Salesian Literature

20.   The Real Test of Love

 

Dear Francis de Sales,

 

I’m writing to ask for the help of your prayers.  I’m not very well just now and have been having a series of sick headaches.

 

Not long ago you advised me to think often about our Lord’s sufferings.  I try to do this, but I’m afraid that when the pain is very bad I find it impossible.

 

Someone told me recently that I shouldn’t pray to get well, but just grin and bear my sickness. Is that right?  Should I kneel down to say my prayers when I feel a little better?

 

Yours sincerely,

Mrs. A. Christine

 

 

Dear Mrs. Christine,

 

Let us practise the virtue of resignation and that unselfish love of our Lord for which our troubles alone offer full scope.

 

To love God when things go right is child’s play; to love him when things go wrong – that is the supreme test of true love.  The impetuous St. Peter had sufficient courage to say all for Jesus on Mount Tabor.  Only his Mother and the beloved disciple, bequeathed to her as her son, were found to say All for Jesus on Mount Calvary.

 

So you see, I ask God in my prayers to grant you the virtue of patience.  There’s nothing else I can ask him to do for you, except to mould your heart to his liking, so as to make it his home and his kingdom for ever.

 

Let me add that whether he fashions it with a hammer, a chisel or a brush is for him to decide.  That’s only right, isn’t it, my child?

 

I know that your sufferings have been increased lately and my sympathy for you has grown with them.  Still, together with you, I praise and thank our Lord for the fulfilment of his good pleasure in granting you a share in his holy cross and crowning you with his crown of thorns.

 

You say that while you are sick with pain you can hardly keep your mind on the sufferings our Lord endured for you.  But, dear child, you’re not bound to do this, as long as you just lift up your heart to him as often as you can in the following ways:

 

Accept the pain form his hand as though you could actually see him laying and pressing it on your head.  Offer to suffer more.  Beg him, through the merits of his sufferings, to accept your little ailments in union with the pains he endured on the cross.  Promise him that you will not only endure but lovingly welcome your indisposition, since it comes from so good and kind a hand.  Ask the prayers of the martyrs and the many servants of God who are now enjoying the happiness of heaven in reward for the great sufferings they endured in this world.

 

There’s no harm in wanting a cure; rather, you must do all you can to obtain one.  Sickness is willed by God, but he can also provide the cure for it.  Apply whatever remedies you can and then leave yourself in God’s hands.  If he wishes the sickness to prevail, accept it cheerfully.  If he allows the remedy to be successful, thank him for it.

 

There’s no harm in sitting down to say your prayers.  None at all; and this goes for far less delicate cases than yours.

 

What happiness is yours, if you go on leaving yourself as a humble, meek and docile instrument in God’s hands.

 

I hope your headache will prove beneficial to you spiritually, for it’s your growth in holiness that I have so very much at heart.  It is now, more than ever and most clearly, that you can prove to our dear Lord the sincerity and love behind your constant prayer: All for Jesus!

 

All for Jesus!  May he reign amid your sufferings, for it is to his dying sufferings that we owe the possibility of a share in his life and his kingdom.

 

I am, in him very sincerely yours,

Francis de Sales

(Source:  1610-1611. Possibly addressed to Madame de la Fléchère.  Annecy Edition, XV, 140-142)

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