Salesian Literature

Chapter 6  :  Our wills compliant with God’s will as it is declared by his counsels

​

A command reveals a definite intention on the part of the person giving the order; a counsel betrays only a desire.  A command obliges us; a counsel merely invites.  A commandment renders those who break it blameworthy; a counsel simply renders those who fail to follow it less worthy of praise.

 

The answer to a command is obedience, to a counsel confidence.  Our aim is to please, if we follow a counsel; we keep a commandment, so as not to displease.  That is why gratifying love, which binds us to please the beloved, naturally leads us to follow his counsels; and why benevolent love, intent on submitting to him every decision and choice, causes us not only to want what he commands, but also what he counsels, what he suggests.  A child’s love and respect for its father, after all, inspires it to do not only what it is told, but also what it sees the parent would like.

 

Clearly a counsel is given for the sake of the person it is directed to, as an aid to perfection: If thou hast a mind to be perfect, was the Saviour’s way of expressing it, go home, and sell all that belong to thee; give it to the poor … then come back and follow me (Mt. 19:21; Lk. 18:22).  However, the utility of a counsel weighs little with a loving heart; all it aims at is complying with God’s wishes, paying him the respect due to his will.  So it accepts the counsels in the way God intends; and God does not intend each person to keep all the counsels.  He means a man to keep only those counsels which are appropriate to the time, to the occasion, to the individual, to his abilities, according as charity demands.  It is charity, queen of virtues, queen of all commandments, all counsels, of every Christian law and activity, which gives it each its rank, its order, its occasion and importance.

 

If your father or mother need you to support them, this is no time to carry out the counsel of retiring to a convent. Charity orders you to set about fulfilling its command of honouring, serving, helping and providing for your father and mother (cf. Ex. 20:12).

 

Suppose your health is poor, or uncertain; suppose you need much care and attention … Do not deliberately commit yourself to actual poverty; charity forbids it.

 

Charity not only forbids father of families to sell all that belongs to them and give the money to the poor; it commands them to acquire honestly whatever is needed for the support of a wife and family, for the education of their children.

 

Counsels are given for the perfection of Christian people, but not for the perfection of each individual Christian. Circumstances make a counsel now impossible, now useless, now dangerous, now harmful to this or that individual.  Not everyone can – should, I mean – always keep all the counsels.  They are given for charity’s sake; charity, then, is the rule and measure of their practice.

 

Charity is the motive and mainspring of all things, and God is the source of charity.  Everything is at charity’s service, but charity knows no master – not even God, for charity is bride not servant, engaged not in service but in love.

 

That is why charity regulates the order in which the counsels are followed, why we take our cue from charity – chastity not poverty for this man, obedience not chastity for that one; fasting not almsgiving for these people, almsgiving not fasting for those; solitude not parochial duties for this individual, social life and not solitude for that one.

​

​

Back to Top

​