there is an underlying seriousness in his character. But the holy Lawgiver addresses himself above all to resolute souls ; they alone are able to attain these summits of virtue": culmina virtutum 1, indicated by St. Benedict. This is because in fact fortitude is not only the principle of 'aggression" aggredi, but it is likewise that of "endurance " sustinere; and as this requires more steadfastness of soul than the former, it constitutes, says St. Thomas, the principal act of the virtue of fortitude: Principalior actus fortitudinis est sustinere 2. Now, the religious life, faithfully led in the cloister, at once demands and teaches this endurance; of its nature, it tends to establish in the soul a steadfastness which can even go so far as to be heroic, and this so much the more real in that it is the more hidden. This is because, on the one hand, the changeableness of our nature is extreme, and, in the long run, the life tells on the firmest will; on the other hand, the life led in community offers nothing to poor nature that can flatter or distract it. To bear every day, generously, in the obscurity of faith, the monotony inherent to the claustral life, stability in the same place, the accomplishment of the same ever repeated exercises, however minute they may be, the yoke of obedience, above all when it goes against or offers violence to nature; and that, as St. Benedict wishes, "with patience, in silence, without growing weary or giving in" tacita conscientia patientiam amplectatur et sustinens non lassescat vel discedat1; to acquit oneself with care each day of the task assigned by obedience, however humble, hidden from sight, or thankless it may be, without that strong incentive to human activity which is the struggle against exterior obstacles; without seeking compensation from creatures, without encountering those distractions, those diversions, so frequent in the world, which break the uniformity of occupations, all this requires of the soul singular endurance, self-mastery and firmness 5. We understand God's saying in Holy Scripture: "The - 1. Rule, ch. LXXII. 2. II-II, q. cxxIII, a. 6. 3. All things being otherwise equal, it requires more faith for anyone living the hidden life with God (Whom he does not see experimentally) than for one who performs outward works of which he can estimate the progress and measure the result of his efforts. 4. Rule, ch. VII. 5. One day Mabillon was asked to reveal the extraordinary actions, which to his way of thinking would manifest or testify to the perfection of life of one of the most eminent religious of the Congregation of St Maur, D. Claude Martin. This great monk wrote but two lines, but they contain a most profound truth: "I know nothing of Dom Martin except what everyone has seen, but his constant and uniformly good life holds for me the place of a miracle. " Vie de D. Claude Martin, Tours 1697, p. 388. patient man is better than the valiant: and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh cities"; Melior est patiens viro forti, et qui dominatur animo suo expugnatore urbium1; we understand why St. Benedict qualifies disobedience as "sloth 2," and the weapon of obedience which he gives to his disciples, as "strongly tempered3," and it is enough to read the fourth degree of humility in order to see to what heights of heroic endurance he invites his sons to climb 4. Thus, if faithfully observed, the Rule becomes a principle of fortitude; in disciplining the will, it tempers it as steel is tempered; directing the will, it increases its energies tenfold and saves it from dispersing them 5. It has become a commonplace to speak of the patience of true monks at work, of their holy pertinacity and faithfulness to their task. They have given the example of conscientious and persevering toil under every form. Thus they became, in the middle ages, the pioneers of Christian civilisation in Europe?. Would such results have been possible if the cloisters had only contained feeble souls? Assuredly not. We are not then astonished that the great monks showed themselves to be strong souls. Where, if not in the cloister, did holy missionaries like Boniface and Adalbert find the secret of crowning with martyrdom a long apostolic life and incessant labours? Where did such as Anselm, Gregory VII and Pius VII obtain that wonderful steadfastness of soul which sustained them in their memorable conflicts for the liberty of the Church? Again it was in the cloister. It was the common life of the cloister that tried and moulded their souls, strengthened their characters and made them so intrepid and magnanimous that no danger affrighted them, no obstacle held them back, who, according to the noble saying of Gregory VII himself to the monks of Cluny," never bent beneath the domination of the princes of this world and remained the courageous and submissive defenders of St. Peter and of his Church... Monks and abbots have not failed this Holy Church their Mother. - It is this daily endurance in the common life, this toilsome 1. Prov. XVI, 32. 2. Prologue of the Rule. 3. Ibid. 4. It is remarkable that in this single paragraph the great Patriarch heaps up terms signifying endurance: once the words sufferre, non discedere, non lassescere; twice the word patientia and four times that of sustinere. 5. Read on this subject the beautiful pages of Buathier, in Le Sacrifice, ch. XVI, Le Sacrifice et la Volonté. 6. The holy Lawgiver wars against every form and manifestation of instability, versatility, caprice. See for example, ch. XLVIII; he will have the monks to read per ordinem ex integro the books given them by the abbot to be read during Lent. 7. Cf. Berlière, L. c., ch. I et III, L'apostolat monastique; l'œuvre civilisatrice. Christ, the Ideal of the Monk. 10 fidelity, that St. Benedict requires of us in this workshop where he distributes our tasks and provides us with the instruments of our sanctification. It is "day and night die noctuque, that is to say "unceasingly ", incessabiliter1, that he would have us use these instruments, without being wearied by the length of the task, without being discouraged by our want of success, without letting ourselves be cast down by our failures. The virtue of fortitude constantly exercised, preserved and sustained until our last day constitutes perseverance. And it is to acquire this that our great Patriarch exhorts us so explicitly when he tells us never to depart from the teaching of the Divine Master, but to persevere in His teaching in the monastery until death: Ab ipsius nunquam magisterio discedentes, in ejus doctrina usque ad mortem in monasterio perseverantes 2. In order to quicken and sustain us in the practice of endurance, our Holy Father places the Divine Ideal before our eyes; he appeals to the supreme motive: the love of Christ Jesus: "That we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ ": Passionibus Christi PER PATIENTIAM participemur 3. Indeed it is to Christ Jesus we must cleave. We cannot be His disciples if, having put our hand to the plough, we look back and shirk the weary labour. Only he who perseveres unto death shall be saved: Qui perseveraverit usque in finem hic salvus erit 5. Christ Jesus prepares a place in His Kingdom only for those who have continued with Him in trial: Vos estis qui permansistis mecum in tentationibus meis, et ego dispono vobis regnum®. Let us listen to these grave words of teaching from the infallible Truth. Let us ask God daily, for the gift of final perseverance, and repeat the prayer that the Church puts upon our lips each day at Holy Mass: "O Lord, establish our days in Thy peace, deliver us from eternal damnation, and vouchsafe to number us in the flock of Thy elect?. 'Make us ever adhere to Thy commandments and never suffer us to be separated from Thee 8. " If we are faithful, despite temptations and difficulties, the day of reward promised by God will come for us; this is the assurance the great Patriarch gives us in ending this chapter on The Instruments of Good Works": Illa merces nobis a Domino recompensabitur quam ipse promisit. If we 2. Prologue of the Rule. before the Communion. have had that constant application which love brings to the perfect fulfilment of our Heavenly Father's wishes, if we have done "always the things that please Him, " Quae placita sunt ei facio SEMPER1, we shall certainly receive the magnificent reward promised in these words by Him Who is Faithfulness itself: "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 2. " Each Saint on entering into Heaven hears these blessed words that form the welcome he receives from Christ Jesus. And what are these things in which Our Lord gives him a share? God Himself, in His Trinity and His perfections; and, with God, all spiritual good. The soul will be like unto God for it will see Him as He is": Similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est. Through this ineffable vision, which succeeds to faith, the soul will be fixed in God, and will find in Him the Divine stability; it will for ever be knit in a perfect embrace, and without the fear of ever losing Him, to the Supreme and Immutable Good: Participatio incommutabilis boni3. Whilst waiting till the splendours of eternal light shine before our purified sight, let us often repeat this prayer of the Church which well epitomises the different points of this conference: "O God, Who in Thy love dost restore the beauty of innocence, direct towards Thee the hearts of Thy servants; that the fervour of love which is born of Thy Spirit may make them steadfast in faith, and faithful in practising Thy Law": Deus innocentiae RESTITUTOR et amator, DIRIGE AD TE tuorum CORDA servorum: ut spiritus tui FERVORE concepto, et IN FIDE inveniantur STABILES, et IN OPERE EFFICACES 4. 1. Joan. viii,_29. 2. Matth. XXV, 21. 3. S. Aug. Epist. ad Honorat. CXL, 31. 4. Feria Iv. post Dominic. II Quadrages. SUMMARY. F VIII. COMPUNCTION OF HEART. - The "return to God" is only possible on condition of first removing the obstacles opposed to it. I. Compunction, most efficacious means of putting away sin; it is the habitual sense of contrition. III. What the Saints of the Church think of this disposition. III. Far from being incompatible with confidence and complacency in God, compunction strengthens them. IV. It makes us strong against tempta- V. How we ought to resist temptation. VI. Means of acquiring compunction: prayer, frequent contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus. tion. ROM the first lines of the Prologue of the Rule, St. Benedict, addressing himself to the soul, presents the monastic life as a returning to God": Ut ad Eum redeas a quo recesseras. You know the reason of this : it is that sin has, from our birth, turned us away from God: Eratis longe1, says St. Paul. By sin, the soul turns away from God, the Infinite and Immutable Good, to give itself to the creature, which is but transitory good; this is the definition that St. Thomas gives of sin Aversio ab incommutabili bono et conversio ad commutabile bonum2. If then we wish to seek God sincerely, we must sever all inordinate attachment to the creature in order to turn entirely to God. This is what St. Benedict calls "conversion": Veniens quis ad conversionem3. Our holy Father in speaking of "conversion" does not here attach to the word the very particular and precise meaning that we commonly give to it, but he views as a whole the actions whereby the soul, in turning away from sin and setting itself free from the creature and every human motive, exerts all its powers to remove the obstacles that hinder it from going to God and seeking Him alone. Between sin and God there is, as you know, absolute 1. Ephes. II, 13. 2. I-II, q. LXXXVII, a. 4 and II-II, q. CLXII, a. 6. Rule, ch. LVIII. 3. |