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CHRISTIAN PATIENCE.
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CHRISTIAN PATIENCE
THE
STRENGTH & DISCIPLINE OF THE SOUL
a Couree of Xecturea
BY
BISHOP ULLATHORNE.
" In your patience you shall possess your souls."
— Luke xxi. 19.
DlCLICThtOUE S.J
Les Fontaines 60 • CHANTILLY
BURNS AND GATES, Ld.
LONDON :
GRANVILLE MANSIONS, ORCHARD STREET, W.
NEW YORK:
CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO., BARCLAY STREET,
1886.
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To His Eminence^
The Most Illustrious and Most Reverend CARDINAL NEWMAN.
My Dear Lard Cardinal^
I do not forget that your first public appear- ance in the Catftolic Church was at my consecration to the Episcopate^ and that since that time forty years of our lives have passed^ during which you have honoured me with a friendship and a confidence that have much en- riched my life. Deeply sensible of the incalculable services which you Jiave rendered to the Church at large by your writings^ and to this Diocese of your residence in particular by the high and complete character of your virtues^ by your zeal for soulsy and by the influence of your presence in the midst of us, I wish to convey to you the expres- sion of my affection, veneration, and gratitude, by the dedication of this book to your name. It is the last work of any importance that 1 shall ever write, and I can only wish that it were more worthy of your patronage,
1 am ever, my dear Lord Cardinal^
Your devoted and affectionate Servant in Christ,
+ WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE, Bishop of Birmingham,
BirminghaMt i8th July, 1886,
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PREFACE.
This volume completes the series originally contemplated. The Author's object has been to explain and inculcate those fundamental principles of the Christian virtues which, from their profundity, are least understood, but which most contribute to the perfecting of the human soul. The first volume, under the title of the Endowments of Man, esta- blishes the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Virtues The second, under the title of the Groundwork of the Chris- tian Virtues, treats chiefly of Christian Humility as being the receptive foundation of the other virtues. This third volume treats of Christian Patience as being the positive strength and disciplinary power of the soul. The sovereign virtue of charity is explained throughout the three volumes. In the production of the last volume, the Author has found much less assistance from the Fathers of the Church and the great spiritual writers than in the two previous ones. As a rule, they have limited their instructions to that side of the virtue which is exercised under sufierings ; and only a limited number of them, among whom I may mention St. Zeno, Tertullian, St. Gregory the Great, St. Bonaventure, and St. Catherine of Siena, have treated of that most im- portant side of the virtue by which it gives strength and discipline to all the mental and moral powers, and perfec- tion to all the virtues.
One remark is due to the reader. The only solid way of explaining the virtues is by their principles and theii* mutual connections. But to do this effectually requires
viii
PREFACE.
that the same principles be often repeated, as well to fix them in the mind as to show their connection with the practical details, and to give to those details greater light. In the preface to his translation of the famous treatise of Albert the Great, On adhering to God, Sir Kenelm Digby observes : . " He often repeateth the same thing, but still with some addition and further explication of the matter, to inculcate it the deeper".
CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
PAGE
The Work of Patience in the Soul . . . . i lecture il
On the Nature and Object of Christian Patience . i8 LECTURE in.
On Patience as a Universal Virtue . . . • 41 lecture IV.
On Christian Fortitude 60
lecture v.
On the Patience of the Son of God .... 80
lecture vl
On Patience as the Discipline of the Soul ... 99 lecture vil
On Patience as the Perfecter of our Daily Duties . 120 lecture viil
Encouragements to Patience 139
lecture IX.
On the Gifts of the Holy Ghost 159
lecture x.
On Prayer 184
LECTURE XI.
On Patience in Prayer 208 I
LECTURE XIL
On the Cheerfulness of Patience .... 232
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LECTURE L
i
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LECTURE T.
THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL.
"The trial of your faith worketh patience. And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, ^ling in nothing." — St. James i- 3-4-
'HE perfection of the Christian soul consists in that complete
X and exquisite charity whereby we love God above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves, for the love of God. This love, this charity that perfects the soul, is the sublimest gift that we can receive from God in this our exile, because God Himself is charity, and the life of God is charity. In partaking of His charity, ac- cording to our condition and capacity, as St. Peter says, "We are made partakers of the divine nature," * that is, by a created parti- cipation, and are made the children of God. For by charity God lives in us and we in Him. The divine gift of charity is the richest fruit of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in most humble and patient charity gave His life to His Father, not only to deliver us from sin, but to obtain for us the supernatural life of charity. This life is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, dwelling in us, abiding in us, operating in us, uniting our life with the life of God, and raising our will into a holy co-operation with the un- speakable movements of His divinely given love. " If any one loveth Me," saith our Lord, " he will keep My commandments, and My Father will love him, and We wiU come to him, and will make Our abode with him." t
The love of charity is the greatest thing that we can give to God, because it originates with Him, and is moved by the action of His Holy Spirit ; with it we freely give ourselves to God, and through its means we return all to Him that He has given to us.
♦ 2 S. Peter L 4. + S. John xiv. 23. I
2 THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL.
The love of God is our spiritual life ; it makes the will good, the affections good, the soul good, and the work of the soul good. St. Paul calls charity the bond of perfection ; it unites us with God, unites us within ourselves, unites us with all spirits that love God, and with all things whatever that God loves. It is the old com- mandment, the new commandment, the greatest commandment, the comprehension of all the commandments, the life of all the virtues, the fulfilment of the whole law of God.
Hence all the other commandments, and all the other virtues by which the will of God is fulfilled, look to the love of God, are perfected by the love of God, and have their end in the love of God, for charity brings them all to God. Faith is the steadfast and unfailing light that guides the soul to the love of God 3 its divine truths are the reasons of that love, and they shine into the believing soul from the light of the Eternal Word Incarnate, and flow from the teaching of His Church. Hope wings our aspira- tions towards the Eternal Good which is promised to our love. Humility subjects our nature in the consciousness of its great needs to God, that we may be the subjects of His love. Charity makes us like to God by the flame of living, life-giving love, upon which we ascend in will and desire to Him whose nature is love, and whose love is His unspeakable goodness.
Whatever affection is sinful or dishonouring to God and to the soul is unworthy of the sacred name of love, because it is the enemy of charity. Its true name is cupidity, which is vile, or self-loving pride, which is a base perversion of our nature. These are affec- tions that move against the light of faith and the very reason of things, and are hostile to the sovereign laws of love. But the charity of God makes the soul chaste, beautiful, and wise, whilst she reaches towards God with the arms of love through the very heart of grace. Countless considerations of God's goodness, mercy, and compassion may join with the emanations of His charity to move our hearts to love Him ; but when we have once entered into His goodness and mercy, have felt His love, and tasted His sweetness, we love Him for His own most pure and perfect ex- cellence, and pass from sense to spirit, from self to God, and from thinking of Him to adoring Him, who lives for ever and ever. This is the infancy of beatitude ; the first dawn of the principle of the glory to come ; the beginning of heaven amidst the dreary obscurations and desolate confusion of this blind world.
THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL. 3
In the Most Holy Trinity charity is the principle of the Divine Unity, and the substantial energy of the Divine Life. Yet who can form any true conception of that uncreated charity ? In this life we can only know it by the sense we have in our spirit of the resemblance of the gift of charity to the Divine Giver. In the Holy Scriptures it is compared to a fire, but to a fire that is living, life-giving, and unconsuming. In Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days, the throne on which He sat is " like flames of fire, and the wheels of it like a burning fire". In Ezechiel's vision He is seated upon glowing cherubs moving on fiery wheels, to represent the unceasing action of His charity towards His intelligent creatures. The Prophet Daniel beheld "a swift stream of fire that issued forth before Him ; thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him When St. John beheld the glorious vision of the Son of God, "His eyes were as a flame of fire ".t The Seraphs, those spirits nearest the throne of God, are, as their name signifies, spirits of fire, that is, of love. Our Divine Lord declared that He came to cast fire on earth, and promised that His disciples should be baptized with fire, that is, with the burning ardour of charity. Accordingly the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles from heaven in tongues of fire, thus outwardly expressing the interior ardour of charity that enkindled their hearts with the unconquerable love of God and of souls. That fire consumed the infirmities of their nature, and gave them strength to conquer in the power of God. Hence the prayer of the loving soul : " Send forth the fire of Thy charity
From charity God created all things, and for the sake of charity He moves all that He has created. He made the material world for the probation of souls, that in preferring their Creator to the things created they might prove themselves worthy of His love, and of receiving the rewards of love. For souls are made for the high and noble prerogative of receiving and returning the love of God. The saving providence of God moves through His creatures from the bosom of His charity. His mercies, which are above all His works, are the tender yearnings of His charity. He endures the evils of sin and ingratitude with the patience of His charity, waiting as a merciful Father the return of His children firom evil to the good that He holds in readiness for their repentance.
* Daniel vii. 9-10. + Apocalypse i. 14.
4 THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL.
Woe, then, to that false science which puts matter before spirit, sense before conscience, darkness before light, and the creature before God, and professes to find the cause of light and love, those sublimest gifts of the eternal charity of God, in the lowest and least spiritual elements of His creation. It is an awful proof of the extent to which cultivated intellects, lost to charity, can be gained to pride, and of the utter perversion of that light of intelli- gence which their minds have received from God "The fool said in his heart : There is no God." ♦ The wise man exclaims : Without the charity of God we are nothing.
Not only is the charity of God all-embracing, but it is most abundantly communicative. The bosom of our Heavenly Father is open to all His children made in His divine image ; to hear their sighs, to receive their desires, to accept their prayers, to relieve their wants, to deliver them from evil, to rescue them from misery. Then does He cheer them with light and enkindle their souls with love. He asks but their goodwill, and to their goodwill He gives all that they are capable of receiving. To the souls that love Him and seek His presence He sends down from His high heavens perpetual streams of light and grace, to draw them who are sanctified in the Blood of His Son more closely to His love, to perfect their charity.
In your love you must also of necessity love that charity by which you love God, because it is the most beautiful and inspiring of the gifts of God. What can be so beautiful, what so enlarging, what so delightful, as that all-embracing charity which descends like fire from God, unites us in life with God, and also with all His good angels and saints, and with all pious souls on earth, in one sacred and living bond of union and communion of good ? Every one who is brought out of the dark region of sin into the divine circle of universal charity is not only made beautiful in his soul by the love of God, but that soul partakes in her degree in all the charity with which she is in communion by her charity, be the possessors of that charity in heaven, on earth, or in the region of purifica- tion. For we share in the charity of all whom we love and who love us in God ; and true charity loves all that God loves. What a sublime view does charity open into the communion of saints !
Nor does charity rest contented within this immense circle of
Psalm xiiL I.
THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL. 5
spiritual life ; but as the God of all charity is merciful, patient, and bountiful even to those who love Him not, and is always ready to pardon their sins, and to give them His unspeakable love, even so works the charity of God imparted to Christian souls. That charity imitates His goodness. His patience, His benignity. His bounty, and is patient, kind, and beneficent to all. " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you : that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust." *
But it is one thing to receive the divine gift of charity, another to have the virtue of charity, and another to have that virtue in perfection. For although the gift is the principle of the virtue, it is not the actual virtue, not that which makes charity our own. It can only become the actual virtue when the will enters into the gift, acts with the gift, and performs the interior and exterior works of charity. For the will is the seat and power of love ; so that what the will desires the will loves, and what the will seeks above all things, the will loves above all things. When, therefore, the will enters into the grace of charity, and is clothed with it, it receives a divine power, exalting it above the order of nature, and giving to it the supernatural flame of divine love. The heart is the seat of our sensible affections, but these sensible affections are purified and made spiritual, when moved by the will, and clothed witli charity towards God, the supreme object of our actions and desires. And it is by the pure and perfect exercise of the will, free from all mixture of what is contrary to the love of God, and exercised in the perfect gift of charity, that this holiest of virtues is made perfect.
We must also bear in mind this solemn truth, that the supreme and final object of all charitable service to our neighbour is God Himself. For all charity moves towards God, as its divine origin and final end. It moves as it were in a circle, from God to us, and from us to God, then to our neighbour, and through our neighbour to God, in virtue of the intention of charity. We thus imitate our Heavenly Father's love to us, and join our- selves to that love, and are the ministers of His love, kind, patient, and forbearing to all from His gift ; and especially when, for His
• S. Matthew v. 44-45
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6 THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL.
sake, we give our help and service to those who are in affliction, in poverty, in ignorance, or in distress. This is a holy com- munion in which we partake in the good that we impart, and receive increase of love from the love we put forth, growing in the good that we communicate, and gaining strength from the resist- ance we make against the reluctance of our nature, and from the evil that we overcome in others.
"All the glory of the King's daughter is within."* This daughter of the King is the soul bom of charity. The glory of that soul is in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, and in the principle and the promise of eternal glory. Charity is the living beauty of the soul that seeks God through all the virtues ; it is the sweet odour of God, the living flame that breaks out of His truth, establishing order, purity, justice, goodness, and wisdom in the soul. It is the sacred fire placed by the Holy Spirit upon the altar of the heart. What is all philosophy compared to charity ? Charity is the most practical philosophy, which from the heart illuminates the understanding, because it is the noblest action of truth, and reaches lovingly to the Divine Cause of all things.
But if the perfection of the soul consists in complete and exqui- site charity, what room is there for other perfections ? Why does St. James teach that "patience hath a perfect work"?t Why does he insist that by patience we are made " perfect and entire, failing in nothing"? St. Paul enforces the same doctrine, where he says : " Patience is necessary for you : that doing the will of God, you may obtain the promise"! And our Blessed Lord gives us this solemn instruction : " In your patience you shall possess your souls ".§ What, then, is the work of patience in the soul ?
In the first place, it must be observed that charity takes hold of the other viitues, animates them with her fire, inspires them with her motive, draws them into her service, and employs them, whether faith, hope, humility, patience, or whatever other virtue, for her own completion and perfection. In the second place, such is the irritability, restlessness, weakness, and inconstancy of the powers of our nature, considered in themselves, that they require the firm control of patience to conquer them, and to bring them into subjection to the sovereign virtue of charity. Hence,
♦ Psalm xliv. 14. + S. James i. 4. X Hebrews x. 36. S S. Luke xxi. 19.
THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL. 7
St. Paul teaches that "charity is patient";* and that it is patient charity which enables us to " bear all things," and to " endure all things". Hence, the Fathers and great spiritual divines have con- cluded that the grace of patience is given with the grace of charity, as well to protect it as to bring it to perfection. True patience for the love of God is therefore the highest test and most evident proof of the presence of a noble degree of charity ; because patience is its perfecting quality, making it whole and entire, foil- ing in nothing. It is the surest test, because it cannot be easily mistaken, as it can only be obtained, even with the help of grace, by dint of labour, self-combat, and effort; but we have the sensible result in the possession of one's self and in peace of soul.
What do we find so difficult as to keep ourselves in our own possession, so that no part of our nature shall slip away from the command of the will, or from the empire of charity ? Our Divine Lord seldom gives His reasons for His precepts, because they carry in themselves their own light; but He has given us the whole reason why we need the virtue of patience, when He tells us that it is by this virtue we hold the possession of our souls.
This vigorous virtue of patience is the spiritual remedy which God has provided against the weakness, perturbation, and incon- stancy of our nature, exposed as it is to irritations, fears, tempta- tions, cupidities, vanities, pride, and sadness. Every creature, by reason of its origin from nothingness, when left to itself, is exposed to division, dissolution, and foilure; unless it receive a divine support, and a bracing strength of patience to hold it together, that it may endure and persevere. But in our fallen nature, and especially in that part of it which is material and animal, there is a darkness, a baleful fire of cupidity, a root of selfishness, and a restlessness, that war against the light and law of God in the soul, darken her light, dissipate and trouble her powers, and draw her away from the possession of herself. But the less she is in the posses- sion of herself, the less capable is the soul of ascending to God, and therefore the less capable of knowing God and loving Him.
The soul cannot possess herself when she is held in the posses- sion of her mortal senses, appetites, or passions, or when held in bondage to creatures that are less than herself, and that trouble, degrade, and divide the soul, and take off her mind and will from
* I Corinthians xiii. 4.
8 THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUT
what is greater and better than herself. Nor can the soul possess herself within herself, because she is made for God, and without God for the chief object of her mind and affections she is poor, disturbed, and discontented. She can only possess herself in God through charity and patience, in love adhering to God, in patience persevering in that adherence despite of all the perturbations and fears of her inferior nature. Then will the soul find her powers united and in possession of her will by reason of her union with God ; but this will only be in proportion to her patience.
Hence, St. John Climachus observed that " to the spiritual man patience is more essential than food," * and justly so ; for food strengthens the body, and preserves it from weakness, but patience fortifies the soul, and without it no virtue can be firm and solid. But as we are bound to take more care of the soul than of the body, it is evident that we ought to be more solicitous for patience than for food. For, in the words of St. Peter Damian, " the man whose patience breaks down may have other virtues, but he will never have their strength and solidity t Patience is concerned in all that we have to resist, in all that we have to deny ourselves, in all that we have to endure, in all that we have to adhere to, and in all that we have to do. This includes all human acts that bear the character of duty or devotedness, whether those acts be purely interior, or come forth into the exterior life and conduct. For wherever patience fails, the act is weak and the work imperfect
This comprehensive view of the work of patience in man is enlarged upon by that profound thinker Tertullian in the following terms : " Patience protects the whole will of God in man and enters into all His commandments. It fortifies faith, governs peace, helps charity, prepares humility, conducts to penance, leads to confession, rules the flesh, preserves the spirit, bridles the tongue, controls the hand, breaks down temptations, expels scan- dals, and consummates martyrdom '; it consoles the poor man, moderates the wealthy man, suffers not the infirm man to sink under his weakness, and allows not the strong man to consume his strength; it delights the believer, attracts the unbeliever, adorns the woman, and makes the man approved ; it is loved in the youth, praised in the maturer man, and is looked up to in the
* S. J. Climachus, Scala Cor/i, grad, 37, n. 31. t S.. P. Damian. L. vi. Epist, 9.
THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL. 9
aged man. Patience is beautiful in both sexes and at every age. The features of the patient one are calm and pleasant ; the brow is pure, because free from the signs of sadness and of irritation ; the eyes are peaceful 3 the mouth is sealed with discretion."*
Yet, next to the virtue of humility, there is no Christian virtue that stands more in need of careful exposition than the virtue of patience. Although well known in a popular way, and on the surface, as it is opposed to anger, or as our sustainer under suffer- ings, it is but little understood as a fundamental virtue of the soul, and that only by those truly spiritual persons who are well exercised in interior self-discipline, of which this virtue is the basis. It is therefore of great importance that we should be instructed in its ways and in the methods by which it is obtained.
So intimate is the connection between patience and humility, that neither of these virtues can make much progress without the other ; nor can charity advance towards its perfection without their aid. The seraphic St. Francis, so deeply founded in these two virtues, was wont to exclaim: "Hail humility with thy sister patience I " What humility begins patience consolidates. Humi- lity purifies the soul, patience fortifies the will ; humility subjects the soul to God, patience rests the soul on God ; humility makes the soul simple and sincere, patience makes her firm and constant ; humility keeps the soul in her just and true position, patience protects her in the peaceful possession of that position. It is not, therefore, humility alone, or patience alone, but humility and patience in their happy combination with charity, that establish the groundwork of the Christian virtues ; and on this secure basis we are able to work out our perfection. Hence St. Catherine of Siena calls patience " the pith and marrow of charity
If we examine the Eight Beatitudes, we shall find that patience is an essential constituent in every one of them ; if we hear the spouse of Christ, the loving soul, declare in the Canticles, " He hath set charity in order within me,"t the order of charity is secured by patience. By patience was the Church of God built up ; by patience every holy soul is built up. In his great vision of the combat throughout the ages of the Church with the world, St. John sums up the final triumph of God's servants in these words : " Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the com- mandments of God and the faith of Jesus "J Not only does St. * Tertullian, De Palientia^ c. 15. t Canticles ii. 4. % Apocalypse xiv. 12,
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lo THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL.
Paul teach in various places that patience is the virtue that com- pletes and perfects charity, but in a special prayer for his disciples he asks for them the combination of these two virtues : " May the Lord direct your hearts in the charity of God and the patience of Christ"*
If we contemplate the provident action of God as it moves through His creation, we everywhere see the signs of His divine patience, sustaining what is by nature feeble, upholding what left to itself must fall, enduring evil and disorder for the sake of final good, providing for all things according to their needs, and conducting all things to their destinies according to His eternal designs. If we contemplate the ways of God in souls, with what a sovereign patience He endures their wayward follies and un- grateful crimes, to bring them from their evil to His good I If we contemplate those souls themselves, or look carefully into our own, our experience of the weakness and inconstancy of our nature will teach us how greatly we stand in need of the gift and virtue of patience. This truth has been so admirably expressed by a holy Bishop and Martyr of the third century that we here give his words.
St. Zeno says: "Whilst we seek the blessed life with the earnest sighs of our nature, and look for it through the various virtues, they are all brought to their rest through patience. Without patience nothing can be conceived by the mind, nothing can be understood, nothing can be taught. For all things look to patience. Neither faith nor hope; neither justice nor humility; neither chastity nor honesty ; nor concord ; nor charity ; nor any act of virtue ; nor even the elements of nature; are able to hold together, or keep their consistency, without the nerve, restraint, and disci- pline of patience. Patience is always mature : it is humble, pru- dent, cautious, provident, and contented under every necessity that arises. Tranquil in the day of clouds and amidst the tempests of provocation, it allows nothing to disturb the serenity of the soul. The patient man knows of neither alteration nor regret. Who can say that he ever suffers loss? Whatever he has to endure, you will find him as complete at the end of his sufferings as though he had suffered nothing. How can we calculate the results of his patience? When he seems to have undergone defeat, we find he has got the victory.
* 2 Thessalonians iii. 5.
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THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL, ii
" No force, no violence, can drive patience from its position. Neither labour, nor hunger, nor nakedness, nor persecution, nor fear, nor danger, can move patience from its resolution. No power, no torments, no death, come it in whatever shape, no ambition, no enjoyment of felicity, can shake the constancy of patience. Robustly balanced in a certain elevated and divine temperance that calms the soul into peaceful moderation, patience abides immovable ; and to enable it to master all difficulties, its first conquest is over the soul herself. The virtues cannot be virtues; nor can the state of the elements be lasting; nor can they flow in their well-known connection through their solemn circles, unless patience like a solicitous mother be the keeper of things and the regulator of their changes." *
It is an obvious truth that what is weak by nature or constitu- tion, and liable to fail, can only be made strong by the infusion of strength, or by adhering to what is strong and unchangeable. But moral strength, that which makes the soul strong, whether in action or endurance, is patience. Let us examine these principles by the light of the inspired Psalmist. When surrounded with trials, oppressed, and almost smothered with temptations, he feels all the weakness of his nature, and is troubled with disturbing fears. But he breaks away from them in this fervid cry : " Shall not my soul be subject to God ? For from Him is my salvation. For He is my God and my Saviour : my protector, I shall be moved no more." The Hebrew text, as the commentators observe, is more forcible. It indicates a silent subjection to God that neither doubts, murmurs, complains, nor listens to temptation, and a resting on God as the rock of his strength. After de- scribing his enemies rushing upon him, as though he were "a leaning wall and a tottering fence," he thus addresses his own soul : " Be thou, O my soul, subject to God, for from Him is my patience. For He is my God, and my Saviour : He is my helper, I shall not be moved." t
In other Psalms the Royal Prophet invokes the Almighty as his "firmament and his refuge," and as the fortress of his strength; and calls God his patience, because from Him he derives the strength of patience, rests on H m as the foundation of His strength, and finds in Him his protection. In the
* S. Zeno, De Patientia^ c. I.
f Psalm Ixi. 1-7.
12 THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL.
seventieth Psalm he says : " Be Tbou to me a God, a protector, and a place of strength, that Thou mayest make me safe. For Thou art my firmament and refuge. . . . Thou art my patience, O Lord; my hope, O Lord, from my youth."* He thus teaches, from his own interior experience as well as from his light, that our patience is derived from adhering to the unchangeable strength of God, and from receiving the gift of strength from His bounty. Rising in another Psalm to that more fundamental and steadfast patience which takes the name of fortitude, of which he has received the gift, the Sacred Singer says: "I will sing Thy fortitude, and will extol Thy mercy ".t And in the consciousness that this noble gift is mainly given that by its force he may adhere to God, he says again : " I will keep my fortitude to Thee ".J
We are here taught by the Holy Spirit, through th^ soul of David, that God is our patience, our fortitude, and our strength, provided we rest our souls on Him, adhere to Him, are subject to His strengthening influences, and work with them in loyal co- operation. " Patience is so great a gift of God," observes St Augustine, " that it is even ascribed to Him who waits so long for the conversion of the sinner. God cannot suffer, yet though incapable of suffering He takes the name of patience. But as He neither suffers nor is subject to impatience, who can say what the patience of God is ? It is as incomprehensible as His zeal. His anger, or anything of like kind." §
But if we consider patience as it is the enduring strength of charity, that admits not the entrance of evil within the divine circle of good, whilst it endures the existence of external evil for the sake of greater good, then we shall approach nearer to understanding the patience of God; because God is charity, and charity is patient. As what is weak of itself obtains strength by adhering to what is strong, the weak human will obtains strength to keep the whole man in discipline by adhering to God and receiving power to repel the movements of temptation and the risings of irritation, and to quiet the perturbations of the spirit, come from whatever cause they may. " We are directed," says the profound TertuUian, " to exercise the authority of patience^
• Psalm Ixx. 3-5. t Psalm Iviii. 17. t Psalm IviiL 10. § S. Augustin. De Patientia^ c 2.
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THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL, 13
not from any cynical affectation of equanimity (like the pagans), but from the divine disposition of a celestial and life-giving disci- pline, of which God is the example."*
We shall better understand the divine power of patience if we consider how all moral evil has sprung in the first instance, and still springs in its beginning, from impatience. St. Zeno, Tertul- lian, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and several other early Fathers have treated on this subject. Every kind of spiritual creature was first preated by God in a good state, and received grace to love Him and to adhere to Him as the supreme good of their nature. This implied the grace of charity and patience — charity to love, patience to persevere and to endure their probation ; but being weak by nature, owing to their origin from nothingness, and having free will to choose their own acts, they were exposed to the danger of neglecting their grace, and of giving themselves to self- love, self-will, and cupidity. So long as they remained 'with patient perseverance in the love and will of God, they were sinless ; but so soon as they yielded their will to temptation, they lost the patience by which they adhered to God, to His love and to His will, becoming impatient of the good they possessed through the curiosity and desire of trying what was evil ; and thus, with the loss of patience, they became weak, irritable, sinful, separated from God, and divided within themselves. It must also be re- membered that, according to the Scriptures and the traditions both of the Rabbins and the Christian Fathers, Satan and his angels fell through jealousy of the high dignity conferred on man at his creation.
After this explanation, let us hear the words of TertuUian, which are repeated in substance by St. Cyprian and St. Augustine. He says : " As patience is in God, we must expect ^o find the first adversary of patience in the first enemy of God. We detect the birth of impatience in Satan, when he could not patiently endure that God should subject all that He had created to His image in man. Then it was that his impatience conspired with his mahce. Adam, again, would never have Men had he stood with patience within the divine commandment. He was innocent; he was the friend of God ; he was* in possession of paradise. But in losing his patience he fell from the wisdom of God and ceased to be capable
• Tertullian. De Paiientia, c. 2.
14 THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL,
of divine things. Cast out of paradise, he became a man of the earth, and was easily taken hold of by impatience in things of- fensive to God. Look upon the catalogue of sins, and you will find that they all begin with the loss of patience; for evil is impatience of good. No one is impure who is not impatient of purity, or unjust who is not impatient of justice, or unquiet who is not impatient of tranquillity. Whoever is evil is impatient of good." *
The seat of patience, as of all the virtues, is in the will. Its office is to hold the will with firm steadfastness to what is reason- able, just, orderly, and true, and to withhold the will by refusing it to what is unreasonable, unjust, disorderly, or false. For example, the patience of faith holds the will with firmness and constancy to the truths revealed by God, and keeps to the divine motives of faith, whatever sufferings the soul may have to endure for the sake of her faith ; whilst this same patience of faith refuses the will to error and to whatever may tempt the soul to relax her hold of faith. The patience of hope holds fast by the will, with unswerv- ing confidence, to the goodness, mercy, and promises of God, and refuses to let the will be moved into despondency or sadness, or to whatever may tempt the soul to lessen her confidence in God. The patience of charity adheres by the will habitually to God- with love and gratitude, and that notwithstanding every kind of obscura- tion, trial, or loss of sensible devotion, and refuses to yield up the will to whatever might weaken, diminish, or contradict the love of God.
So it is in every other virtue. Patience holds the will with con- stancy to the good upon which it is engaged, and withholds the same will firom those provocations or temptations that would weaken or destroy the virtue in its act by putting evil or falsehood in its place. Hence you will find that the first movement towards evil is always a disturbing movement of impatience.
It is therefore laid down as a principle, as well by the pagan philosophers as by the Christian moralists, each taking their own view of it, that patience is the virtue of the virtues, that is to say, it is the force that gives them their vigour, endurance, and solidity. St. Gregory calls it " the root and guardian of the virtues ".t It
• Tertullian. De Paiientia, c 5. + S. Greg. Mag. Horn, 56, in Evangd,
THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL. 15
is the root, as supplying them with strength and consistency ; it is the guardian, as protecting them from perturbation and evil. As the tree obtains its strength from being rooted in the ground, the soul, which is the tree of virtue, obtains her strength from patiently adhering to God. As a fortress girds round its inhabitants and defends them from the assaults and alarms of their enemies, so patience defends the virtues from the temptations and alarms that assail them. Hence St. Zeno observes that " the worth of patience is not so much in the multiplying as in the perfecting of the virtues ".* When St. Paul speaks of the faithful who are " rooted and grounded in charity," t he evidently refers to that charity which is firm and constant by reason of its patience.
Taking this profound view of Christian patience, St. Augustine defines it in these terms : — " Patience is the enduring of evils with an equable mind, lest through an evil disposition we should give up that good which brings us to our greatest good ".J The good we have already as devout Christians is the sense of God, the light of faith, the grace of Christ, the friendship of God through com- munication of His Holy Spirit, and peace of heart through the absence of grievous sin. This good, already in the soul, brings us through the exercise of charity to our supreme good. But through impatience, vexation of spirit, and sadness, patience glides away, and the good we have is disturbed, scattered abroad, and dimi- nished ; and what is worse, if we enter into an evil disposition, patience is relaxed more and more, and as impatience and sadness take its place, the habits of grace and virtue are weakened and lowered, the light of the soul becomes obscured ; and if we alto- gether lose the patience of charity, that divine gift itself becomes extinguished together with our supernatural life.
In St. Paul's magnificent description of charity, the object of the Apostle is to show, that whilst it is inseparable from faith, it is perfected by unselfishness and patience. Weigh the qualities one by one which the Apostle ascribes to this most excellent of virtues, and you will find that this is the sum of their sense : " Charity," he says, "is patient, is kind ; charity envieth not, dealeth not per- versely ; is not puffed up. Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in
* S. Zeno, De PaHentia, t Ephes. iii. 17, X S. Augustin. De PaHentia^ c. 2.
1 6 THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL.
iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."* From the nature of charity it must have these qualities. Without faith it could not be grounded in supernatural truth, without unselfishness it could not be generous, without patience it could not endure, nor could it repulse its enemies. In the words of St. Cyprian : " If you take patience away from charity, it languishes in desolation and cannot endure +
If you consider the human soul as a spiritual coin that bears the image and superscription of God, faith is the mould that gives it a divine figure, and charity is its golden quality. Humility gives it gravity, discretion flexibility, and patience durability. When that soul is tried in the fire of tribulation, and its charity put to the test by reproaches and calumny, then will the degree of her patience show how far the virtue of that soul bears the character of durability. For, as it is said in the Proverb : " He that is impatient suffers damage ".f And again : " The learning of a man is known by patience, and his glory is to pass over wrongs ".§ But as the vice of obstinacy makes pretensions to the virtue of patience, although it is but the stupidity of pride, true patience must also stand the test of humility. For there may be a proud endurance of contumely that is nothing better than folly \ just as the worm of pride may be concealed in the apparent humility of sackcloth. ||
After this general exposition of the work of patience in the soul, what shall we say in conclusion ? As a divine attribute of God patience is infinite and eternal. In His divine benignity He exhibits that patience towards us in bearing with our offences and ingratitude, and in waiting for our repentance and return to His love. As He has made us to His image that we may be formed to His likeness, He sends to us the grace of patience through the gift of charity, that through its faithful exercise we may imitate His patience. This virtue is the tonic medicine of our enfeebled nature; it fortifies the will, soothes down the irritabilities that derange the soul, braces the powers into unity, and gives stability to all the virtues. It secures the mind from dissipation, the will from perturbation, and enables us to preserve our self-possession.
* I Corinthians xiii. 4-7. + S. Cyprian. De Bono Patientia. % Prov. xix. 19. § lb. II. I! Gerson. De Distinctiane Verarum Visionum a falsis.
THE WORK OF PATIENCE IN THE SOUL. 17
It is the pith and marrow of charity, strengthening the love of God in the children of light, that it may persevere under every cloud of tribulation and adversity.
As the rock resists the surging waves, patience resists the surges of temptation, and scatters them into empty foam. In the day of weakness and suffering it upholds the spirit above them in the serene atmosphere of cheerfulness, and will not suffer her to sink into the wasting disease of sadness. In a word, and that word shall be St. Cyprian's, "Patience is not only the keeper of good but the preventer of evil, repelling whatever is adverse to good. Obedient to the Holy Spirit, it adheres to celestial and divine things; and standing in opposition to those solicitations of the body that assault and capture the soul, it contends for the virtues as from a fortress of strength." *
"Oh, patience," exclaims St. Zeno, "thou art the queen of all things, and I know that thou restest more safely on thy own foundations, on thy own counsels, and on thy own good ways than in the words of those who are strangers to thee. Thy praise is not in multiplying, but in strengthening the virtues. Thou givest to virginity the flower that never fades. Thou art the safe har- bour of widowhood from the storms of life. Thou art the strength of the yoke of married life, enabling its burden to be borne with the forbearance of an equal love. Thou teachest friendship how to will and to forbear the same things. Thou givest freedom to the rugged labourer, and art the consoler of his toils. To poverty thou givest the privilege of bearing all things, that so it may possess all things. The Prophets were raised to their sublime office by patience. The Apostles adhered to Christ through patience. Thou art the nursing mother of the Martyrs, and their crown. As the knot binds the flowing tresses on the head of the modest maiden, thou bindest up the virtues into unity with beauty and honour. Happy, eternally happy, is he who hath thee always in his com- pany." t
♦ S. Cyprian. De Bone Patientia^ c. 14, t S. Zeno, De Fatientia,
2
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LECTURE II.
ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN PATIENCE.
" Patience is necessary for you : that doing the wiU of God, you may re- ceive the promise." — Hebrews x. 36.
WHEN we have obtained a clear insight into the precise nature of any virtue, of how it works in the soul, and to what purpose it is directed, we have gained the knowledge both of what it is and of what it is not ; and we are able to distinguish its action from every other movement of the will. This knowledge is of great importance for the cultivation of virtue; for, as an engineer cannot work his engine satisfactorily unless he knows what belongs to every part of its construction, a soul cannot man- age herself with intelligence unless she knows what belongs to her several powers in the exercise of the virtues. When one thing in the soul is confused by the mind with another, the will cannot work in clear light, and may even confound what is opposed to a virtue with the virtue itself, causing error, perplexity, and uneasi- ness.
There are many people who read expositions of the virtues in books, and have a real desire to profit by them \ yet the knowledge they gain is but little compared with what they might obtain, because they look more into the book than into themselves. They do not reflect upon their own interior state, or upon their own interior operations, in doing which the book is intended to assist them, nor do they carefully observe what passes within their souls. Their knowledge is book-knowledge, not self-knowledge, and is consequently shallow, without roots within them, and quickly fades and passes away. Such unreflecting readers are like the man who beholds his face in a glass, goes his way, and presently forgets what manner of man he is; but if we look upon a book as no more
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NATUREAND OBJECT OFCHRISTIAN PATIENCE, 19
than a help to self-knowledge and the perfecting of the virtues, and if we second the book by interior reflection and observation, then it will enable us to read and understand the interior book of the soul, which has the immense advantage of being illuminated with spiritual light ; and we shall thus obtain a knowledge all our own, a true and lasting possession always ready to do us service. But this demands for its accomplishment that very virtue of patience which it is the object of this book to inculcate.
The first thing required to be understood is that patience is an immediate exercise of the will, which is the spring of all free and moral action. It must not, therefore, be confounded with the sentiments, sensibilities, or feelings, because it is a pure act of the will. But although, like all real virtue, it springs from the reso- lution and action of the will, as enlightened by the mind and conscience, patience, like every other virtue, uses the other faculties of the soul, and even the members of the body, as its instruments, the will making them obedient to execute its com- mands, and to act in submission to its force and direction. But the will of the good Christian is elevated by divine motives and sentiments, and is energized by divine grace, so that the strength of virtue depends upon the supernatural gifts of God. But what has to be mainly looked to is the will, because when the will is good and resolute, and goes in the right direction, the whole man follows as a matter of course.
The second thing to be understood where patience is concerned is the double action of the will, the action by which the will ad- vances, and the action by which it recedes and refuses its co-opera- tion. It advances to what it loves ; it recedes and refuses to be united to what it dislikes or hates. The virtuous will desires and wills what is good, but refuses to give itself up to what is vicious or disorderly ; and although this refusal is often said to be passive, it is in fact a strong act of the will, and often requires more strength and resolution than it does to desire and will what is good. Hence this kind of action is the greatest practical proof of the freedom of the will. For, when the will is attracted by some strong inferior appetite, or urged by some strong passion, to move in the direction of evil or disorder, and yet, adhering to higher and better motives, that will draws back upon itself and refuses to be drawn away by that appetite, or to be driven by that passion ; this is not only the greatest proof of the freedom of the will, but
20
ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
it is the greatest act of virtue. But what we have here described is the interior action of patience.
But left to its own nature, the will is so weak, movable, and restless, it is so readily attracted by curiosity, its attention is so quickly turned to whatever is felt within us or that moves around us, that it cannot be truly firm and patient unless it have a firma- ment upon which to rest far stronger than nature can provide, and a strength incomparably beyond its own, as well as a motive more exalted than mere nature can supply. This firmament is the God in whom we live, and on whom the soul must rest by adherence to Him. This strength is the supernatural grace of God given to the will. This motive, greater and stronger than all others, on which to place both the attention and intention of the will, is the light and love of God. When the will thus rests on God, looks to God, and draws strength from God, that patience is generated which resists all evils and disorders, gives us the possession of ourselves, and keeps the soul in peace. "Be thou, O my soul, subject to God, for from Him is my patience." *
If we take the common definition of Christian patience, it is the virtue that strengthens the soul to resist provocations and temp- tations, and to endure afflictions^ so as neither to give up the good of virtue nor to commit sin. This definition is sufficiently com- prehensive to include the different ways in which patience is exer- cised, as well as the different adversaries to which it is opposed ; and it shows that the chief object of the virtue is to keep the soul in the peaceful possession of herself. But it should be clearly un- derstood by every one who values the perfection of his actions that this virtue of patience depends a great deal more upon the interior management of the soul than upon our exterior conduct ; not only because it must necessarily begin there, and make progress there, and there in the interior establish order and peace ; but also be- cause if the interior man is patient the exterior man will be pre- served in patience. For impatience begins within the soul, and from thence proceeds to the exterior man.
Patience is both a special and a universal virtue. As a special virtue it is opposed to two special vices. As a general or universal virtue it gives strength, stability, and protection to all the virtues, and is opposed to every vice. We have here to consider it as it
* Psa'm Ixi. 6.
o:p christian patience.
21
is a special virtue ; and as such it is opposed to vexation and anger on the one hand, and to sadness on the other. For these are the chief destroyers of patience.
Vexation and anger are both opposed to the good of reason and to the good of virtue. They darken the light of justice, take us from our self-possession, bring us into disorder, disturb our peace, and diminish or destroy charity. They set fire to the other pas- sions and appetites, and lead us into evil. But they are also mixed with sadness, and when anger subsides sadness remains, and is increased by the reaction from the excitement and folly of anger. Hence St. Thomas defines the special virtue of patience to be the virtue that preserves the good of reason against sadness, so that reason may not sink under its influence. For the moral virtues have good for their object, and protect the good which the light of reason dictates against the disturbance of the passions. But amongst those passions sadness is one that greatly hinders the good of reason from guiding the soul aright, and in accordance with the light of justice.*
Sadness is a very subtle vice, working often in its beginning without being perceived. But grief and sadness are at the be- ginning of vexation and anger, and act as stimulants to these pas- sions ; and when the excitement of passion subsides the dregs that remain are a more bitter grief and more desolating sadness. St Paul says: "The sadness of the world worketh death ",t And according to Ecclesiasticus : "Sadness hath killed many, and there is no profit in it "4 Hence the soul has great need of patience to keep her from sadness.
Vexation is the beginning of anger, which has many degrees from mild resentment to outrageous fury. Anger is a sensitive, irascible, vindictive passion, a complication of many passions with one prevailing appetite, the appetite of revenge. It springs out of grief and sadness, owing to some real or imaginary dis- paragement, offence, contempt, or injury, threatened or inflicted upon us, or upon some one dear to us, and it awakens in us the appietite of retorting wrong or avenging injury. As anger rises to the height of passion the blood starts up, the nerves are shook, the heart becomes tumid, the brain is suffused, the mouth trembles,
* S. Thomas. Sum. 2. 2. q. 36. a. I. f 2 Corinthians vil io« X Ecclus. XXX. 25.
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22
ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
the tongue is impeded in its utterance, the face glows with baleful fire, the whole man is a painful and unsightly spectacle. The excitement of the animal man overwhelms the spiritual man, and reason sinks under the masterful dominion of passion. It is an intoxication and a madness for the time it lasts.
If we look into the interior of the angry man, he can be no longer recognized for what he was. Imagination has usurped the place of reason, and crowds the mind with hateful images and vindictive motives. " Lashed with anger, the soul is all in dis- order, her peace has fled, and, rent and torn with sharp and bitter trouble, that soul is herself no longer. She has lost the power derived from her resemblance to God." * The mind has lost its guiding light, the will its rational power, pride takes the place of. good sense, hatred the place of charity, and vindictiveness the place of justice ; and yet anger affects to be nothing less nor more than justice. To quote the experience of one who had long to contend with great anger under great and ignominious sufferings : " An excited mind ceases to reason ; carried away by a resistless torrent of wild ideas, it forms for itself a sort of mad logic, full of anger and malignity ; it is a state of soul as unphilosophical as it is - absolutely unchristian f
Anger opens the door to all the vices and passions ; and as that guardian virtue of patience is thrust aside, there is nothing left that can prevent their entrance. Hence tumidity, grief, rashness, audacity, clamour, contention, strife, hatred, insult, contumely, indignation, and violence, all follow after anger, and feed its desolating flames. It smothers reason, conf6unds wrong with right, extinguishes prudence, breaks up friendship, treads down the wisdom of counsel, befools the wise, lacerates gravity, destroys peace, and shuts out the Holy Spirit from the Christian soul. It has been well observed by Hugo of St. Victor that "as pride takes man from God, and envy takes the man from his neighbour, anger takes the man from himself". %
We have described the vice of anger in its full-blown pride and disorder, and in its deadly degree, because when a vice is seen in all its magnitude we are better able to see what vicious and hateful elements it contains; and so can more easily understand that
•S. Greg. Mag. Moral, in Job, L. v. c 30. . + Silvio Pell ico, Le mie Prigionu X Hugo de S. Viclore, De SeptenariiSy c. Ii.
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OF CHRISTIAN PATIENCE.
23
even in its less and lower degrees the germs of those same vices are not wanting, although they escape the observation of those who are unaccustomed to much self-examination. But sensitive- ness, touchiness, annoyance, and such smaller degrees of im- patience are not without irritation and interior disturbance ; but when it comes to displeasure, discontent, murmuring, resentment, vexation, retort, indignation, or disdain, there is a degree of anger in the soul, not without at least an equal degree of sadness.
But it is precisely these degrees of irritation and vexation, when first rising from our inferior nature, and making themselves sen- sible to our superior nature, to our light, and to our conscience, that present the most numerous occasions for self-discipline, by the exercise of which our patience may be armed and fortified against more serious attacks of anger. The first movements of impatience, the first uneasiness of dissatisfaction, are warnings to patience to be upon its guard, lest trouble arise to disturb the soul and take hold of the will. If we calmly look down from the superior soul upon the first movements of irritation or impa- tience, nothing can appear more contemptible ; and under the rebuke of the gaze of our interior eye they vanish in shame. One has seen from Alpine heights a little white cloud down in the valley below, which, unless some wind blows its away, will rapidly swell and grow until the whole region is enveloped in mist, fog, and rain. So is it with the first little cloud of troubjp and discon- tent that moves in our lower nature : the breath of patience will disperse it, but if left to itself it will quickly grow on what it feeds upon, and will envelop and fill the soul with anger and vexation. For anger is a brooding vice that feeds on sensitive self-love and imaginary wrong fer beyond the original offence, if indeed offence has been given.
It is a good point of prudence to realize to ourselves the good qualities of those with whom we have to act, and which are almost always more and better in the heart than appears on the surface, and yet not to forget their obvious limitations and infir- mities ; that we may not only not misjudge their intentions, but may also know what we can justly expect from them, and what we cannot reasonably look for. This will . save an enormous amount of misconception, rash judgment, irritation, and vexation. We have all very different characters, and the difference arises from our personal limitations, which are owing partly to nature,
24
ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
partly to the circumstances that have attended upon our several lives, and much to the habits in which we have been formed. But it is absurd to expect the same habits, sentiments, qualities, and powers in all persons, to judge all persons by the same standard, to exact what does not exist, and then give way to annoyance and discontent because we have not found what we desired. As the old proverb says, we must take people for what they are, and make just and due allowances, remembering that others have to allow for our limitations.
If a man chooses a partner in life for certain good qualities, and finds with time that some others are deficient, the whole happiness of that family depends upon his forbearance with respect to those limitations, and upon his doing his best to supply them. The same may be said of those who elect their superiors ; one is chosen by preference for certain leading quali- ties, but there may be limitations as well \ yet how preposterous would it be for subjects to fix their minds upon those minor deficiencies, and to make them the occasion of murmuring, complaint, and discontent, forgetting all the good qualities for which that person was chosen. A little society comes together, under certain regulations, for one common purpose ; but unless the members of that society make mutual allowance for the diversity of characters and limitations of which it is composed, unless they bear and forbear, give and take, with equal goodwill, contention and anger will enter that society and rend its happi- ness asunder. The Apostolic rule- "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ,"* is the law of patient charity.
Applying this law to religious societies, the venerable Gerard, commenting on the Rule that formed the author of the Imitation of Christ, breaks forth in this exclamation : " Never, no, eternally never, can charity and concord reign in a community where holy patience does not absolutely rule ".f
Such is the difference of natures, temperaments, and inclina- tions, that it is impossible for a number of persons to live and act together in peace with each one, and in concord with all, unless each one holds his sensitive self-love under the control of patience, and merges his private interests in the common good.
* Galatians vi. 2, t Gerardus Belga, in cap, 58, S, Regula.
OF CHRISTIAN PATIENCE.
25
St Paul had this great law of Christian society in view when he wrote these words to the Galatians : " You have been called unto hberty : only make not your liberty an occasion to the flesh, but by charity of the spirit serve one another. But if you bite and devour one another; take heed you be not consumed by one another. ... If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit Let us not be made desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another."*
Almost every one has some defect in body, manners, conduct, or way of thinking and speaking ; and we have not unfrequently to come in contact with those who are rude or even vicious ; but if we lose sight of what is due to the immortal soul, and give way to annoyance, disgust, or loathing, we lose our patience, become deformed ourselves by that loss, and inflict wounds on our own charity and on that which is due to our neighbour. Now, if we trace this conduct to its root, we shall find that it originates in the impatience of fastidious self-love ; yet if we profess to follow Christ, and to imitate His ways, we should remember that He chose for Himself a society of simple, uncultivated persons, and conversed affectionately with publicans and sinners. We forget how others have to bear with our defects, and that we are a cause of trial to our neighbours. Blinded by self-love, we see the mote in our brother's eye, and forget the beam in om own.
There is nothing that drives us to impatience so vehemently, or throws us into greater interior disorder, than an injury, or the imagination of an injury, which is far more frequent than real injury. For sensitive persons, who have but little interior self- discipline, are prompt to imagine themselves injured in word or deed ; and what is greatly to be noted, they are much more inclined to imagine themselves injured by their friends and by their superiors than by other persons. The reason is because they attach more importance to their affection, claim more of their indulgence, and suffer more intensely if they think that they are undervalued or disparaged by them. Should they become dissatisfied with themselves, and therefore conscious of blame, they readily suspect that others disesteem them, and are quick to interpret their words and acts in that sense. Then a little spark sets their soul in flames. Such persons ought to set a law on
♦ Galatians, v. 13-15 and 25-26.
26
ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
their imagination, and keep their inflammable suspicions of wrong under the control of patience ; they ought to suspect their own suspicions, which experience tells them are often unjust, or their sensitive self-love will never leave them in peace. For many things are said and done without the least intention of injury ; some from quickness of tongue, some from inadvertence or thoughtlessness, some in good-natured jest, some from good intentions, some from mere imprudence ; and no one has any right to take any of them in bad part, and so commit himself to anger, grief, and sadness.
Few there are who have not observed that even the just cor- rection of those whose duty it is to correct, instead of being taken in good part, is too often converted into anger, grief, and sadness by weak souls, who exhibit thereby a spirit at once mean and ungrateful. Where such is the case, rebuke has justified itself and has revealed to that soul an interior state of disorder that calls for the most vigorous redress. It is high time for that soul to become offended with her own conduct
But if any one should falsely or maliciously assail our good name and reputation — a mode of detraction not limited, alas ! to the children of the world — let us, in that case, keep our magna- nimity, that our virtue may be stronger than another's vice, and that our patience may suffer no loss by reason of another's improbity. Rather should we rejoice in the Lord that He has called us by these means to greater justice, which is commonly bom, receives its growth, and obtains perfection among injuries and insults. In the nature of things, justice is hated by injustice ; and therefore our Lord was hated by Judas, by the Sadducees, and by the Pharisees. But He has promised a great beatitude to those who suffer injuries with patience.
There are also abundant occasions given us for the discipline of patience in those material things and events, which are opposed to our inclinations and desires by necessity, and independently of our choice. Such are corporal infirmities and maladies, intense heat or cold, severity of weather, the uncomplying nature of materials in which we work, and other like things. However unreasonable it may be to give way to vexation or anger with things insensible, yet many have so little wisdom as to lose their peace and patience over them. Nay, some have so little patience as to lose temper over the bite of a fly, the dulness of a pen, the
OF CHRISTIAN PATIENCE.
27
bluntness of a knife, or the tightness of a shoe. Like little children devoid of reason, they will ascribe guiltiness to things incapable of intention, and have their little revenge upon them at the expense of their sense, patience, and serenity.
We come at last to those great calamities in which individuals, families, and whole communities are involved or overwhelmed, whether by the injuries of men or the visitation of God. Such misfortunes try the constancy of the brave, and expose feebler souls to the danger of desponding sadness. Now, if reason should prove unavailing to set a measure to grief, let faith prevail ; and when all seems lost on earth, let us look up to Heaven for better things. For when things are at their worst according to the world, if the calamity is rightly used, they begin to be at their best according to God. All things are in God's hands, to give or take as He chooses ; and an immortal soul is more precious in His sight than all that the world can give. When He strips a soul of earthly things. He calls upon that soul to look to Him and to trust in His care and providence. His dispositions are wonderful; He plays in the world with the children of men, stripping but to clothe more generously ; striking but to heal ; casting down but to raise up ; bringing to the gates of death, and restoring to life. When holy Job was stripped of his earthly goods and all his dear ones, the God who holds all things in His hands remained to Him; and therefore he kept his patience, and held to God with unswerving trust ; whilst the voice of his resignation arose in these memorable words : " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away : as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done : blessed be the name of the Lord. In all these things Job sinned not with his lips, nor spoke any foolish thing against God." ♦ " And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning." t
There is nothing really lost so long as God is with us, nothing there- fore to be despaired of. As long as we are simple, upright, fearing God and departing from evil, placing our hope in God and not in the prudence of the world, He has care of His servants, will turn their calamities into blessings, and will not leave their patience unrequited. Divine is that patience of hope which in the heaviest as in the lightest trials looks to God, trusts to God alone, and fills the soul with the conviction that whilst God is with us nothing can be against us.
♦ Job i. 21-22. t Job xlii. 12.
28
ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
It would seem needless to advance more reasons on the duty of bearing adversities with patient resignation, because on this sub- ject every one can be his own teacher. Who is not ready to raise up the mind of his friend or neighbour from the depth of grief? Who is not able to direct the mind of one saddened with affliction to the divine help, to the unreasonableness of too much sorrow, and to the inestimable value of patience ? He will even minister gentle rebukes on the folly of being overwhelmed with too much sadness. Yet when his own turn comes, he forgets the excellent teaching that he gave to others, and will let no one soften down his grief. Thus the words that Eliphaz babbled so unjustly to the patient Job come home in all their truth and justice to many a consoler: "Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands : thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees: but now the scourge has come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled. Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways ? " •
How shall we explain this apparent inconsistency ? The fault is not in the light of the understanding but in the resolution of the will. Our faith, our instructions, our meditations, and our prayer leave us in no ignorance of what we ought to do. We know well that in every grief and trial we ought to direct our mind and acts to God; but when we have neglected to form our interior to habits of patience, and our will has been too much devoted to the service of self-love, many things become difficult to endure. So when the hour of trial comes, the will loses sight of the truth, refuses to be patient, and casts off the law of light. The disorder therefore is in the will ; but the cure is also in the will. Holy Job was not patient by nature, but by the force of virtuous habits in his will. The remedy is to waken up the will to the generous resolution of enduring with a magnanimous spirit whatever God ordains that we should endure with resignation and hope ; looking to no secondary causes, but accepting the will of God as the first and ruling cause, until it be His good pleasure to take away the burden.
Returning for a moment to the vice of anger, it should be thoroughly understood that all inordinate anger includes in it a
* Job iv. 3-6.
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disposition to revenge, greater or less according to the degree of anger, even though it be but a retort in word or feeling, and that word or feehng be concealed in the breast. In fact, the anger that is kept within is more wasting and consuming than the anger that finds relief in expression. St. James has this element of vindictive- ness in view where he says : " Let every man be slow to anger, for the anger of man worketh not the justice of God ".* And St. Paul is more explicit. He says : " If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men. Not revenging yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place to wrath ; for it is written : Eevenge to me ; I will repay ^ saith the Lord." t
Anger is not a movement of power, but a weak affection of nature destructive of power, although the angry man mistakes it for power, and at the time revels in it with a sense of satisfaction, as if it were a triumph of strength. But that satisfaction is already mixed with the misgivings of sadness ; unless resisted on its first approach, nothing grows so rapidly. Hence the apostolic rule : " Give place to wrath Yield before it, retreat from it; if needful, and occasion offers, retreat from the occasion of it. If anger comes upon you, says St. Ambrose, if it begins to take hold of you, give place to it, and take your own place. Your place is in patience ; your place is in reasonableness ; your place is in calming down your indignation. It is no small thing to calm down anger ; it is an act as great as if you had remained unmoved. This is nature, that is virtue. J
But the question arises: Is there a just anger? Unques- tionably there is a just anger, or rather a just indignation, which belongs properly to parents, to those who are placed in authority, and to those whose duty it is to correct and amend disorder or vice, and especially the disorder of insubordination. And some- times this just indignation becomes a duty that cannot be omitted without sharing the evil that is fostered by the absence of it. But we must carefully distinguish between vicious anger and just indig- nation. Vicious anger springs firom passion, virtuous indignation moves from reason; vicious anger bhnds the reason, virtuous indignation acts in the light of justice ; vicious^anger has an evil purpose, virtuous indignation has good for its object ; vicious
S. James i. 19-20. t Romans xii. i8-2i. X S. Ambros. De Officiis^ c. 21.
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OISI THE NATURE AND OBJECT
anger multiplies evil, virtuous indignation corrects evil; vicious anger is moved by the malicious appetite of revenge, virtuous indignation is moved by the zeal of vindicating the law and order established by God. Hence the Psalmist admonishes us : " Be angry and sin not And our Divine Lord arose in the spirit of indignation against the Pharisees on account of the pride and hypocrisy with which they misled the people of God from the truth, and against the buyers and sellers who profaned the temple
But where correction requires the emotions of indignation to give it due effect, this ought not to be allowed to go beyond just reason and measure ; and, therefore, reflection should go before correction. For whoever corrects another from the impulse of inordinate anger will himself be inflamed by the vice of anger ; he will exceed the measure of justice, and do more harm than good. Explaining the text, " Be angry and sin not," St. Bernard justly observes : " You may sin as much by excess of anger as by omitting anger altogether. Not to be angry when you ought to be angry, not to correct the disorder, is sinful ; but to be more angry than you ought to be is to add sin to sin."t It is with a view to keeping the just measure of anger that St. Gregory gives us this most valuable advice : " Take great care that when you use anger as an instrument of virtue you do not let it become your master. Make it the obedient servant of your reason ; let it never depart from the support of reason. It will rise with vigour against vice when made the minister of reason."^
Reflecting in after life upon the grief and bitter anger against which he had to struggle under harsh and inhuman treatment during the ten years of his imprisonment, Silvio Pellico makes the following reflections, which, as coming from experience, are not unworthy of being here entertained :
" If I were a divine I should often insist upon the necessity ol correcting irritability and inquietude of character; none can be truly good without that being effected. How nobly pacific, both with regard to Himself and others, was He whom we are all bound to imitate! There is.no elevation of mind, no justice without moderation in our principles and thoughts, without a" pervading
• Psalm iv. 5. t S. Bernard, Epist, 69, ad Guidonem Abbatem. t S. Greg. Mag. in Job, L. v. c 33.
of God.
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spirit which inclines us to smile at the events of this little life, rather than fall into a passion with them. Anger is never produc- tive of any good, except in the extremely rare case of being employed to humble the wicked, even as the usurers wcra driven by our angry Saviour from defiling His holy temple. Excitement and violence, perhaps different altogether from what I felt, are no less blameable. Mine was the mania of affliction and despair ; I felt a disposition, while suffering under its horrors, to hate man- kind. Several individuals in particular appeared to my imagina- tion in the most revolting colours. It is a sort of moral epidemic, I believe, springing from vanity and selfishness ; for when a man despises and detests his fellow creatures, he necessarily assumes
that he is much better than the rest of the world It is
a curious fact that living in a state of hostility and rage actually affords a pleasure ; it seems as if people thought there was a kind of heroism in it . • , . Such is the world, and, without utter- ing a libel, it is not what it ought to be.*' •
To complete this part of our subject, St. John Chrysostom has an admirable discourse in which he demonstrates that no one can be spiritually injured except by himself.t The only good we have that is excellent and imperishable is our soul, and the good which God gives to the soul. But by nothing except our own will can the soul or its good suffer injury. So long as one possesses one's soul in patience, no one can take any part of that good away from us. We can only lose the good of the soul by not holding to it with constancy, and we thus sin by losing patience. If we yield up the will to provocation or to temptation, it slips from our con- trol, and suffers its force to be scattered and blown away at the word or stroke of another; and it is thus at the mercy of our lower nature, becoming weakened, impassioned, and unreasonable. Yet the injury and loss to the soul comes not from the provoker, not from the tempter, not from the temptation, but from our own want of patience, in not holding the will to a better object, that we may endure with constancy until the trial pass away. Vexa- tion, anger, and such like weaknesses, that give the will up to dis- order for the time, are like mental derangement, in that they are attended with excitement, delusion, and the clouding of reason, to
* Silvio Pellico, Le mie Prigioni^ c. 1 7. + S. J. Chrysost. Horn, Quod nemo Iccditur nisi a semeiipso.
32 ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
such an extent, that when calm and sober sense returns, we are surprised and grieved to find that we have not only lost our self- command but have committed ourselves to a great deal of folly.
But when the soul is truly patient, neither what afflicts the body nor what assails the soul can really do us injury. On the contrary, the soul becomes enriched with stronger virtue, and tliat fortitude is confirmed whereby we hold to God. " For which cause," says St. Paul, " we faint not ; but though the outward man is corrupted : yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our present tribulation, which is momentary and light, worketh for us exceed- ingly above measure an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know, if our earthly house of this habitation is dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven." *
Every inordinate outbreak of impatience, vexation, or anger is accompanied with sadness, and terminates in greater sadness. Self-love is wounded, pride humiliated, vanity disappointed and put to shame, and sadness follows, depressing the soul, enfeebling the spirit, clouding the mind, warping the judgment, and paralyz- ing all generous virtue. The tendency of sadness is to brood over one*s self, and to consider one's self as an ill-used and disappointed creature, deserving of better things. Then the fumes of melan- choly take possession of the heart, which becomes sullen, heavy, and bitter, and finds a miserable satisfaction in nursing the wounds of self-love in loneliness of soul, as though God and our friends were our adversaries. In the virulent accesses of this morbid disorder, the sad one even imagines that this lonely isolation is a sort of revenge upon others, as if they were the inflictors of this bitterness, although it is only inflicted by one's own self-love and pride.
Hence sadness is the most selfish of all selfish things, and the very essence of sel^ eating and consuming the very heart of virtue. The serpent coiled round its slimy self, with no other feeling but of self, is the image of sadness. In itself, so long as it lasts, it has neither reason, hope, charity, nor generosity. We have described this vice in its darker degrees ; but there are many other kinds of
* 2 Corinthians iv. i6 — v. i.
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it, which, if not so gross or offensive, are more subtle and less observed, but which, nevertheless, become great impediments to the freedom and generosity of the soul, especially in the perform- ance of duty and in the exercise of prayer.
In his comment on the definition of patience given by St. Thomas, Cardinal Cajetan gives us these pertinent remarks : " * In your patience you shall possess your soul \ This possession con- sists in having the undisturbed and peaceful dominion of the soul. But it is patience that keeps away whatever disturbs this quiet possession of one's self j and it is in this sense that St. James tells us that * patience hath a perfect work \ But whilst cheerfulness looks to what we love and desire, sadness looks to what we do not like and would not have ; and what we do not like we hold in fear, and fear is much less in our power than those delightful thoughts that inspire cheerfulness. If, then, we take a morbid pleasure in sadness, it becomes far more injurious to the soul than the fear of evil. We must not forget that the virtues are connected with each other, and that charity is patient. But as charity prefers God to all things, it must prefer God to all those things that sadden the soul ; and as Christian patience is caused by charity, and cannot exist without charity, whatever we have to suffer should be en- dured with patience for the sake of the greatest good, that is, for the love of God, and the doing of His will." ♦
From this exposition the conclusion is obvious. Charity looks with the cheerful eye of generous love to God as to the greatest and most desirable good. Sadness looks with the troubled eye of self-love to the things we dislike and would not have. Thus sad- ness takes us from the greatest good, the good of charity, and places us in the evil condition of cheerless and discontented self- love, in which the soul feeds on the bitterness of self in a state of privation and disappointment. But that this may not happen, patience is given to charity, that by its power of endurance charity may be protected, and the evil of sadness may be kept away from invading the soul.
There is "a sorrow according to God," which, says St. Paul, " worketh penance steadfast unto salvation *\t But this steadfast- ness implies its patience. This is a sorrow that does not depress or sadden, but it elevates the mind and brings consolation to the
* Cajetan. in Summam S. 77toma, 2. 2. q. 136. + 2 Corinthians vii. 10.
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ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
soul. It causes no loathing for prayer as the sadness of the world does, but attracts the soul to God, and only laments those things that separate the soul from Him. It is the fulfilment of the beati- tude : " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted But that morbid sorrow or "sadness according to the world," which, as the Apostle says, "worketh death," and to which patience is opposed, is an animal passion that dwells in the sensual appetite. It springs out of irascibility and from repugnance to the evils which it fears, and is seated in the flame of anger. For the object of sadness is always some temporary evil, real or imaginary, which is thought to be injurious, although offensive to nothing but self- love.
When sadness is much indulged in, there follows a contraction of mind, a weakening of the soul's power, a dissolving of the heart's strength, and an embittering of the spirit, which causes restless discomfort, and brings forth indignation and melancholy. These unhappy feelings generate impatience, discontent, despite- fulness, sloth, and weariness of heart. A certain darkness closes over the mind immersed in the turbid unction of self-love, so that the soul sees not her own folly ; and although the will commonly shrinks in its morbid entanglement from expressing the condition of the soul, yet whenever speech is given to it, it comes out in some way like this: "I am not at comfort with myself": or, "I am annoyed with myself" : or, " I am vexed with myself" : or, "I have no peace with myself": or, "I am thoroughly miser- able Observe how all this language of sadness begins and ends in self. Observe also how it points to the drowning of patience in the flood of sadness. Remark again how it breathes of nothing but wounded self-love mortifying in its own bitterness.
Very much of this sadness comes from fixing the mind on the secondary causes of what tries or afflicts our nature, instead of looking to the first and most beneficent cause in the will of God. The winds of heaven, the plunderers firom the desert, and the malignity of Satan were the secondary causes of Job's afflictions ; but he in his patient resignation went straight to the first cause : "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." The privations, trials, or sufferings that befall us are either directed or permitted by the ordinance of God, and that with a view to our final good. And the virtue of patience is given us that we may be able to meet them and profit by them.
OF CHRISTIAN PATIENCE.
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God knows what we stand in need of far better than we know ourselves. Our trials are the fatherly dispositions of His provi- dence ; and it is idle to fix our mind on human causes, when they are ruled in the results that affect us by the one Divine Cause. They are brought upon us for our probation, our correction, or the expiation of our sins. They are designed to waken up in us the nobler and more vigorous and enduring virtues. They estab- lish the soul in discipline by the force of that patience and magna- nimity which they demand of us. They prove our love of God and our neighbour, by the forbearance and the endurance which they call upon us to exert. They refine away those noxious humours, the products of self-love and sloth, that obstruct and impede the generous flow of spiritual life. They plant in us the ground seed of merit, and prepare the rewards of endurance. They make us generous in conforming our will to the will of God. Hence the cheerful endurance of trials and sufferings is a virtue truly sublime, reaching its heroic degrees in the martyrs and con- fessors of God It places us in spirit with Christ upon the cross, upon that cross which He commands us to carry after Him all the days of this mortal life. It gives us a likeness and a lot with Him in the great work of our salvation, which is all included in the mystery of His cross. With the exceeding patience of His love for us. He suffered exceedingly > and our patient endurance of labour and suffering is the greatest proof we can give of our love of God in Christ Jesus.
But when we come to those interior trials that touch the very marrow of our life, we must apply these reflections in a yet more exalted sense. We are made to enjoy God, and the soul delights in the first fruits of the Holy Spirit. But we must be purified before we can be sanctified ; and we must deserve God, as far as we are able, by becoming more like to His Incarnate Son, cruci- fied in spirit as well as in body. Those interior aridities and desolations of spirit, those anxieties arising from unpremeditated scruples, those unsought distractions and temptations that try the patience of the soul, are the crucifixions of the spirit, and call upon us for fortitude and endurance. They reveal our native weakness, correct our self-love, sweep out pride and levity, teach us humility, purify the soul of her vain conceits, put our fidelity to the proof, and compel us to have recourse to the remedy of patience. For unless we are very patient and enduring under
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ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
these interior trials, sadness will invade the soul, will greatly endanger her light, her freedom, and her charity, and bring her under the dominion of the worst form of self-love, of that self-love which murmurs and complains in its bitterness, and makes prayer a painful and reluctant exercise.
Be it then understood and remembered that the darkness of trial is not evil, that dryness of spirit is not sin, that confusion of mind is not malice. They are invitations to patience, calls to re- signation, beckonings to the healing cross, admonitions to be humble and obedient to the will of God. Faith is asked to adhere with patience to God in the dark ; but this is the perfection of faith. Hope is called upon to cleave with trust to the good which, though present, is neither sensibly felt nor seen ; but this is the sublimity of hope. Charity asks in those hours of desolation for the substance rather than the accidents of the love of God ; for the pure will and desire of love without its sensibilities; for patient conformity with Christ crucified and desolate ; for the courageous desire of God without he reward of present delight. But this is that strong, pure, unselfish God-seeking love, which is the more meritorious from the absence of present delight. The test of this brave and vigorous love is in the earnestness of its desire, and in the patience of its resignation. Yet God is secretly present with the soul, and whilst that suffering soul is humbled in the con- sciousness of her infirmity, in reward for her patience she receives a secret strength and peace, infused into the depths of her spirit, of which she is not altogether unconscious.
We have said that desire and patience are the proofs that the soul still adheres to God in the hour of interior trial. For she will then enter into the spirit of the Psalmist : " Be thou, O my soul, subject to God ; for from Him is my patience. For He is my God, and my Saviour : He is my helper, I shall not be moved." * But when the dark cloud breaks, and the sun of justice shines forth anew to the thirsting soul with brighter beams than before, she emerges from her trial more pure, luminous, and firm in virtue by reason of her faith and patience in the day of distress. " Son," says the wise Ecclesiasticus, "when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation. Humble thy heart, and endure ; incline thy ear, and receive the
♦ Psalm Ixi. 6-7.
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words of understanding ; and make not haste in the day ot clouds. Wait on God with patience ; join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end. Take all that shall be brought upon thee ; and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy hymi- liation keep patience. For gold and . silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Believe God, and He will recover thee ; and do thou direct thy way, and trust Him." Then, to lift us out of fear and disheartenment, the Wise Man sets before us these high motives for our encouragement: "My children, behold the generations of men; and know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded. For who hath continued in His commandment, and hath been forsaken ? Or who hath called upon Him, and He hath despised him ? For God is compassionate and merciful, and will forgive sins in the day of tribulation, and He is a protector to all who seek Him in truth." *
But if in our interior trials we lose our patience, then we fell into sadness, and so become weak, troubled, and discouraged. For as by patience we adhere to God, and receive his strengthen- ing influence, by the same patience we endure the privation of consolation, and resist discouraging fears. But if, in the darkness and dryness of the soul, we give way to disheartening fears, and lose our confidence because we are deprived of comfort, then patience gives way to impatience and discouragement, which open the door to sadness, that greatest enemy of hope, which loosens the bonds of charity, and leaves us in a weak and helpless condition, a prey to mortified self-love ; for sadness brings with it a disrelish of devotion.
Yet the remedy for sadness is prayer. " If any one of you is sad," says St. James, " let him pray,"t But as sadness broods in selfishness, and is inclined to rest rather in our own unhappy thoughts than on God, the soul turns to prayer with reluctance, and therefore in the first instance by an effort. Hence the saddened one must first turn to God by vocal prayer, persevering in which, that reluctance will be overcome, and so the disposition will be recovered for the recollection of mental prayer; and, as the sadness subsides, the spirit will enter anew into the heart of prayer.
The second remedy against sadness is to break out of it by
* Ecclesiasticus ii 1-13. t S. James v. 13.
38 ON THE NATURE AND OBJECT
some external act of kindness or generosity. For the malady consists in a morbid concentration upon one's self, and a brood- ing witliin one's self, that repels sympathy and kindness, as being adverse to this melancholy mood, a mood that can only be cherished in isolation of spirit. But let the will make a little effort to be kind and considerate towards another, and it is amazing how soon that malignant charm is broken that held the soul spell-bound to her saddened thoughts and imaginary griev- ances. A smile, a kind look, a few gentle words, a considerate action, though begun with effort, will suffice to open the soul, and set the spirit free from its delusion. Action, again, in the line of duty, and from the sense of duty, will enable the soul to throw off the morbidity with which she is encumbered ; and by the return to more cheerful thoughts she will recover her patience.
As every virtue holds on its way between two vices that bear some resemblance to it, the one in excess, the other in defect ; patience holds on its way between the vice of obstinacy, as an excess, and the vice of impatience, as a defect. Obstinacy arises either from stupidity or pride. It looks like patience, because it seems to hold its own, and to resist what is not its own. But patience is reasonable, and obstinacy is unreasonable; patience resists what is evil, and obstinacy resists what is good ; patience is tranquil, and obstinacy is turbulent. Impatience is the vice in defect of patience. When it rises into irritation and anger it is often mistaken for strength, but ':he strength of the soul is in her patience. When a man is filled with the impatience of anger from head to foot, he will tell you that he was never more calm or self-possessed in his life; he mistakes the equable balance of excitement and disturbance throughout his system for calmness and self-possession. He is possessed indeed, but possessed by an impatience and a weakness that hurry him away from the light of reason and the judgment of prudence into acts of folly, the retrospect of which produces sadness.
Charity and patience form the Christian character. To love God, and in that divine charity to love all that God loves, is to expand the flame of life in the soul, whereby the spirit is enlarged with the communion of eternal good, and with every kind of good. But patience is the strength and solidity of charity, that makes this golden virtue firm and steadfast; that keeps back the im- petuosity of nature and its temptations firom injuring the flame of
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love ; and, by its discipline, preserves the soul in serenity and peace. The union of these two virtues into one ardour and strength, brings the sweetness of meekness, and completes the lucid image of Christ in the soul, making her beautiful in the sight of our Heavenly Father.
When it is considered what a power is given by Christian patience to creatures by nature so feeble and inconstant, we cannot but see that its origin is divine. What a motive for striving to bring its grace into the virtue that gives us the pos- session of ourselves ! There is only one evil in the sight of God, and that evil is sin. Sin arises from the impatience that will not adhere to God, and keep the will steadfast to His law and commandments. But it is the nature of Christian patience to rest on God, and to hold with firm tenacity to whatever He enjoins. Whatever else are called evils, such as temporal privations, trials and sufferings, are so izx from being evils to the patient soul, that in this present providence they are in the order of good. They are evils to those impatient souls that make them the occasions of sin ; but those patient ones derive their power from God to trans- form the sense of these evils into virtues that enrich the soul, and bring her to her Eternal Good.
The restoration of man to God should therefore bring him back to that patience, through the loss of which he ceased to abide in God and in His will But that restoration is accom- plished through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who exhibited, both to His Father and to men, the perfection of humility and patience from the beginning to the ending of His mortal life. The Father gave His patience to the Son, and with that divine patience the Son overcame all His enemies and ours ; and gave that patience to us, that by its help we may master our weakness, and overcome in every hostile encounter. For, in the words of St. Leo : " The Passion of the Lord continues still, and even to the end of the world. As He is loved in His Saints, and is fed and clothed in His poor; so He endures in those who su£fer patiently for justice' sake."*
Wherefore the great Apostle sets patience before us as the power that resists the entrance of sin, and exhorts us in the vehemence of the Holy Spirit, to keep the patience of Christ
• S. Leo, Serm, Ult De Passione Domini,
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40 NA TUREAND OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN PA TIENCE.
before us in all its exercise. He says to the Hebrews : " Laying aside every weight and sin that surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us : looking upon Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who, having joy set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth at the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently on Him that endured such contradiction firom sinners against Himself : that you be not weary, fainting in your minds. For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." * And, to show the great value of trials for perfecting patience, and how intimately patience is bound up with charity, the Apostle says again : " We glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience : and patience probation : and probation hope. And hope confoundeth not ; because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, through the Holy Ghost, who is given to
us."t
* Hebrews xil 1-4. 'l* Romans v. 3.5.
LECTURE III.
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
*• In all things let ns exhibit ourselves in much patience." — 2 Corinthians vi. 4.
/^WING to the habit of thinking of the virtues individually
V->/ and separately, and to the method of thus treating of them in books, we are too much disposed to lose sight of their close con- nection with each other, and of the way in which they act, not only with each other, but within each other. The distinctions between them have their foundations in their objects, and to understand these distinctions is a valuable and useful instruction. But that knowledge is equally valuable and instructive which enables us to understand how they act in union and mutual co-operation, giving animation, support, vigour, or protection to one another. One colour cannot make a picture, nor one virtue a saint ; many colours unite and blend their shades to form a beautiful work of art, and many virtues unite and blend together in happy mixtures to make a beautiful soul.
As all the virtues have their seat in the will, and there unite, they flow into each other, help each other mutually, and are most perfect when most united. But this connection and co-opera- tion is much more intimate in the Christian tlian in the natural virtues, because they have their origin in the divine principle of grace, converge proportionately to their perfection to one final end, and are all animated by one and the same life of charity. All the Christian virtues live in the light of faith, all look to hope, all obtain their life from the love of God. They are founded in humility, ruled by justice, guided by prudence, sustained by fortitude, preserved by temperance, strengthened and protected by patience. Christian fortitude is a profounder degree of Chris-
42 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
tian patience. It is a gift of the Holy Ghost, and patience is in- cluded in it as the less in the greater.
Whilst each virtue has its own object, certain virtues are called universal, because, besides their own special object, they enter into every other virtue, and assist every other virtue in obtaining its object. Of these, next to charity, patience is the most impor- tant ; for, to recall the words of St. Zeno, " all things look to patience". Neither faith, hope, charity, nor justice — neither humility nor charity nor any other virtue can hold together, or keep on its way, without the nerve, restraint, and discipline of patience. Hence it has been called the virtue of the virtues, as giving to them all their strength, stability, and perseverance. It has also been called the chief part of virtue, as being the abiding force that carries them through their difficulties. If you ask the reason, you will find it in the weakness, irritability, and inconstancy of our nature, rendered so much more infirm through its fall and sin. But this requires a large explanation, which will help us to know ourselves and to understand what help we require to make us constant and peaceful.
If we examine the whole of the virtues, we shall find them divisible into two kinds according to the work that they do for the soul. One of these 4inds seeks to reach good, the other removes the obstacles that prevent us from seeking good. Of the kind that directly seeks good are faith, hope, charity, justice, and religion ; of the kind that removes the obstacles to good are humility, temperance, self-denial, and repentance. But patience, which, as St. Zeno remarks, " is less in multiplying than in per- fecting the virtues," belongs to both kinds of virtue. It comes with charity, derives the fire of its energy from the charity of the Holy Ghost, and gives it perfection. On that part it causes the will to adhere to God with constancy, and sustains the other virtues that directly seek God ; for they work perfectly in propor- tion as they work patiently. But it has another work, a work of which we are more conscious, in strengthening those virtues that resist evil and all that disturbs the peace and self-possession of the soul. Whilst, therefore, patience is conservative of the virtues that seek good, it is the strength and stay of those virtues that remove the obstacles to good. It is for this reason that St Gregory calls it the root and guardian of the virtues, and that St Cyprian teaches that it is both the expeller of evil and the keeper
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE, 43
of good. This brings us back to St. Augustine's definition of the virtue, that by patience we cheerfully endure evils with an equable mind, that we may not, through an evil disposition, desert that good which brings us to our greatest good.
A soul given to impatience loses strength from every virtue and weakens her hold of all that is good ; she has not the spiritual nerve to hold herself together ; for in the impatient soul there is a restlessness, a wavering, a want of spiritual fibre, a swerving from good intention, and a want of steadfastness in action that disturbs the soul and undermines the most virtuous resolutions.
Any change that passes in the sense and feeling of such a person — a little restlessness in the nerves, a little weariness of mind, a little trouble in the affections — will disturb her slender patience, lower the tone of her virtue, and even change her intentions. Almost any change in outward circumstances — an alteration in the weather, a piece of bad news, a sharp word, or some little interference with what one is doing, however well intended — will be sufficient to alter the dispositions of the heart and change the current and colour of one's thoughts, as the impatient soul vibrates from one thing to another, and rushes in desire from the present duty to something that the imagination represents as more congenial. With the growth of impatience comes the disinclination to dwell on those divine and unchange- able truths which agree not with the spirit of restless change, and a yet greater disinclination to hold to those divine motives that invite us to constancy and lead us to act with a view to our spiritual good ; for our impatience engages us with the sense of our own discomfort, dissipates the spirit of recollection, and scatters the power of attention, to the great damage of all stability of purpose.
Think of the unregenerated condition of the mortal body, with its flame of concupiscence lusting against the spirit, its restless sensibilities, its petulant appetites, its disorderly movements, its reluctance to be brought under subjection to the law of the spirit, its ever-changing irritabilities, and those crooked instincts of evil that through the imagination move upon the soul, all tending to trouble her peace, and to overthrow the virtues. Unless patience be there to resist and withstand the inflowings of irritation, curio- sity, and cupidity, it is impossible for the soul to preserve her own proper good, or to secure its augmentation ; for every virtue and
44 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
the good of every virtue is open to temptation and loss through yielding to the restless irritability of our mortal frame. Even those who have obtained a calm external demeanour for social pur- poses by artificial training are not thereby delivered in any degree from their internal disturbances.
Then in the soul herself there is that terrible disorder of self- love, giving birth to pride and vanity, those fearful irritators, weakeners, and dividers of the soul, that interfere so much with the advancing movements of all the virtues, and give rise to such an amount of impatience and disturbance, and, being in close league with the animal senses, leave nothing in its right place, nothing in its just union with its proper good and strength, nothing in en- during peace.
The good of the soul is spiritual like herself but immeasurably greater than herself. It is the littleness of self-love that makes her impatient of a good so much greater than self-love can aim at, or anything short of charity can aspire to. To reach that good requires a most patient co-operation with the grace of charity. But the disinclination that makes the soul slow and reluctant to seek that spiritual good, reveals the feverish impatience of her greater good with which she is afflicted.
In a perfect spirit thought and will must act in perfect unison, the thought one with the truth, and the will one with the justice contained in that truth. The will must at once reject the evil which truth reveals to the thought. And all the powers of the soul, with the virtues that belong to them, must act in perfect accord with the light in the mind and the justice in the will. This implies a perfect union of the soul with God, to the complete annihilation of inordinate self-love ; and a state of stability in that union, which neither moves from the light of God, nor wavers from the love of God. This stability is the perfect patience of charity. Change that patience into impatience, and the unity of that soul with God, and through God with herself will be shaken and impaired, if not altogether lost.
In the degree in which the soul loses her union with God she glides off from the divine basis of her strength, and there arises division within herself. In consequence of that division her spiritual acts become feeble, wavering, and impatient. The will is often at discord with the mind, and the mind with the truth. Good intentions fail for want of resolution, and feeble acts falter
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ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE, 45
after wavering intentions, and these are soon lost sight of for want of the patience that gives them perseverance. Conscience and conduct are often at disagreement from want of that strength and stability of will which faithfully follows the inspirations of conscience. Such is the fallen man, weakened in all his spiritual joints and sinews through the wasting disease of impatience.
" Man alone is headstrong," says St. Zeno, " alone impatient, taking his daily pleasure in his disorderly emotions. He is given to change. He thinks it a misery to be himself. He is unwilling to see that when he keeps not himself in his just and proper state, he subjects himself to a derangement that is not unlike to lunacy. What is this impatience but a slippery condition of mind, in which the soul acts with hasty and frequent perturbations against her own well-being ? Her actions are unstable, incautious, blind, and improvident ; and she excites herself to her own undoing. Im- patience is a thing without substance, a busy failure divested of personal dignity, putting everything in a state of trouble, disturbing all things in an instant. Impatience is the mother of sin, the nurse of curiosity, the goad to rashness, the author of detestable evils. The death that strangled human salvation burst forth from impatience in the beginning of the world." *
If there is truth in this description of mankind when living in quiet times, how much more applicable is that truth to the un- quiet times in which we are living. All the present conditions of life seem to combine in making men restless and unstable. It looks as if we had fallen upon those latter times predicted by the Prophet Daniel, when " many shall pass to and fro, and knowledge shall be manifold ".f Whatever have been the benefits resulting from the investigations, speculations, and inventions of our times, they have had the effect of producing a moral intoxication on the minds of men, that has turned them away from the pursuit of divine and eternal things, and has changed the tranquil habits of our fathers into habits of restlessness and the love of perpetual movement. Most men have become eager for novelty and change, and they live so much outside themselves as to neglect or even abandon the interior good of their souls. The tree of the know- ledge of good and evil has been shaken for its fruits, and if the knowledge of good has fallen to those who are inclined to good,
* S. Zeno, De Patientia^ c. 3.
t Daniel xii. 4.
46 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
the knowledge of evil has fallen in great abundance to those who are inclined to evil. We live in the midst of a restless, impatient, and fevered life, that more than ever demands for our security patience of will and stability of mind.
We have not yet completed the account of the fever of impa- tience. A great number even of persons desirinej the better things are habitual sufferers from a low, malingering, and silent form of the malady ; because, ignorant of themselves, they are unable to perceive how their want of interior patience deprives their virtues of their vigour, and undermines their spiritual health. They feel that something keeps them back from advancing to more solid virtue, but they see not that it is their want of patience with them- selves, and with what they are engaged upon, that distracts the mind, dissipates the heart, and makes the soul inconstant in her purposes. They have never disciplined their will, that central power of the soul, in that fundamental patience which gives a firm and assured basis to all the acts of our life. They have not realized to themselves the sense of the Psalmist, when, conscious of his natural weakness, he exhorts himself : " Be thou, O my soul, subject to God, for from Him is my patience". " There is some- thing so singular in this virtue," observes the learned and contem- plative Harphius, that even those who seem to have the other virtues are often devoid of patience." * They are not only devoid of interior and spiritual patience, but they have no idea what an immense defect it is, or how much their interior impatience is the cause of their inward troubles, and the obstacle to their interior advancement.
" Patience is of God," sa)rs St. Cyprian, " and whoever is gentle, mild, and patient, is an imitator of God. ... If the patience of God the Father abide in us, who are repaired by the Divine Nativity, if we have that likeness of God in us that was lost in Adam, it ought to shine from our interior outwards, and become manifest in our actions." f
What we have thus far endeavoured to say on this virtue as the groundwork of the other virtues has been most happily expressed by the reigning Pontiff Leo XIII. In his Encyclical Letter on the Third Order of St. Francis, the Successor of Peter teaches us in these words : " The perfection of Christian virtue is a disposition
• Harphius, Theologia Mystica^ L. i. pt. 2. c. 72, t S. Cyprian. De Bono PalientuB^ c 5.
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE. 47
of soul that is patient of all that is arduous and difficult. Its sym- bol is the Cross, which those who follow Christ bear on their shoulders. What belongs to this disposition is a soul detached from mortal things, a vigorous self-control, and a gentle and re- signed endurance of adversity. Finally, the love of God and of our neighbour is the mistress and sovereign of the soul ; such is its power, that it wipes away all the hardships that accompany the fulfilment of duty, and makes the hardest labours not only endur- able but actually pleasant.**
Whenever the will separates from the foundation of its strength by departing from God, the instruments of the will, be it the mind, the hand, or the tongue, lose their patience, and in losing their patience lose their wisdom and skill. The thoughts wander from their purpose, the imagination seduces and carries away attention, the hands relax in their work, the tongue becomes im- prud.ent, the sense of duty is enfeebled, and duty itself lingers on its way, or is imperfectly done. The workman suffers as well as the work, because impatience is trouble, and has an element of sadness in it As it is obvious that all the virtues and the whole condition of the soul are enfeebled by the fever of impatience, it must be equally obvious that the whole soul is strengthened and made healthy by the discipline of patience. Hence the old French proverb, that patience surpasses science. But this is the last virtue obtained in its perfection, because human nature is so weak and inconstant, and the acquiring of this virtue is laborious. But when it has reached a certain perfection, it secures to the soul a cheerful serenity and sweetness, and a constant peace.
Viewed as a universal virtue, St. Cyprian describes it in the fol- lowing terms: "Patience commends us to God, and keeps us united with God. By its force we keep down anger, control the tongue, govern the mind, and guard the peace of the soul. By the same virtue we govern ourselves with discipline, break down the assaults of concupiscence, repress the swellings of pride, and extinguish the heat of malice. It restrains the wealthy from abus- ing their power, and supports the poor in their wants and distress. It protects the blessed integrity of virgins, the laborious chastity of widows, and the mutual charity of married life. It makes the soul humble in prosperity, strong in adversity, and meek under injuries and calumnies. It teaches us to be quick in pardoning offences ; and when we have offended, to ask much and long for
48 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE,
pardon. It repels temptations, endures persecutions, and brings to sufferings and martyrdom a happy consummation. Patience gives strong and firm foundations to our faith : patience exalts our hope to a sublime degree of confidence : patience enables us to follow in the steps of Christ, and walk after Him in the way of endurance : it gives us the perseverance of the children of God whilst we imitate the patience of our Heavenly Father." •
To put the subject in its widest point of view, all the appetites and passions of our nature are good when in their just order, their right measure, their due direction, and in true accord with the light of reason and of faith. But they become disorderly, incline us to evil, and become evil themselves, when through inordinate irrita- bility, which is the result of weakness, they spring up in a disorderly way, and lead us into disorder. As St. Thomas teaches from St. Paul, what is irritable or irascible in our nature has its root in con- cupiscence, or in the passionate desires of our animal appetites, and ends in them. Whence it follows that patience grounded in forti- tude is the proper remedy for all inordinate passions and appetites. And this reminds us of the teaching of so many of the early Fathers, that if Adam had kept his patience he would not have lost his inno- cence. You see impatience in the sensitive feebleness of childhood, in the restlessness of youth, in the instability of manhood, and in the returning feebleness of age. But you never see it in the saints, because they have laboriously disciplined themselves in patience, and have obtained the cheerful possession of themselves.
Some persons are by nature and the temperament of their con- stitution more choleric and irascible than others. This tempera- ment is compounded of two elements, sanguine ardour and irasci- bility. But when this irascibility has been brought by laborious self-discipline under the rule of patience, the ardour of it is most valuable when in its right direction, both for the overcoming, of difficulties, and for the undertaking of good works. And thus it is with every force of human nature : deliver it from the disturb- ing influence of impatience, place it under the discipline of patience, and it will work in good order and to the best effect of which it is capable.
Not only does the invigorating and steadying virtue of patience proceed from charity, but it perfects charity. "Charity is patient.*'
* S. Cyprian. De Bono Paiientia^ c. 20.
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE. 49
In the words ascribed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite: *'That love of God which first moves the soul towards divine things is a most sacred and unspeakable operation, whereby a divine state is established in us This divine state is the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the soul, and, as St. Paul shows, the grace of charity brings with it the grace of patience. But charity is the life-giving form of all the virtues. First, it is the divine principle of their supernatural life. Secondly, it gives to them their super- natural value, and the condign merit of eternal life. Thirdly, charity communicates to them that high moral good from which they obtain their perfection.f
But let the reader specially take note, that grace is one thing and virtue another. Grace is the divine gift ; virtue results from the co-operation of the will with the divine gift. But as there is so much more to overcome, and consequently so much more labour of the will in the exercise of patience than in the exercise of any other virtue, that is the reason why there are so few who reach the more perfect degrees of patience. Having never experi- enced the wonderful strength and peace which the fundamental virtue of patience gives to the soul, or the clearness and vigour which it gives to her interior acts, they have never realized the extreme importance of striving to obtain it at whatever cost. Yet it is by patience that charity is perfected ; and this was manifested! in our Lord Jesus Christ, whose divine charity was so wonder- fully patient, and who consummated His love of His Father and of mankind by His most patient sufferings. St. Bonaventure justly remarks that to suffer and endure with patience for the love of God is a much greater thing than to do great works for the love of God. But in this pious souls are often at fault: they will attach this principle to external sufferings, and will not see that it applies with even greater truth to internal and spiritual sufferings. Yet our Divine Lord suffered much greater things in His soul than in His body.
There is a sentence of St. Maximus which every good Christian should carry in his mind : " The sum of Christianity is to give love for love, and patience for suffering; whoever is most patient under suflfering will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ".J But it
* S. Dionysius, De Eccles, Hierarchia^ c. 2. t Ripalda, D$ Fide^ Sped Chariiate, dispuU 39. X S. Maximus, Horn, De S. Michaele. 4
50 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
should be equally remembered that spiritual sufferings are far greater than corporal sufferings. And here a remark of the learned and pious Cajetan will not be out of place. Commenting on the first of the Beatitudes : " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven " ; and also on the last : " Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven " ; after pointing out that the poor in spirit are the humble, he says : " By the word persecution you must under- stand every kind of pain and suffering. You see then that one and the same reward is given to those who act patiently (the poor in spirit), and to those who suffer patiently, provided they per- severe to the end. They both obtain the kingdom of heaven, and it is theirs already, although they have not yet come into their possession." In short, the reward of heaven, so magnificently described in the Book of Revelations, is there repeatedly promised by our Lord to those who by patience conquer their adversaries by overcoming themselves.
The intimate relations of patience with charity have never been expressed with greater force and beauty than in the parable dictated by St. Catherine of Siena whilst in a state of ecstasy. It occurs in her dialogue on discretion, and we shall here give it in a free trans- lation. Be it first however observed that St. Catherine uses the word discretion in the sense of spiritual recollection, in which we obtain perception of the relative value of divine and human things. In this sense of the word she follows that illustrious Doctor of her Order, Albert the Great, who thus describes it: "True discretion is to judge prudently between the Creator and the creature, between what the Creator is and what the creature is, and in how much the Creator differs from the creature. It like- wise judges between what is good, what is better, and what is best; and also between what is evil, what is more evil, and what is most evil ; whilst it decides how much the good is to be loved, and the evil to be detested.*'*
The just man is compared in the Psalm to a tree planted by the waters, whose fiiiits do not fail. If you plant a tree within a circle of fertile earth, the earth will nourish the tree and make it fruitful. But if you take it up from the circle in which it is planted, it will die and produce nothing. The soul is a tree made to be firuitful in love : it can only live in charity. The
• Albertus Magnus, De Viriulibus^ c De Discretione,
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE, 51
roots of that tree are the affections of the soul, which should be planted within the circle of self-knowledge, of that self-knowledge which is united to God by humility. But God is likened to the circle in this, that He has neither beginning nor ending. And the soul that is planted in the earth of humility, and is united with God, finds herself within that divine circle, within which she obtains the knowledge of God and of herself. If the soul be thus united with God, she will find that her knowledge, like that circle, has neither beginning nor ending. But if the soul is not united with God, though she may have a beginning of knowledge, it will end in confusion.
In the measure in which the tree of charity is nourished by humility, it will put forth the branches of discretion ; but the pith and marrow of the tree is patience; and this patience is the demonstrative proof that God is in the soul, and that the soul is united with God. Thus sweetly planted, the tree will put forth the virtues as its flowers, and will produce such fruits as will be profitable to our neighbours, such at least as are willing to accept them from the servants of God. The soul herself will praise God, who is the Creator of the tree and its fruits, and will come to her final end in the everlasting God, from whom, without her consent, she never can be removed. But the fruits hang on the boughs of discretion by the force of patience, from which they derive their excellence.*
Food is not more essential to strength of body than patience is to strength of soul ; and God in His goodness makes us conscious of our weakness, that we may be induced to seek the means of strength. What God loves and approves in us is the cheerful and loving patience that we put into our duties, because that is the spirit of charity, and expresses the amount of charity with which we serve Him. Every new restraint that we put upon the hurry and impetuosity of our excitable nature is a reduction to order, a power gained, a weakness removed, a further subjection of nature to grace, a step in the way of peace, that makes us less unlike to
We read much of the self-denial and self-mortification of the Saints ; we know how effective this is in purifying nature, and in subjecting the body to the spirit and the spirit to God, so long as
God.
* S. Caterina da Siena* TraU De Discretione^ c 10.
52 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE,
it is under the safeguard of obedience. We know that self-denial is enjoined by our Divine Lord upon all His followers, and that without self-denial there can be no solid virtue, because it directly attacks self-love, which is the source of all evil. " And He said to all : If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."* Whoever, again, is acquainted with those schools of sanctity, the Religious Orders, will not have failed to observe, that where the spirit of the founder is duly observed, cheerfulness and spiritual joy are always in pro- portion with the amount of self-abnegation and austerity enjoined by the Rule. This fact opens a great light to us, and shows that the secret of cheerfulness and content is in the freedom of spirit obtained by the conquest of the body. It must be so, because the sacrifice of self to God invigorates the will, makes the soul patient and healthy, and quells that sensual self-love which is the source of impatience and sadness, changing it into the generous love of God.
But when we come to that interior and spiritual mortification to which exterior self-denial is subservient, we shall find, upon careful examination, that it is all reducible to patience. Take the mortification of inordinate curiosity for an example. This is a vice that is very injurious both to self-control and to recollection, and opens the door to many temptations. It leads the mind away in search of distracting and dissipating novelties. It peeps into other people's conduct and affairs, with which the soul has no concern. It will even pry into error and vice, and long to taste the evil that is in them. This evil not only dissipates the mind, but breeds many rash judgments, and lays open the heart to many temptations. But it is patience that withholds the mind firom curiosity, and mortifies this inordinate vice to death.
Take the mortification of the interior sensibilities for another example. These sensibilities produce the affections, which when directed to their right objects influence the will to good, but when directed to wrong objects influence the will towards evil or dis- order. Their lawful use is to attach the soul with love and pleasure to what is good for us, and to withdraw the soul with dislike and abhorrence from what is evil or injurious to our well- being. But it is by patience that the will withholds the sensible
• S. Luke ix, 23.
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE. S3
affections of the soul from mingling with the disorderly movements of the body, or the inordinate movements of self-love; and so the soul is kept back from entering into the disorders of the irascible passions on the one hand, and from entering into the inordinate movements of the sensual appetites on the other. Thus the true mortification of the interior affections of the soul is reducible to that patience which, whilst adhering to God, refuses to surrender the will to the sensibilities, passions, and sensualities of the animal man, that, when followed, lead to confusion and spiritual death. St. Paul points to this internal discipline where he says : " If you live according to the flesh, you shall die. But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." * But " the deeds of the flesh " are not merely its external acts, but much more those internal sensibilities, irritabilities, and sensualities that spring from the body, and which St. Paul calls " the spirit of the flesh When any part of the body mortifies, the arteries no longer bring to it the life-giving blood, the veins no longer take from it what is injurious to life. But spiritual mortification acts on the side of life ; it is an act of the patient will refusing entrance into the soul to whatever obstructs the freedom and flow of spiritual life.
Having put the interior process by which the soul is disciplined into patience in various points of view to assist the reader in understanding it, we will now resume what has been stated in one comprehensive view.
If you are placed within a fortress founded upon a rock, within that stronghold you will feel secure from the enemies who seek to injure or destroy your life. The walls and the rock hold together, and resist all efforts to break through or undermine them. What is the secret of the strength and security which they give you ? It consists in that invisible and mysterious power which is called the attraction of cohesion, whereby all the parts hold together, and the whole is made firm and inaccessible. But if your adver- saries have an accomplice within the fortress, it is still in danger of being betrayed and surrendered. The soul is a living, free, and most ^^sensitive spirit, having the will for its central power. The fortress which protects the soul from her enemies is patience. It rests upon God as the rock of its strength, and is fenced round as by a wall from the invasion of its enemies. The secret of the
• Romans viii. 13,
54 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
strength of this fortress is in the spiritual cohesion by which all the powers of the soul hold together, through the patience of the will, and are thus enabled to resist the efforts of the enemies of the soul from entering within its defences, and there spreading dis- order, confusion, and desolation.
But if the will becomes relaxed and careless, all the powers that dei^nd on the will become loose and negligent, and the adver- saries of the soul find their accomplice, whose name is impatience, within the stronghold, the fortress is betrayed, and all sorts of trouble and disorder make their way within the soul, the will and its powers are driven from one disorder to another, and the soul herself becomes a pitiable spectacle to God and His angels. But, to use the figure of the Psalmist, God is the firm rock and fortress of the soul, and when the will adheres to God, His truth surrounds her as a shield ; and His grace pours in its strength, enabling the will to hold her powers together, and to resist by their cohesion all the efforts of temptation, and every disorder that would trouble the peace of the soul or do injury to her life.
What we have here endeavoured to put in figure is to illustrate the truth, that we become strong to resist temptation, to endure trials, and to keep ourselves above the wasting influence of sad- ness, in proportion to the firmness with which the soul adheres by her centre to God, as the supreme and central foundation of her life ; by which adherence her powers are kept in unity, and in obedience to the will obedient to God. The will, or central power of the soul, should never be thrown off firom its own true centre, but should be patiently held to its divine support, so that the soul may never go off from her foundation or lose her balance : " The Lord is my firmament, my refiige, and my deliverer •
This is what St. Catherine of Siena means, when, in her inspired wisdom, and from her own example, she advises us to form a little cell by recollection in the centre of the soul, protected by patience as by walls, into which the spirit of God, His light and grace alone shall enter \ a little sanctuary into which the world and its cares shall never enter ; a centre of peace into which no trouble shall be allowed to come. So that when troubles come, that come to all, they may be kept by the intervention of patience outside of that secret sanctuary of the soul, and never be allowed
• Psalm xvii. 3.
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE. 55
to come between the soul and God. If they are allowed entrance into the soul they will confuse the vision, and disturb the will, which will not know how to deal with them. But if kept outside the soul, they will have no power to disturb either her judgment or her peace. She will see through them after a time, and will know how to deal with them. This is one of the most important rules for the patient management of the will
Whilst the soul is able by her fundamental patience to keep a calm and recollected centre, she will be able to use her faculties and put them forth with tranquil energy from that calm and re- collected and immovable centre, in their due order, towards their work, as duty, obedience, and the will of God require. An im- mense amount of fatigue and trouble will be saved, for nothing fatigues so much as the interior disturbance resulting from disorder and the want of central calmness. We are now in a position to better understand the words of our Divine Lord : " In your patience you shall possess your souls But if we throw out the very centre of the soul upon the creature, and thus part with our interior union with God, we shall become nothing but weakness and disorder.
Extreme cases best illustrate intermediate ones. Observe two persons in a high state of quarrelling. Both have lost their self- control. Whatever is within them is thrown out in a flame of passion. Their judgment is gone with their self-command ; and you see all round and through them, a pitiable spectacle of human weakness, driven by animal instincts, ungovemed by the light of reason. The whole centre of the man is thrown out, and there is nothing reserved within him by which he can control himself. Observe another example, in which one is the victim of uncon- trollable passion, and the other in full possession of himself, de- rived from patience and endurance. You have here the whole contrast between moral strength and moral weakness ; strength prevails and weakness is put to shame.
Take the case of one, who, devoid of that central patience and strength, finds himself suddenly involved in some complicated trouble, in which both persons and affairs are concerned. The trouble gets inside of him, takes hold of his feelings, confuses his faculties, and clouds his judgment, which is too much embarrassed to help him through his difficulty. If he is at all wise he will seek the counsel of a prudent and experienced friend. Take another who possesses his soul in patience. He will keep his trouble out*
56 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE,
side his soul, hold it at due distance, which will give him a calm, objective view of it, and after a time he will see his way through it, and know what to do with it.
Whilst, then, the primary object of patience is to keep the centre of the soul recollected and protected in its recollection, the second is to govern the exterior life from that recollected centre, whether in action, speech, or demeanour, so that the strength, calmness, and moderation of the soul may shine out in our exterior conduct, in a way that may commit us to nothing but what is peaceful and edifying. The remoter objects of patience are the evils, trials, temptations, and disturbing influences that come against us without our will or choice. Upon these we can impress no image of virtue, because they are not within us, they form no part of us, but are altogether independent of us. But if we suffer these outward causes of trial to enter into us and take pos- session of us, they break down the strength of patience, throw us into disorder, and defile us with their vices. But if these evils are kept outside of the soul, when they cannot be removed, they must be endured, with the consoling reflection that the endurance of them will strengthen and increase our virtue, and prepare us for the rewards of endurance.
But, as we have already observed, the effect of patient endur- ance is not to make us hard and insensible to trials and sufferings. This would defeat the beneficent designs of God in allowing them for our probation and greater virtue. "Some think," observes St. Gregory, " that it is a sign of great constancy not to feel the scourges and sufferings that come upon us from the correcting hand of God ; others feel those trials to such an excess as to indulge in grief and sadness beyond all right and reason, and give a murmuring tongue to their pains. But the true virtue of patience holds the midway between these extremes ; for insensibility of heart gives no weight to virtue. And when a man feels no sense of pain from the trials that God sends him, it only proves his incorrigible stupidity and numbness of heart. When, on the contrary, under the rod of trial and rebuke he gives himself to excessive grief and sadness, he throws away that patience which guards the virtues ; and whilst his heart suffers to excess, he breaks into impatience, and perhaps into injuries, and, instead of being amended by his troubles, he gives himself to worse evils on account of them."*
* S. Greg. Mag. Moral, in Job^ L. ii. c l6.
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE,
There is also an impatience with one's self; and who is not acquainted with that infirmity? It may have its beginning in some venial fault or error into which we have slipped or glided with no great deliberation. But the failure has wounded our self- love, and produced an interior annoyance and vexation, which is far worse than the original fault. Like throwing away the medi- cine when the disease appears, patience is given up at the very moment when wanted to cure the infirmity. Had we taken to that steadying virtue at once, the mischief would have been stayed; but the shame and humiliation of failure is allowed to disturb the heart, to discomfort the soul, and to bring on a certain sadness that goes firom one act of interior impatience to another, doing more harm than a hundred of those faults from which this disorder is allowed to rise. Yet, as St Bonaventure tells you, "patience would have purged the sin, and would have saved you from it in future " Charity is patient," and patient charity covers a multi- tude of sins. The Church proclaims this in the tribunal of penance, that not only the works of charity but the endurances of patience are satisfactory for sin. The priest says to the penitent : " May whatsoever good thou dost, and whatsoever evil thou endurest, be to the remission of thy sins and the reward of eternal life We may well say with St. Gregory, that " patience is the cure of every grief". Delay not the cure, or the grief will turn to sadness. Take hold of patience, or the one feult will bring you others that are greater in its train.
It remains to show how this strenuous virtue is the fundamental principle that gives power to the Beatitudes. The poor in spirit are the humble. They know they have nothing of their own but their weakness and sins, and that they are dependent on God for all things. They therefore hold themselves in subjection to God, and keep themselves with patience in their lowly position. The meek are those whose patience has made them gentle and forbear- ing in the sweetness of charity, and who possess the land of their soul in peace. The holy mourners whom God comforts are they who in patience lament before God, and do penance for the evils whereby He is offended, and who patiently persevere in their supplications for the removal of evil
They who hunger and thirst after justice must patiently mortify their sensual appetites and selfish desires, that their spiritual ap- petite may be filled with good things. The merciful cannot be
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58 ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
merciful unless their patience restrain them from anger and selfish- ness, that their charity may flow forth in pardon and generosity. The blessed peacemakers are they who possess their own souls in peace. And they who suffer persecution for justice' sake are they who bear and endure whatever is inflicted upon them for the love of God, for whose holy cause they stand. Then, to crown the exposition of the Beatitudes, our Divine Lord calls upon His followers to rejoice in suffering for His sake because of its exceed- ing reward " Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly for my sake : Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven."* Truly patience is golden, and patient suffering in devoted charity is a pure diamond.
One good example is worth a thousand when taken to heart, and we will therefore conclude with an example of the power of patience in illustration of what has been said from the life of St. Francis Xavier, as given in the nervous language of Dryden.
"When St. Francis brought the Gospel into Japan, on the first occasion on which it was heard in the city of Amanguchi, the Saint and his companion, John Fernandez, met with great opposition, especially among the Bonzas ; when an action of Xavier's com- panion did not a little contribute to the gaining over of the most stubborn. Fernandez preached in one of the most frequented places of the town ; and amongst the crowd of auditors were some persons of great wit, strongly opinioned of their sect, who could not conceive the maxims of the Gospel, and who heard the preacher with no other intention than to make sport of him. In the midst of the sermon, a man, who was of the scum of the rabble, drew near to Fernandez, as if he were to whisper some- thing to him, and hawking up a mass of nastiness, spit it full in his face. Fernandez, without a word speaking, or making the least sign that he was concerned, took his handkerchief, wiped his face, and continued his discourse.
"Everyone was surprised at the moderation of the preacher: the more debauched, who had set up a laugh at this affront, turned all their scorn into admiration, and sincerely acknowledged that a man who was so much master of his passions as to command them on such an occasion, must needs be endued with greatness of
* S. Matthew v. 3-12.
ON PATIENCE AS A UNIVERSAL VIRTUE. 59
courage and heroic fortitude. One of the chief of the assembly discovered somewhat else in this unshaken patience : he was the most learned of the doctors of Amanguchi, and the most violent against the Gospel. He considered that a law which taught such patience and such insensibility to affronts, could only come from Heaven, and argued thus with himself: 'These preachers, who with so much constancy endure the vilest injuries, cannot pretend to cozen us. It would cost them too dear a price ; and no man will deceive another at his own expense. He only who made the heart of man can place it in so great a tranquillity. The force of nature cannot reach so far ; and this Christian patience must pro- ceed from some divine principle. These people cannot but have some infallible assurance of the doctrine they believe and the recompense which they expect ; for, in fine, they are ready to suffer all things for their God, and have no human expectations. After all, what inconvenience or danger can it be to embrace their law ? If what they tell us of eternity be true, I shall be eternally miserable in not believing it ; and suppose there be no life but this, is it not better to follow a religion which elevates a man above himself, and which gives him an unalterable peace, than to profess sects which continue us in all our weakness^ and which want power to appease the disorders of the heart ? '
"He made his inward reflections on all these things, as he after- wards declared; and these considerations being accompanied with the motions of grace, as soon as the sermon was ended, he confessed that the virtue of the preacher had convinced him ; he desired baptism, and received it with great solemnity. This illustrious conversion was followed with answerable success. Many who had a glimmering of the truth, and feared to know more plainly, now opened their eyes to the light of the Gospel." *
• Drydexi'45 Lift of S, Francis Xavier^ Book 5.
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LECTURE IV.
ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
"Thou, O God, art my strength."— Psalm xlil 2.
HEN King Solomon had completed the Temple of God
V V in Jerusalem, he erected two majestic columns of bronze in the great porch by which the people entered to perform their worship. These columns were crowned with beautiful capitals of the same enduring metal, in which rows of pomegranates were placed one above another, and the whole was enclosed with a net- work of chains, which again was crowned with lilies. To the column on the right he gave the name of Jachin, and to the column on the left the name of Booz.* In the Hebrew language Jachin signifies rectitude, and Booz fortitude. These noble monuments stood before the temple to express to all who entered that the law of God is rectitude, and that the will of God which His law reveals is accomplished by fortitude. The first column taught the people of God that all things proceed from the wisdom of God, and are guided to their ends by His justice ; the second taught that all things are upheld and strengthened by the fortitude of the divine will. They also taught that to obey the light of justice we need from God the gift of fortitude, that we may have a strenuous will to obey His divine behests.
The pomegranate is the symbol of fruitfulness, and the clusters of them that crown these columns may be taken to express the fruits that grow from the union of fortitude with justice. The net- work of chains is the bracing patience that protects and preserves them : and the lilies express the purity with which the soul is graced in virtue of these fundamental gifts.
• 3 Kings vii.
ON -CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE,
6i
St. Paul is supposed to refer to these prophetic columns, where he calls the Church " the pillar and firm foundation of truth ".* Speaking in figure, every Christian has need of the support of these two columns, that he may be a holy temple of God : of Jachin, the light of truth and justice in his mind; of Booz, the firmness of fortitude in his will; that in the face of all trials he may be able to accomplish the will of God. Finally, it is through the two virtues of justice and fortitude that he enters the glorious Temple of God, the "house not made with hands, eternal in Heaven ".t
The greatest moral strength of which the soul is capable comes of the Christian grace and gift of fortitude, of which patience is a potential part, that is to say, it agrees with patience in some re- spects and differs from it in others. Patience is mostly concerned in overcoming the restlessness of nature, in enduring adversities, in resisting temptations, and in subduing or keeping away im- patience, anger, or sadness. Fortitude is a braver and a stronger virtue, is more deeply woven into the constitution of the soul, and is concerned with difficult action as well as with difficult endur- ance. Fortitude is required to face great dangers bravely, to undertake great works beset with difficulties, or to undergo martyr- dom, or the equivalent of martyrdom.
It must, however, be remembered that difficult action, that is, the action that surmounts great difficulties, includes endurance as well, on account of the obstacles opposed by^the greatness or stubbornness of the work to be done, or of the opposition which other persons raise up against it, or of the misgivings or reluctances that arise within ourselves, and which have to be overcome with courage. Patience, then, is included in fortitude. But fortitude is a virtue more deeply seated in the soul, is more calm in its operations, and less the subject of consciousness than patience. We are less conscious of fortitude because it is a force that works with greater ease : we are more conscious of patience because it is exercised with greater effort, and is felt by the greater resist- ance which it encounters fi-om irritability, impatience, or sadness. The whole man moves together in fortitude, but in patience
♦ I Timothy iil 15, The word firmamentum in the Vulgate is imperfectly rendered in the Douai version by the word ground, + 2 Cor. V. I.
62
ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
only a portion of the fkculties are brought into exercise at one time.
Whoever has great fortitude ought also to have great patience ; but this is not always the case. For a person who can call up great fortitude on great occasions will often be found irritable and impatient, nay even angry, on smaller occasions. This is owing to the want of a good habit of self-discipline over the imagination and the temper in the daily and hourly conduct of life. But this defect belongs more to natural than to Christian fortitude, which last is a gift of the Holy Ghost, and, where perfection of life is diligently cultivated, it includes the gift of patience. But as forti- tude chiefly concerns the greater and patience the lesser labours and trials of life, both branches of the virtue require to be well and carefully cultivated ; and whoever is well exercised in patience will not be wanting in fortitude.
The word fortitude is derived from the Latin word fortis^ which means a morally strong and brave man, whilst the word fortitudo signifies the state or habit of moral strength and bravery. The Greek word andreia bears the same signification of masculine bravery. The pagans looked upon it as their chief, most honour- able, and almost only virtue, considering that the other virtues belonged to manners more than to manhood. It is still honoured and rewarded by the world as the greatest of human virtues, and the most valuable to the republic. Nor does it hold a less posi- tion among the Christian virtues, where it is guided by faith, exalted by hope, animated by charity, and regulated by humility. Christian fortitude is the highest gift of spiritual strength, and the source of Christian magnanimity. It is not limited to man alone, as the pagans limited this virtue, but, according to their respective conditions and duties, is equally given to both sexes. Hence the Church has had many great and glorious martyrs, confessors, and spiritual workers among her virgins, wives, and widows, who have exhibited the greatest fortitude and magnanimity. This has been especially the case among her devoted virgins, whose vocation and consecration to their holy state imply the gift of fortitude, im- planted by the Holy Spirit in their weakness.
The fortitude of the natural man neither goes beyond his native powers, nor ascends above natural motives, although it is not with- out a providential assistance from God. Aristotle treats of it under the head of bravery, and says that " the brave man endures
ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
63
and performs those things that belong to courage for the sake of what is honourable '^ And he thus explains himself : " He who bears himself bravely, and fears what he ought, from the right motive, in the right manner, and at the right time, and feels con- fidence in like manner, is brave Cicero gives a wider scope to the virtue, and defines it to be " the undergoing of labours with considerateness, and the enduring of sufferings with constancy ".f Elsewhere he describes it as "a condition of soul that is patient in encountering perils as well as labours and sufferings, apart from fear "4 The Greek assigns honour for its motive, and the Roman the benefits which it brings to man.
But Christian fortitude has its foundation in the supernatural strength of divine grace, and its motive in the honour and love of God, and in the good we are able to accomplish. St. Augustine defines it in general terms as " the firmness of the soul amidst the troublesome things of time," § and more especially as " the love of enduring all things in peace for God's sake ".|| And elsewhere he calls it "an affectign of the soul whereby we despise whatever inconveniences or injuries we may suffer, that are placed beyond our power to remedy ".T If we put St. Augustine's descriptions together, we shall find them to correspond with St. Paul's exposi- tion of Christian fortitude. " Who is he that shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine ? or nakedness ? or persecution ? or the sword ? As it is written : For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep to the slaughter. But in all things we overcome for the sake of Him that loved us. For I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to sepa- rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."**
In this inspired description of the brave and magnanimous Christian we are taught that fortitude is the strength of charity ; that it derives its ardent force from adhering to God through Christ ; that it is mighty above all created powers to repel the
* Aristotle, Ethics y L. iii. c 7. + Cicero, De Inventione^ L. ii. c. 54. % Idem, Ad Hertm^ L. iii. c. I. § S. Augustin. Questiones^ Ixxxiii. q. 63, II Idem, De Moribus Eccles. Cathol. L. i. c. 54. IF Idem, De Libera Arbitrio^ L. i. c 13. ** Romans viiu 35-39.
64
ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
adversaries of the soul, be they earthly or unearthly, come they with fear or enticement ; and that this fortitude of charity over- comes every temptation, trial, and suffering by still adhering with constancy to God.
The world admires its own heroes, who, for honour, interest, or the excitement which it gives them^ undergo great labours, do works that look large in the eyes of men, encounter great perils with risk of life, or endure extreme sufferings with constancy for some public cause. And though these men are not unfrequently known to have their moral deficiencies and failings, yet the world exalts them, rewards them with honours and benefits, and erects monu- ments to their memory. The hope of these things is often their leading motive, next to the pride that moves within them. But the heroes and heroines of God, although the world takes little note of them, are far more wonderful. Armed with Christian fortitude their hearts are set on God, in whose strength they do great things, and suffer great things, and, whilst wholly indifferent to the world's opinion, are a spectacle to God and His angels.
Their audience is in the invisible, infinite, and most glorious world of spirits. They know that the power of God is perfected in their infirmity. They have no confidence in themselves ; all their trust is in the divine help. In their valiant combats they first conquer themselves, that they may be in a position to sur- mount all outward dangers and difficulties. They have no fears but the fear of God, and no will but His will. Let but the will of God be known, and^ however difficult the task may be to human nature, no fear, no obstacle will daunt their ardour in accomplish- ing His will They may hear many discouraging voices, they may meet with many obstacles, they may often find the way dark before them, and have to wait for the light that shines firom provi- dential conditions ; but the light and strength from God within them will carry them bravely on, and even though visible success should fail them, invisible success will be surely gained. For God often ordains that one shall sow in tears and another reap in joy. The Martyrs seemed to foil in the world's eyes, when amidst their sufferings they gave up their lives with their blood ; but whilst they were crowned in Heaven, the faith they loved to spread sprang up to numbers fi:om their blood. Nay, Christ Himself, when to the eyes of the world He seemed to have utterly failed, at that awful moment redeemed the world and
ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
65
saved mankind. The way of God in His servants is the way of fortitude in humility ; and it is the sublimity of heroic faith to seem to fail when all is gained.
Keeping in mind St. Augustine's definition of fortitude, that it is the love of doing and enduring all things peacefully for God's sake, let us hear his exposition of the virtue : " That love," he says, " of which we speak, and which should animate us with the flame of sanctity towards God, is temperate in withholding the will from all the things of concupiscence, and strong in rejecting them. Of all the burdens laid upon us in this life the heaviest is our own body, and this is owing to the just law which God passed upon that old sin, which is so widely known but so little under- stood. The soul trembles and quakes with fear, lest the body be vexed or tormented with pain or labour, or be taken from us by death. Through the mere custom of always carrying the body, we love the burden of it, and find it hard to realize that, if through the help of the law of divine love we govern the body wisely and well, it will obtain its resurrection and salvation, and its rightSi will suffer no injury. But when the soul is turned to God with the fortitude of love, these things become known, and death is not only endured but welcomed with desire.
" There remains the great conflict with pain and suffering : yet nothing of this kind is of such iron hardness and obstinacy but the fire of love will master it. When this fire bears up the soul towards God, she soars up freely and wonderfully on strong and beautiful wings over every torment inflicted on the body, until her chaste desire brings her to rest in the embrace of God. Can we ever allow that God would permit the lovers of money, or of praise, or of sensual pleasure, to become stronger than His own lovers ? Their affections are not love, they deserve no other name than that of concupiscence or lust ; yet they show what a force the soul can put forth, even in the heated and noxious pursuit of those poor objects. But this is an argument for us, for if the lovers of these things can endure so much whilst deserting God for the sake of them, how much ought we to be ready to endure to save us from the unhappiness of deserting God." *
Elsewhere the great Doctor concludes : " As we have such great need of the gift of fortitude, we must implore it of Him who
* S. Augustin. De Moribus Eccles, Cathol. L. i. c. 22. 5
66 ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
commands us to be strong ; for unless He makes us strong, we cannot be what He commands us to be. We must, therefore, ask it of Him who says : He who perseveres to the end shall be saved; lest we claim a fortitude of our own, and so become weakened of all strength." *
We may consider the virtue of fortitude either as it is a special virtue, having its own immediate object, or as a universal virtue, giving its strength and firmness to all the other virtues. In this last sense it is one of the four cardinal virtues. As a special virtue its office is to restrain and overcome the fears and the auda- cities that spring up in the sight of dangers, and particularly the danger of death. Yet even here it stands not alone, but is accompanied with other virtues, and especially with prudence, temperance, and moderation. Although fortitude is a high virtue/' observes St Ambrose, '*it is never without the co-opera- tion of other virtues ; without justice it would promote iniquity.*' And in calling it " the temperance of the heart," the Saint ex- presses its whole character, t
The theologians therefore maintain, that those who encounter perils and death from unjust or evil motives have not the virtue of fortitude, but only a habit that has some external resemblance to it ; because the virtue of fortitude has always some good for its object The pagan world exalted the fortitude of Cato and men of his character, because they put themselves to death to escape the humiliation of defeat ; but the Christian can see nothing in this conduct beyond the ignominious cowardice that springs from pride and shame.
The special virtue of fortitude is exercised amidst the perils of war, on occasions of great danger, under the infliction of severe sufferings, or wherever there are great fears or difficulties to be overcome. In warfare this virtue contends with fearless bravery and firm constancy. But there is another kind of warfare that cannot be waged effectually without the gift of Christian fortitude, both in action and endurance, and that is the war of the spirit against the world, the devil, and the flesh. This is the most vital and protracted of combats, a combat for life against the bringers of death, in which fortitude is both the inward strength dnd the
* Idem, in Psalm, xxiv, + S. Ambros. De Officiis^ L. u c. 35.
ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE, 67
defensive armour of salvation, having patience and magnanimity for its supporters.
Not only abroad amongst enemies, but at home in social life, fortitude must uphold the mind and heart with firmness amidst the temptations, contradictions, and adversities that are wont to raise unreasonable fears, or to break down courage. Such are loss of fortune, of friends, of honour, or of deserved respect. Such, again, are detractions, unjust dealings, insinuations of evil, and seductive flatteries, which, unless the soul be firm in fortitude, are wont to afflict the heart with sadness, or to weaken the soul's sincerity.
The heroes of the Old Testament, who stood for God's cause, were endowed by Him with this admirable gift of fortitude. Such were Abraham, Moses, Caleb, Josue, Jepthe, Samson, David, and the Machabees, "who by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice . . . recovered strength from infirmity, became valiant in battle, put to flight the armies of foreigners Nor were there wanting valiant women, like Judith and the Mother of the Macha- bees. Such also in the spiritual warfare were the prophets and holy men of God. "They had trials of mockery and stripes, moreover of bonds and prisons. They were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins, being in want, distressed, afflicted : of whom the world was not worthy : wandering in deserts, in mountains, in caves of the earth." * All these were divinely fortified to be the witnesses of God and the soul against the errors and sins of the world.
Such heroes of God were the Apostles of Christ, strong and brave in their fortitude, subduing the world to His truth at the cost of everything that nature holds dear, until they gave up their Hves to the tormentors. Such were the holy Martyrs of both sexes, who for the love of God endured every ignominy and suf- fering, and sealed their faith with their blood. Such the noble Confessors, those holy men and women who sacrificed the world, gave up all things to God for the love of souls, and welcomed sufferings as others welcome treasures, that they might prove their lo^ of God by their endurance, - We are certainly not less weak by nature than they were, and our souls are encompassed
* Hebrews xi. 32-38.
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ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
with enemies, if less violent, more subtle and numerous ; and we have therefore as great a need of the virtue of fortitude, as well to contend against our adversaries as to keep our souls in peace and safety. We have not less reason, then, to take to heart the ad- monition of St. Paul : "Be ye strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of His power. Put ye on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil."*
We have now to consider what vices are opposed to fortitude. On the side of defect they are timidity or cowardice, and also intimidation, which causes a false instead of a just fear ; whilst on the side of excess is to be found that audacity or foolish daring which amounts to rashness. Yet neither fear nor daring are to be taken for vices when rightly used and properly regulated, but only when they become inordinate passions that run into excess beyond what is just and reasonable.
The vice of timidity or cowardice arises from fearing without just reason what we ought not to fear, when we ought not to fear, or more than we ought to fear. All fear springs from the love of something that we dread to lose, or that we dread lest it should suffer. Thus the fear of God springs from the just dread of being separated from Him who is the Supreme Cood, and our supreme good, and whom we ought to love above all things. The fear of reverence is altogether different ; it is an inspiration of awe and wonder that comes upon us through contemplation of the Divine Majesty, The fear of losing one's life comes of inordinate love for this mortal and transitory state of existence, which the love of the Supreme Good is not strong enough to conquer. Self-love has many fears, all of a more or less foolish and inordinate kind. Every kind of love has its own fears, and every kind of sin, having a love of its own, has also its fears and its angers. The avaricious man loves his wealth, fears to lose it, and is angry with every person and thing that imperils it. The sensual man loves his sensual pleasures, but is disturbed with fear and anger against those who would deprive him of them. The ambitious man loves honours, fears dishonour, and is angered by those who would lessen his position.
But it is the fear of great dangers, and especially of death, that is opposed to fortitude as a special virtue; whilst all the fears
• Ephesiansvi. lo-ii.
ON CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE.
69
that drive men into sin and injustice, or into the danger of them, are opposed to fortitude as a universal virtue. For example, when a man from fear of losing his property, or his reputation, commits perjury ; when a woman from fear of evil treatment, or of starvation, gives up her virtue ; or when a person gives up the exercise of his religion from that fear of the world's opinion which is called human' respect.
Intimidation is that fear which is struck by other persons into the soul so as to overcome the fear of God, and make a man fear what he ought not to fear, where he ought not to fear, or to fear more than he ought to fear, to the danger or evil of his soul.
Audacity or rash daring is an excess that attempts to imitate fortitude, and that is without the prudence and modesty of mind which belongs to that virtue. It mostly springs from vanity and the love of vain glory, for the audacious are boasters of what they are not, and wish to seem strong and brave when they are only weak and timid.
It may be noted that the fear caused by intimidation and the rashness of audacity both proceed from one or more of these three causes : first, from not setting a sufficient value on the good or the life to be protected, and especially the good and life of the soul; secondly, from pride in trusting too much to one's self whilst despising others, as though they had no power to injure or overmaster us ; thirdly, from stupidity, which is too dull to see the danger to which one is exposed.
To complete the anatomy of fortitude, we must examine the parts of which the virtue is composed, and which combine to give elevation, steadfastness, and splendour to its exercise. These are confidence, patience, magnanimity, magnificence, constancy, and perseverance. Confidence is the assured hope of bringing what we undertake to a successful end. Patience, as we have seen, resists perturbation, grief, and sadness, and victoriously endures molestation. Magnanimity is that greatness of soul which rises above difficulties and dangers. Magnificence is that largeness of soul which projects and carries out great works from high and noble motives. Constancy stands with unchangeable firmness to its resolutions, and shuns the levity that flits in restless moods from one thing to another. Perseverance is the resolute
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continuance in good once begun, despite of all obstacles and discouragements.
It is obvious that perseverance must greatly depend on patience and constancy. And here St. Bernard will instruct us. "Per- severance," he says, " and that alone, brings the glory that crowns the virtues. Without perseverance the warrior wins no victory, the victor wins no palm. It comes of the vigour of the powers, and gives completeness to the virtues. Perseverance is the off- spring of constancy, the sister of patience, the friend of peace, the bond of friendship. Take perseverance away, and fidelity will fail of its reward, well-doing of its grace, and fortitude of its praise. For not he who begins but he who perseveres to the end will be saved. When Saul was made king of Israel he was little in his own eyes, but he did not persevere in his humility, and so lost his kingdom and his life. Had Samson persevered in prudence and Solomon in devotion, the first would not have lost his strength, nor the second his wisdom. I entreat you, then, that you keep with firmness to this sure sign of iustice to this one and only faithful guardian of integrity."*
The vices opposed to perseverance, as St. Thomas observes, are softness and pertinacity or stubbornness. Softness comes of ease and pleasure. A soft and easy life melts away those energies whereby we endure labours and hardships, and dissolves the force that encounters and conquers the difficulties that are met with in doing good works, and especially in doing them in the best and most patient way. The proper cure for the contemptible vice of softness is labour and self-denial
Pertinacity is that Wind and stubborn vice which sticks to one's own sense and clings to one's own way, despite of what is right and reasonable. Careless of being in the wrong path so long as he has his own will and way, the pertinacious man disregards the wisdom that would show him the right way, and will probably look upon advice as an insult to his consistency. "We have heard," says Isaias, " of the pride of Moab : his pride, and his arrogancy, and his indignation, are more than his strength." t
Martyrdom is the crown of fortitude. It exceeds every other human act in its perfection, and this because it gives the most positive proof of the greatest charity. Yet it is not the sufferings
* S. Bernard. EpisU 129 ad Januenses, + Isaias xvi. 6.
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but the cause that makes the martyr. God deh'ghts not in suffer- ings, but He delights in the brave and patient love with which the martyr suffers. He delights in the calm, resigned, and cheerful trust with which the martyr looks up to Him amidst his torments. The blood of the martyrs consecrates the earth beneath, from which their souls look up to Heaven above — that Heaven which awaits- them on their deliverance from the body. Their faith falls in light on the spectators of their combat, and reaches the hearts of men of good will In the words of St Cyprian, himself a martyr, and the witness of many martyrdoms : " Christ rejoices in them, the Divine Protector of their faith fights in them, and con- quers through them, giving them all the gifts that they are capable of receiving. Christ is there, the conflict is His own ; He upholds them. He strengthens them. He loves the assertors of His Name. After conquering death in Himself, He conquers death in us."*
Happy are they who share the honour and glory of the martyrs ! But this is refused to no one by Him who commands us to take up our cross daily, and to follow Him. For a life of self-denial is a martyrdom, and calls for the martyr's fortitude. St. Gregory tells us that, " when persecution ceases, there is left for us still the martyrdom of peace. The neck is not brought under the weapon of steel, but the desires of the body have still to be slain with the sword of the spirit." t
St. Bernard distinguishes three kinds of martyrdom : martyrdom in will alone, martyrdom in act alone, and martyrdom in act as well as will. Martyrdom in will alone is found in those who are ready to give their blood and life for the virtues, although the occasion does not present itself. Martyrdom in act alone is found in the Holy Innocents, slain in the place of Christ before they reached the use of reason, and crowned by Christ with the martyr's palm. Martyrdom in will and act is the prerogative of the glorious army of martyrs, who cheerfully sealed their faith with their blood for the love of Christ
Three things must unite to make the true martyr : first, the state of grace and charity ; secondly, the actual surrender of life in public testimony of the choice of things invisible in preference to things visible ; thirdly, the cause of death, which must be in defence of the faith or of some virtue. Wherefore, whoever
♦ S. Cyprian. EpisU 8. t S. Greg. Mag. Horn. 3 in Evangd.
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would imitate the martyrs must be clothed with charity, must endure their sufiferings with fortitude, and must die to the passions of their nature for the sake of God and the virtues.
St. John Chrysostom often insists on this spiritual kind of martyrdom. Speaking to the people of Antioch on the actual martyrdom of their former Archbishop Eustathius, he puts to them this question: "Who, then, can be a martyr?" And he answers in these words : " I have frequently told you that it is not death that makes the martyr, but that resolute will can do the same. Not I, but St. Paul gives this definition. He says : ' I die daily, I protest How can one die daily ? How can one take six hundred deaths into one and the same body ? By that reso- lution of will that makes us ready to die. Abraham stained not his sword with blood, he did not redden the altar with the gore of his son, he did not slay Isaac. Yet he perfected his sacrifice. Who says this? He who accepted his sacrifice. God said to Abraham : * Thou hast not spared thy beloved son for My sake Yet Abraham received him back alive, and took him home. How was it, then, that he did not spare him ? He spared him not in the resolution of his will ; and of such sacrifices I am accustomed to judge. His hand did not immolate, his will made the sacrifice. It was a sacrifice without the shedding of blood. Those who are initiated in the divine mysteries know what I say : even the unbloody sacrifice is perfect, and Abraham's was the figure of
Let us hear the great St. Gregory again. "If," he says, "we strive in earnest to have the virtue of patience, although we live during the peace of the Church, we may still have the palm of martyrdom. For there are two kinds of martyrdom, one of mind, another in act as well as in mind. We may be martyrs without the violence of the sword. To die by the hand of the persecutor is martyrdom in open act ; to endure contumelies and still pardon our enemies is martyrdom in the hidden soul." t Standing at the tomb of a martyr the great Pontiff speaks yet more impressively : "We are standing," he says, "at a martyr's tomb, and we know by what death he reached the Kingdom of Heaven. We may not be called upon to give up our bodies in the manner he did ; but
it
* J. Chrysost. Sertn, in S, Eustathium, t S. Greg. Mag. Hom^ 177 in Evangel,
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we conquer the world in the spirit. God accepts this sacrifice; in the judgment of His fatherly spirit He accepts this kind of victory. Our Lord Jesus Christ beholds this combat within the heart, helps us to wage the war, and rewards the conqueror.'* *
We may dweU on the sufferings of the martyrs until we almost fancy ourselves in their place, but unless we imitate their fortitude by dying to ourselves, this is an idle delusion. Even to honour the martyrs without imitating them^ as St. Augustine says, is but a false adulation. Our kind of martyrdom is marked out for us by St. Paul, and demands that we ourselves be the executioners. " If," he says, " by the spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh, we shall live." t
The life of man on earth is a warfare, says holy Job. The life of the true Christian is a daily cross and martyrdom. To deny one's self, to combat the corrupt propensities of our nature, to keep the desire of Eternity well advanced before the things of time, and to endure whatever may come upon us, demands a patience, a fortitude, and a perseverance like the force that carried the martyrs through their sufferings. Yet let no one think that this daily fortitude is hard, stern, and pitiless like the boasted virtue of the Stoics. There are critical moments when fortitude demands . that we become stern and severe with ourselves, but never with others, unless to check some great evil. But where this vutue is habitual, and in good exercise, it is gentle, free, and cheerful. As it is the gift of the Holy Ghost, and works with the sweet flame of charity, it sweetens the soul, and by its resistance to the vices that produce fear, hardness, and disconsolation, true Christian fortitude makes the soul peaceful, pleasant, and cheerful.
This view of the subject has been well expressed by the learned and devout Gerson. "The gift of fortitude," he observes, "is different from the virtue, although both regard what is arduous and difficult. As a virtue fortitude withstands or endures perils, such as we must suffer if we would not part with good ; with the good, for example, of holding to the faith, of pursuing justice, or of doing good to others. But as a gift of the Holy Ghost fortitude is a gratuitous and abounding grace, given to those who seek perfec- tion of life through the divine counsels. It may be defined as an affection of the soul that restrains concupiscence and the fears
* S. Greg. Mag, Horn, 27 in Evangel. + Romans viii. 13.
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arising from adversity. Those who are in the charity of God have it in habit, but those who are perfect have it in action. But those who have this gift more in habit than in action, and are therefore imperfect, have the power of becoming perfect, if they will only bring out the habit into actual work and complete exercise."*
Some persons are stronger by nature than others, and some have larger and freer powers. Some, again, are by constitution more temperate, and by the soundness of their frame have their irascible and sensual passions under greater control This firmer constitu- tion of nature may be of great advantage to the Christian virtues \ but if pride takes the place of humility, and sensuality that of tem- perance, this very strength of constitution will contribute its energy to the ruin of soul and body. But as Christian fortitude is a gift of God, and not a quality of nature, when brought from habit into exercise, it will do the bravest and most valiant deeds even in the weakest natures. Witness those virgin martyrs of tender years and delicate bringing up, who for the love of God did the noblest acts and underwent the greatest sufferings devoid of all disturbing fear. Witness again those heroic servants of God, who amidst corporal infirmities that would lay common mortals on their beds as permanent invalids, have expended the energies of a dozen ordi- nary mortals in laborious and unceasing acts of charity to their neighbours. It is the contrast between conscious weakness and the divine power working through that weakness that gives to Christian fortitude its splendour and sublimity,
St. Paul has expressed this conscious power m conscious weak- ness with magnificent generosity. ''And He said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in dis- tresses for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful." t Of his daily necessities and trials the great Apostle speaks in the same language of fortitude. ** I speak not for want. For I have learnt in whatever state I am to be contented therewith. I know both how to be brought low, and I know how to abound : every- where, and in all things I am instructed, both to be full, and to be
• Gerson. Compend, Theolog, c, De Septem Donts, t 2 Corinthians xii. 9, 10.
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hungry ; both to abound, and to suffer need. I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me."*
In his Book on the Duties of the Ministers of the Church St. Ambrose treats professedly on the virtue of fortitude. He calls it the firm and energetic force of virtue, which is higher than the other virtues, because it commands and invigorates them. With justice is this virtue called fortitude, because it is through its help that man governs himself, keeps down anger, and refuses to let himself be relaxed or softened by the allurements of the world around him. What can be higher, what more magnificent, than for a man to rule his body from the elevation of his mind, and to bring it under servitude ; to insist that it shall obey his will, and work with diligence in the way that his resolute will shall deter- mine?
Of the two kinds of fortitude, the first looks upon the things of the body as the least, and as if they were superfluous, and as rather deserving to be despised than thought much of. The second kind follows the Supreme Good of the soul, and whatever makes the soul herself good and beautifhl ; all this it follows with affectionate attention. What can be so exalting as to form the soul to an elevating energy, that looks on the things of this world as neither great in themselves nor deserving to be constantly pur- sued. If you have this much judgment in your soul, you will of necessity prefer what makes the soul herself good and beautiful, and will give your mind and affections to that good.
But whatever befalls you, let it not upset or disturb your mind. Be not like those who let any loss of this world's goods, any lowering of their honour or respect, any gainsaying of their adversaries, bring them down from their superiority over such things. Finally, let no peril to health or life that ought to be encountered for justice' sake ever move you. This fortitude belongs to those whom Christ sets in the field, and who after law- ful striving shall be crowned. What think you of this law ? Does it seem weak for your guidance in the combat? "Tribulation worketh patience ; and patience trial ; and trial hope ; and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost who is given to us." t
The most eminent spiritual writers lay it down as a principle
• Philippians iv. 11-13, f S. Ambros, De Officiis Ministrortm^ L. 1, c. 35-37.
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that fortitude is the moral foundation of contemplation. A little consideration will make this evident. What is contemplation but the resting of the mind and heart upon God as their supreme object, and as the highest object of all desire ? For in contempla- tion the mind passes not from object to object, nor from reason to reason, by an ascent from inferior to superior things, as in meditation, but rests with fixed attention and wonder upon God Himself, and devotes the affections to Him. But this implies great steadfastness of mind and constancy of heart, and such a fortitude of love as cannot easily be diverted from this divine exercise, either by dissipation of mind or by sadness of heart. The contemplative Psalmist therefore says to God: "Thou art my fortitude"; and " I will keep my fortitude to Thee But this can be nothing but that fortitude of love that adheres to God with constancy, and endures all things rather than suffer the least reparation of the superior mind and the heart from God,
It is a very great thing to have the mind habitually placed in the light of this truth, that the soul has but one Supreme Object, one Supreme Good ; that all other things are only so far good as they lead us to that Supreme Good ; that we are only blessed in that degree in which we partake of that good; and that the stead- fast contemplation of our Sovereign Good, sustained by the forti- tude of love, is the nearest approach that we can make in this life to the Living Fountain of all good. For the fortitude of love both loves and endures ; loves on the side of God, endures on the side of the creature, which is the perfection of charity.
This strong and ardent virtue may be likened to the furnace that purifies gold ; to the root in the fostering soil that upholds and invigorates the tree ; to the armour that protects life from hostile weapons ; and to the strong pinions upon which the eagle soars into the light of the sun.
As the furnace refines the gold, fortitude purges away the drossy incumbrances upon our spiritual nature, and makes it beautiful in strength. As the Proverb says: "Strength and beauty are her clothing". The wind breathes into the furnace to enkindle its ardour; the Holy Spirit breathes fortitude into the flame of charity ; in token of which that Divine Spirit came visibly upon the Apostles in a mighty wind with tongues of fire. The root sustains and invigorates the tree through its stem, branches, leaves, and fruit; fortitude sustains and invigorates the soul in all her
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powers, virtues, works, and sufferings. The Lord said to Josue before he entered the promised land : "Take courage and be very valiant : that thou mayest observe and do all the law, which Moses my servant hath commanded thee : turn not from it to the right hand or the left, that thou mayest understand all things which thou dost'**
The breastplate protects the heart from hostile weapons ; forti- tude protects the soul from the temptations of every spiritual and carnal enemy. The whole world cannot injure a soul that is fenced with faithful fortitude. Armed with this defence the most delicate virgins, such as Catherine, Agnes, Cecilia, Agatha, and Lucy, were able to overcome the rage of tyrants, and every invention of fear and cruelty. But the wonder grows less when we reflect that "strength comes from Heaven The eagle soars on his strong pinions against the sun, fortitude sustains the wings of the con- templative soul, and upholds her flight into the regions of light, from which the Sun of Justice shines upon her.
We may consider the ascending degrees of fortitude after the manner of St. Bonaventure. If we view the virtue as it raises us above the things of this world : it is a high degree of fortitude to conquer the world's allurements, and look down upon its transient delights; it is a higher degree to conquer the body, and keep down its concupiscences ; it is the highest degree to conquer one's self in the soul, and to change self-love into the love of God.
If we consider the virtue as it resists evil : it is a high degree of fortitude to resist and repel the sins of the body, such as intem- perance, sensuality, and uncleanness; it is a higher degree to resist and repel the sins of the soul, such as self-love, pride, vanity, and insincerity; it is the highest degree to resist and repel the first movements and occasions of sin, whether in body or in soul.
If we consider the virtue as it endures adversities, privations, or sorrows with peace and resignation : it is a high degree to endure with contentment the loss of such things as this world can give us; it is a higher degree to endure our personal sufferings and sorrows with a patient and peaceful heart ; it is the highest degree to give up our mortal life for God's sake, whensoever He may call for it.
If we consider this same gift and virtue of fortitude as it carries us with cheerful content through the labours of our vocation : it is
* Josue i. 7.
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a high degree to do our work in this world with a view to our salvation ; it is a higher degree to do our work in the right way, that is, according to the will of God ; it is the highest degree to labour in the interior of the soul, so as to perfect our union with God in time and for eternity.
To sum up the whole doctrine of fortitude in a sentence, it is the strength of God's grace working through the co-operation of the will in the weakness of the creature; and the fortitude of resignation, as the word implies, is the surrender of one's self to God amidst accepted afflictions, that, attached to the cross of Christ, they may perfect our soul. This is the summit of fortitude.
A comprehensive view of fortitude, as the virtue of the virtues, will take us deep into the designs of God, far and wide over the history of mankind, and high into the heavens above. It is the eternal plan of God to draw the greatest possible amount of good out of the evil produced by evil wills, and to demonstrate His power in the weakness of His creatures where their wills are good. These two magnificent demonstrations of His power and goodness are effected by the strength of His grace in the souls that freely and generously co-operate with His gifts. But this involves the conflict of good with evil, a conflict that goes on increasing in in- tensity, owing to the growth and complication of evil as the world grows older. Contemplate the history of the world from the opening of the Book of Genesis to the last prophecies recorded in the Book of Revelations, and you will see how the combat of good against evil goes on complicating and extending, at one time in violence, at another time in subtleties, until the time our Lord predicted when "you will scarcely find faith upon the earth Hence, as evil increases, fortitude and patience become still more needful to the servants of God. The rewards of those who overcome in the conflict are set before us for our encourage- ment in the same Book of Revelations in which those combats are described ; and St. John sums up the whole spirit of the conflict in these words : " Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus'*.*
When the conflict with evil is ended ; when that evil has been compelled to serve for the probation and sanctification of God's elect ; when all the good that can be drawn out of evil has been
• Apocalypse xiv. 12.
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accumulated in the souls of the just ; then will come that glorious manifestation of God's wisdom and power before the assembled universe of created intelligences, and the wonders of His grace and providence will be seen from beginning to end. But the most wonderful demonstration of God's love and power will appear in this, that the active, violent, subtle, combined, and most aggressive powers of evil have been all overcome by such gentle virtues as charity, humility, and patience.
Of all material elements fire is the most powerful and the noblest. By its subtle force all things live, grow, and are pre- served. It illuminates, invigorates, and fertilizes the powers of nature. Into what it enters, that it expands ; and to many things it gives strength and consistency, from the granite bones of the earth to the vessel of clay from the potter's wheel. It has not only the noble property of ascending, as in flame, but also the benignant property of descending, as in the rays of the sun. Having dominion over the weaker elements, it consumes without destroying them, and converts them into more ethereal forms of existence. Fire was therefore the most expressive element in which to manifest to mortal eyes the invisible descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ — expressive of the light of wisdom, the ardour of charity, and the strengthening and trans- forming power of fortitude.
When the Holy Spirit conveys His gifts to a soul. He infuses the strength of fortitude into the ardour of charity, and this fortitude ignited by this charity passes into our spiritual powers ; and if our will is faithful to co-operate with the divine gift, from our powers it passes into the virtues, making the soul strong from weakness and pliant to endure trials and to resist the evils of this mortal life. Then fortitude gives steadiness and^ strength to that bright flame of charity which aspires to God and to the service of God in His creatures, and gives honour and glory to our glorious Lord and Creator. What is weak or vicious in the creature is consumed in that strong fire, that it may be changed into spiritual good. In descending, that celestial flame consumes what ought to be consumed, and strengthens what ought to be strengthened ; and that gift which descended as a flame of grace re-ascends as a flame of love, bearing up the soul along with it into a closer, more constant, and more elevated communion with God, from whom the fortitude of charity descends.
LECTURE V.
ON the' patience of the son of god.
** May the Lord direct your hearts in the charity of God and the patience of Christ " — 2 Thessaloni ANS iii. 5.
ALTHOUGH the perfection of God is infinitely beyond the comprehension of His creatures, He has not left us in this darkling world without light to know that He is the Fountain of all goodness, or without conscience to feel that He is merciful, compassionate, and just. He has given us luminous revelations of His glorious nature, and has manifested His divine attributes in ways suited to our understanding, that we may rise through that knowledge to the contemplation of His infinite perfection in some degree, and may enkindle our desires for divine communion with Him. He has done more for us, and has manifested .Himself through His Divine Son, one with Him in His divine nature, one with us in His human nature ; and in the communication of His Holy Spirit, poured forth with love into our hearts, whereby we receive the sense of God, and the power to love Him and feel after Him, even whilst tied to this earth by the corruptible body, that we may have our conversation in Heaven.
But of all that God has taught us, and of all that we have learnt by experience, there is nothing that strikes the reflecting mind with more awe and wonder, or proves more fully His perfection, than His infinite patience with His rebellious and sinful creatures. This is the great consolation of the just ; this is the great scandal of the proud. Truly His thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways. The patience of God is the silence of His power, whilst His mercy speaks to the conscience. He made us all for Himself, every one of the children of Adam. He made us all that we might be happy in Him, who can never be happy in
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ourselves. But he knows the dust out of which He has so wonder- fully made us; He knows how weak and restless is our spirit which He made from nothing, without His help to fortify our nature, and to lead and guide it to Himself. And when we trust to ourselves instead of trusting ourselves to Him, and fall into every kind of sin and misery, our merciful God has patience with us, gives us time, speaks to our conscience, encircles us with His providential mercies, and scourges us with the miseries of our ini- quities, that we may have every motive for returning to Him And when we do return, His mercy and pardon are as perfect as His patience.
What a spectacle to the angels is the patience of God imposing silence on His justice whilst souls are still in the course of proba- tion ! When we reflect upon the long endurance of our Heavenly Father with His earthly children, so movingly described by the prophets ; and how through the long ages of their blind perversity. He was benignly preparing the way for their Redemption, speak- ing all the time to their conscience, giving them admonitory warnings, merciful corrections, and visible proofs of His provi- dential care of them ; and waiting, still waiting in silence, if per- chance, before their final summons from the body to His awful presence, they might acknowledge Him, turn to Him, and repent ; we stand transfixed in astonishment at a patience so great and divine. "Thou, our God, art gracious and true, patient, and ordering all things in mercy."* So wonderful is the merciful patience of God, that not a few sects of philosophy or creeds of religion, falsely so called, following the instincts of pride, have construed the divine patience into indifference or cruelty, not seeing that the patience that awaits for the conversion of the sinner is of the divine goodness that orders all things in mercy. But, o the eyes of faith, this very patience is one of the sublimest proofs of the divine perfection.
When we reflect again upon the history of the ages since God has manifested Himself openly to the world in his Son, since the Gospel of grace and truth has shone with such love to the souls of men ; how far more profound has been our insight into that divine patience with which God endures the sins and ingratitude with which so many of His Christian children have repaid his infinite
• Wisdom XV. I, 6
82 ON THE PATIENCE OF THE SON OF GOD.
love ! Stupendous is the patient love with which our Heavenly Father awaits the conversion of rebellious and ungrateful souls. But when at last the sinful soul returns to Him, and finds the par- don and peace that remove all her miseries, she exclaims in astonishment : Oh, infinite patience of my God and Saviour !
What a profound conception of the mystery of the Incarnation has. been given us by TertuUian in this short sentence: — "God placed His Spirit in His Son with all patience".* From the moment that the Eternal Word of the Father was made man by the operation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, His human nature was "full of grace and truth"; and was endowed with a divine patience derived from His Godhead, with whose person that human nature was united, that was perfect for en- during all the conditions of humanity, all its trials, and all those sufferings which He was destined to undergo for our redemption and salvation.
It was through the loss of patience that Adam fell into sin. It is through the loss of the same virtue that his innumerable descen- dants have sinned after his example. And it was by the power of His loving patience that the Son of God worked out our redemp- tion, by whose sufferings we are healed. As by the loss of that fundamental patience which adheres with constancy to God we fell into pride and self-seeking, and thence into every kind of weakness, sin, and misery ; so through the patience of Christ we are brought back to God, and are restored to the possession and consistency of those virtues by which we adhere to God and pre- serve ourselves from evil. When we consider who He was, and what He was, and all the things that He suffered and endured from the moment of His incarnation to His last breathing on the Cross, and with what gentle love and meekness He endured, we see that His patience was as wonderful as His humility, and that His Incarnation is the amazing mystery of humility and patience. From this we also collect that humility and patience are the true foundations of human perfection. Wherefore, in contemplating the one complete and perfect example of humanity, perfect because united with the divinity, what calls for our most especial attention and imitation is His divine patience and humility ; because these