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"This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith." I
John 5:4 Since we have studied the heroic degree of the virtues
in general, it will be profitable next to consider that of faith and
the principal virtues in particular. We shall thus form an accurate
idea of perfect Christian life according to the common teaching of the
Church. There is no room for discussion in these matters, for they are
the great common grounds of sanctity on which all theologians agree.
This description of the signs of the heroic degree of the principal
virtues may be very useful in the beatification of the servants of
God. A knowledge of these signs will also make clear why in these
causes the Church does not seek to establish whether the servants of
God in question had infused contemplation under a more or less
determined form; it is sufficient to see that they had heroic faith,
the signs of which we shall examine, since in them are often visible
the fruits of contemplation, which makes such souls live in an almost
continual conversation with God. Heroic faith is not only the living
faith, vivified by charity, which is found in all the just; it is
eminent faith which has for its principal characters firmness of
adherence to the most obscure mysteries, promptness in the rejection
of error, penetration, which makes it contemplate all things in the
light of divine revelation, while living profoundly by revealed
mysteries.(1) Thereby it is victorious over the spirit of the world,
as is evident especially in times of persecution.(2)
THE FIRMNESS OF ITS ADHERENCE When we spoke of the
passive purification of the spirit, we saw that faith must be very
firm to overcome the strong temptations which then present themselves.
We stated,(3) on the one hand, that during this painful period the gift
of understanding vividly enlightens the soul on the grandeur of the
divine perfections, on infinite justice, as well as on the gratuitous
character of the favors of mercy toward the elect. In consequence the
soul asks itself how infinite justice can be intimately harmonized
with infinite mercy. On the other hand, the devil tells it that
infinite justice is excessively rigorous and that mercy is arbitrary.
But the faithful soul, which is purified in this crucible, rises above
these temptations, and divine grace convinces it that the darkness
found in these mysteries comes from a light too great for the weak
eyes of the spirit. Hence, in spite of the fluctuations of the lower
part of the intellect, at its summit faith not only remains firm but
daily grows stronger. In this darkness it rises toward the heights of
God, just as at night we glimpse the heights of the firmament, which
remain invisible during the day. This firmness of faith then manifests itself more and more by love for
the word of God contained in Holy Scripture, by the cult of tradition
preserved in the writings of the fathers, by perfect adherence to
even the most minute details of the doctrine proposed by the Church,
by docility to the directions of the supreme shepherd, the vicar of
Jesus Christ. This firmness of faith appears especially in the
martyrs, and also, during great conflicts of opinion, in those who,
far from vacillating, are capable of sacrificing their selflove in
order to keep immutably to the right road. In the practical order, this firmness of perfect faith is also
evident when the servants of God, faced with the most painful and
unforeseen events, are not astonished at the unsearchable ways of
Providence, disconcerting to reason. Of this firm faith Abraham
gave evidence when he prepared to sacrifice is son Isaac, in spite of
the fact that God Himself had promised him that from this Son was to
spring his posterity, the multitude of believers. In the Epistle to
the Hebrews, St. Paul says: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried,
offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up
his only begotten son. . . . Accounting that God is able to raise up
even from the dead. Whereupon also he received him." (4) This was a remote
figure of the sacrifice of Christ. This heroic obedience emanated from
heroic faith. In the practical
affairs of daily life as well as in the mysteries which we must
believe, the obscurity of certain ways of God comes from a light too
strong for our weak eyes. So in the life of Christ, His passion was at
one and the same time the darkest hour, considered from a worldly
point of view, and the most luminous from a spiritual point of view.
This is what made St. Philip Neri say with admirable firmness of
faith: "I thank Thee, Lord God, with all my heart that things are not
going as I wish, but as Thou dost." In Isaias the Lord says: "My
thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways." (5) These words
are sometimes quoted to emphasize the disconcerting character of
certain ways of God; but in this passage of Isaias, it is a question
especially of the divine mercy which comes to us in these astounding
ways. In the same chapter the Lord says:
"All you that thirst, come to the waters. . . . Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return
to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God; for He is
bountiful to forgive. . . . And as the rain and the snow come down
from heaven, and return no more thither, but soak the earth, . . . so
shall My word be, which shall go forth from My mouth. It shall not
return to Me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please. . . . For you
shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace." (6)
The firmness of the faith of the true servants of God makes them see,
but a little indistinctly, that the most disconcerting trials are
directed by Providence to their sanctification, their salvation, and
that of many souls. PROMPTNESS IN REJECTING
ERROR Heroic and contemplative faith is characterized not only by firmness
in adherence, but by promptness in rejecting error. It not only
immediately spurns the false maxims of the world that cloak
themselves in deceiving formulas, but it quickly perceives errors
that are small in appearance, but that may become the cause of a great
deviation; a slight deviation at the summit of an angle becomes great
when its sides are prolonged. Thus, for example, when Jansenism was
leading some theologians astray, St. Vincent de Paul, through his
great spirit of faith, immediately grasped the error of this
doctrine, so opposed to the divine mercy, which kept the faithful
away from Holy Communion. He denounced this error to Rome through love
for the word of God, which it altered, and for souls, which it was
leading astray. Promptness in rejecting every source of deviation is shown in the
practical order by the way a person makes his confession, that is,
without routine, with a clear view of his sins, and perfect sincerity
that avoids every attenuation, as if he were reading in the book of
life, which will be open to his gaze after death. Promptness of
faith in rejecting error causes the servants of God
great suffering when they see souls being lost. After disciplining
himself for those to whom he was to preach, St. Dominic used often to
say in his nocturnal prayers: "O my God, what will become of sinners?
" Thence is born great zeal for the propagation of the faith in the
missions and in countries where faith was once alive but now is
lamentably declining. This zeal is ardent but not bitter or harsh; it
manifests itself chiefly by fervent and almost continual prayer, which
should be the soul of the apostolate.
THE PENETRATION WHICH CAUSES EVERYTHING TO BE SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF
REVELATION Perfect faith makes the soul see everything in the light of Scripture
and, as it were, with the eye of God. Possessed of this degree of
faith, it sees with increasing clearness all that has been revealed
about the majesty of God, the divine perfections, the three Persons of
the Blessed Trinity, the redeeming Incarnation, the intimate
life of the Church, and eternal life. Under the same supernatural light
with increasing clarity the soul sees itself, its qualities, and its
weaknesses, and also the value of graces received. Similarly, in
peace it considers other souls, their frailty and their generosity;
hence it judges agreeable or painful events in relation to the end of
our journey toward eternity. Judgment rises above sensible things and
above the purely rational aspect of these events in order to attain
though indistinctly, God's supernatural plan.
St. Catherine of Siena often insists on this point in her Dialogue.
Speaking of the perfect, the Lord says there:
She [the soul] would be illuminated to see that I, the primary and
sweet Truth, grant condition, and time, and place, and consolations,
and tribulations as they may be needed for your salvation, and to
complete the perfection to which I have elected the soul. And she
would see that I give everything through love, and that, therefore,
with love and reverence she should receive everything.(7) Those who belong to the third state. . . deem themselves worthy of the
troubles and stumblingblocks caused them by the world, and of the
privation of their own consolation, and indeed of whatever
circumstance happens to them. . . . They have known and tasted in the
light My eternal will, which wishes naught else but your good, and
gives and permits these troubles in order that you should be
sanctified in Me.(8) . . . With this light the souls in the
unitive state love Me, because love
follows the intellect, and the more it knows the more can it love.
Thus the one feeds the other.(9)
The perfect soul thus attains to a penetrating faith, which enters the
depths of the mystery of Christ, of the Son of God made man and
crucified for our salvation. We read on this subject in the same
Dialogue: "Such as these follow the Immaculate Lamb, My onlybegotten
Son, who was both blessed and sorrowful on the cross. He was sorrowful
in that He bore the cross of the body, suffering pain and the cross of
desire, in order to satisfy for the guilt of the human race, and He
was blessed because the divine nature, though united with the human,
could suffer no pain, but always kept His soul
in a state of blessedness, being revealed without a veil to her."
(10) Likewise, says St. Catherine of Siena, the intimate friends of
the Lord Jesus suffer at the sight of sin, which offends God and ravages
souls, but they are happy at the same time because no one can take
away their charity, which constitutes their happiness and beatitude.
Thus to the gaze of the servants of God there appear more clearly the
infinite value of the Mass, the worth of the real presence of our
Savior in the tabernacle, the grandeur of the intimate life of the
Church, which lives by the thought, the love, the will of Christ.
Everything takes on a true value in the liturgy, which is like the
song of the Spouse accompanying the great prayer of Christ,
perpetuated by the sacrifice of our altars. This penetrating
and contemplative faith leads man to rejoice in the
triumphs of the Church, to see in men not rivals or indifferent
persons, but brothers bought by the blood of Christ, members of
His mystical body. St. Vincent de Paul, going to the assistance of
abandoned children or of prisoners condemned to the galleys, had a high
degree of contemplative faith which inspired his whole apostolate.
Perfect faith leads the just man always to base his decisions not on
human but on supernatural motives. It gives life a superior radiant
simplicity, which is like the reflection of the divine simplicity.
Sometimes it shines forth on the countenances of the saints, which
are as if illumined by a celestial light. One day St. Dominic, all
unsuspecting, escaped an ambush prepared by his adversaries to bring
about his death. When those who were awaiting him in a lonely place in
order to kill him, saw him approaching, they were so struck by the
light illuminating his countenance that they did not dare to lay hands
on him. St. Dominic was thus saved, as someone has said, by his
contemplation, which radiated over his features; and with him was
saved the Order he was to found.
THE VICTORY OF HEROIC FAITH OVER THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD
St. John writes in his First Epistle: "Whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. And this is the victory which overcometh the
world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" (11) The victory of
heroic faith appears even in the Old Testament,
as St. Paul says: "By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered
Isaac. . . . By faith also of things to come, Isaac blessed Jacob and
Esau. By faith Jacob dying, blessed each of -the sons of Joseph. . .
By faith he [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the fierceness of th king:
for he endured as seeing Him that is invisible. . . . By faith they
[the Israelites] passed through the Red Sea. . . . The prophets . . .
by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions [like Daniel], quenched the violence of
fire [like the three children in the furnace]. . . . They were stoned,
they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by
the sword. . . being in want, distressed, afflicted: of whom the world
was not worthy." (12) This is what makes St. Paul say in the same
epistle: "And therefore, . . . let us run by patience to the fight
proposed to us: looking on Jesus, . . . who having joy set before Him,
endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right
hand of the throne of God. . . . For you have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin." (13) The numerous martyrs who
have died in Spain since July, 1936, gave our
Lord this testimony of blood; they won the victory of heroic faith
over the spirit of the world or the spirit of evil. Without going as
far as the shedding of blood, this victory is won by the faith of all
the saints: in the last century by that of the Cure of Ars, Don Bosco,
St. Joseph Cottolengo, and nearer our day by that of St. Teresa of the
Child Jesus, and of many very generous souls whose names we do not
know, but whose oblation ascends toward God like the sweet odor of
incense. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." (14) In this way
souls are configured to Christ: first of all, to His childhood, then
to His hidden life, in a measure to His apostolic life, and finally to
His sorrowful life, before sharing in His glorious life in heaven.
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