The nun sanctified by the virtues of her state
|
|  Yüklə 1.39 Mb.
|
| Say to yourself: have I entered religion to do my own will ? If I wish to live according to my own inclinations, I should have remained in the world. At my profession I consecrated my will to God by the vow of obedience: why should I now seek to indulge it ? Why am I disturbed when not permitted to follow my own will ? Be not troubled, then, when your requests are refused, and when a duty painful to self-love is imposed upon you; but remember that by your obedience you will merit a greater reward, and will make greater progress in virtue than you would by many spontaneous acts of penance and devotion. A great servant of God used to say, that to perform a single act of abnegation of self-will is more profitable than to build a thousand hospitals. Have continually before your eyes the words of the Venerable Father Anthony Torres to a religious who was one of his penitents: "A soul entirely consecrated to God loves nothing, wants nothing, seeks nothing, desires nothing." I will conclude this chapter by an extract from a letter of the same Father Torres to a religious whom he wished to detach from herself and from all created objects, in order to love nothing but God: "Since the Lord gives you so many occasions of suffering and of desolation, endeavor to improve in charity, which is said to be as strong as death. Study to strengthen divine love in your soul, so that it may disengage your heart from all creatures, from all human respect, from all that is prized by the world, from your own desires, and from all self-love; that there may be nothing in you to prevent your thoughts, your desires, and your affections from being entirely directed to your beloved. Let the heart sigh after the beloved; let the will rest only on him; let the thoughts be wholly fixed on him. Let every motion of the body, let every act of your life, be for and with the beloved. To attain the love of your beloved, I advise you to renounce every day before the crucifix every object of your affections, all honors, interests, consolations, and relatives, and to protest that you desire no other glory than his ignominies; no riches but his charity, no other convenience than the cross: that you desire him only, your dear and beloved Spouse.
51 When you walk in the garden, or look up to the heavens, invite frequently and with your whole heart all creatures to the love of your beloved. Avoid all conversation; give up every employment which is not pleasing to him; omit every action which will not redound to the glory of your Spouse." Prayer. Ah, my God, my Lord, and my Spouse ! Thou hast loved me so much, and hast given me a will to love Thee, and I have so often employed this will in offending and insulting Thee. If I were not convinced that Thou art a God of infinite mercy, I should lose all hope of recovering Thy grace, which I have unfortunately lost. By my ingratitude I deserved to have been long since abandoned by Thee. But I see that Thy light still assists me, and I know that Thou dost still call me to Thy love. Behold, O Lord, I do not wish to continue any longer in my ingratitude, or to resist any longer Thy invitation. I offer to Thee my whole being: receive an unfaithful soul who for so many years has despised Thy love, but who now desires to love Thee and to belong entirely to Thee. Assist me, O my Jesus ; give me a sorrow for my sins which will fill my soul with pain and anguish for having outraged so good and so amiable a God. Unhappy me, if, after the lights which Thou now givest me, I betray Thee again. How canst Thou bear with me any longer ? The fear of again offending Thee afflicts my soul. Ah, Lord ! do not permit me to be evermore separated from Thee. Chastise me as Thou pleasest, but not by permitting me to lose Thy grace. If Thou seest that I shall ever turn my back upon Thee, take me out of life, at this moment, in which I hope to enjoy Thy friendship. Of what use will life be to me if by living I continue to offend Thee ? O Mary, my hope, obtain for me the grace of perseverance, or of instant death. III The Merit of Obedience. "Since," as St. Bonaventure says, "all the perfection of religious consists in the destruction of self-will," 1 obedience should, of all virtues, be the most dear to a religious. Obedience to rule and to the commands of Superiors is the greatest sacrifice that a Christian can offer to God; because, as St. Thomas says, "nothing is more amiable in the eyes of man than the liberty of his own will." 2 Hence we cannot present to God a more acceptable gift than the consecration of our wills to his service. " For," says the Holy Ghost, obedience is better than sacrifices. 3 Obedience is more pleasing to God than all the sacrifices that we can offer to him. They who give to the Lord their worldly goods by alms-deeds, their honor by embracing contempt, and their body by mortification, by fasts, and by works of penance, make only a partial consecration of themselves to him. But he that offers to God the sacrifice of his own will by the practice of obedience consecrates all that he possesses to God’s glory, and can say: Lord, after having given to Thee my will, I have nothing more to present to Thee. Besides, as St. Gregory says, " By the other virtues we give to God what belongs to us, but by obedience we dedicate ourselves to him." 4 1 " Tota religionis perfectio in voluntatis propriae abdicatione consistit." Spec. disc, ad novit. p. i, c. 4. 2 " Nihil est homini amabilius libertate propræ voluntatis." De Perf. vitæ; spir. c. 10. 3 " Melior est enim obedientia, quam victimæ. " i Kings, xv. 22; Eccles. iv. 17. 4 " Per alias virtutes, nostra Deo impendimus; per obedientiam, nosmetipsos exhibemus." In I Kings, xv. The same Father says in another place that "obedience is a virtue that infuses the other virtues into the mind and preserves them in the soul." 1 St. Teresa asserts that "from a soul resolved to love God he requires nothing but obedience;" and again, that " the devil knows well that obedience is the remedy of the soul, and therefore he labors hard to prevents its attainment."2 The Venerable Father Sertorio Caputo 3 used to say that obedience merits even the reward of martyrdom; because as by martyrdom a Christian submits, for God’s sake, to the loss of life, so by obedience he offers to the Lord the sacrifice of self-will, which is, as it were, the head of the soul. Hence the wise man says that he who practises obedience shall conquer every enemy. An obedient man shall speak of victory 4 Yes, says St. Gregory, the obedient shall overcome all the temptations of hell, because by obedience they subject their will to men, and thus become superior to the devils who fell through disobedience. " They who obey," says the saint, " are conquerors, because when they submit their will to others, they triumph over the angels who sinned by disobedience." 5 Cassian observes that since all vices proceed from self-will when the latter is destroyed the former die in the soul. " By mortification of the will all vices wither and decay."6 1 " Obedientia virtus est quæ virtutes caeteras menti inserit, insertas que custodit." Moral. 1. 35, c. 12. 2 Found, ch. 5. 3 Barone, Vit. 1. 3, c. ir. 4 " Vir obediens loquetur victoriam." Prov. xxi. 28. 5 " Victores sunt, qui obediunt; quia, dum voluntatem suam aliis perfecte subjiciunt, ipsi lapsis per inobedientiamangclis dominantur." In 1 kings, 1. 4, c. 5. 6" Mortificatione voluntatum marcescunt uni versa vitia." De Cœnob. inst, 1. 4, c. 43. 52 God promises those who renounce their own will that he will raise them above the earth, and give them a celestial spirit. If, says the Lord, thou turn away from doing thy own will…I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob. 1 St. Laurence Justinian teaches that all who sacrifice their own will to God become so dear to him that they shall obtain whatever they ask. " He that has consecrated himself to God by the immolation of self-will will receive all that he shall demand."2 St. Augustine says that after Adam had by his disobedience entailed misery on himself and the whole human race, the Son of God became man, principally to teach us obedience by his own example. Jesus from his infancy began to obey Mary and Joseph: he continued to obey them during his life; and by his obedience was in the end brought to the ignominious death of the cross. He humbled himself , becoming obedient unto death even to the death of the cross."3 St. Bernard says that " the disobedient seek to be exempted from obedience. Jesus Christ did not do so: he, indeed, gave his life lest he should violate obedience." 4 The mother of God once revealed to one of her servants that our Redeemer died with a special affection for obedient souls. The Venerable Father de Leonardis, founder of the Order of the Mother of God, being importuned by his disciples to give them a rule, wrote this single word obedience. He wished by this act to signify what Father Sertorio Caputo used to say, that in religion, obedience and sanctity are identical; that to be obedient and to be a saint are one and the same thing. St. Thomas 5; teaches that it is principally by the vow of obedience a Christian is made a religious; 1 Si averteris …… facere voluntatem tuam, ……..sustollam te super altitudines terræ." Is. Iviii. 13. 2" Sicut seipsum Deo tradidit, voluntatem propriam immolando, sic a Deo omne quod poposcerit, consequetur." Lign. vit. de Obed c. 3. "Factus obediens susque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis." Phil. ii. 8. 4 "Redimunt se, ne obediant; non ita Christus: ille siquidem dedit vitam, ne perderet obedientiam." De Mor. Episc. c. 19. 5 2. 2, q. 186, a. 8. and, according to St. Teresa, 1 a religious who is not obedient cannot be called a religious. Of what use is a disobedient nun? Many are versed in the belles-lettres, in poetry, foreign languages, and in history, but are unacquainted with obedience. A religious who knows not how to obey, knows nothing. St. Teresa" used to say that obedience 2 is the short road to perfection. It is related in the Lives of the Fathers, 3 that one of them saw in a vision two orders of saints: the first consisted of those who had left the world and retired into the desert to practise continual prayer and penance; the second, of those who for the love of Jesus Christ lived in obedience and subjection to the will of others. He also saw that the latter enjoyed greater glory than the former: for although the solitaries had pleased God in all their exercises, still they had always done their own will; but they who lived under obedience had given their will to God, and thus offered to him the most acceptable of all sacrifices. St. Dorotheus relates that his disciple St. Dositheus, being weak in health, could not practise the exercises performed by the other monks, but cast off self-will and consecrated himself entirely to obedience. He died in the space of five years. After his death the Lord revealed to the abbot that this young man obtained the same reward as St. Paul, the first hermit, and as St. Anthony, the abbot. The monks were amazed, and could not conceive how Dositheus, who did not perform the ordinary duties of his state, could merit so exalted a glory. Almighty God told them that the glory of the young saint was the reward of the obedience which he had practised. 1 Way of Perfection ch. 19. 2 Found, ch. 5. 3 L. 5, libell. 14, n. 19. St. Gregory says that " a repast of precept deserves a greater reward than fasting voluntarily undertaken." 1 To eat through obedience is more meritorious in the sight of God than to fast through self-will. The same truth was revealed by the Blessed Virgin to St. Bridget. Being prohibited by her confessor to practise her accustomed penances, the saint began to apprehend a diminution of her fervor; but the mother of God encouraged her to obey without fear, by saying to her that " they who do penance deserve but one reward, while he that omits through obedience one act of mortification, receives a twofold remuneration one for the penance which he wished to perform, another for his obedience in omitting it." 2 St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that an obedient religious is the precious gem of the convent. Oh ! if all nuns were obedient, every convent would be a paradise. - Besides, a nun faithful to obedience lays up in every action an immense treasure of merit; because in every exercise she does the will of God; and in doing his will all merit consists. To enable us to acquire eternal treasures, by whatsoever we do through obedience, is the principal advantage of the religious state. Even duties agreeable to our own feelings, when performed through a motive of obedience, merit a great reward. St. Aloysius used to say that religion is a ship, in which even he that labors not makes the voyage! Yes; for a religious merits not only when she fasts or meditates, or recites the Office, but also 53 when through obedience she takes repose or abstains from labor, when she eats or indulges in recreation. Oh ! how profitable and meritorious is every act performed in obedience to the will of Superiors ! 1 " Majoris est meriti injuncta refectio, jejunio propria deliberatione supcepto. " In I reg. 1. 2, c. 4. 2 Rev. 1. 4, c. 26, If, then, dear Sister, you desire soon to become a saint, consecrate yourself entirely to obedience; divest yourself of all self-will; and endeavor with all your might to obey your Rule and your Superior in the external exercises, and your spiritual Father in whatever regards the interior. It is by obedience and by the absence of self-will that perfect religious are distinguished from the imperfect. The latter do nothing cheerfully, but what pleases self-love and selfwill. They, indeed, desire to be entrusted with some of the offices of the Community; because to be without office they deem to be dishonorable. But they wish for those employments that tend to their own ease and convenience, and in everything else they seek their own will. In a word, they desire to become saints, but only according to their own will, and according to the dictates of self-love. But St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that " he who in serving God seeks his own convenience, serves himself, and not God." But religious who love perfection do not act in this manner: they never omit what obedience commands, and -desire only what obedience prescribes. Imitate their example, and you will soon become a saint. Endeavor to perform all your actions from a motive of obedience, and you will always walk securely to salvation. To secure their profits, merchants obtain an insurance of their property. Let it be your care to make sure your eternal gain by procuring for every work the insurance of obedience the approbation of your Superiors: otherwise your works may prove injurious, or at least unprofitable, to you. When St. Anselm was made Archbishop of Canterbury he became unhappy in consequence of being so free from the yoke of obedience, and at his own solicitation the Pope appointed for the saint a Superior whom he might obey. The saint regulated his conduct by the advice of the Superior, and undertook nothing without his consent. How much more should you who by your profession have consecrated your will to obedience how much more, I say, should you seek occasions of practising that sublime virtue! Prayer. Ah ! my Jesus, to save me Thou hast been obedient unto death even the death of the Cross ; and I, for a vile and wretched gratification, have been so often disrespectful and disobedient to Thee. Wait, O Lord ; do not abandon me yet. I repent with my whole soul of all the offences I have offered Thee. I now see that I have abused Thy mercy too much, and that therefore I am undeserving of Thy pity. But I also see that Thou hast borne with me till now, that, entering one day into myself, I might consecrate my whole being to Thee. I hope the day has arrived when I shall dedicate myself entirely to Thy love. I hear Thy voice calling me to Thy love. 1 shall no longer resist Thy invitation. Behold! I offer myself to thee ; refuse not, O Lord, my oblation. Tell me what Thou dost require of me : I am ready to do all in my power to please Thee. I promise Thee that henceforth I shall never violate the obedience due to my Superiors. I love Thee, my Jesus; and because I love Thee, I desire to do all that I can to please Thee. Assist me, O Lord ; draw and unite me more and more every day to Thy love. Eternal Father, I offer to Thee the Passion of Thy Son, and through his merits I beseech Thee to give me all the graces necessary to make me a saint, such as Thou dost wish me to be. O Mary, my mother and my hope, beg of thy Son that I may be no longer mine, but that I may belong to him entirely and forever. IV The Obedience Due to the Superiors. The principal and most efficacious means of practising the obedience due to the Superiors, and of rendering it meritorious before God, is to consider that in obeying them we obey God himself; and that by despising their commands we despise the authority of our divine Master, who has said of Superiors: He that heareth you, heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me 1 Hence St. Paul addressed to his disciples the following words: Not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart 2 When, then, a religious receives a precept from her prelate, Superior, or confessor, she should immediately execute it, not only to please men, but principally to please God, whose will is made known to her by their command. In obeying their directions she is more certain of doing the will of God than if an angel came down from heaven to manifest his will to her. Hence St. Paul says, in his epistle to the Galatians, that though an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you, besides that which the apostles preach, he should not be believed. No, says the apostle, let him be anathema. St. Bernard says that " God deigns to make prelates his own equals. He takes to himself the reverence or contempt manifested to them.�3 Obedience shown to Superiors is shown to God; for he has said: He that heareth you, 54 1 " Qui vos audit, me audit; et qui vos spernit, me spernit." Luke x. 16. 2 Non ……quasi hominibus placentes, sed ut servi Christi, facientes voluntatem Dei ex animo." Eph. vi. 6. 3 " Quos (prælatos) sibi Deus aequare quodam modo dignatus, sibimet imputat illorum et reverentiam et contemptum." De Præc. et Disp. c. 9. 4 " Sive Deus, sive homo, vicarius Dei, mandatum quodcumque tradiderit, pari profecto obsequendum est cura." heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me. Bear, then, always in mind, dear Sister, that the obedience which you practise towards your Superiors is paid to God himself. Now if Jesus Christ himself came down from heaven, and imposed any duty upon you, or gave you any particular charge, would you attempt to decline it ? or would you dare to disobey his commands ? "But," continues St. Bernard, " whether God, or a creature who is his representative, impose a precept, they are both to be obeyed with equal exactness." 4 If, then, you receive a command from one that holds the place of God, you should observe it with the same diligence as if it came from God himself. St. John Climacus 1 relates that in a certain monastery the Superior, to set an example to the Community, commanded in their presence an old man of eighty years to stand in the refectory for two hours without interruption. The aged monk being asked how he had been able to bear this mortification, replied: "I imagined that I stood before Jesus Christ, and that he imposed on me that humiliation; and this thought made me obey without difficulty or repugnance." For our greater merit the Lord wishes to lead us to salvation by means of faith, and therefore does not speak to us himself, but manifests his will by the commands of our Superiors. When Jesus Christ appeared to St. Paul, and transformed him into a new man, he might in person have directed the apostle what to do, but Jesus only said to him: Go into the city, and there it will be told to thee what thou must do 2 Go into the city, and Ananias will make known my will to you. Hence blessed Egidius used to say that it is more meritorious to obey man for the love of God, than to obey God himself. It may be added, that there is more certainty of doing the will of God by obedience to Superiors, than by obedience to Jesus Christ should he appear in person and give his commands. Because should Jesus Christ appear to a religious she would not be certain whether it was he that spoke or an evil spirit, who under the appearance of the Redeemer wished to deceive her. But when her Superiors speak, she knows for certain, from the words of Jesus Christ, that in obeying them she obeys him. 1 Scala parad. gr. 4. 2 " Ingredere civitatem, et ibi dicctur tibi, quid te oporteat facere."- Acts, ix. 7. He, says our Lord, that heareth you heareth me. Even when it is doubtful whether the object of a precept is conformable to the law of God, the generality of theologians and masters of spiritual life teach that a religious is bound to obey; and that in obeying she is certain of not sinning, and of even pleasing God. Attend to the doctrine of St. Bernard, which he has taken from the Rule of St. Benedict: "Whatever a man holding the place of God commands, unless it be certain that it is displeasing to God, is to be received as if commanded by God himself." 1 Thus, on the day of judgment, religious will be charged with every act of disobedience; but, as St. Philip Neri 2 used to say, they shall be most certain of not having to render an account of the actions performed through obedience. For these the Superiors only, who commanded them, shall be held accountable. Speaking particularly of nuns, the Lord once said to St. Catharine of Sienna: " Religious will not be obliged to render an account to me of what they do through obedience; for that, I will demand an account from the Superiors." Obey, says the Apostle, your prelates, and be subject to them; for they watch, as being to render an account of your souls : that they may do this with joy, and not with grief .3And, O blessed spouse of the Lord! if you practise obedience, when after death you shall be asked by Jesus Christ why you have not done greater penance, why you have not made more mental prayer, or why you have performed such an action, you can answer with confidence, that in all this you only fulfilled his commands by obeying your Superiors, whom he commanded you to obey as you would obey himself; and that if you have done wrong, the blame is imputable to your Superiors, whose authority you obeyed. 1 " Quidquid, vice Dei, praecipit homo, quod non sit tamen certum displicere Deo, baud secus omnino accipiendum est, quam si præcipiat Deus." DC Price, et Disp. c. 9. 2 Bacci, l.i, ch. 20. 3 " Obedite præpositis vestris, et subjacete eis; ipsi enim pervigilant, quasi rationem pro animabus vestris reddituri." Hebr. xiii. 17. Attend to the words of St. Paul: That they (your prelates) may do this with joy, and not with grief. 1 From this passage it clearly appears that it is the duty of a religious to obey promptly, without reply, and without thwarting her Superiors or disturbing their peace. Oh ! how miserable is the condition of a Superior whose subjects violate obedience by excuses, by colored pretexts, by complaints, and even by murmurings. The situation of abbesses at the approach of the time for distributing the offices of the Community is truly deserving of pity. They are, on the one 55 hand, troubled by scruples arising from the apprehension that through human respect or through the fear of displeasing a sister they will intrust her with a charge for which she is unfit; and on the other, they are afflicted to find that after the distribution one declines her office, another complains, a third murmurs, and others refuse to accept the duties assigned to them. This state of things sometimes compels the Superior to dispense the offices, not according to the rules of reason and for the good of the Community, but according to human prudence. In acting according to the dictates of human wisdom to prevent greater evils, the Superior may be blameless; but whoever accepts or discharges her duties not in the spirit of obedience, but through caprice, will certainly be inexcusable. The Apostle commands you to obey, and to be subject to your Superiors, that they may discharge their duty with joy, and not with grief. For, says St. Paul, this is not expedient for you 2 1 " Ut cum gaudio hoc faciant, et non gementes." Hebr. xiii. 17. 2 " Hoc enim non expedit vobis." Ibid. |