Salesian Literature

Chapter 21:  Our Lord’s loving attractions lead us to faith and charity

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Frequently, between our first awakening from sin, or from unbelief, and our final resolve to make an act of perfect faith, there lies a fairly lengthy interval.  This we can use for prayer, like the father of the lunatic boy.  St. Mark tells us that this man, in proclaiming his belief (in other words, that he was learning to believe) also knew that his faith was far from perfect.  That is why he cried aloud, in tears, Lord, I do believe; succour my unbelief (Mk. 9:23).  As though he meant to say: “The dark night of disbelief is over; already the rays of faith brighten the horizon of my soul.  But, for all that, I do not believe as I should.  Faith’s awareness is still dim, still shrouded in darkness.  For pity’s sake, help me, Lord!”

 

Our Lord attracts the hearts of men by the delights he gives them, so that they find his teaching charming, pleasant.  But just as God never fails to be generous with his inspirations, until the will falls completely captive to his charms, so the devil is ever spitefully besetting us with his temptations.  Meanwhile, we are perfectly free to accept God’s advances or reject them.  The Council of Trent[1] decided quite clearly that “if anyone were to deny that, when God inspires or calls a man to fit himself for the grace of God’s approval, free will lends the cooperation of its assent to God’s impulse, God’s prompting, or to deny that a man can withhold his assent, if he wishes”, such denial would earn excommunication and condemnation by the church.

 

If we place no obstacle in the way of charity, it will God on increasing in our souls until they are entirely transformed; like those great rivers which grow wider and wider as they approach the open plains.

 

Once God’s inspiration has attracted us to faith, and met with no resistance on our part, it will lead us to penance and to charity.  St. Peter, uplifted – like an apode – by the inspiration of his Master’s look (Lk. 22:61-62), freely surrendered to it.  He read in the Saviour’s eyes, as in a living book, the gentle invitation to seek forgiveness.  He drew from it the correct motive – hope.  He left the court, reflected on the dreadful sin he had committed, loathed it, wept, groaned, humbled his heart for the Saviour’s mercy, begged pardon for his fault and resolved never to be disloyal again.  As grace continued to lead him, support him, help him through all those impulses, he finally achieved the remission of his sins.  So he went from grace to grace; for, as St. Prosper asserts, “without grace no one strives for grace.”

 

There you have it, dear Theotimus – the way God’s inspirations come to us, prompting us, impelling our will to love him!  If we do not reject these inspirations, they accompany us on our way, surrounding us, to urge and impel us ever forward.  If we do not forsake them, they never forsake us until they have brought us safely into harbour – to charity.

 

They do for us the threefold service which the great angel Raphael performed for young Tobias (Tobit 12:3); they escort us safely, going and coming, through the ways of penance; they preserve us from perils, rid us of the fiend’s attack; they console us, give us new life, new strength in all our difficulties.

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[1]  Session 6, Canon 4.

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