|
Since we have spoken of the general obligation by which every
Christian, according to his condition, must tend to perfection in
virtue of the supreme precept of the love of God, it seems fitting to
treat briefly the special obligation which exists on this point for
the religious and for every priest, whether he has made the vows of
religion or not. We must show here especially how the virtue of
religion ought ever to be increasingly under the influence of the
virtue of charity, of a stronger and purer love of God.
THE NATURE OF THIS SPECIAL OBLIGATION FOR RELIGIOUS
This obligation is based on religious profession; the
grace of religious profession is not transitory but permanent if the
religious is faithful. As St. Thomas says: "Properly speaking, one is
said to be in the state of perfection, not through making an act of
perfect love, but because he binds himself permanently and with a
certain solemnity to what leads to perfection." (1) "Both these
conditions are competent to religious and bishops. For religious bind
themselves by vow to refrain from worldly affairs, which they might
lawfully use, in order more freely to give themselves to God. . . . In
like manner, bishops bind themselves to things pertaining to
perfection, when they take up the pastoral duty, to which it belongs
that a shepherd 'lay down his life for his sheep.' " (2)
Strictly speaking, the religious thus makes
"profession to tend toward perfection." "Not as though I had already
attained," says St. Paul, "or were already perfect; but I follow
after, if I may by any means apprehend, wherein I am also apprehended
by Christ Jesus." (3) As a result, the religious does not commit a sin
of hypocrisy because he is not perfect, but he would commit it if he
did not tend more sincerely to perfection. In his case, this special
obligation is identified with that of observing his three vows and his
rule.(4) But this obligation must always be considered in its relation
to the general obligation based on the great precept of the love of
God and one's neighbor. When this is done, the religious life keeps
all its loftiness and appears not only under its canonical or
juridical aspect, but with its great spiritual meaning.
From this point of view, we see the true import of this principle,
which must not be understood in a material and mechanical fashion by
multiplying the vows without reason: "It is better and more
meritorious to do one and the same deed with a vow than without." (5)
It does not follow from this statement that vows should always be
multiplied in order to have greater merit; but the religious ought to
observe his three vows better and better by more profoundly
penetrating the three following reasons given by St. Thomas in the
section where he explains this principle:
1) The vow is an act of the virtue of religion or of latria
which is superior to the virtues of obedience, chastity, and poverty;
the acts of these virtues it offers as worship to God.
2) By a perpetual vow, especially if it is solemn, man offers to
God not only an isolated act, but the faculty itself. It is better to
give the tree with its fruits than to offer the fruits alone.
3) By the vow, the will fixes itself firmly and irrevocably in the
good. It is more meritorious to act thus, just as, on the other hand,
it is more grave to sin by a will that is obstinate in evil.
When a person lives according to this spirit, he grasps more and
more concretely and vividly what theology teaches: namely, that by the
three vows, which belong to the very essence of the religious state,
the religious, as St. Thomas shows,(6) separates himself from what would
hinder his affections from being wholly directed toward God. If he
does not take back his offering, he offers himself totally to the Lord
as a holocaust. His state is thus a state of separation from the
world, especially from the spirit of the world, and a state of
consecration to God.
Three things especially may hinder his affection from being
completely directed toward God: the concupiscence of the eyes or the
desire of exterior things, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the
pride of life, the love of independence. These he renounces by his
three vows; then he offers to God exterior goods through poverty, his
body and his heart through religious chastity, his will through
obedience. He has nothing more that he can offer and, if in reality he
does not take back what he has given, but practices ever more
perfectly, with a greater love of God and of his neighbor, the three
virtues corresponding to the three vows, he truly offers to God a
perfect sacrifice meriting the name of holocaust. His life is thus,
with the Divine Office, the daily accompaniment of the Sacrifice of
the Mass. His life is an act of worship, and even an act of latria
offered to God, by the virtue of religion. This is true especially
if the religious, far from taking back his gift once he has bestowed
it, often renews his promises with greater merit than when he made
them for the first time. In fact, merit grows in him with charity and
the other virtues, and thereby his consecration to God becomes
increasingly intimate and complete.
What is the end of this triple renunciation and triple oblation or
consecration? St. Thomas (7) answers that it is union with God, which
ought daily to become more intimate, and, as it were, the prelude of
eternal life. The religious ought to reach it by the imitation of
Christ, who is "the way, the truth, and the life." Christ, as man, was
completely separated from the spirit of the world, and as united to
God as is possible. By the grace of personal union with the Word, His
nature was wholly consecrated, His intellect rendered infallible, His
will impeccable; in Him all thoughts, every act of the will, and all
the emotions of His sensibility were from God and were directed to
God. The sovereign dominion of God has never been as completely
exercised as in the sacred humanity of the Savior.
Now, the religious makes profession to follow Him; but, whereas
Christ came from above, the religious comes from below, from the
region of sin, and he must separate himself progressively from all
that is inferior in order to consecrate himself more and more
intimately to God. Then will be realized in him the exhortation of St.
Paul: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the
right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that
are upon the earth. 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." (8) In his commentary on this
epistle, St. Thomas says: "Do not taste the things of the world, for
you are dead to the world; your life is hidden with Christ. He is
hidden as far as we are concerned because He is in the glory of God
His Father, and likewise the life which comes to us from Him is
hidden, according to these words of Scripture: 'O 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'
(Ps. 30:20). 'To him that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna,
and will give him . . . a new name written, which no man knoweth but
he that receiveth it'" (Apoc. 2: 17).
This spiritual manna, remotely symbolized by the manna of the
desert, is the food of the soul; it is infused contemplation, which
proceeds from living faith illumined by the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Thus, says St. Thomas, the active life (or the exercise of the moral
virtues) disposes to the contemplative life of union with God,(9) and
especially, "virginity is directed to the good of the soul in respect
of the contemplative life." (10) As a result, every religious life
tends to the more and more perfect fulfillment of the precept of
divine love and to very close union with God.
Therefore it is advisable always to consider the special obligation
of the religious to tend to perfection in its relation to the general
obligation which is based on the supreme precept of love. The latter
rises far above the three evangelical counsels, since they are only
means or instruments to reach more rapidly and surely the perfection
of charity or close union with God, which radiates on one's neighbor
in a way that is increasingly fruitful.(11)
Thus, under the inspiration of the three theological virtues, the
three religious virtues find full exercise. A very close bond is
established between them; so truly, it has been said, that the hope of
eternal beatitude is as the soul of holy poverty, which abandons
earthly goods for those of eternity. Charity is the soul of religious
chastity, which renounces an inferior love for a much higher one.
Faith is the soul of obedience, which fulfills the orders of superiors
as if they were revealed by God Himself. Thus the religious life leads
truly to contemplation and to close union with God.
THE SPECIAL OBLIGATION OF THE PRIEST TO TEND TO
PERFECTION
Since a religious (even a simple lay brother or a sister) has a
special obligation to tend to perfection, with even greater reason the
same obligation holds for a priest, even though he is not a religious.
True, the priest who lives in the midst of the world is not, properly
speaking, in the "state of perfection"; if he became a religious, he
would have an additional merit, that of the vows of poverty and
obedience.(12) Nevertheless he ought to tend to perfection, properly
so called, by reason of his ordination and of his holy functions,
which demand a greater interior sanctity than that required by the
religious state (13) in a lay brother or a sister. This special
obligation is not distinct from that of accomplishing holily and
worthily the various duties of the priestly life. In virtue of the
supreme precept, they must even be fulfilled more and more perfectly
with the progress of charity, which ought to grow until death.
The basis of this obligation is ordination to the priesthood and
the lofty character of the acts for which it is conferred. This
ordination requires, not only the state of grace and special
aptitudes, but an initial perfection (bonitas vitae) superior to that
required for entering religion.(14) The priest, in fact, ought to
enlighten others, and it would be fitting that he himself should be in
the illuminative way, as it would be fitting that the bishop should be
in the unitive way of the perfect.
In addition, the effects of ordination are the sacerdotal
character, an indelible participation in the priesthood of Christ, and
sacramental grace, which makes possible the fulfillment of the
priestly functions in a holy manner, as should be the case in a worthy
minister of Christ.(15) This sacramental grace is like a modality
which is added to sanctifying grace, and which gives the right to
receive actual helps for the holy, and indeed for the increasingly
holy, accomplishment of the acts of the priestly life. This grace is
like a feature of the spiritual countenance of the priest, who ought
to become a minister ever more conscious of the greatness and the holy
exigencies of his priesthood.
Priestly ordination is certainly superior to religious profession,
and the special obligation of tending to perfection which it
establishes is surely not less. This is why during the ceremony of
ordination the bishop tells the candidate for the priesthood that he
must henceforth "study to live in a holy and religious manner, and to
please God in all things." If even everyone of the faithful, each
according to his condition, must by reason of the supreme precept of
the love of God, tend to the perfection of charity, with even greater
reason is this true of the priest. We read in St. Matthew: "For he
that hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound." (16)
Speaking on this subject to the minister of God, the author of The
Imitation of Christ says: "Thou art made a priest and art consecrated
to celebrate. See now that faithfully and devoutly, in due time, thou
offer up sacrifice to God, and that thou show thyself blameless. Thou
hast not lightened thy burden, but art now bound by a stricter bond of
discipline and obliged to greater perfection of sanctity. A priest
ought to be adorned with all virtues and set the example of a good
life to others. His conversation should not be with the popular and
common ways of man, but with the angels in heaven, or with perfect men
upon earth." (17)
In relation to Christ present in the Eucharist and to His mystical
body, the priestly functions show better than even ordination does,
this special obligation to tend to perfection. When the priest
celebrates the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, he is like the figure of
Him in whose name he speaks, the figure of Christ who offered Himself
for us. The priest should be a minister conscious of the greatness of
his functions, and he ought to strive for an ever closer union in
heart and soul with the principal Priest who is at the same time the
sacred Victim, sacerdos et hostia. To mount the altar steps without
the firm will to grow in charity would be hypocrisy, or at least an
indirectly culpable negligence. Daily the minister of Christ ought to
say with greater sanctity: "Hoc est enim corpus meum. . . . Hic est
calix sanguinis mei." His Communion should be substantially more
fervent each day by reason of a greater promptness of the will in the
service of God, since the sacrament of the Eucharist ought not only to
preserve but to increase charity in us.
Consequently St. Thomas says: "By holy orders a man is appointed to
the most august ministry of serving Christ Himself in the sacrament of
the altar. For this requires a greater inward holiness than that which
is requisite for the religious state." (18) This is why, as we read in
the same article, other things being equal, the priest who places an
act contrary to holiness sins more grievously than a religious who is
not a priest.
The sanctity becoming to the minister of God at the altar is thus
described in The Imitation of Christ: "The priest, clad in
sacred vestments, is Christ's vicegerent that he may suppliantly and
humbly pray to God for himself and all the people. He has before and
behind him the sign of the cross of our Lord, that he may ever
remember the passion of Christ. . . . Behind him he is marked with the
cross, that he may learn to suffer meekly for God's sake all the evil
that men may do him. He wears the cross before him that he may bewail
his own sins; and on his back, that through compassion he may lament
the sins of others, and know that he is placed as mediator between God
and the sinner. . . . When a priest celebrates, he honors God, he
edifies the Church, he helps the living, he obtains rest for the
departed, and makes himself partaker of all good things." (19)
Likewise he should say the Divine Office with dignity, attention,
and true piety. This great prayer of the Church is like the
accompaniment of the Sacrifice of the Mass; it precedes it as a
prelude, and it follows it. The Office is the canticle of the spouse
of Christ from dawn until dark, and it is a great honor to take part
in it. During its recitation the great intentions of the Church (for
example, the pacification of the world through the extension of the
kingdom of Christ) should be kept in mind.
Lastly, the priest has a special obligation to tend to perfection
that he may accomplish his functions well in relation to the mystical
body of Christ. For the sanctification of souls, he shares in the
office which belongs first of all to the bishop, whose cooperator he
should be. Thus the Council of Trent says: "Nothing leads the faithful
more surely to true piety than the good example of the priest. The
eyes of men rest on him as on a mirror of perfection to be imitated.
So he ought to order his life, his manners, his exterior, his
gestures, and his words in such a way that he may always preserve the
gravity, moderation, and piety that he should have." (20) The priest
who lives in the midst of the world is not obliged to make the vow of
poverty, but he ought to be free from attachment to worldly things,
willingly bestowing them upon the poor. He ought also to obey his
bishop and to be the servant of the faithful in spite of difficulties
and sometimes even of calumnies.
The need of this perfection appears especially for the work of
preaching, of hearing confessions, and in the direction of souls. That
preaching may be living and fruitful, the priest must speak from the
abundance of his heart. St. Thomas even says that preaching should
"proceed from the fullness of contemplation," (21) from the living,
penetrating, delightful faith in the mystery of Christ, in the
infinite value of the Mass, in the value of sanctifying grace and of
eternal life. The priest should preach like a savior of souls, and he
should work incessantly for the salvation not only of a few, but of
many souls. He should not have received the priesthood in vain.
Likewise for the ministry of confession and direction, the priest
must have a burning and luminous soul, a "hunger and thirst for the
justice of God"; otherwise his ministry may become a danger to him;
instead of saving souls, he himself may fall. If life does not ascend,
it descends; and that it may not descend, it must rise like a flame.
Especially in the spiritual life, he who does not advance, falls back.
Finally, souls of whom the Lord is asking much, at times have recourse
to the priest, and they should be able to find in him real help that
they may walk truly in the way of sanctity. They should never have to
go away without having, so to speak, received something.
We have been particularly impressed with what has been said on this
subject by a friend of the Cure of Ars, the venerable Father Chevrier,
a priest of Lyons, who accomplished immense good in that city.(22) He
used to tell the priests whom he trained that they should always keep
the crib, Calvary, and the tabernacle before their eyes. The crib, he
would say, should remind them of poverty; a priest should be poor in
his dwelling, his clothing, and his food. He should be humble of
spirit and of heart in his relations with God and man. The greater his
poverty in this regard, the more he glorifies God and is useful to his
neighbor. The priest is a man who is despoiled.
Calvary should remind him of the necessity of immolation; he ought
to die, to his body, to his own mind, his will, his reputation, his
family, and the world. He ought to immolate himself by silence,
prayer, work, penance, suffering, and death. The more a priest dies to
himself, the more life he possesses and gives to others. The true
priest is a crucified man.
The tabernacle should remind him of the charity he ought to have.
He ought to give his body, mind, time, goods, health, and life. He
should give others life by his faith, doctrine, words, prayer, powers,
and example. The priest should be like good bread; he is a man who is
consumed.
This was the teaching of Father Chevrier, who opened a catechism
class in Lyons for the most abandoned children. To gain admission it
sufficed "to possess nothing, to know nothing, to be worth nothing."
His supernatural life was such that he made true Christians and often
great Christians of many of these children. With a minimum of material
resources, he thus reaped a truly exceptional supernatural harvest.
Such is the ideal of the priesthood which every priest ought to
keep before his eyes, at the same time recalling what St. Paul says:
"But I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls;
although loving you more, I be loved less." (23) He would do well also
to recall the words of Christ: "I have given you an example, that as I
have done to you, so you do also." (24)
THE IDEAL OF EPISCOPAL PERFECTION ACCORDING TO ST. ISIDORE (25)
"It is necessary that he who will be raised up to teach and
instruct the people in virtue, should be holy in all things, and in no
way reprehensible. He who convinces another of sin, should himself be
free from sin. First of all, he who seeks to admonish others to live
well ought to correct himself; so that in all things he himself may
furnish an example of living and incite all to good work by teaching
and work. For him a knowledge of Scripture also is necessary; for if
the life of a bishop is so holy, to him alone, thus living, it is
profitable. Besides, if he shall be learned in doctrine and speech, he
can also instruct others and teach his people, and repulse adversaries
who, unless they can be refuted and convicted, may easily pervert the
hearts of the simple.
"His speech should be pure, simple, open, full of gravity and
honesty, sweetness and grace, treating of the mystery of the law, of
the doctrine of faith, of the virtue of continency, of the discipline
of justice; admonishing by various exhortations each and every one
according to the profession and quality of established customs. . .
whose special office it is to read Scripture, to peruse the canons, to
imitate the examples of the saints, to practice vigils, fastings, and
prayers; to have peace with his brethren, not to tear to pieces any of
those committed to his care; to damn no one unless he be proved
guilty, to excommunicate no one unless he has been tried. He ought to
be outstanding alike in humility and authority, so that he may not
cause the vices of his subjects to grow through excessive humility.
Nor should he exercise the power of severity without moderation, but
should be so much the more cautious toward those committed to his
care, as he fears to be more severely examined by Christ.
"He will also have charity which is supereminent among all gifts,
without which all virtue is nothing. Charity is, indeed, the guardian
of chastity. Humility, moreover, is the place where it is kept. He
will likewise have, among all these things, eminent chastity: thus, as
his mind is given to Christ, he should be spotless and free from
carnal impurity. Among these things, it behoves him to take care of
the poor with careful distribution, to feed the hungry, clothe the
naked, receive pilgrims, redeem captives, protect widows and orphans,
show prudent care in all things, provide with careful discretion.
Hospitality should likewise be outstanding in him, that he may receive
all with benignity and charity. If, indeed, all the faithful would
like to hear those words of the Gospel: 'I was a stranger, and you
took me in,' how much more, should the bishop, who ought to be the
receiver of all diverse peoples?"
This page shows clearly what should be understood by the commonly
accepted expression, that bishops are in the state of perfection (in
statu perfectionis exercendae) to be exercised. Hence it is
fitting, as has so often been said, that they should be in the unitive
way.
The religious state is one in which man tends to perfection,
status perfectionis acquirendae. To form a proper idea of it, one
should read and meditate on the admirable pages in the Rule of St.
Benedict on religious perfection and union with God, which ought daily
to become more intimate in a life consecrated to the Lord. It would be
profitable to study also what is said from the same comprehensive
point of view about religious perfection by Blessed Humbert of the
Romans, in his Expositio Regulae B. Augustini et super Constitutiones
Fratrum Praedicatorum.(26) This work is a golden book for the
formation of religious and for their preparation for the different
offices to which obedience may assign them.
|
