We have seen that in virtue of the supreme precept all
the faithful must tend to the perfection of charity, each according to
his condition or state in life. In addition, we have seen that no one
can reach Christian perfection without having the spirit of the
evangelical counsels, which is the spirit of detachment spoken of by
St. Paul when he says that we should use the goods of this world as
though not using them: in other words, without fixing our affections
on them, without settling ourselves on this earth as if we were going
to live here forever. We must not forget that we are all travelers on
the road to eternity, and that we must all grow in charity until we
reach the end of our journey. This is a general obligation springing
from the first precept. Moreover, by reason of a particular vocation,
certain souls have a special obligation to tend toward perfection
according to a particular kind of life. This is the case with the
priest, that he may be the worthy minister of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is also the case with religious who are not priests, because of
their vows or promises not only to live according to the spirit of the
counsels, but effectively to practice the counsels of poverty,
absolute chastity, and obedience. We shall now discuss the effective
practice of these three counsels in relation to Christian perfection
and to the healing of our moral wounds.
THE THREE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS AND THE WOUNDS
OF THE SOULChrist said to the rich young man mentioned in St.
Matthew's Gospel: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come,
follow Me." (1) The Evangelist adds: "When the young man had heard
this word, he went away sad, for he had great possessions."
The effective practice of the three evangelical counsels is not
obligatory nor is it indispensable to reach the perfection toward
which we must all tend, but it is a most suitable means more surely
and rapidly to reach the end and not run the danger of stopping
halfway. We have said that a soul cannot reach perfection without
having the spirit of the counsels, or the spirit of detachment. Now,
it is difficult truly to have this spirit without the effective
practice of this detachment, which seemed too hard to the rich young
man. Sanctity can be attained in the married state, as we see from the
lives of St. Clotilde, St. Louis, and Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, but it
is more difficult and more rare to reach it by this common road. It is
not easy to have the spirit of detachment in regard to worldly goods,
permitted pleasures, and our own will, if, in reality, we do not
effectively detach ourselves from them. The Christian who lives in the
world is often exposed to excessive absorption and preoccupation about
a situation to be acquired or maintained for himself and his family.
He is also in danger of forgetting to some extent that he must advance
toward another life, another fatherland, and that to reach it,
something is needed quite different from the understanding of worldly
affairs: in other words, the help of God, which should be sought
through prayer, and the fruit of grace, which is merit. In family life
he is also inclined to dwell on affections in which he finds a
legitimate satisfaction for his need of loving. He is also led to
forget that he must above all things love God with his whole heart,
with his whole soul, with all his strength, and with his whole mind.
Frequently charity is not in him a living flame which rises toward God
while vivifying all other affections; instead, it is like a burning
coal which slowly dies out under the ashes. This explains the ease
with which a number of these Christians sin, scarcely reflecting that
their sin is an infidelity to the divine friendship, which should be
the most profound sentiment in their hearts.
Lastly, the Christian living in the world is often exposed to doing
his own will, side by side, so to speak, with the will of God. After
giving a few moments to prayer on Sundays and weekdays, he may
organize his life from the simple, natural point of view in accordance
with his reason which is more or less deformed by self-love and the
prejudices or conventions of his environment. Then faith seems at
times reduced to a number of sacred truths that have been memorized,
but have not become truths of life. The understanding is then too much
preoccupied with earthly interests, sometimes with diversions; should
difficulties demanding great moral energy arise, the spirit of faith
is often found wanting. The great truths about the future life, about
the helps that come to us from Christ, remain practically
inefficacious, like distant truths that have never been assimilated
and are lost in the depths of the heavens. Practical faith is lacking
then, a faith that would cause the light of the mysteries of salvation
to descend into the midst of the difficulties of daily life.
Such are evidently the dangers which the Christian encounters when
he does not seek to practice effectively the evangelical counsels in
the measure possible to him. If he fails in this matter, he will go
astray and fall progressively into three moral maladies radically
opposed to the three counsels. St. John speaks of these evils when he
says: "For all that is in the world (or according to its spirit) is
the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and
the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world."
(2) They are three purulent wounds which ravage souls and bring death
to them by turning them away from God.
These three moral wounds appeared in the world after the sin of the
first man and our repeated personal sins. To understand their gravity,
we should recall the fact that they replace in many souls the triple
harmony that existed in the state of original justice. It is this
triple harmony that Christ wishes precisely to re-establish by the
three evangelical counsels. Originally, on the first day of creation
there was perfect harmony between God and the soul, between the soul
and the body, between the body of man and exterior goods. Harmony
existed between God and the soul, since it is created to know God, to
love Him, to serve Him, and by this means to obtain eternal life.
The first man, who was created in "the state of sanctity and
original justice," was a contemplative who conversed familiarly with
God, as we read in the first chapters of Genesis. His soul found its
principal nourishment in divine things, "a little less than the
angels." (3). In the light of God, he considered all things, and he
obeyed the Lord.
From this superior harmony came that which existed between the soul
and the body, which was made to serve the soul. Since the soul was
perfectly subordinated to God, it had dominion over its body. The
passions or movements of the sensible appetites followed with docility
the direction of right reason enlightened by faith and the impelling
force of the will vivified by charity.
Finally, there was harmony between the body and exterior goods. The
earth produced its fruits spontaneously without the necessity of being
worked painfully; the animals were docile, or at least did no harm to
man, who had received dominion over them.
Sin disturbed this triple harmony by destroying the highest of the
three; it introduced the triple disorder, called by St. John "the
concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the
pride of life."
Man revolted against the law of God; and the human soul,
thenceforth inclined to pride, has often repeated: "I will not serve."
The soul has ceased to nourish itself with divine truth, and instead
conceives its own narrow, false, ever-changing, little ideas. It
wished to make for itself its own truths and principles, and to direct
itself alone, limiting as far as possible the authority of God,
instead of receiving from Him the salutary direction which alone leads
to true life. Refusing to submit to the dominion of God, the soul has
lost control over its body and its passions, which were made to obey
the reason and will. What is more, the soul has often made itself the
slave of the body, of its lower instincts: this is the concupiscence
of the flesh. Many people so far forget their divine destiny as to be
occupied from morning to night with their bodies, which become their
idols. Their passions reign as masters; the soul becomes their slave,
for passions that are antithetic, love, jealousy, anger, hatred,
follow each other in the soul in spite of it. Instead of directing
these passions, the soul is carried away by them as by wild horses
which no longer know the bit.
Finally, the body, instead of making use of exterior goods, be
comes their slave; it overtaxes itself at times to obtain an abundance
of these exterior goods. It surrounds itself with useless luxury, to
the detriment of the poor who are hungry. It must have all that
glitters and makes a man seem important: this is the concupiscence of
the eyes. After accumulating a fortune, many men are wholly absorbed
in the care of maintaining and increasing it. Slaves to their
business, they never find time to pray, to read a page of the Gospel,
to feed their souls. They settle down here on earth as if they were
going to stay here always, with hardly any concern for their
salvation.
This triple slavery, which replaces the original triple harmony, is
order overthrown. Christ came to restore the order that had been
destroyed; with this end in view, He gave us the three evangelical
counsels.
THE THREE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS AND THE
RESTORATION OF ORIGINAL HARMONY (4)
Divine Providence sent our Lord to restore the primitive order.
This restoration appeared first in the very person of Jesus, and
should continue in the Church, which ought to shine with the splendor
of the mark of sanctity. In His humanity Jesus was the model of all
the virtues, the eminent exemplar of all sanctity. His humanity was
consecrated to God in the first instant of His conception by
substantial union with the Word, and thus received an innate,
substantial, uncreated sanctity. It is impossible to think of a more
intimate, more indissoluble union with God than the personal,
hypostatic union of the human nature and the divine nature in the
person of the Word made flesh. As a result, the humanity of the Savior
is consecrated to God in all its faculties and acts, to such an extent
that His intellect is infallible and can see things only in the divine
light, to such a degree that His will is absolutely impeccable, and
that His most pure sensibility cannot know any disorder. All the acts
of the holy soul of Christ are of God, come from God, go to God;
nowhere is the sovereign domain of the Most High exercised with so
absolute a plenitude.
Because the humanity of Christ is thus radically consecrated to
God, it is separated from the spirit of the world and is given to the
world to save it and deliver it from its spirit of blindness,
concupiscence, and pride. Christ's very elevation separates Him from
the spirit of the world, from all that is evil or less good. By this
innate elevation, Christ is detached from worldly goods, honors, and
mundane affairs; the model of poverty, He had not "whereon to rest His
head." By the elevation of His spirit, Christ is also detached from
the pleasures of the world, free from the demands of a family, that He
may found a universal family, the Church. In this He is the model of
religious chastity, which is the condition of His universal, spiritual
paternity. Finally, by His supernatural elevation, Christ is detached
from all self-will. At the age of twelve He declares that He must be
about His Father's business, and He is "obedient unto death, even to
the death of the cross."
Because the Savior comes from above, His very elevation separates
Him from all that is inferior. It separates Him thus, not that He may
be isolated but that He may act on the world from a great height, and
that His action may be more universal and more profound. It is like
that of the sun when it reaches its zenith. Because Jesus was free
from all the bonds which attach man to his individual goods, to his
family, to his petty personal ideas, He could act, not only on the men
of one country or one period, but on the entire human race to which He
brings eternal life. The Gospel has not grown old; it is of the
present time, belonging to the very actuality of God. It is a sign
that Jesus was not of the world, but was given to the world to save
it.
We see thus in our Lord the restoration of the original harmony, a
restoration so splendid indeed that it considerably surpasses the
perfection of the first man. There "where sin abounded, grace did more
abound." This restoration of the primitive order should continue in
the Church, which should shine with the splendor of the mark of
sanctity. Christ willed that His Church should be one, holy, catholic,
and apostolic. Its sanctity must be striking and manifest, not only at
great intervals in certain heroic souls like the martyrs and the great
canonized saints, but in a permanent manner in religious institutions
and families, where a great number of souls go for training in
sanctity, and make profession to imitate Christ, His spirit of
detachment from the things of the world and of union with God.
Nevertheless, no matter how generous these souls are, there is a great
difference between them and our Lord. He came from above, and was separated from the spirit of the world by His very
elevation; they come from below, from the region of sin and falsehood.
They must gradually detach themselves from it in order to consecrate
themselves ever more intimately to God.
To souls which have received this special vocation, Christ proposes
not only that they live according to the spirit of the three
evangelical counsels, but that they practice them effectively, and He
promises them the hundredfold in return. He invites them to a triple
separation in view of a triple consecration which will more and more
assure in them the growth of the highest virtues: of faith, hope, and
charity; in other words, of union with God.
In the use of worldly goods, He counsels restraint that they may
not be led into excess. He invites them to practice poverty, to
separate themselves from the free use and even from the possession of
exterior goods, and to consecrate these goods to God that they may no
longer be an obstacle, but a means in the journey towards eternity. He
invites them to absolute chastity, that is, to renounce completely the
pleasures of the senses, and to consecrate their bodies and hearts to
God that these may no longer be an obstacle, but a means vivified by
grace. He invites them, finally, to holy obedience, to free themselves
from all self-will, so easily capricious and rebellious, in order that
their wills may no longer be an obstacle but a means more and more
supernaturalized by charity, with a view to union with God which will
daily grow closer and stronger.
The practice of these three virtues and of the corresponding vows
is not exempt from difficulties, but it suppresses many others. The
bird bears its wings, but still more the wings support the bird. In
like manner, the religious virtues and the three vows impose special
obligations, it is true; but, above all, they bear souls toward the
perfection of charity over a more rapid and a more sure road.
The three virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience are called
religious or holy virtues because they are subordinated to the virtue
of religion, which renders to God the worship that is due Him. By
reason of its object, the worship due to the Lord, the virtue of
religion is the first of the moral virtues; it takes its place
immediately after the three theological virtues and infused prudence
which directs it. It offers to God the acts of the three religious
virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience. To make certain of not
turning back, the religious binds himself by the three corresponding
vows, a triple engagement or promise to practice these three virtues,
first for a time, then until death, following the example of Christ,
who was obedient "unto death, even to the death of the cross." As the
Savior offered Himself, the religious offers himself also in union
with Him, giving his entire life as an oblation or sacrifice. Since
the religious ought to offer everything, - exterior goods, body,
heart, will, personal judgment - this sacrifice, if well made and not
revoked as time goes on, truly deserves the title of holocaust. It
ought to be lived daily in an ever more intimate manner; then it
obtains the hundredfold promised by the Savior, who declared: "Amen, I
say to you, there is no man who hath left house or brethren or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands for My sake and for the
gospel, who shall not receive a hundred times as much, now in this
time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and
lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come, life everlasting."
(5)
We shall see farther on that faith is the soul of holy obedience
and that the practice of this virtue makes the spirit of faith grow.
We shall likewise see that hope or trust in God is the soul of holy
poverty, which obliges us to rely on the help of God, and that charity
is the soul of holy chastity, which, when practiced in all its
delicacy, makes the love of God and of souls in God flourish in us.
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