the use of reason they alone are deprived of help at the last
who actually reject it by resisting the sufficient grace offered them, as the
bad thief resisted it, and that in the very presence of Christ the Redeemer.
[171]
This being so, how are
we to obtain this immense grace of a happy death? Can we merit it? And if it
cannot be merited in the strict sense, is it possible for us at any rate to
obtain it through prayer? What are the conditions that such a prayer must
conform to?
These are the two points
we wish to develop, relying especially on what St. Thomas has written about
them in Ia IIae, q. 114, a. 9.
Can we merit the grace
of a happy death?
Are we able to merit it
in the strict sense of the term “merit, “ which implies the right to a divine
reward?
Final perseverance, a
happy death, is no more than the continuance of the state of grace up to the
moment of death, or at any rate it is the coincidence or union of death and the
state of grace if conversion takes place at the last moment. In short, a happy
death is death in the state of grace, the death of the predestinate or elect.
We now see why the
Second Council of Orange declared it to be a special gift, [172] why, too, the
Council of Trent declared the gratuitous element in it by saying that, “this
gift cannot be derived from any other but from the One who is able to establish
him who standeth that he stand perseveringly, and to restore him who has fallen.”
[173]
Whatever we are able to
merit, though it comes chiefly from God, is not from Him exclusively; it
proceeds also from our own merits, which imply the right to a divine reward.
Hence we feel that the just must humbly admit that they have really no right to
the grace of final perseverance.
St. Thomas demonstrates
this truth by a principle as simple as it is profound, one that is now commonly
received in the Church [174] (cf. Ia IIae, q. 114, a. 9). We may profitably
pause to consider it for a moment; it will serve to keep us humble.
“The principle of merit,
“ says St. Thomas, “cannot itself be merited (principium meriti sub merito non
cadit) “; for no cause can cause itself, whether it be a physical cause or
moral (as merit is). Merit, that act which entitles us to a reward, cannot
reach the principle from which it proceeds. Nothing is more evident than that
the principle of merit cannot itself be merited.
Now the gift of final
perseverance is simply the state of grace maintained up to the moment of death,
or at least at that moment restored. Furthermore, the state of grace, produced
and maintained by God, is in the order of salvation the very principle of
merit, the principle rendering our acts meritorious of an increase in grace and
of eternal life. Apart from the state of grace, apart from charity whereby we
love God with an efficacious love, more than ourselves, with a love founded at
least on a right estimation of values, our salutary acts have no right to a
supernatural reward. In such case these salutary acts, like those preceding
justification, bear no proportion to such a reward; they are no longer the
actions of an adopted son of God and of one who is His friend, heir to God and
coheir with Christ, as St. Paul says. They proceed from a soul still estranged
from God the last end, through mortal sin, from one having no right as yet to
eternal life. Hence St. Paul writes (I Cor. 13: 1-3) : “If I have not charity,
I am nothing... it profiteth me nothing.” Apart from the state of grace and
charity, my will is estranged from God, and personally therefore I can have no
right to a supernatural reward, no merit in the order of salvation.
Briefly, then, the
principle of merit is the state of grace and perseverance in that state; but
the principle of merit cannot itself be merited.
If the initial
production of sanctifying grace cannot be merited, the same must be said of the
preservation of anyone in grace, this being simply the continuation of the
original production and not a distinct divine action. So says St. Thomas (Ia,
q. 104, a. 1 ad 4um) : “The conservation of the creature by God is not a fresh
divine action, but the continuation of the creative act.” Hence the maintenance
of anyone in the state of grace can no more be merited than its original
production.
To this profound reason
many theologians add a second, which is a confirmation of it. Strictly condign
merit (meritum de condigno) or merit founded in justice presupposes the divine
promise to reward a certain good work. But God has never promised final
perseverance or preservation from the sin of final impenitence to one who
should keep His commandments for any length of time. Indeed it is precisely
this obedience until death in which final perseverance consists; hence it
cannot be merited by that obedience, for otherwise it would merit itself. We
are thus brought back to our fundamental reason, that the principle of merit
cannot be merited. Moreover, with due reservations, the same reason is
applicable to congruous merit (meritum de congruo), that merit which is founded
in the rights of friendship uniting us to God, the principle of which is again
the state of grace. [175]
What it all comes to is
this, that God’s mercy, not His justice, has placed us in the state of grace
and continues to maintain us therein.
The just, it is true,
are able to merit eternal life, this being the term, not the principle of
merit. Even so, if they are to obtain eternal life, it is still required that
the merits they have won shall not have been lost before death through mortal
sin. Now no acts of charity we perform give us the right to be preserved from
mortal sin; it is mercy that preserves us from it. Here is one of the main
foundations of humility.
Against this doctrine,
now commonly accepted by theologians, a somewhat specious objection has been
raised. It has been said that one who merits what is greater can merit what is
less. Hence, since the just can merit eternal life de condigno and since this
is something more than final perseverance, it follows that they can merit final
perseverance also.
To this St. Thomas
replies (ibid., ad 2um et 3um) : One who can do what is greater can do what is
less, other things being equal, not otherwise. Now here there is a difference
between eternal life and final perseverance: eternal life is not the principle
of the meritorious act, far from it; eternal life is the term of that act.
Final perseverance, on the other hand? is simply the continuance in the state
of grace, and this, as we have already seen, is the principle of merit.
But, it is insisted, one
who can merit the end can merit also the means to that end; but final
perseverance is a means necessary to obtain eternal life and, therefore, like
eternal life, can be merited.
Theologians in general
reply by denying that the major premise is of universal application. Merit,
indeed, is a means of obtaining eternal life, and yet it is not itself merited:
it is enough that it can be had in other ways. Similarly, the grace of final
perseverance can be obtained otherwise than by merit; it may be had through
prayer, which is not directed to God’s justice, as merit is, but to His mercy.
But, it is further
insisted, if final perseverance cannot be merited, neither can eternal life,
which is only the consequence of this. From what has already been said, we must
answer that anyone in the state of grace may merit eternal life only on
condition that the merits he has gained have not been lost or have been
mercifully restored through the grace of conversion. Hence the Council of Trent
states (Sess. VI, cap. 16 and can. 32), that the just man can merit eternal
life, si in gratia decesserit, if he dies in the state of grace.
We are thus brought back
to that saying of St. Augustine and of St. Thomas after him: where the gift of
final perseverance is granted, it is through mercy; if it is not granted, it is
in just chastisement for sin, and usually for repeated sin, which has alienated
the soul from God.
From this we deduce many
conclusions, both speculative [176] and practical. We shall draw attention only
to the humility that must be ours as we labor in all confidence to work out our
salvation.
What we have been saying
is calculated from one point of view to inspire dread, but what we have still
to say will give great consolation.
How the grace of a happy
death may be obtained through prayer
What are the conditions
to which this prayer must conform? If, strictly speaking, the gift of final
perseverance cannot be merited, since the principle of merit does not merit
itself, it may nevertheless be obtained through prayer, which is directed not
to God’s justice but to His mercy.
What we obtain through
prayer is not always merited: the sinner, for example, who now is in the state
of spiritual death, is able with the aid of actual grace to pray for and obtain
sanctifying or habitual grace, which could not be merited, since it is the
principle of merit.
It is the same with the
grace of final perseverance: we cannot merit it in the strict sense, but we can
obtain it through prayer for ourselves, and indeed for others also (cf. St.
Thomas, ibid., ad Ium). What is more, we can and indeed we ought to prepare
ourselves to receive this grace by leading a better life.
Whatever the Quietists
may have said, failure to ask for the grace of a happy death and to prepare
ourselves to receive it argues a disastrous and stupid negligence, incuria
salutis.
For this reason our Lord
taught us to say in the Our Father: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil”; and the Church bids us say daily: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
Can our prayer obtain
this grace of a happy death infallibly? Relying on our Lord’s promise, “Ask and
you shall receive, “ theology teaches that prayer made under certain conditions
is infallible in obtaining the gifts necessary for salvation, including
therefore the final grace. What are the conditions required that prayer shall
be infallibly efficacious? “They are four, “ St. Thomas tells us (IIa IIae, q.
83, a. 15 ad 2um) : “We must ask for ourselves, the things necessary for
salvation, with piety, with perseverance.”
We are, in fact, more
certain of obtaining what we ask for ourselves than when we pray for a sinner,
who perhaps is resisting grace at the very moment we are praying for him. [177]
But even though we ask for the gifts necessary for salvation, and for
ourselves, prayer will not be infallibly efficacious unless it is made with
piety, humility, and confidence, as well as with perseverance. Only then will
it express the sincere, profound, unwavering desire of our hearts. And here
once again together with our own frailty, appears the mystery of grace; we may
fail to persevere in our prayer as we may fail in our meritorious works. This
is why we say before communion at mass: “Never permit me, O Lord, to be
separated from Thee.” Never permit us to yield to the temptation not to pray;
deliver us from the evil of losing the relish and desire for prayer; grant us
that we may persevere in prayer notwithstanding the dryness and the profound
weariness we sometimes experience.
Our whole life is thus
shrouded in mystery. Every one of our salutary acts presupposes the mystery of
grace; every one of our sins is a mystery of iniquity, presupposing the divine
permission to allow evil to exist in view of some higher good purpose, which
will be clearly seen only in heaven.” The just man liveth by faith” (Rom. 1:
17). We need help to the very end, not only that we may merit, but that we may
pray even. How are we to obtain the necessary help to persevere in prayer? By
bearing in mind our Lord’s words: “If you ask the Father anything in My name,
He will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name” (John
16: 23-24).
We must pray in the name
of our Savior. That is the best way of purifying and strengthening our
intention, and will do more than the sword of Brennus to turn the balance. We
must ask Him besides to make personal intercession on our behalf. This
intercession of His is continued from day to day in the holy mass, wherein, as
the Council of Trent says, through the ministry of His priests He never ceases
to offer Himself and apply to us the merits of His passion.
Seeing that the grace of
a happy death can be obtained only through prayer and not merited, we should
turn to that most excellent and efficacious of all prayers, the prayer of our
Lord, principal Priest in the sacrifice of the mass. It was for this reason
Pope Benedict XV, in a letter to the director of the Archconfraternity of Our
Lady For a Happy Death, earnestly recommended the faithful to have masses
offered during life for the grace of a happy death. This is indeed the greatest
of all graces, the grace of the elect; and if at that last moment we unite
ourselves by an intense act of love with Christ’s sacrifice perpetuated on the
altar, we may even obtain remission of the temporal punishment due to our sins
and thus be saved from purgatory.
Therefore, to obtain
this grace of final perseverance, we should frequently unite ourselves with the
Eucharistic consecration, the essence of the sacrifice of the mass, pondering
on the four ends of sacrifice: adoration, supplication, reparation, and
thanksgiving. Let us bear in mind that in this continuous oblation of Himself,
our Lord is offering, as well the whole of His mystical body, especially those
who suffer spiritually and thereby share a little in His own sufferings. This
is a path that will carry us far if only we follow it perseveringly. [178]
This practice of uniting
ourselves with the sacrifice of the mass, with the masses that all day long are
being celebrated wherever the sun is rising upon the earth, is the best
preparation for a happy death, the best preparation for that hour when for the
last time in our lives we shall unite ourselves with the masses then being
celebrated far and near. United then with the sacrifice of Christ perpetuated
in substance upon the altar, our death will itself be a sacrifice of adoration
both of God’s supreme dominion, who is master of life and death, and of the
majesty of Him who “leadeth down to hell and bringeth up again” (Tob. 13: 2).
It will be a sacrifice of supplication to obtain the final grace both for
ourselves and for those who are to die in that same hour. It will also be a
sacrifice of reparation for the sins of our life, and a sacrifice of
thanksgiving for all the favors we have received since our baptism.
The sacrifice we thus
offer with a burning love for God may well open to us forthwith the gates of
heaven, as it did for the good thief dying there by the side of our Lord as He
brought to its close the celebration of His bloody mass, the sacrifice of the
cross.
Before this last hour of
our life comes, we should cultivate the practice of praying for the dying. At
the door of some chapels may be seen the little inscription: Pray for those who
are to die while holy mass is being offered. A certain French writer was one
day much struck by this inscription and thereafter every day prayed for the
dying while he was attending mass. Later on he was overtaken by a serious
illness, which lasted for years; unable any longer to go to mass, he offered up
his sufferings each morning for those who were to die in the course of the day.
He thus had the joy of obtaining a number of unexpected conversions in
extremis. [179]
Let us also pray for the
priests who assist the dying. It is a sublime ministry to assist a soul in its
agony, in that last struggle. Pray that the priest may arrive in time and, if
the sick man is already sunk in profound torpor, that he may obtain from heaven
the necessary moment of consciousness. Pray that the priest may be able to
prompt the sick man to make the great sacrifices God demands of him and that by
his priestly prayer, offered in the name of Christ, in the name of Mary and of
all the saints, he may obtain for him the final grace, the grace of graces.
As the priest is giving
this assistance to the dying, he sometimes has the immense consolation of
looking on, as it were, and watching our Lord save the soul as it suffers in
that last moment. Hitherto perhaps he has prayed for a cure, but now that he
sees the soul well prepared for death he ends by reciting confidently and with
great peace that beautiful prayer of the Church:
Kyrie eleison, Christe
eleison, Kyrie eleison.... Proficiscere, anima christiana, de hoc mundo, in
nomine Dei Patris omnipotentis, qui te creavit, in nomine Jesu Christi Filii
Dei vivi, qui pro te passus est, in nomine Spiritus Sancti, qui in te effusus
est (“Go forth from this world, O Christian soul, in the name of God the Father
Almighty, who created thee; in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
who suffered for thee; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who was poured out upon
thee; in the name of the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God; in the
name of Blessed Joseph, predestined spouse of the Virgin; in the name of the
angels and archangels... ; in the name of the patriarchs and prophets; in the
name of the Apostles and the Evangelists; in the name of the holy martyrs and
confessors; and of all the saints of God. May thy place be this day in peace
and thy abode in holy Sion, through Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The mystery of salvation
And so for us a holy
death throws light on the mystery of predestination, that terrible and yet
gracious mystery which concerns the choice of the elect.
We now have a better
grasp of those two great principles formulated by St. Augustine and St. Thomas
which we quoted at the beginning of the chapter.
On the one hand, “since
God’s love is the cause of things, no one thing would be better than another,
if God did not will a greater good for one than for the other.” [180] No one
thing would be better than another by reason of some salutary act, whether it
be the first or the last, easy or difficult, in its inception or continuance,
were he not more beloved of God. This is what our Lord refers to when He says
of the elect, that “no man can snatch them out of the hand of My Father” (John
10: 29). He was speaking here of the efficacy of grace, which also led St. Paul
to ask, “Who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not
received?” (I Cor. 4:7.) Could we find anywhere a more profound lesson in
humility?
On the other hand, God
never commands the impossible, but love constrains Him to make the fulfilment
of His precepts really possible for all, and especially for the dying; final
grace is denied them only when they reject it by resisting the final appeal.
And therefore, say St.
Augustine and St. Thomas, when the grace of final perseverance is granted, as
it was to the good thief, it is through mercy; if it is not granted, it is as a
just chastisement for sin and usually for repeated sin; it is a just
chastisement, too, for the final act of resistance, as it was with the
impenitent thief, who was lost even as he hung dying by the side of his
Redeemer.
In the words of St.
Prosper quoted by a council of the ninth century, “If some are saved, it is the
gift of Him who saves; if some perish, it is the fault of them that perish.”
[181]
Absolutely certain as
are these two great principles when considered apart—the efficacy of grace and
the possibility for all to be saved—how are they infinitely reconciled one with
the other? Here is St. Paul’s answer: “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom
and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how
unsearchable His ways!” (Rom. 11: 33.) No created intellect can perceive this
intimate reconciliation before receiving the beatific vision. To perceive that
is to perceive also how infinite justice, infinite mercy and a sovereign
liberty are united and identified without any real distinction in the Deity,
the intimate life of God, in precisely what is unutterable in Him, in that
perfection which is exclusively His own and naturally incommunicable to
creatures—in the Deity as it transcends being, unity, truth, goodness,
intelligence, and love. For in all these absolute perfections creatures can
participate naturally, whereas participation in the Deity is possible only
through sanctifying grace, which is a participation in the divine nature not
simply as intellectual life, but as a life strictly divine and the principle of
that immediate vision and of that love which God has for Himself. [182]
That we may perceive how
the two principles of which we are speaking are intimately reconciled with each
other, we must have immediate vision of the divine essence.
The more certain we are
of the truth of these two principles, the more striking by contrast is the
obscurity, the light-transcending obscurity, enveloping the heights of God’s
intimate life in which they are united. They are like the two extremities of a
dazzling are disappearing above into what the mystics call the great darkness,
which is none other than that light inaccessible in which God dwells (I Tim. 6:
16).
This, though very
imperfectly expressed, is to our mind the subject of Augustine’s speculation,
or rather let us say of his contemplation, and it is the constant source of
inspiration to St. Thomas in these difficult questions. The divine obscurity
here mentioned is far beyond the reach of speculative theology; it is the
proper object of faith (fides est de non visis), of faith illumined by the
gifts of understanding and wisdom (fides donis illustrata).
From this higher
standpoint, the contemplation of this terrible yet gracious mystery brings
peace. Penetrated through and through with this doctrine, Bossuet writes as
follows to one tormented with all sorts of ideas about predestination:
When such thoughts come
into the mind, when all our efforts to dissipate them have proved vain, we
should end by abandoning ourselves to God, with the assurance that our
salvation is infinitely more secure in God’s hands than in our own. Only thus
shall we find peace. All teaching about predestination should end in this; this
should be the effect produced in us by our sovereign Master’s secret, a secret
we should adore without pretending to sound its depths. We must lose ourselves
in the heights and impenetrable depths of God’s wisdom, must cast ourselves
into the arms of His immense loving kindness, looking to Him for everything,
yet without unburdening ourselves of that care for our salvation which He
demands of us.... The result of this tormenting must be the abandonment of
yourself to God, who by reason of His loving kindness and the promises He has
made will then be bound to watch over you. This, while the present life lasts,
must be the final solution to all those questions about predestination which
beset you; henceforth you must find your repose not in yourself but solely in
God and His fatherly loving kindness.” [183]
Bossuet, speaking in the
same strain in one of the finest chapters of his Meditations sur l’Evangile
(Part II, 72d day), says:
The proud man fears that
unless he retains his salvation in his own hands, it is rendered too insecure;
but in this he deceives himself. Can I find any security in myself? O my God, I
feel my will escaping me at every moment, and even wert Thou willing to make me
the sole master of my fate, I should refuse a power so dangerous to my
weakness. Let it not be said that this doctrine of grace and predilection will
bring pious souls to despair. How can anyone imagine he will give me greater
assurance by throwing me back upon myself, by delivering me up to my own
inconstancy? No, my God, I will have none of it. I can find no security except
in abandoning myself to Thee. And this security is the greater when I reflect
that those in whom Thou dost inspire this confidence, this complete
self-abandonment to Thee, receive in this gentle prompting the highest mark of
Thy loving kindness that can be had here on earth.
As we have shown
elsewhere, [184] this to us seems to be the true mind of St. Augustine at its
loftiest, when finally he soars above all reasoning, and comes to rest in the
divine obscurity where the two aspects of the mystery, to all appearances
diametrically opposed, must at last be reconciled. As formulated in the two
principles—God never commands the impossible; no one would be better than
another, were he not more beloved of God—these two aspects of the mystery are
as two stars of the first magnitude shining brightly in the dark night of the
spirit, yet wholly inadequate to reveal to us the uttermost depths of the
firmament, the secret of the Deity.
Until we are given the
beatific vision, grace by a secret instinct allays all our fears as to the
intimate reconciliation of infinite justice and infinite mercy in the Deity,
and this it does because it is itself a participation in the Deity, the light
of life far surpassing the natural light of either the angelic or the human
intellect.
Doubtless the whole of
our interior life, every one of our actions, are shrouded in mystery; for every
salutary act presupposes the mystery of grace from which it proceeds, and all
sin is a mystery of iniquity, presupposing the divine permission that evil shall
exist in view of some higher good purpose which will often escape us and will
be clearly seen only in heaven. But in this obscurity characteristic of faith
and also of contemplation here on earth, we are reassured when we remember that
God’s will is to save, that Christ has died for us, that His sacrifice is
perpetuated in substance on the altar, and that our salvation is more secure in
His hands than it would be in ours, since we are more certain of the rectitude
of the divine intentions than of our own, even the best of them.
Let us abandon ourselves
in all confidence and love to His infinite mercy: there can be no better way of
ensuring His condescending mercy toward us at this moment and above all at the
hour of our death.
Let us frequently call
to mind those beautiful words of the psalm, recurring each week in Thursday’s
office of Tierce: “Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He
shall not suffer the just to waver forever” (Ps. 54: 23).
Let us call to mind the
beautiful canticle of Tobias: “Thou art great, O Lord, forever, and Thy kingdom
is unto all ages. For Thou scourgest, and Thou savest: Thou leadest down to
hell, and bringest up again. He hath chastised us for our iniquities: and He
will save us for His own mercy” (Tob. 13: 1).
In this self-abandonment
we shall find peace. As our Lord hung dying for us, He experienced in His holy
soul the keenest suffering our sins had caused, yet likewise the profoundest
peace. So, too, in every Christian death, as in that of the good thief, there
is suffering, a holy fear and trembling before the infinite justice of God, and
a profound peace, a most intimate union prevailing between them. Nevertheless
it is peace, the tranquillity that comes of true order, which predominates, as
is apparent from these words of our Lord as He died: ‘It is consummated....
Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23: 46).
28. Providence And
Charity Toward Our Neighbor
In the preceding chapter
we saw how one of the greatest means in the workings of providence is charity
toward our neighbor, by which all men should be united for their mutual aid in
their progress toward the common goal, eternal life.
This subject is always
of the greatest interest and we should often revert to it, especially in this
age when charity toward others is summarily rejected by individualism in all
its forms and completely distorted by the humanitarianism of the communist and
internationalist.
Individualism aims at
nothing higher than the search for what is useful and pleasurable to the
individual or at most to the restricted group to which the individual belongs.
Hence the bitter strife arising sometimes among members of the same family, but
especially between classes and races or nations. Hence arise jealousy and envy,
discord and hatred, and the most profound disruptions. It implies a complete
disregard for the common good in its different degrees and an almost exclusive
assertion of individual or particular rights.
In opposition to this,
communist and internationalist humanitarianism lays so much stress on the
rights of humanity as a whole, which in some degree is identified with God in a
pantheistic sense, that the rights of individuals, families, and nations
disappear altogether. On the pretext of promoting unity, harmony, and peace,
the way is prepared for appalling confusion and disorder, like that which has
prevailed in Russia since the revolution. To desire that all the parts in an
organism shall have the perfection of the head, or to do away with the head
because it is more perfect than the members, is to destroy the organism
altogether.
Obviously the truth lies
within these two extreme errors, yet transcends them. Equally remote from both
individualism and communism, it affirms the rights inherent in the individual,
in families, and in nations, and at the same time the claims of the common
good, which is above every particular good. Thus a right estimation of things
will safeguard the welfare of the individual through two kinds of justice:
commutative, regulating the mutual dealings between one private party and
another, and distributive, which sees to a fair distribution of general
utilities and burdens. Also it will safeguard the common good through legal
justice providing for the enactment of just laws and their observance, and
again through equity, which looks to the spirit of the law in those exceptional
cases where the letter of the law cannot be applied.
Admirably differentiated
by Aristotle and well developed by St. Thomas in his treatise De justitia (IIa
IIae, q. 58, 61, 120), these four kinds of justice (commutative, distributive,
and legal or social justice, and equity) suffice in a way to preserve the just
mean between the opposing errors of individualism and communist
humanitarianism. St. Thomas’ teaching on this question is too little known and
might well be made the subject of a series of interesting and useful studies.
However perfect this
fourfold justice may become, even when enlightened by Christian faith, it can
never attain the perfection that distinguishes charity toward God and our
neighbor, the formal object of which is incomparably on a higher plane.
Let us recall what the
primary object of charity is and what is its secondary object. We shall then
see how we are to practice charity toward our neighbor and what part it plays
in the fulfilment of the plan of Providence.
The primary object and
formal motive of charity
The primary object of
charity is something far above the distinctive good of the individual, far
above the good of the family, of country, even of humanity. It is God, to be
loved above all things, even more than ourselves, since His goodness is
infinitely greater than our own. That is the first commandment: “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all
thy strength and with all thy mind” (Luke 10: 27).
To this supreme
commandment, all the other commandments and all the counsels are subordinate.
Though it belongs to the supernatural order, nevertheless it corresponds to a
natural inclination, to the primordial inclination of nature both in ourselves
and in a certain sense in every creature.
Of course, innate in us
is the instinct for self-preservation, the instinct, too, for the preservation
of the species, the inclination to defend family and country, to love our
fellows. But deeper still, as St. Thomas has shown (Ia, q. 60, a. 5) in our
nature is the inclination prompting us to love more than ourselves God the very
author of our nature. Why should this be? Because whatever by its very nature belongs
to another, as the part belongs to the whole, the hand to the body, is
naturally inclined to love that other more than itself: thus the hand will
voluntarily sacrifice itself to protect the body. Now every creature, and in
all that it is, is necessarily dependent upon God the Creator and Conserver of
our being; hence every creature is inclined naturally, each after its own
fashion, to love its Creator more than itself.
Thus the stone tends
toward the center of the earth for the cohesion, for the very welfare of the
universe, which is itself a manifestation of God’s goodness radiating
externally. Again, to use our Lord’s own illustration, we know that the hen
will gather her chickens under her wings to defend them from the hawk,
sacrificing her own life if necessary for the welfare of the species, which in
its turn contributes to the good of the universe.
In men and angels this
primordial natural inclination is illumined by the light of intelligence, and
thus we are led to love God the author of our nature more than ourselves, but
with a love in some degree conscious.
No doubt this natural
inclination has been enfeebled by original sin; but in spite of this weakening
it persists, imperishable as is this spiritual faculty, our will.
This natural inclination
is sublimated by the supernatural or infused virtue of charity, of an order
infinitely transcending nature, whether of men or of angels. Illumined by
infused faith, charity inclines us to love God more than self, more than all
else, but now as the author of grace and not simply of our nature. This is God
who “hath first loved us” (I John 4: 10) by bestowing on us over and above
existence, life, and intelligence, the supreme gift of sanctifying grace, the
germ of eternal life, a germ that one day is to flower into the immediate
vision of the divine essence and a most holy, supernatural love which nothing
thenceforth shall be able to destroyer diminish.
Such is the primary
object of charity: God who has first loved us and has communicated to us a
share in His own intimate life. For this reason charity is a friendship between
God and us.
The formal motive why we
must love God, is His own infinite goodness, a goodness infinitely greater than
ours, infinitely greater than any gift He can confer upon us.
If we do not constantly
dwell upon this, the primary object of charity and its formal motive, we shall
not in the least understand the sort of love that must be given to its
secondary object.
There are not two
virtues of charity, one relating to God, the other to our neighbor. It is one
and the same theological virtue from which these two acts of love proceed, one
being essentially subordinated to the other.
Charity can desire
nothing except in relation to God and for the love of God, as the power of
vision cannot be exercised except through color and in relation to color, as
the power of hearing can hear nothing except sound and what emits sound. For
the love of God we are bound to love everything that is in any way related to
Him.
The secondary object of
charity
Expressed for us in the
second commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself for the love of
God, “ it includes first of all ourselves, in the sense that we must love self
with a holy love, desiring salvation that we may give glory to God eternally.
It includes in the second place our neighbor, to be loved as we love ourselves,
for God’s sake; which means that we must desire for our neighbor all the gifts
necessary for salvation and salvation itself, so that with us also he may give
glory to God eternally. This love of our neighbor the Savior puts before us as
the necessary consequence, the radiation and the sign of our love for God: “By
this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another” (John 13: 35). And St. John himself tells us: “If any man say: I love
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar” (I John 4: 20).
Evidently this charity
toward our neighbor is infinitely removed from that natural inclination which
prompts us to do good in order to please, to love our benefactors, to hate
those who do us any harm, and to remain indifferent to the rest of men. Natural
love makes us love our neighbor for his naturally good qualities and the
benefits we receive from him. The motive that inspires charity is something
quite different, the proof being that we must “love our enemies, do good to
them that hate us, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate us” (Matt.
5: 44; Luke 6: 27, 35).
Charity, too, surpasses
justice, not only commutative and distributive justice, but also that legal
justice and equity which command respect for the rights of others out of love
for the common good of society.
Charity constrains us to
love our neighbor, even our enemies, for the love of God and with the same
supernatural, theological virtue of love we have for Him. But how is it
possible for us to have for men a love that is divine, when for the most part
they are so imperfect and in some cases sinners?
Theology replies with a
very simple illustration which St. Thomas explains in this way: One who has an
intense love for a friend will love with the same love his friend’s children;
he will love them because he loves their father and will wish them well for his
sake. Again, for the sake of his friend he will, when necessary, come to the
assistance of these and, if he is offended, will forgive them. If, then, all
men are the children of God, are at least called to be so, we must love them
all, even our enemies, in the measure that we love their common Father. [185]
But that we may love our
neighbor with this supernatural love, we must look on him with the eyes of
faith and say to ourselves: Here is one very different from me perhaps in
temperament and character, who yet is “born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, “ but like myself is “born of God” (John 1:
13), at least is called to be so and to participate in the same divine life, in
the same beatitude. This is how members of the same family should regard one
another, those too who are united in the same society and are citizens of the
same country. This truth applies especially to all those who are of the Church
universal which, while respecting the legitimate and inevitable differences
between one country and another, unites them all in order to bring their children
into the kingdom of God.
And so we can and indeed
should say of everyone with whom we live, even of those with whom we are not
naturally in sympathy: Here is a soul which, even if it is not in the state of
grace, has undoubtedly been called to be God’s child, or to become His child
once again, to be the temple of the Holy Ghost and a member of Christ’s
mystical body. Perhaps it is nearer to the heart of our Lord than I am, a
living stone upon which He is working, more elaborately, it may be, than upon others,
in order to fit it into its place in the heavenly Jerusalem.
This being so, how is it
possible for me not to love that soul if in very truth I love my God? And if in
fact I do not love this person, if in fact I have no desire for his welfare and
his salvation, then my love for God is a lie. On the other hand, if, in spite
of differences in temperament, character, and upbringing, I really do love him,
this is a sign that I really love God. I can truly give to that person the same
essentially supernatural and theological love I have for the three divine
Persons, because my love for him is directed to that participation in the
intimate life of God which he either possesses already or is at least called to
receive. And my love is directed to the realization of the divine plan that
presides over his destiny, and to the glory he has been called to render to
God.
But the unbeliever
raises an objection. Is this really to love men, he asks? Is it not simply to
love God and Christ in man, as a diamond is admired in its setting? Man wants
to be loved for his own sake; in that case he cannot ask for a love that is
divine. It was by way of reaction against this egoistic tendency that Pascal
uttered what was intentionally a paradox: “I have no desire to be loved by anyone.”
In reality it is not
only to God-in-man that the love of charity is directed, but to man-in-God: man
is loved in himself but for God’s sake. After all, charity loves what man is
destined to be, an imperishable member of Christ’s mystical body, and it does
everything possible to bring heaven within his reach. It loves besides what man
is already by grace, and if grace is absent it will love his very nature, not
precisely as fallen nature, wounded and hostile to grace, but as capable of
receiving it.
It is indeed to man
himself that charity is directed, but for God’s sake, for the sake of the glory
he is called to render to God, a glory which is nothing less than the
manifestation, the radiation of the divine goodness.
Charity toward our
neighbor, or fraternal charity, is in essence the love of God extended so as to
embrace all whom God Himself loves.
From this consideration
we derive the characteristics of fraternal charity. It must be universal,
knowing no limits whatever. None may be excluded, whether on earth, in
purgatory, or in heaven. It stops only at hell. Only the damned we cannot love,
for no longer is it possible for them to become God’s children, nor have they
the slightest wish to be raised up again; pride and hate smother the very
thought of asking for pardon. But apart from those whose damnation is
certain—and who can be certain that a soul is lost?—all have a claim on our
charity, which knows no limits but those imposed by that love which is seated
in the very heart of God.
Here is something
incomparably sublime, and the more profound the gulf that, humanly speaking,
separates souls, the more sublime does charity appear. Once during the World
War a little French soldier as he lay dying was unable to finish the Hail Mary
he was reciting and it was finished for him by a young German who was himself
dying there by his side. Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin brought these two
brethren together at the very moment when the rupture between their two
countries was complete. Such are the mighty victories won by charity.
For charity to be
universal, it need not necessarily be given everywhere in the same degree. It
respects and sublimates the order dictated by nature itself. We must love God
in the first place more than all else, even more than ourselves, and with a
love founded at least on a right estimation of values (appretiative). Though we
may not always experience for God the sensible yearning of our hearts,
nevertheless our love for Him should ever be increasing in intensity. Next
after God we should love our own souls, destined to give glory to Him
eternally, then our neighbor, and lastly our bodies, for these must be
sacrificed where the salvation of a soul is at stake, especially when it is our
bounden duty to watch over its welfare. Among our fellows greater love should
be given to those who are holier and nearer to God, to those, too, who are
nearer to us by blood, by marriage, by vocation, or by friendship. The nearer a
soul is to God, the more it deserves our esteem; the closer the ties that bind
it to us, the more sensible is our love for it, and the more whole-hearted
should be the devotion we show in all that concerns family, country, vocation,
and friendship. [186] Thus, instead of destroying patriotism, charity exalts
it, as we see in the case of St. Joan of Are or St. Louis.
This, then, is the order
to be observed in charity. God desires to reign in our hearts, but He excludes
no affection that can be subordinated to what is due to Himself. On the
contrary, He exalts and quickens it, inspiring it with a greater dignity and
generosity. This is the way we must love even the enemies of the Church and
pray for them. But, on pretext of showing a certain pity, to have for the
Church’s enemies a greater love than for certain of her children who are
laboring side by side with us, and of whom perhaps we are a little jealous, is
completely to reverse the order dictated by charity.
Lastly, fraternal
charity, like the love we have for God, must be effective, not simply
affective, must be beneficent as well as benevolent.” Love one another as I
have loved you” (John 13: 34), our Lord tells us, and He has loved us even to
the death of the cross. Him the saints have imitated, and their lives are one
continuous act of radiant charity, bringing great peace and a holy joy. Such is
fraternal charity, an extension of that charity we must give to God.
The practice of
fraternal charity and the watchfulness of Providence
In the Dialogue, St.
Catherine of Siena often notes the wide diversity of qualities which Providence
has bestowed on one and another. Thus we have opportunities to promote one
another’s welfare and perfection, and we have abundant occasions to practice
fraternal charity.
Nor have we far to seek
for opportunities of failing in this respect. Even where a deeply Christian
spirit prevails we have to acknowledge that, side by side with admirable
virtues, there is notable moral weakness. Even if we could rid ourselves of all
our shortcomings, the possibility of discord and irritation would persist owing
to differences of temperament and character, differences also in intellectual
bent, inclining some to speculation and others to more practical things, for
some opening wide views, while inspiring in others an attention to detail
rather than to general effect. Again, there arise further occasions of friction
through the influence of him who loves to create divisions in order to spoil
God’s work, to frustrate especially those things that are most sublime, most
divine, and most beautiful. Only in heaven will all occasion of friction
disappear, for there, illumined by a divine light, each one of the blessed sees
in the Word what his desires and wishes must be.
Surrounded as we are
with all sorts of difficulties, how are we to practice fraternal charity? In
two ways. In the first place by benevolence, viewing our neighbor in the light
of faith, so as to discover in him the life of grace, or at any rate a certain
aspiration to that life. And secondly, by beneficence, by giving our service,
by bearing with the failings of others, even returning good for evil, by
avoiding jealousy, and by frequently asking God to effect the union of minds
and hearts.
First of all
benevolence. We must be clear-sighted and keen to discover in our neighbor,
sometimes beneath a coarse exterior difficult to penetrate, the presence of a
divine life, or at least certain latent aspirations to that life, the fruit of
prevenient actual graces which every man receives at some time or other. But,
to look thus into the soul of our neighbor, we must be detached from self.
Very often what provokes
and irritates us in him is not some serious fault in the sight of God, but
simply a defect in temperament, a twist of character, which is quite compatible
with very real virtue. We would be ready enough perhaps to tolerate a sinner
utterly estranged from God, but of a lovable nature, whereas a soul that is
fairly advanced we will sometimes find trying. We must be careful, then, to
regard those with whom we live in the light of faith, so as to detect in them just
what makes them pleasing to God, and love them as He does.
The great obstacle to
this benevolence is rash judgment. This is something more than a simple
impression; it consists in affirming the presence of evil on nothing more than
slight evidence. People make things out to be twice as bad as they are, usually
through pride. If the matter is grave and there is full deliberation and
consent, a judgment of this sort is a serious failure in justice and charity; a
failure in justice, because our neighbor has a right to his good reputation, a
right which, after that of doing his duty, is one of the most sacred he has,
far more so than the right to his property. There are many who would not think
of stealing five dollars, yet they will rob their neighbor of his good
reputation by rash judgments without any solid foundation in fact. More often
than not, the judgment is false. How are we to estimate truthfully the interior
intentions of one whose doubts, difficulties, temptations, good desires, and
repentance are unknown to us? And even if the rash judgment is true, it falls
short of justice, since in thus passing sentence we arrogate to ourselves a
jurisdiction that does not belong to us. God alone can judge of the intentions
of the heart so long as they are not made sufficiently clear externally.
Rash judgment is also
wanting in charity, because it proceeds from ill will, though often framed
under a mask of kindliness, a few faint praises leading up to that
characteristic “but...” Instead of looking on our neighbor as a brother, we
regard him as an adversary, a rival to be supplanted. For this reason our Lord
tells us: “Judge not that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you
judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be
measured to you again. And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s
eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye?” (Matt. 7: I.)
But supposing the sin is
patent. Does God mean us to delude ourselves? He does not; but He does forbid
that murmuring which springs from pride. In some cases, in fact, He imposes on
us in the name of charity the obligation of fraternal correction to be carried
out with kindliness, humility, gentleness, and discretion. Where this private
correction is impossible or has been unsuccessful, it may be necessary humbly
to refer the matter to the superior whose duty it is to watch over the welfare
of the community. In any case, as St. Catherine of Siena says, where the sin is
evident the perfect way consists not in murmuring, but in showing compassion
before God, laying the blame to some extent at least upon ourselves, after the
example of our Lord who took upon Himself the sins of us all and who has bidden
us “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13: 34). This is one of the sublimest
features of the providential plan.
Therefore, to check rash
judgment, we must acquire the habit of looking upon our neighbor in the light
of faith.
But we must love him,
too, with a love that is real, efficacious, practical: our charity must be beneficent,
not merely benevolent. In what way? By giving our service where necessary and
when it is in our power to do so. By bearing also with our neighbor’s failings,
this being one way of rendering him service and leading him to self-correction.
In this connection we should remember that frequently what most irritates us in
our neighbor is not a serious fault in the sight of God, but a defect in
temperament. This may be a certain nervousness, for instance, which makes him
slam doors, a certain narrowness in his views, a way of generally doing the
wrong thing, a constant eagerness to push himself forward, and other like
failings. Let us in all charity bear with one another and not become irritated
at what after all is simply an evil permitted by God to humble the one and try
the patience of the other. We must not allow ourselves to develop a bitter
zeal, and if we must complain of others, we should never imagine that we
ourselves have reached the ideal. Our prayer must not be the prayer of the
Pharisee.
Again, we must be able
to recognize the right moment to put in a kindly word—another means Providence
has put in our way of helping others. A religious who is overwhelmed with
difficulties will often take fresh courage through a few simple words from a
superior wishing him many consolations in his ministry and just enough trouble
to enable him to undergo purgatory here on earth.
Needless to say, if we
are to love our neighbor effectively, we must be careful to avoid jealousy, and
therefore, as Bossuet somewhere remarks, we must take a holy delight in the
good qualities God has bestowed on others and which we ourselves do not
possess. Thus there has been a distribution of labor and functions in the
Church, for the beauty of the Church and of religious communities. As St. Paul
says, the hand is not jealous of the eye; the light which the eye receives is
for the benefit of the hand also. So should it be with us: far from being
jealous of one another, we should rejoice in the good qualities we find in our
neighbor, for they are also ours; we and our neighbor are all members of the
same mystical body, in which everything should contribute to the glory of God
and the salvation of souls.
Not only must we bear
with one another and avoid jealousy, we must also return good for evil, by
prayer, by good example, and by mutual help. One way of entering into St.
Teresa’s good graces, it is said, was by causing her to suffer. She thus put
into practice the counsel given by our Lord: “If a man will take away thy coat,
let go thy cloak also unto him” (Matt. 5: 40). Prayer for our neighbor at a
time when we are suffering because of him is of special efficacy. Such was the
prayer of St. Stephen the first martyr and of St. Peter Martyr for their
executioners.
And lastly, for the
proper practice of fraternal charity we must often ask God that minds and
hearts be in unison. The first Christians in the infant Church “had but one
heart and one soul” (Acts 4: 32). Men said of them, “See how they love one
another.” Our Lord had declared: “By this shall all men know that you are My
disciples” (John 13: 35), and by the light of faith every Christian family,
every Christian community should recognize here that charity so characteristic
of the Christians in the infant Church. Then will be forever realized the
prayer of Christ: “Not for them only [the Apostles] do I pray, but for them
also who through their word shall believe in Me. That they all may be one, as
Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us: that the
world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou has given
Me, I have given to them: that they may be one, as We also are one” (John 17:
20-22).
Thus, mightily yet
sweetly charity contributes to the working out of the providential plan: thus
human beings truly help one another as they journey on to eternal life. Herein
also is a proof of the divine origin of Christianity, for obviously charity
such as this cannot come from a world that builds upon egoism, self-love, and
divided interests; its own particular associations quickly fall asunder, those
high-sounding words, solidarity and fraternity, being often no more than a
cloak to cover the deepest jealousy and hatred. [187]
The Savior alone can
deliver us, and it was for this He came.” Who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven.... And He was made man” (Nicene Creed).
29. Providence And The
Communion Of Saints
Nowhere is the
kindliness and majesty of Providence and the divine governance more clearly
seen than in the communion of saints. We have already said that although
Providence disposes all things, even the least of them, immediately, yet in the
divine governance, in the execution of the providential plan, its action
extends to the lower orders of beings through the higher, [188] and thus it is
that through the angels and saints in heaven it assists men in their journey to
eternity and the souls that are in purgatory. This is clearly brought out in
the dogma of the communion of saints: “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy
Catholic Church, the communion of saints” (Apostles’ Creed).
This dogma expresses the
communion or mutual relations existing between the various members of the
Church militant, suffering, and triumphant, and their participation in the
merits of Christ and the saints. There is a reciprocal communication of the
merits of the just.
Protestants have
attacked this dogma as being an alien growth. Some have even maintained that,
by giving worship to the saints, Catholics look upon them as so many gods and
thus fall into a sort of polytheism. Others have chosen to see in this
reciprocal communication of the merits of the just a mere mechanical system
whereby sinners may be justified without any co-operation on their part.
A clear statement of the
dogma suffices to show what a travesty of it such an interpretation is. It is
not an alien growth, but a synthesis of the principal truths of faith: the
dogmas on the Trinity and the indwelling of the three divine Persons in the
souls of the just, the dogmas relating to Christ the head of the Church
militant, suffering, and triumphant: the dogmas on grace, on works of merit and
satisfaction, and on prayer. Let us see in what this communion of saints
consists according to the Scripture, and then consider in particular what are
the relations souls have with God and Christ, and with one another.
The communion of saints
according to Holy Scripture
This dogmatic truth may
be expressed as follows: There is a communion of saints whereby all the members
of Christ are closely united through Him and in Him, participating in varying
degrees in the same spiritual gifts.
The Gospels make this
point clear when they speak of the kingdom of God. This kingdom is something
more than the external visible society of the Church militant instituted for the
salvation of souls; it is a spiritual society embracing, besides the faithful
on earth, the holy souls of the departed and the saints and angels in heaven,
all united through Christ with God, living by the same truth, the same charity.
Charity is presented as the bond of perfection, that spiritual bond which
unites one soul with another by uniting them all with God.
What the Gospel says on
this point is clear. Our Lord, after declaring His intentions and preparing the
way, at length establishes the kingdom of God, in which all the members, united
through charity, are to form one family with God as their Father. To that
family the angels also belong, for the Gospel speaks of their joy at the
conversion of sinners.
It will be enough to
recall Christ’s words as recorded in St. Matthew and as a rule in St. Mark and
St. Luke also.
First, St. John the
Baptist admonishes his hearers to “do penance, for the kingdom of God is at
hand.” [189]
Later on, the Savior,
before sending forth His Apostles to preach the Gospel, tells them: “He that
receiveth you, receiveth Me: and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent
Me.” [190]
And a little later He
says: “If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God
come upon you.” [191]
All the faithful are brethren,
since all are the children of God and in their prayer are to address Him as “Our
Father, who art in heaven.” [192] Again, our Lord tells us: “Pray for them that
persecute and calumniate you: that you may be the children of your Father who
is in heaven, and who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad.” [193]
This dogma is expressed
even more clearly in our Lord’s sermon after the last supper as recorded in St.
John: “I am the vine: you the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him,
the same beareth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing.” [194] A little
further on He says: “Not for them only [the Apostles] do I pray, but for them
also who through their word shall believe in Me. That they all may be one, as
Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee.” [195] It is with this in mind that St.
John says in his First Epistle (1:3) : “That which we have seen and have heard,
we declare unto you: That you also may have fellowship with us and our
fellowship may be with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Here we have
the true doctrine of the communion of saints.
St. Paul declares it
again and again, and explains it by showing how the risen and ever-living
Christ is the head of a mystical body of which we are the members. [196]
The relation of the
members with Christ the Mediator and with God
As in our own organism
there is a physical influence exerted by the head upon the members,
communicating their appropriate movements to them through the nervous system,
so also in the mystical body virtue goes out from our Lord’s humanity upon all
the faithful, upon all the members composing this body, imparting to them the
life of grace, of faith, hope, and charity, and at the same time giving to the
blessed in heaven that consummation of grace which we call glory and which can
never be lost. In this way our Savior applies the fruits of His merit to us,
passing on all the graces He has obtained for us on the cross. This
transmission of graces is effected through His humanity as an instrument
inseparably united to His divinity, the source of all grace, and again through
the sacraments as detached instruments vibrating as it were at Christ’s touch
and so able to affect and quicken our very souls. But first and foremost this
communication of graces is made daily through the holy mass perpetuating in
substance the sacrifice of the cross, applying the merits of that sacrifice to
us and permitting us to participate in it by holy communion. Souls are thus
able to grow daily in the life of grace as they journey toward eternity.
The supernatural
influence exerted upon us by God and Christ is principally one of illumination
and love, since to the faithful on earth and the souls in purgatory it imparts
the light of faith and the gifts of the Holy Ghost together with the love of
charity, while to the blessed in heaven it communicates the light of glory
which is the source of the beatific vision, and a love of charity that nothing
henceforth can destroy or diminish.
The supernatural life
which the members of the mystical body thus receive by this supernatural
inpouring of illumination and love must be made to ascend once again to the
Most High, being the same supernatural life, the same knowledge and love,
praising the glory of God by acknowledging His infinite goodness.
And so from the souls of
all the just on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven there ascends to God a love
in which the sovereign good is preferred to all else. In the faithful on earth
this act of love illumined by faith inspires a homage of adoration, supplication,
thanksgiving, and reparation, especially during the time of-mass. These are the
four ends of sacrifice.
Thus the supernatural
influx of illumination and love coming down from God through Christ the
Redeemer upon the souls of men on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven, ascends
again to God as a hymn of grateful acknowledgment and brings them peace by
keeping them there within the radiance of the divine goodness. There lies the
purpose of Creation; almighty God has created all things for the manifestation of
His goodness, and His glory is simply this goodness radiating externally.
The relations of the
members with one another
Such being the ties
binding the souls of the just upon earth, in purgatory, and in heaven to Christ
the Mediator and to God, the ultimate source of all grace, we are given the
explanation of the relations existing between one member and another, and
particularly between the Church triumphant on the one hand and the Church
militant and suffering on the other.
The blessed in heaven
intercede for the faithful here on earth and the souls in purgatory, and to
that intercession we may have recourse in all confidence, especially to the
intercession of Mary Mediatrix, as the Church constantly does in the Hail Mary
and the Litany of Loreto. As St. Paul wrote to the Hebrews (12: 22) : “You are
come to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to the company of many thousands of angels, and to the Church of the
first-born who are written in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to
the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New
Testament, and to the sprinkling of blood which speaketh better than that of
Abel.”
Every one of the saints
in union with Christ, makes intercession for us when we invoke them. [197] The
angels also come to our assistance, for they too are subject to Christ. St.
Paul delights in telling the Colossians how even the most exalted of creatures
are subject to the Word made flesh: “In Him were all things created in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or
principalities, or powers. All things were created by Him and in Him.... And He
is the head of the body, the Church” (1: 16). To the Church triumphant the
angels also belong, inferior only to Jesus and Mary in the intensity of their
charity and the light of glory.
But there are also close
ties linking the Church militant with the Church suffering. It is our duty to
pray for the souls in purgatory, to have masses said for their deliverance, to
gain indulgences for them, which means that we obtain for them the application
of the fruits of our Savior’s merits and the merits of the saints. And the
works of charity we perform in their behalf (the prayers we offer for them, the
crosses we take upon ourselves to alleviate their sufferings) God will
certainly reward. The Church has always prayed for the dead: in the Second
Epistle to Timothy (1:8) we read of St. Paul begging God’s mercy for the repose
of the soul of his friend Onesphorus.
And lastly, no less
intimate are the ties that bind the faithful on earth with one another. They
can assist one another by prayer and good works, works of merit and
satisfaction. One who is in the state of grace can merit in the wide sense for
his neighbor also, and in the same sense can make satisfaction for him, can
take upon himself the penalties due to his neighbor’s sin. United as they are
with Christ, God regards the merits and sufferings of the just and has mercy on
the sinner. God said to Abraham: “If I find in Sodom ten just within the city,
I will spare the whole place for their sake” (Gen. 8: 26, 32).
It is to these spiritual
relations existing between the faithful on earth that St. Paul is referring
when he tells us:
There are diversities of
graces, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministries, but the
same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who
worketh all in all. [198]
One body and one Spirit:
as you are called in one hope of your calling.... One Lord, one faith, one
baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
us all. [199]
For the body also is not
one member, but many. If the foot should say: Because I am not the hand, I am
not of the body: is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say:
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body: is it therefore not of the
body? If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing?... The eye
cannot say to the hand: I need not thy help. Nor again the head to the feet: I
have no need of you.... And if one member suffer anything, all the members
suffer with it: or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it. Now
you are the body of Christ and members of member. [200]... Bear ye one another’s
burdens: and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ.... Whilst we have time, let
us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of
the faith. [201]
Were we to behold the
mystical body as we behold a multitude of persons, we should discern an immense
gathering of men, women, and children, and within them a hungering for God more
or less intense, more or less conscious, temptation too, and pain. Here are
souls very generous in their sufferings, there are the humdrum Christians;
lower down the line are souls on the point of yielding to the temptations of
the senses, others about to lose their faith, and there are the aged who are
near the grave. Then we should realize how true Christians living by prayer
must have the same attitude toward souls as a mother bending over the cradle of
her child.
Further, let us remember
that, as St. Thomas says (Ia IIae, q. 89, a. 6), when a child, even though not
baptized and still in unbelief, comes to the full use of reason, he is bound to
choose between the right and the wrong road, between duty and pleasure, between
the true last end, though but vaguely recognized, and whatever is opposed to
it. If there is no resistance to the grace then offered him, he loves above all
things God thus vaguely recognized and is thereby justified, so as to enter
into the mystical body.” If he then direct himself to the due end, he will, by
means of grace, receive the remission of original sin” (loc. cit.).
Now the precious blood
of our Savior has been put at our disposal that with Him we may offer it up for
the many souls who as yet know Him not or who have turned their backs upon Him.
Among all the faithful,
therefore, charity should reign, which is the bond of perfection, uniting us
with God and with Christ the Redeemer and with Mary.
In this age of revolt,
no longer confined to Europe but worldwide, when atheistic “Leagues of the
Godless, “ the spawn of Russian Bolshevism, are multiplying throughout the
nations and the way is being prepared for a terrible conflict between the spirit
of Christ and the spirit of the Evil One, now more than ever must we live by
this mystery of the communion of saints.
We feel the urgent need
of rising above the violent opposition that prevails between an international
communism, materialist in its inspiration, which tramples underfoot the dignity
of the human person, of family and country, and a nationalism which, when no
longer simply for defense but for offense, develops in one way or other into an
idolatrous nation-worship. Though we should entertain a real and if necessary
heroic love for our country, it is absolutely imperative for us to direct our
thoughts even more to that City of God which has its beginnings here on earth,
to be consummated in that heavenly and enduring country in which the peoples of
all nations should one day be united.
Believers living in the
different countries of Europe and throughout the world must unite without delay
in fervent prayer, especially in the holy sacrifice of the mass, that the peace
of Christ may reign among the nations.
It is the same body and
blood of the Savior that is offered on every altar throughout the world, in
Rome and in Jerusalem, in every Catholic church of the five continents. It is
the same interior, ever living oblation in the heart of Jesus that animates all
the thousands of masses celebrated daily wherever the sun is rising.
We must pray and pray
with all earnestness that the kingdom of God may come, placing our petitions in
the hands of Mary Mediatrix to present to her Son, to whom at the beginning of
this century His Holiness Leo XIII consecrated the whole human race.
Embracing as it does
those who are still in unbelief, this consecration of the whole human race
brings down upon them new graces. It is by living this mystery of the communion
of saints more intensely and above all by having masses said for the conversion
of unbelievers, that the way is prepared for the missionary apostolate. As Pere
de Foucauld realized, we must prepare for the apostolate by bathing, so to
speak, the souls of unbelievers in the blood of Christ, which has been given to
us and which we are able to offer daily with Him.
Through the communion of
saints the chalice of superabundant redemption is put into our hands, that by
our prayers and sacrifices it may be made to overflow upon souls that, all
unconsciously perhaps, are hungering for God and are dying far from Christ.
To the doctrine we are
explaining here, this objection has been raised: How is it that, with so many
thousands of saints in heaven, confirmed now in grace, more sinners are not
converted by them?
A certain contemplative
has correctly answered:
Though inseparable,
heaven and the Church on earth are nevertheless distinct. Although there is
enough heat in a single star to melt every particle of ice on the earth, yet we
have still to submit to the rigors of winter. To raise a heavy weight with a
powerful lever, we still need a fulcrum. Similarly, it is God’s will that every
action exerted from heaven on this world shall have its fulcrum here below.
That fulcrum is to be found in the saints who are still pursuing their
pilgrimage in this life. The incomprehensible might of heaven will not have its
full efficacy on earth except through one who is really in communion with
Christ, through one who is in immediate contact with Calvary and the cross.
As Pere de Foucauld
wrote, “Has not a man riches enough, happiness enough, when he possesses Jesus?”
Though all abandon him, he still has the one thing necessary, which by prayer
and sacrifice he is able to pass on to others.
The practical
consequences of this mystery of the communion of saints are numberless. Bossuet
has given us a summary of them in his Catechisme de Meaux. [202] Every
spiritual gift is the common property of all the faithful: the graces each one
receives and the good works each one performs are for the benefit of the whole
body and every other member of the Church, by reason of their close union. And
so, when one member of the Church possesses some gift or other, let the others
rejoice instead of giving way to jealousy; when one member suffers, all should
show their compassion instead of closing their hearts to him. What are the
vices incompatible with the communion of saints? They are all enmities and
jealousies. Those who entertain jealousy, sin against this article of the
Creed, the communion of saints.
Finally, we realize why
in this dogma the faithful are called saints: because they are called to be
holy, because, too, they have been consecrated to God through baptism.
Who are they to whom the
term “saint” is especially applicable? The term applies to those who in perfect
faith lead also a holy life.
From this we see what a
misfortune it is to be deprived of the communion of saints; so the Church by
her excommunication deprives notorious sinners of the sacraments, the source of
their life, until such time as. they show a sincere desire to repent.
This mystery of the
communion of saints shows with special clearness how the Christian life is the
beginning here on earth of life eternal, since it is primarily by sanctifying
grace and charity that we have in very truth the seed of glory within us. Thus
we are given a wonderful insight into the supreme end and purpose to which all
things have been ordered by Providence, and the meaning and implications of
these words in our Lord’s sacerdotal prayer: “That they who believe in Me may
be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee” (John 17: 21). [203]
30. The End And Purpose
Of The Divine Governance
We have said it is the
divine governance that presides over the execution of the providential plan,
its purpose being to manifest the divine goodness, which bestows upon the just
and maintains within them forever a life that is eternal. Concerning this end
and purpose, let us see what the Old Testament with its incomplete revelation
has to tell us, and then we shall be able to appreciate better the full light
given us in the Gospels. This was the method used by St. Augustine,
particularly in his work on providence or the divine plan: the City of God, its
progressive building up here on earth and its full development in eternal
happiness.
The incomplete
intimation
In the Old Testament the
ultimate purpose of the divine governance was expressed in a manner as yet
imperfect, often merely symbolic. The Promised Land, for instance, was the
symbol of heaven. The whole system of worship with its sacrifices and varied
rites, and in a greater degree the prophecies, proclaimed the coming of the
promised Redeemer, who was to bring light and peace and reconciliation with God.
The announcement of the
future Redeemer thus contained in a vague way the promise of eternal life,
which was to be given us through Him. That in the Old Testament, prior to the
fullness of light contained in the Gospels, so little enlightenment should have
been given on this matter of eternal beatitude, is easily explained; it was
because, until Christ had suffered and died, the souls of the just had to wait
in limbo for the gates of heaven to be opened to them by their Savior. [204]
Nevertheless, as we have
already seen, the Prophets occasionally contain sublime and most significant
passages on the magnificent reward God has in store for the just in the next
life, passages that state more clearly what was already said before them. [205]
Thus the psalmist said: “As
for me, I will appear before Thy sight in justice: I shall be satisfied when
Thy glory shall appear.” Job spoke in a similar strain. [206]
Speaking of the New
Jerusalem, Isaias said (60: 19) : “The Lord shall be unto thee for an
everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory. Thy sun shall go down no more.
For the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light: and the days of thy
mourning shall be ended.”
Daniel wrote (12:3) : “But
they that are learned [in the things of God, and are faithful to His law] shall
shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that instruct many to
justice, as stars for all eternity.” Nor is it a question here of the just who
will appear on earth in the years to come; the reference is to those still
living or who have already died: the reward promised them is eternal.
More explicit still, as
we have seen, is the Second Book of Machabees (7: 9), where we are told how
with his last breath one of the martyrs addressed his executioners: “Thou,
indeed, O wicked man, destroyest us out of this present life: but the King of
the world will raise us up, who die for His laws, in the resurrection of
eternal life.”
Again, it is of eternal
bliss that the Book of Wisdom speaks when it says:
The souls of the just
are in the hands of God: and the torment of death shall not touch them.... The
just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds. They
shall judge nations, and rule over people: and their Lord shall reign
forever... for grace and peace is to His elect.... The just shall live for
evermore: and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the most
High (3: I; 5: I ff.).
Eternal life according
to the New Testament
In the fullness of
revelation contained in the New Testament, eternal bliss is spoken of in terms
within the reach of all. Indeed, Christ has now been given us. Whereas
everything that preceded Him pointed to His coming, henceforth He Himself
proclaims to all peoples the establishment of the kingdom of God and leads
souls to eternal life.
This is expressed again
and again in our Savior’s sermons recorded in the first three Gospels. There it
is said of the reward in store for the just: “Neither can they die any more:
for they are equal to the angels and are the children of God, being the
children of the resurrection” (Luke 20: 36) ; “The just shall go into life
everlasting” (Matt. 25: 46; Mark 10: 30). It is not merely the future life
spoken of by philosophers like Socrates and Plato, but an everlasting life, a
life participating in God’s eternity, transcending time, past, present, and
future.
Elsewhere, in a passage
recalling the prophecy of Daniel (12: 13), Jesus exclaims: “Then shall the just
shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13: 43).” Then shall
the king [the Son of man] say to them that are on His right hand: Come, ye
blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.” Here we have truly the ultimate purpose of the divine
governance.” For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat: I was thirsty, and you
gave Me to drink: I was a stranger, and you took Me in: naked, and you covered
Me: sick, and you visited Me” (Matt. 25: 34).
In the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus had said: “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God....
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven” (Matt. 5: 8-12).
Here indeed is the true Promised Land of which the Old Testament scarcely spoke
except in symbols. The souls of men were too conscious of their profound need
of redemption to be ready for the full enlightenment.
In the Gospel of St.
John, Christ speaks of eternal life more frequently still. Thus to the
Samaritan woman: “If thou didst know the gift of God.... He that shall drink of
the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever. But the water that I
will give him shall become in him a fountain of living water, springing up into
life everlasting” (John 4: 10-14).
Several times in the
Fourth Gospel Jesus repeats the phrase: “He that believeth in Me hath
everlasting life” (cf. 3: 36; 6: 40, 47). That is, one who believes in Me with
living faith combined with the love of God has already within him the
beginnings of eternal life. And why? Because, as He tells us later in His
sacerdotal prayer, “this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17: 3) ; “Father, I will
that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me: that they
may see My glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me from the
creation of the world” (ibid., 17: 24). To look upon Christ in His glory we
must be there where Christ was even then present in the higher regions of His
holy soul: that is, in heaven, as He Himself said: “No man hath ascended into
heaven, but He that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”
(John 3 :11-13).
In the same sense Jesus
said: “Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep My word, he shall not see
death forever” (John 8: 51). And again at the tomb of Lazarus He said: “I am
the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, although he be dead,
shall live: and everyone that liveth and believeth in Me shall not die forever”
(John 11: 25-26).
Here is the fullness of
that revelation heralded in the distant past by Job and the psalmist, by
Isaias, by Daniel, in the Book of Machabees, and again in the Book of Wisdom.
Then it was no more than a little stream; now it is a vast river moving onward
and losing itself in the infinite ocean of the divine life.
Elsewhere Jesus speaks
of the narrow gate and the strait way (of self-abnegation) that leads to life,
[207] that immeasurable way that leads to God. The Lord calls all men to labor
in His vineyard, giving them as recompense, even to the laborers of the
eleventh hour, His own eternal happiness (Matt. 20: 1-6). The recompense He
gives is Himself, though according to the merits and degree of charity each one
has attained, for “in His Father’s house there are many mansions” (John 14: 2).
Our Lord’s teaching is
still more clearly expounded in the Epistles of St. Paul and of St. John.
St. Paul refers to
eternal happiness when he says (I Cor. 2:9) : “Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard: neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath
prepared for them that love Him. But to us God hath revealed them, by His
Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
Still more distinctly
St. Paul says in another passage of the same Epistle (13: 8) :
Charity never falleth
away: whether prophecies shall be made void or tongues shall cease or knowledge
[imperfect knowledge] shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and prophesy in
part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be
done away.... We see [God] now through a glass in a dark manner: but then face
to face. Now I know in part: but then I shall know [Him] even as I am known [by
Him] , with a knowledge that is immediate and perfectly distinct; I shall
behold Him as He beholds Himself, face to face, and no longer as in a mirror,
obscurely, confusedly.
St. John speaks in the
same sense in his First Epistle (3: 2) : “Dearly beloved, we are now the sons
of God: and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when He
shall appear we shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is.” The
Church has defined that this revealed teaching must be understood of an
immediate vision of the divine essence with no created thing intervening as
medium previously known. [208] In other words, through intellectual vision we
shall see God more clearly than we see with our bodily eyes the persons with
whom we are conversing, for we shall see Him distinctly as something more
intimately present to us than we are to ourselves. Here on earth our knowledge
of God is in the main confined to what He is not. We say that He is not
material, not subject to change, not limited or confined. Hereafter we shall
see Him as He really is, in His Deity, in His infinite essence, in that
intimate life of His, common to the three Persons, of which grace, and especially
its consummation in glory is a participation, since it is through grace that it
will be granted to us to see and love God as He sees and loves Himself, and
thus we shall live by Him eternally.
Such is the teaching of
revelation on eternal life as the manifestation of the divine goodness and the
ultimate purpose of God’s governance. Let us now glance briefly at what
theology has to add, haltingly always, in an endeavor to give us a better
understanding of the mystery.
The beatific vision and
the love for God of which it is the source
Theology throws a
certain amount of light on this subject by contrasting a purely natural
happiness with that happiness which only grace in its consummation can bring.
Had God created us in a
purely natural state, with a mortal body and an immortal soul but without the
supernatural life of grace, our final destiny, our happiness, would still have
consisted in knowing God and loving Him above all things, for our intellect was
made to know truth and above all the supreme truth, our will was made to love
and desire the good and beyond all else the sovereign good.
Had we been created
without the supernatural life of grace, the final reward of the just would
indeed have been, so to say, from without, through the reflexion of His
perfections in creatures, as the great philosophers of antiquity knew Him. This
would have been a knowledge more certain than theirs, and without any admixture
of error, but still an abstract knowledge, obtained through the medium of
things, in the mirror of things created. We should have had a knowledge of God
as the first cause of spiritual and corporeal beings, we should have numbered
His infinite perfections as they are known analogically from their reflexions
in the created order. Our ideas of the divine attributes would still have been
like tiny bits of mosaic, incapable of reproducing without hardening the
spiritual features of God.
Similarly we should have
loved God as the author of our nature, doubtless with a love of admiration,
reverence, and gratitude, but without that gentle, simple familiarity which God’s
children experience in their hearts. We should have been the servants of God,
not His children.
Such a destiny, however,
would still have been of a very high order. It could never have palled upon us
any more than our eyes can ever tire of beholding the blue skies. It would have
been a spiritual destiny, moreover, and unlike material things the spiritual
can be enjoyed fully by each one without detriment to the enjoyment of others
and the consequent risk of jealousies.
But in this abstract and
indirect knowledge of God, many obscurities would have remained, particularly
as to the manner in which the divine perfections are reconciled with one
another. We should always have been asking how an omnipotent goodness can be
reconciled with the divine permission of evil, how infinite mercy can be
intimately harmonized with justice.
The human mind would
have been forced to exclaim: “Would that I might behold this God, the fount of
all truth and of all goodness, whence steals forth the life of creation, the
life of intellect and of will!”
But what reason even at
its highest cannot discover, has been made known to us through revelation. Here
we are told that our final destiny consists in beholding God immediately, face
to face, and as He really is, in knowing Him no longer simply from without, but
intimately, even as He knows Himself; that it consists also in loving Him even
as He loves Himself. It tells us that we are now predestined “to be made
conformable to the image of His Son: that He might be the first-born among many
brethren” (Rom. 8:29). In creating us, God was not bound to have us partakers
with Himself in His intimate life, to invite us to this immediate vision of
Him, but it was in His power to do so by making us His adopted sons, and this
out of pure loving kindness He has willed to do.
It is our destiny
therefore to see God not merely as mirrored in creatures, no matter how
perfect, not even in that radiation of Him in the angelic world, but to behold
Him immediately, without any creature intervening, and more distinctly than we
behold ourselves with the eyes of sense. Being wholly spiritual, God will be
intimately present to our intellect, illuminating and invigorating it and so
giving it strength to look upon Him. (Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 12, a. 2.)
This exclusion of any
intermediary between God and ourselves extends even to the idea. No created
idea could ever represent, as it really is, that purely intellectual and
eternally subsisting flash which is God. No word of ours, not even an interior
word, will be adequate to express what we are contemplating: thus even now when
we are absorbed in gazing at some sublime spectacle, we cannot express what we
see. Only one word can utter what God really is in Himself-His own eternal,
substantial Word.
This vision of God face
to face infinitely surpasses the most sublime philosophy. No longer will there
be mere concepts of the divine attributes, these concepts reminding us of tiny
bits of mosaic. Part of the destiny to which we are called is to behold all the
divine perfections intimately reconciled, nay, identified in their common
source, the Deity, the intimate life of God; to behold how the tenderest mercy
and an absolutely inflexible justice proceed from one and the same infinitely
generous and infinitely holy love that possesses a transcendent quality in
which these apparently conflicting attributes are in fact identified; to behold
how justice and mercy combine in all the works of God. Part of our destiny is
to behold how this love, even when the freest good pleasure, is yet identified
with pure wisdom, how in this love there is nothing that is not all-wise and in
this wisdom nothing that is not transformed into love. Our destiny is to behold
how this same love is identified with the sovereign good forever loved from all
eternity, how divine wisdom is identified with the supreme truth forever known,
and how all these perfections are but one with the essence of Him who is.
Our destiny is to
contemplate in God this transcendent simplicity of His, absolute in its purity
and holiness; to behold the infinite fecundity of the divine nature flowering
in three Persons; to contemplate the eternal generation of the Word, “the
brightness of the Father’s glory and the figure of His substance” (Heb. 1: 3) ;
to behold the ineffable spiratio of the Holy Ghost, the term of the mutual love
between Father and Son, uniting them eternally in this most exhaustive
outpouring of themselves.” Goodness is essentially diffusive of itself” in God’s
interior life, and freely it scatters its riches abroad.
No one can express the
joy begotten of such a vision, or the love that will spring from it, a love so
mighty, so perfect, that nothing henceforth shall be able to weaken, far less
destroy it. It is a love born of admiration and reverence and gratitude, but of
friendship most of all, with all the simplicity and holy familiarity that
friendship implies. Filled with this love, we shall rejoice first and foremost
that God is God, with His infinite holiness, His infinite justice, His infinite
mercy; we shall adore every decree of His providence, whose sole purpose is the
manifestation of His goodness. And in all things we shall be subject to Him.
Wholly supernatural,
such a knowledge and love will be made possible only through grace sublimating
our faculties, and there at the very root of them, in the very essence of the
soul, remaining a divine engrafting that can nevermore be lost to us. This
consummation of grace, which we call glory, will in very truth be an enduring
participation in the very nature of God, in His intimate life, since it will
enable us to behold Him and to love Him even as He beholds and loves Himself.
Such, though very
imperfectly expressed, is eternal life, a life to which we may all aspire,
since through baptism we have already received it in germ, in sanctifying
grace, which is the semen gloriae.
Herein lies the purpose
of the divine governance, to show forth that divine goodness which is one day
to bestow an eternal happiness upon us and maintain it forever within us. Then
indeed will these words be realized: “God hath predestined us to be made
conformable to the image of His Son: that He might be the first-born among many
brethren” (Rom. 8: 29), that He who is Son by His very nature might be the
first-born among many brethren, the children of God by adoption. It will be the
perfect fulfilment of these words of Jesus: “Father, I will that where I am,
they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me: that they may see My glory
which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me before the creation of the
world” (John 17: 24). Christ’s glory is the supreme manifestation of the divine
goodness, for Him and for us unending happiness, the measure of which is the
measure of God’s own happiness, which is something transcending time, being no
less than the unique instant of changeless eternity.
Let us conclude with St.
Paul: “For which cause we faint not: but though our outward man is corrupted,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For that which is at present
momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly
an eternal weight of glory” (II Cor. 4: 16-17) [209]
Endnotes
1
God, His Existence and His Nature, tr. by Dom Bede Rose, O.S.B., 2 vols.
2
Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, articles: Providence, Predestination,
Premotion.
3 Sertillanges, Les Sources de la croyance en Dieu, p.
65.
4
We here reproduce the substance of a study we have developed at greater length
in another work entitled: Le réalisme du principe de finalité, Part 11, chap.
5, “La finalité de la volonté: le désir naturel du bonheur prouve-t-il l’existence
de Dieu?
5
St. Thomas, la, q. 3, a. 7, and De Potentia, q. 3, a. 5.
6
Cf. Summa Theologica, Ia IIae, q. 2, a. 8.
7
Cf. ibid., la IIae, q. 1, a. 4: “Is there an ultimate end to human life?” “Absolutely
speaking, it is impossible in a series to continue to infinity in any
direction.... Were there not an ultimate end, nothing would be desired, no
action would have a term, nor would the inclination of the agent find repose.
8
If, instead of considering simply the end of this natural desire, we consider
its ordering to that end—and this demands an efficient, regulating cause
(ordinans vel imperans movet ut agens, non ut finis)—then the argument pertains
to the fifth way of St. Thomas, which is that based upon the presence of order
in the world: “All design presupposes a designer.” In this sense the passive
ordering of our will to the bonum honestum or moral good, superior alike to the
delectable and to the useful, presupposes a supreme regulator. Or again, moral
obligation, which is displayed in remorse of conscience and in the peace that
comes from duty accomplished, presupposes a supreme lawgiver. Of this we will
speak in the next chapter.
9
Cf. Cajetan, Commentary on Ia IIae, q. 2, a. 7.
10
In favor of this view it is said that since sanctifying grace is a
participation in the divine nature ordered essentially to the beatific vision,
it is a participation in that nature in so far as it is intellectual life. It
would seem, then, that the divine nature is fundamentally the supreme
intellectual life, eternally subsistent thought, rather than being itself. To
this we reply that sanctifying grace is a participation in the divine nature as
it is in itself and not simply as our imperfect mode of knowledge conceives it.
It is a participation in the Deity, whose formal signification transcends even
that of being and intellection. Conceived simply as subsistent being, God
contains only implicitly, actu implicite, the rest of the divine perfections
deducible from it; whereas the Deity as it is in itself and as contemplated by
the blessed in heaven contains all the divine attributes explicitly, actu
explicite. The blessed behold them immediately in the Deity and have no need to
deduce them.
11
See preceding note.
12
Pascal, Pensees (Havet Ed.), art. 18.
13
It must be noted, however, that the act of creation, being a free act, cannot
be deduced from the divine nature; neither can the exercise of mercy and
justice with respect to creatures.
14
Although our happiness in heaven will have a beginning, it will be rightly
called eternal life, for it will have as its measure a participated eternity.
The beatific vision, in fact, is an ever-unchanging act, far transcending the
continuous time of our earthly life, and that discrete time marking the thought
succession of the angel. This is the element of truth in Plato’s allegory of
the cave.
15
This is the element of truth in Plato’s allegory of the cave.
16
Scripture more often speaks of that lower darkness in which the soul perishes;
but it also speaks of the higher obscurity of faith, corresponding to the “light
inaccessible” where God abides. Of the lower darkness it is said: The wicked
man “shall not depart out of darkness” (lob 15: 30). The nations before the
coming of Christ “sat in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Ps. 106:10). It
was in the midst of this darkness that the Light of salvation descended from on
high: “To the righteous a light is risen up in darkness” (Ps. 111: 4) ; “The
people that walked in darkness have seen a great light’, (Is. 9: 2; Matt. 4:
16) “For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord” (Eph. 5: 8; “God
is light, and in Him there is no darkness” (I John 1: 5). But sometimes,
relatively to us, God is spoken of as a divine darkness: “Clouds and darkness
are round about Him.... His lightnings have shone forth in the world” (Ps. 96:
2, 4) ; “And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud
six days: and the seventh day He called him out of the midst of the cloud’,
(Ex. 24:16: cf. Ex. 19: 9; 20: 21).
17
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 12, a. 4; q. 56, a. 3.
18
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 12, a. 2.
19
Cf. St. Thomas. Ia. q. 12, a. 1.
20
Cf. Comment. 5. Thomae in Job, chaps. 4, 6, 8.
21
John 8:12.
22
Cf. St. Thomas. Ia. n. 12. a. 1.
23
Cf. John 8:12.
24
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia IIae, q. 19, a. 9.
25
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 19, a. 11, 12.
26
Cf St. Thomas, Ia, q. 19, a. 11.
27
Treatise on the Love of God, Bk. VIII, chap. 3; Bk. IX, chap. 6.
28
Etats d’oraison, Bk. VIII, 9.
29
See Part I. chap. 2: “On the order in the world.”
30
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 79, a. 1, 2.
31
Physical evils, sickness, for instance, are not willed by God directly, but
only in an accidental way, insomuch as He wills a higher good of which physical
evil is the necessary condition. Thus the lion depends for its existence on the
killing of the gazelle, patience in sickness presupposes pain, the heroism of
the saints presupposes the sufferings they endure. (Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 19,
a. g; q. 22, a. 2 ad 2um.)
32
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 83, a. 1 ad 3um: “God, by moving voluntary causes, does
not deprive their actions of being voluntary, but rather is He the cause of
this very thing in them.” Cf. also, Ia, q. 103, a. 5-8; q. 105, a. 4, 5; q.
106, a. 2; Ia IIae, q. 10, a. 4 ad Ium et ad 3um; q. 109, a. 1, etc.
33
The free mode in our choice consists in the indifference that dominates our
will in its actual process of tending to a particular object presented as good
under one aspect and not good under another, and consequently as unable to
exert an invincible attraction upon it (Ia IIae, q. 10, a. 2). This free mode
in our choice is still within the sphere of being, of reality, and as such
comes under the adequate object of the divine omnipotence. On the contrary,
this cannot be so with the disorder of sin. God, in His causation infallible,
can no more be the cause of sin than the eye can perceive sound (Ia IIae, q.
79, a. 1, 2).
34
Cf. also Daniel 13: 42: The prayer of Susanna.
35
Ps. 36: 10-15: “Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: and thou shalt
seek his place, and shalt not find it. But the meek shall inherit the land: and
shall delight in abundance of peace. The sinner shall watch the just man: and
shall gnash upon him his teeth. But the Lord shall laugh at him: for He
foreseeth that His day shall come. The wicked have drawn out the sword: they
have bent their bow. To cast down the poor and needy, to kill the upright of
heart. Let their sword enter into their own hearts: and let their bow be
broken.” Ps. 33: 22: “The death of the wicked is very evil: and they that hate
the just shall be guilty.”
36
In certain difficult problems presented by the spiritual life in a concrete
case to decide, for example, whether one who at times is in close union with
God but is gravely ill, is being inspired by God in certain courses—the outcome
of the enquiry will be obscure, but whether the obscurity is from above or from
below will depend upon the method pursued.
37
One of the councils of the Church says the same with St. Prosper: “That some
are saved is the gift of Him who saves; that some perish is the fault of them
that perish” (Council of Chiersy, Denzinger, n. 318).
38
Cf. Dictionnaire de la Bible, art. Job. The brief summaries given of the long
discourses of lob and his friends are taken from Crampon’s translation.
39
Cf. the Commentary of St. Thomas on the Book of Job, chaps. 4, 6, 8, 9 (lesson
in its entirety), 19, 28. Again St. Thomas, Ia IIae, q. 87, a. 7, 8; De Malo,
q. 5, a. 4; and the Commentary on St. John, 9: 2.
40
The author has followed Crampon’s translation of the discourses of Job and his
friends. The reading of Job 3: 26 is that of the Revised Version. The Douay
Version, following the Vulgate, has: “Have I not dissembled? Have I not kept
silence? Have I not been quiet?” [Tr.]
41
Dictionnaire de la Bible, art. Job, col. 1560
42
Le Hir.
43
Cf. Dictionnaire de la Bible, art. Job, col. 1574.
44
Some of the expressions God uses here to describe the strength with which He
has endowed these monsters recall what theology has to say about the nature of
the devil. As nature, as reality and goodness, he is still loved by God, for he
is still His work. We are reminded, too, that, as St. Thomas says, the devils continue
of their nature to love existence as such (as prescinding from their unhappy
condition), and life as such; and therefore they continue of their very nature
to love the author of their life, Him whom as their judge they hate.
Nevertheless, rather than exist in their miserable state they would prefer not
to exist at all. (Cf. St. Thomas. Ia. q. 60 a. 5, ad sum.)
45
We are reminded of Moses rescued from the waters and the constant assistance
given to him by the Lord.
46
After the death of the just of the Old Testament, they had to await in limbo
the coming of the Redeemer who was to open to them the gates of paradise.
47
This is explained by St. Thomas, Ia, q. 22, a. 2: “We must say, however, that
all things are subject to divine providence, not only in general, but even in
their own individual selves. This is made evident thus. For since every agent
acts for an end, the ordering of effects toward that end extends as far as the
causality of the first agent extends.... But the causality of God extends to all
being, not only as to the constituent principles of species, but also as to the
individualizing principles; not only of things incorruptible, but also of
things corruptible. Hence all things that exist in whatsoever manner are
necessarily directed by God toward some end; as the Apostle says: ‘Those things
that are of God are ordained by Him’ (Rom. 13: 1). Since providence is nothing
less than the type of the order of things to an end, we must say that all
things are subject to it. ‘, St. Thomas also says, Ia, q. 22, a. 3: “God has
immediate providence over everything, even the smallest; and whatsoever causes
He assigns to certain effects, He gives them the power to produce these
effects. As to the execution of this order of providence, God governs things inferior
by superior, not on account of any defection in His power, but in order to
impart to creatures (especially to those of the higher order), the dignity of
causality.” Thus to men has been given dominion over domestic animals which, by
their docile obedience, are of assistance to him in his labors. What St. Thomas
says in the Ia, q. 22, a. 4, may be summed up as follows: Providence does not
destroy human liberty, but has ordained from all eternity that we should act
freely. The divine action not only directs us to act, but directs us to act
freely; it extends to the very free mode of our acts, which it produces in us
and with our co-operation, insomuch as it is more intimately present to us than
we are to ourselves. Cf. Ia, q. 19, a. 8.
48
That is the mystery St. Paul speaks of in the Epistle to the Romans, 9: 6.
49
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 20, a. 3: “Since God’s love is the cause of goodness in
things, no one thing would be better than another, if God did not will a
greater good for it than for the other.”
50
Treatise on the Love of God, tr. by Mackey, O.S.B., Bk. VIII, chap. 3: “How we
are to conform ourselves to the divine will which is called the signified will.”
Again, chaps. 4-7 and chap. 14: “A short method to know God’s will”; Bk. IX,
chap. 1: “Of the union of our will with that divine will which is called the
will of good pleasure.” Again, chaps. 2-6 and chap. 15. See also Spiritual
Conferences, tr. by Mackey, O.S.B., Conference II, “On Confidence,” and
Conference XV, “On the Will of God.”
51
Discours sur l’acte d’abandon a Dieu; also Etats d’oraison, Bk. VIII, chap. 9.
52
Le plus parfait, ou Des voies intérieures la plus glorifiante pour Dieu et la
plus sanctifiante pour l’ame, published in 1683, new edition with notes by Pere
Noble, O.P. The author shows how this interior way involves the practice of the
liveliest faith, the most confident hope, and the purest love; he shows, too,
that it is a way which is suited to every interior soul.
53
Abandonment to divine providence, new edition, including the letters of the
author and revised with the addition of appendices by Pere H. Ramiere, 2 vols.
Abridged Ed.. I vol. English translation E. J. Strickland.
54
By the gift of fear, hope is prevented from turning to presumption, as
magnanimity is prevented by humility from degenerating into pride. Cf. St.
Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 19, 10; q. 160, a. 2; q. 161, a. l; q. 129, a. 3 ad 4um.
They are complementary virtues which, by their interconnection, balance and
strengthen one another, and thus they increase together.
55
Cf. St. Francis de Sales, The Love of God, Bk. VIII, chap. 5: “Of the
conformity of our will with that will of God which is made known to us by His
commandments”; Bk. IX, chap. 1: “Of the union of our will with that divine will
which is called the will of good pleasure.” So also chaps. 2-6. Bossuet, Etats
d’oraison, Bk. VIII, chap. 9, says: “Christian indifference being out of the
question where the expressed will of God is concerned, we must restrict it, as
St. Francis de Sales does, to certain events controlled by His will of good
pleasure, whose sovereign commands determine the daily occurrences in the
course of life.”
Dom
Vital Lehodey, Holy Abandonment, tr. by Luddy, O. Cist., p. 123, says: “In
short, the good pleasure of God is the domain of abandonment, His expressed
will, of obedience.”
56
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 19, a. 11, 12: “On the will of expression in God.”
Certain events, such as the death of another, have great significance. As St.
Thomas points out (ibid.), sins also are permitted by God—personal sins, like
the threefold denial in St. Peter’s life, which God permitted so as to make him
more humble; sins also that others commit against us, acts of injustice which
God permits that we may derive spiritual profit from them, as He permitted the
persecutions against the Church.
57
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia IIae, q. 19, a. 10: “Whether it is necessary for the human
will, in order to be good, to be conformed to the divine will, as regards the
things will?”
58 Pere de Caussade, L’abandon, Vol. II, App. I, p.
279
59
Rom. 8: 31-39
60
Cf. St. Francis de Sales, The Love of God, Bk. VIII, chap. 5; Bk. IX, chaps.
1-7
61
Cf. St. Francis de Sales, loc. cit., and Spiritual Conferences, II, XV; De
Caussade, Abandon, II, 279 (App. 2). Cf. also Dom Vital Lehodey, Holy
Abandonment, Part III: “On abandonment in the natural goods of the body (health
and sickness)”, pp. 166 ff. ; “on abandonment of those of the mind (the unequal
distribution of these gifts)”, pp. 19l ff.; “on abandonment of one’s own good
estimation in others (humiliations and persecutions)”, pp. 207 ff.; “on
abandonment in the spiritual varieties of the common way (failures and faults,
trials and consolations)”, pp. 244 ff. ; “abandonment in the spiritual
varieties of the mystical way,” pp. 244 ff.
62
There are instances where a life has been completely changed by trials, as may
be seen from the biography of Abbé Girard, entitled, Vingt-deux ans de martyr
After receiving the diaconate, this saintly priest contracted tuberculosis of
the bones and for twenty-two years was confined to his bed in the cruelest
suffering, which he offered up each day for the priests of his generation. Here
was one who to his great grief was never able to celebrate mass, and yet he was
daily united to our Lord’s sacrifice perpetuated on the altar. Far from
breaking up his vocation sickness transfigured it.
63
Cf St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 72, a. 3; q. 73, a. 3 ad 3um.
64
Cf. St. Thomas, “On the degrees of humility, “ IIa IIae, q. 161, a. 6
65
Cf. St. Francis de Sales, The Love of God, Bk. IX, chap. 5, and Bossuet, Etats
d’oraison, Bk. VIII, chap. 9
66
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 60, a. 5
67
That such is the teaching of St. Thomas, we have shown at length elsewhere. Cf.
L’Amour de Dieu et la Croix de Jesus, I, 77-150
68
Certain authors have spoken of the virtue of self-abandonment. In reality the
act of self-abandonment has its source not in a special virtue, but in the
three theological virtues combined with the gift of piety.
69
Cf. Piny, Le plus parfait. chap. 7.
70
Ibid.
71
In the lives of many saints we see how the appalling calumnies they had to
endure became, by God’s permission, the occasion of a marvelous increase in
their love for Him
72
Cf. St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 129, a. 6
73
We are especially reminded of this, the formal motive of hope, in the name of
Jesus, which means Savior, and in various titles given to the Blessed Virgin:
Help of Christians. Refuge of Sinners. Our Lady of Perpetual Help
74
Cf. Pinv. Le plus parfait chap. 8
75
Read, for instance, the life of Blessed Cottolengo. There it will be seen what
a tender love God had for this soul so admirably resigned to providence, and
how almighty God blessed his piccola casa in Turin, where assistance is given
daily to ten thousand poor. Here is one of the most striking instances of God’s
goodness to us. If the stars in the heavens chant the glories of God, much more
do works of mercy such as this
76
St. Francis de Sales, Spiritual Conferences, tr. by Mackey, O.S.B., Conference
n, p. 25. The interior conviction expressed in this passage, as proceeding from
the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, far surpasses any
theological speculation
77
In the Second Book of Kings it is related how Semei, a kinsman of Saul, reviled
the prophet David, casting stones at him and cursing him. When one of David’s
officers would have gone out to slay the reviler, David said: “Let him alone
and let him curse: for the Lord hath bid him curse David. And who is he that
shall dare say, Why hath he done so?... Let him alone that he may curse as the
Lord hath bidden him. Perhaps the Lord may look upon my affliction and the Lord
may render me good for the cursing of this day” (II Kings 16: 6 ff.) This
reminds us of our Lord’s words during His passion when, counseling Peter to be
calm, He allowed Himself to be led away by the armed soldiery with Judas at
their head and healed Malchus, whom Peter had wounded with his sword. We meet
with many such incidents in the lives of the saints, where the unforeseen
opportunity is seized upon so soon as it presents itself.
78
See I Kings 2: 6; Deut. 32:39; Tobias 13:2; Wis. 16: 13
79
Abandonment to Divine Providence. Bk. 1. chap. 2. p. 25.
80
Herein is the explanation of all that supernatural good which saints like the
Curé of Ars have done for souls. With no great theological learning, he
nevertheless had the deepest insight into God’s dealings with souls of every
condition, and thus, with very little time for reflection, he would in one day
give to hundreds of persons the sound counsel which their immediate needs
required
81
Ibid.. p. 27.
82
Abandonment to Divine Providence, Bk. I, chap. 2, sec. 5, p. 23.
83
Ibid. sec. 3, p. 26. At least this is often the case, though an act that is in
no way disagreeable may often be very meritorious, such as the prayer of a saint
in times of consolation.
84
Ibid. sec. 3, p. 19
85
Ibid.
86
Cf. St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 24, a. 6 ad 2um
87
Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, chap. 1: “Opportunity is seldom
given for the exercise of fortitude, magnanimity, or munificence but meekness
temperance, modesty, and humility are virtues wherewith all the actions of our
life should be tempered. There are other virtues more excellent, it is true,
but the practice of these is more necessary. Sugar is more excellent than salt,
but salt is more necessary and more general in its use. Therefore we should
always have a goodly supply of these general virtues ready to hand, since we
need them almost continually.” In the exercise of the virtues we should always
prefer that which is most conformable with our duty, not that which is most
agreeable to our taste.... Each one should practice those virtues in particular
which are most required for the state of life to which he is called.” Of the
virtues that have no immediate connection with our particular duty, we must
prefer the more excellent to the more ostentatious. Comets usually appear
greater than stars and to our eyes occupy far greater space, whereas in reality
they are not to be compared with the stars either in magnitude or quality....
Hence it is that the ordinary run of men usually prefer corporal alms to
spiritual... bodily mortifications to meekness... modesty and other
mortifications of the heart, though these are far more excellent.” Ibid. chap.
2: “Yea, Philothea, the King of glory does not reward His servants according to
the dignity of the offices they hold, but according to the love and humility
with which they exercise them.”
88
Cf. St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 18, a. 9.
89
If by God’s grace such a soul recovers itself and begins to follow the way of
true humility, it may resume its upward course from the point it had already
reached, without being obliged to start again from the beginning. The reason is
that even after mortal sin, the soul whose repentance is proportionate to the
offense will recover the grace it has lost in the same degree as it had reached
before the fall. Cf. St. Thomas, IIIa, q. 89, a. 2, c. et ad 2um; a. 5 ad 3um.
90
Abandonment to Divine Providence, Bk. I chap. 2, sec. 12, p. 35.
91
Matt. 6: 34
92
Luke 16: 10
93
S. Thomas, in Joann. 8: 12
94
See I Cor. 2: 6.
95
Abandonment to Divine Providence, pp. 81-83.
96
Comment. in Epist. ad Philipp. 1:21.
97
See 3e Entretien, chaps. 8 ff
98
The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena, tr. by Algar Thorold,
pp. 22-23
99
In us an act of the love of God, being the act of a creature, must always be
finite, but is infinite by reason of its object and motive.
100
Dialogue, chaps. 5 and 7; pp. 10, 13, 14.
101
Ibid. chaps. 3 and 4: pp. 4, 8
102
Ibid, chap. 1; p. 2. 103 Ibid., chap. g; p. 20
104
Ibid., chaps. 6, 7, 89, 90; pp. 10, 13, 16, 169 f. 105 Ibid, chap. 64; p. 117
106
Ibid., chaps. 85 and 96; pp. 158-160, 186 f.
107
Cf. St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 184, a. 3, c. et ad 2um
108
Ibid.
109
Dialogue, chap. 11; p. 25
110
Ibid., chap. 47; p. 89
111
It is in this spirit that St. Francis drank in the beauty of an Umbrian
landscape; thus, too, the great contemplatives of the Netherlands, like
Ruysbroeck, delighted in the indefinable charm of Flanders and its wide, silent
plains with their tender and varied verdure, to be seen nowhere else, and their
avenues of poplars waving in the breeze. Thus do the people of the East delight
in the beauty of the starry skies at night and follow the course of the planets
among the fixed stars, counting out the hours on this great clock of the skies.”
The heavens show forth the glory of God” (Ps. 18: 1).
112
Dialogue, chaps. 2, 110; PP. 3, 218
113
Ibid., chaps. 76, 77, 140; PP. 142, 144, 319
114
Ibid., chap. 65; p. 120.
115
Ibid., chap. 66; PP. 121, 125
116
Ibid., chap. 66; p. 122
117
Ibid., pp. 124 f.
118
Ibid., chap. 84; p. 157
119
This does not mean that St. Thomas acquired through prayer a knowledge of new
conclusions, new theses; it means that among the principles he habitually
contemplated there were some that stood out in prayer in all their
transcendence as the crown and summit of doctrine illuminating all the rest. It
was in prayer, for instance, that he saw clearly the transcendence and
universality of the principle he formulates in Ia, q. 20, a. 3: “Since the love
of God is the cause of goodness in creatures, none would be better than
another, were it not more beloved of God.” In this principle is virtually
contained the whole treatise on predestination and grace, which is no more than
a corollary drawn from it
120
St. John of the Cross, Dark Night, Bk. I, chap. 14 (init.) : “Progressives and
proficients are in the illuminative way; there God nourishes and strengthens
the soul by infused contemplation.”
121
Dialogue, chap. 85; pp. 158-159.
122
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia IIae, q. 68, a. 5. : There is a connection between the gifts
and charity, and thus they develop together. Especially intimate is the
relation between the gift of wisdom and charity (cf. IIa IIae, q. 45, a. 2-5).
123
Dialogue, chap. 85; p. 160
124
Ibid., chap. 28; p. 54
125
Cf. St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 24, a. 3 ad 2um
126
Dialogue, chaps. 89, 4, 72; pp. 166, 6, 135
127
Ibid.,. chap.. 89; p. 166
128
Ibid., chaps. 60 and 61; pp. 111-112
129
Ibid., chaps. 43, 59, 146; pp. 78, 108, 336
130
Ibid., chaps. 24, 45; pp. 47, 85
131
Ibid., chap. 95; p. 183
132
Cf. Dialogue, chap. 89; pp. 166f. Cf also chap. 91 on the tears of fire, those
wholly interior tears the saints shed at the sight of souls being lost; they
cannot weep sensible tears, which would bring them some relief. There are thus
five sorts of tears (cf. chap. 88; p. 164) : (a) the tears of worldlings over
the loss of the things of this world; (b) the tears of slaves who are wholly
dominated by servile fear and weep over the chastisement they have incurred;
(c) the tears of mercenary servants who do indeed weep over sin, but also over
the loss of consolations; (d) the tears of the perfect who weep over the
offense given to God and the loss of souls; (e) the tears of the absolutely
perfect who weep besides over their exile, which deprives them of the vision of
God and an indissoluble union with Him.
133
Cf. St. Thomas, IIIa, q. 46, a. 8
134
The reference here is to an individual call, not merely a general one. For
many, however, the call remains remote; it becomes an immediate call only for
those who are prepared to listen
135
Cf Dialogue, chaps. 53, 54; pp. 100-103
136
Cf. St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q45, a. 2
137
Ia, q. 21, a. 4
138
Cf. The Canticle of Anna, I Kings 2:1-10, and the Magnificat
139
We have an instance of this in recent years in the saintly Abbé Girard of
Coutances, whose life of suffering is described by Miriam de Girard in
Vingt-deux ans de martyr. In other cases, atrocious calumnies have been the
occasion of immense spiritual progress. During the pontificate of Pius X there
lived in Rome a deeply Christian man, Aristides Leonori, an architect, who was
responsible for a number of beautiful churches in various countries. In Rome he
had established a work for the protection of young orphans. One of them falsely
accused him before the civil courts of a most vile offense, having been bribed
to do so by those hostile to this charitable work. Leonori, his hair whitened
in a single night, appeared before the court and listened to the accusation now
made publicly against him by this youth for whom he had done so much. When he
had ended, Leonori looked steadily at him and simply said: “What could have
induced you to say such things, my friend, after all I have done for you since
you were a child?” At this the youth could no longer restrain his emotion and
burst into tears, confessing that he had been paid to bring this lying charge
against Leonori and thus destroy his work. There most decidedly Leonori found
the royal road of the cross. He was a great friend of Pius X and died in the
odor of sanctity
140
Dialogue, chap. 36; p. 67.
141
Ibid., chap. 132; p. 288
142
Ibid., p. 290.
143
Ibid., chap. 131; p. 284
144
See II Cor. 5: 10
145
Phil. 1: 23
146
See II Tim. 4: 8
147
Heb. 9: 27
148
Immediately after the death of Gerontius, Newman puts these words into the
mouth of the angel guardian:
“When
then - if such thy lot - thou seest thy Judge, The sight of Him will kindle in
thy heart All tender, gracious, reverential thoughts. Thou wilt be sick with
joy, and yearn for Him That one so sweet should e’er have placed Himself At
disadvantage such, as to be used So vilely by a being so vile as thee. There is
a pleading in His pensive eyes, Will pierce thee to the quick, and trouble
thee, And thou wilt hate and loathe thyself; for, though Now sinless, thou wilt
feel that thou hast sinned As never thou didst feel; and wilt desire To slink
away, and hide thee from His sight; And yet wilt have a longing eye to dwell
Within the beauty of His countenance. And those two pains, so counter and so
keen-The longing for Him, when thou seest Him not; The shame of self at thought
of seeing Him Will be thy veriest, sharpest purgatory. It is the face of the
Incarnate God Shall smite thee with that keen and subtle pain; And yet the
memory which it leaves will be A sovereign febrifuge to heal the wound; And yet
withal it will the wound provoke, And aggravate and widen it the more.” The
Dream of Gerontius, 710-39.
149
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia IIae, q. 87, a. 3
150
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia IIae, q. 65, a. 1-3
151
Then will be realized those words from the Canticle of Anna, I Kings 2: 1-lo: “The
bow of the mighty is overcome: and the weak are girt with strength. The Lord
killeth and maketh alive: He bringeth down to hell and bringeth back again. The
Lord maketh poor and maketh rich: He humbleth and He exalteth.... He lifteth up
the poor from the dunghill: that he may sit with princes, and hold the throne
of glory.” Here in the Old Testament is the prelude to the Magnificat
152
A young Jew, the son of an Austrian banker, who knew little of the Gospel
beyond the Our Father, was one day given an opportunity of revenging himself on
an enemy. But at the very moment the opportunity presented itself, there came
to his mind the words, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us.” Instead of carrying out his revenge, he forgave his enemy
completely with all his heart, and immediately his eyes were opened: he saw the
Gospel ill all its majesty and most firmly believed. He became a good Catholic
and afterwards a priest and religious of the Order of St. Dominic. The kingdom
of God was revealed to him the very moment he forgave.
153
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 21, a. 4
154
James 2:13
155
Loc., cit.
156
Cf. St. Catherine of Siena, Dialogue, chap. 30
157 Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui abundantia
pietatis tuae et merita supplicum excedis et vota; effunde super nos
misericordiam tuam: ut dimittas quae conscientia metuit, et adjicias quod
orationem praesumit, Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium, etc.
158
Life, chap. 7 (Bollandists, April 30, p. 918).
159
Letters of 5t. Catherine of Siena, tr. by Scudder, p. 113
160
See St. Thomas, Ia, q. 21, a. 4 ad Ium
161
Dialogue, chap. 30
162
Dialogue, chap. 32.
163
Ps. 88: 2 ff. ; Ps. 102: 8-17
164
Tr. by Irons; cf. The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal
165
In that fine book of his, Le Docteur Angelique, J. Maritain has set down this
profound reflection: “How reconcile two apparently contradictory facts: the
fact that modern history appears to be, as Berdyaev says, on the threshold of
new Middle Age in which the unity and universality of Christian culture will be
recovered and extended this time to the whole universe, and the fact that the
general trend of civilization seems to be toward the universalism of Antichrist
and his iron rod rather than toward the universalism of Christ and His
emancipatory law, and in any event to forbid the hope of a unification of the
world in one universal Christian empire.” As far as I am concerned, my answer
is as follows: I think that two immanent tendencies intersect at every point in
the history of the world... one tendency draws upward everything in the world
which participates in the divine life of the Church, which is in the world but
not of the world, and follows the attraction of Christ, the head of the human
race.” The other tendency draws downward everything in the world which belongs
to the prince of the world.... History suffers these two internal strains as it
moves forward in time, and human affairs are so subjected to a distension of
increasing force until the fabric in the end gives way. So the cockle grows up
along with the wheat; the capital of sin increases throughout the whole course
of history and the capital of grace increases also and superabounds. Christian
heroism will one day become the sole solution for the problem of life.... Then
we shall doubtless see coincident with the worst condition in human history a
flowering of sanctity.” English tr. by J. F. Scanlan, St. Thomas Aquinas, Angel
of the Schools, p. 86
166
Chap. 43, n50.
167
Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, n. 804
168 Aliqua Dei praecepta hominibus justis volentibus
et conantibus, secundum praesentes quas habent vires, sunt impossibilia, deest
quoque illis gratia qua possbilia fiant. Denzinger, n. 1092
169
Sess. VI, cap. 13, and canon 16: Denzinger, nn. 806, 826
170
The Council of Trent defined, Sess. VI, can. 22 (Denz. n. 832) : “If anyone
saith that the justified either is able to persevere without the special help
of God in the justice received; or that with that help he is not able: let him
be anathema.” (Cf. nn. 804, 806.) The terms of the Council—”the grace of final
perseverance is a special assistance”—must be rightly understood if all
ambiguity is to be avoided. There is no necessity for a new action on the part
of God, for, as will be pointed out shortly, conservation in grace is simply
the continuation of its original production, not a new action. So also from the
point of view of the soul, it is enough for the habitual grace to be preserved;
there is no need for even one new actual grace, as happens in the case of the
child that dies soon after baptism without ever making an act of the love of
God. But, according to the Councils of Orange and Trent, what is a special
gift, one granted to some and not to others, is the coincidence of the state of
grace with death: the fact that grace is preserved up to that moment instead of
God’s permitting a fall. This coincidence of the state of grace with death is a
great favor and is from God: when it is granted, it is the divine mercy that
grants it, and in this sense it is a special gift.
171
The Council of Trent says again, Sess. VI, cap. II, 13 (Denzinger, nn. 804,
806) : “God commands not impossibilities.... All ought to place and repose a
most firm hope in God’s help. For God, unless men be themselves wanting to His
grace, as He has begun the good work, so will He perfect it (in them), to will
and to accomplish” (Phil. 2: 13).
172
Adjutorium Dei etiam renatis et sanctis semper est implorandum, ut ad finem
bonum pervenire vel in bono possint opere perdurare (Denzingce, n. 183).
173
Quod quidem (donum) aliunde habere non potest, nisi ab eo qui potens est eum
qui stat statuere ut perseveranter stet, et eum qui eadit restituere (Denzinger
n. 806).
174
Because of their exalted character, in the things of God the simplest are at
the same time the most profound; but it is a simplicity wholly different from
that which Voltaire spoke of when he said: “I am limpid as a brook because I
have little depth.”
175
It is a matter of discussion among theologians whether the gift of final
perseverance can be the object of this congruous merit, which is founded not in
justice but in the charity uniting us with God, in jure amicabili, in the
rights of friendship existing between God and the just. The best commentators
of St. Thomas, relying on the principles formulated by him, state in reply that
final perseverance cannot be the object of strict congruous merit, since the
principle of this merit is a continued state of grace, and the principle of
merit, as we have seen, cannot be merited. Moreover, congruous merit strictly
so-called, founded as it is in the rights of friendship, in jure amicabili,
obtains infallibly the corresponding reward. God never refuses us what we have
merited in this way, at any rate for ourselves personally. From which it would
follow that, once come to the use of reason, all the just by their acts of
charity would merit the gift of final perseverance and would in fact persevere
to the end, which is not the case. Nevertheless it remains true that the grace
of a happy death may be the object of congruous merit understood in a wide
sense, this being simply the impetratory value of prayer, which is founded not
in justice or the rights of friendship, but in the liberality and mercy of God
176
Since the grace of final perseverance is not merited, it is not because God has
foreseen our merits that He bestows it upon us; from which it follows that
predestination to glory is also gratuitous: it is not ex praevisis meritis as
St. Thomas says (Ia, q. 23, a. 5). If anyone wishes to maintain that it is ex
praevisis meritis, then at least he must say that it is not “from merits
foreseen as persisting unto the end apart from a special gift”, ex praevisis
meritis absque speciali dono usque in finem perdurantibus.
177
Nevertheless, if many of us are praying for the conversion of the sinner, or if
our prayer continues not merely for days but for months and long years, it
becomes more and more probable that God desires to hear us, since it is He who
makes us persevere in our prayer
178
This point is well brought out in an excellent work recently published Sept
retraites de la Mere Elizabeth de la Croix (foundress of the Carmelite convent
at Fontainebleau). In these retreats, the subject is simply the union of the
soul that has consecrated itself to Jesus crucified for the glory of God and
the salvation of souls. Constantly we meet with such passages as these: “Our
Lord revealed to me the sentiments of His Sacred Heart and communicated them to
me.... He said to me: ‘The two chief motives that led Me to acquiesce in Pilate’s
condemnation of Me were the will and glory of My Father and a hunger for the
salvation of men. Your whole life, in its smallest details, should be dominated
by these two sentiments. Take upon yourself My own sufferings.... During this
retreat, for yourself nothing, all for Me. My cross is to be found in pride, in
sin; give Me a little help in carrying that cross. The fruit of My carrying the
cross for you is that you desire nothing here below, that you be prepared to
suffer always, that you desire all that the divine will desires, that you make
expiation for the sins of men, of My priests and spouses especially, that you
complain of nothing, that you keep your soul fast to My own, that your heart be
occupied solely with love for Me’ (pp. 181 ff.). ‘In this (when loaded with the
cross) I am your model. ‘... At the offering of the bread and wine at mass our
Lord Jesus Christ said to me: ‘I offer you to My Father as victim embracing all
that I intend in your regard... the needs of My Church... the perils in which
souls are plunged and the ardor of My appeals. ‘ At holy communion He said: ‘I
shall be your strength always. ‘ My cross: that is the sign and token of the
love I have for souls, of the love also that souls have for Me. You I have
invited to share in the folly of the cross, to refuse to be bound to earth by a
single thread... to follow Me through pain, insults, and ignominy... to be My
spouse crucified unto death. ‘ Again He said to Me: ‘It was through calumny
that I was condemned to be crucified.... The more your sufferings closely
resemble Mine, the happier will you be:... it is the proof that you are loved
more than others. Be kind of heart toward those who will bring or have already
brought the cross to you. ‘... ‘Suffer with Me in reparation for the glory of
My Father and for the ransom of souls’ “ (pp. I 84 ff.).
179
We recommend on this point two books by Adolphe Retté: Jusqu’a la fin du monde,
a living commentary on that sentence of Pascal’s: “Jesus will continue in His
agony until the end of the world, ‘, and Oraisons du silence, This latter work,
from the fine passages it contains on solitude, poverty, detachment, suffering,
peace, and the love of God, will prepare us for a happy death. It closes with
these words: “May the rhythm of the hours yet remaining in my life here below
be regulated solely by the sacred doxology, Gloria Patri et Filio....
Invocation full of strength, which makes me glad to have suffered and to go on
suffering in Thy service, O Lord. Each time that I utter it with a contrite
heart and with a right mind, I know that Thy grace will flow in upon my
soul.... Grant that I may be crucified like the good thief on Thy right hand.
Remember me, too, in Thy kingdom of heaven as Thou didst remember him.” That
prayer was heard. Adolphe Retté died a holy death.
180 Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 20, a. 3: Cum amor Dei sit
causa bonitatis rerum, non esset aliquid alio melius, si Deus non vellet uni majus
quam alteri. Ibid., a. 4: Ex hoc sunt aliqua meliora, quod Deus eis majus bonum
vult. Here
is the principle of predilection.
181
Council of Quiersey, A. D. 853 (Denzinger, 318) : Deus omnipotens omnes homines
sine exceptione vult salvos fieri (I Tim. 2: 4), licet non omnes salventur. Quod
autem quidam salvantur, salvantis est donum; quod autem quidam pereunt,
pereuntium est meritum
182
By their very nature both human souls and angels participate in the
intellectual life and as such bear an analogical resemblance to God in so far
as He is intelligent. Sanctifying grace, however, is a resemblance to God not
simply as He is intelligent, but precisely as God; it is a participation in the
Deity as such, or, if you will, in the divine intellectuality as it is divine.
This is our reply to a question put to us by Père Gardeil in his excellent
work, La structure de l’ame et I’expérience mystique, (I, 388), where he treats
of the relation between sanctifying grace and the formal constituent of the
divine nature. Sanctifying grace is a participation in the divine nature
considered not simply as being or as intellectual, but as strictly divine;
grace is a physical and formal, though analogical participation in the Deity as
such, whose formal concept transcends in its absolute eminence the concepts of
being, unity, etc., in all of which it is possible for creatures to participate
naturally. So also says Cajetan in his commentary on Ia, q. 39, a. 1 (n. 7) :
Deitas est super ens et super unum, etc. We have explained ourselves at some
length on this point elsewhere (God, His Existence and His Nature, tr. by Dom
Bede Rose, O.S.B., Vol. II, chap. I, n. 42; chap. 3, n. 54). Père Gardeil
himself speaks in the same sense (I, 246, 287).
183
Lettres de direction (Oeuvres, XI, 444).
184
“La volonté salvifique chez S. Augustin”, in Revue Thomiste, 1930, pp. 473-487.
Also Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, art.” Prédestination”, conclusion.
185
See in the Summa of St. Thomas (IIa IIae) the two great questions 25 and 26 on
the extent of charity and the order it should observe. They will be summed up
in what follows
186
Cf. St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q. 26, a. 8
187
This is the place to recall those words of Pascal’s to be found equivalently in
St. Augustine and St. Thomas: “The infinite distance between matter and mind
symbolizes the infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity; for
charity is supernatural.... The whole universe of matter and mind, with all
their products, cannot equal in value the least movement of charity, which
belongs to an order infinitely more exalted.” Pensées, Ed. E. Havet, pp. 266,
269
188
Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 22, a. 3
189
Matt. 3: 2.
190
Matt. 10: 40
191
Matt. 12: 28
192
Matt. 6: 9
193
Matt. 5: 44
194
John 15: 5
195
John 17: 20
196
Rom. 12: 4, 5; I Cor. 12: 12-27; Ephes 1: 22; Col. 1: 18; 2: 19
197
If we ask holy persons here on earth to pray for us, as people used to ask the
Curé of Ars, then surely, whatever Protestants may say, it is right to ask the
saints in heaven to intercede for us. These are now in the fullness of light
and know better than we do what may rightly be asked on our behalf
198
See I Cor. 12: 4-6
199
Ephes. 4: 4-6
200
See I Cor. 12: 14, 26-27
201
Gal. 6: 2-10.
202
Oevres completes, XII, 417
203
In connection with Providence and the communion of saints, we should notice
that in order to undertake any sort of work in the Church it is necessary to
have a mission and to preserve the spirit of that mission, a point well brought
out by Père Clerissac, O.P., in that excellent work, Le Mystere de l’Eglise,
chap. 7, “La Mission et l’esprit.” Thus it was with the founders of the
religious orders. A striking example of this law in the order of grace is to be
found in the Life of Mother Cornelia Connelly, Foundress of the Society of the
Holy Child Jesus, 1809-1879. Formerly a Protestant, married to a Protestant,
and the mother of a family, she was converted to Catholicism at the same time
as her husband. When later on her husband recognized that he had a vocation to
the priesthood and was ordained, Mother Connelly herself, following the advice
given her by Gregory XVI, founded a religious congregation in America.
Unfortunately her former husband took it for granted that he would have the
direction of this congregation, a task for which he had no mission whatever.
This lost him the grace of his own vocation and he left the Church, while
Mother Connelly, in the midst of incredible difficulties, finally succeeded in
carrying through the work almighty God had entrusted to her.
204
Cf. St. Thomas, IIIa, q. 52, a. 5.
205
Gen. 5: 24; 17: 8; 26: 24; 35: 29; 47: 9; 49: 18, 29-33; Num. 20: 24; 27: 13;
Deut. 25: 8, 17; 32: 50
206
Job. 14: 13-25; 19: 25-27; cf. also Ps. 11: 7; 15: 10-12; 48: 15 ff. ; 72: 24;
Prov. 10: 30; 11: 7; Ecclus. 1: 11: 11: 28; 18: 24, etc
207
Matt. 7: 14
208
Benedict XII (Denzinger, n. 530) : “we define... that... even before the
resurrection of their bodies and the general judgment... the souls of all the
saints... in whom, when they departed this life, there was nothing to be cleansed...
behold the divine essence with intuitive vision, face to face, in such wise
that nothing created intervenes as object of vision, but the divine essence
presents itself to their immediate gaze, unveiled, clearly and openly.” Cf.
also the Council of Florence (Denzinger n. 693).
209
In times of great affliction not a few interior souls have found peace and even
joy, though circumstances continued to give immense pain, when through God’s
inspiration they have conceived the idea of making a vow of self-abandonment to
Providence. When a soul is prompted by grace to make such a vow and is firmly
resolved not to divorce self-abandonment from fidelity to daily duties, the
following form may be used. It should be renewed daily during the prayer of
thanksgiving:
“Whenever
the will of God is expressed in a cross, I will yield myself to it entirely and
with a note of joy, paying no regard to what was instrumental in bringing it
about. In difficulties that in any way distress me I will avoid all
self-probing, introspection, and idle preoccupations; I will steep myself more
deeply in confidence, and seek to solve my difficulties through the action of
grace. I will take up this attitude of mind and heart and plunge myself in God
the instant something occurs to wound me. And all this I will do with an
exceeding great love.”
This
self-abandonment should be accompanied by close fidelity to grace and the
illuminations received in prayer.
