Salesian Literature

Chapter 7  :  Disinterestedness to be shown over growth in virtue

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God has laid upon us the obligation of doing all we can to acquire virtue, so let us overlook nothing hat may ensure success.  But after we have planed and watered, let us be aware that it is God who gives the increase to our good tendencies and habits (cf. 1 Cor. 3:6).  That is why we are to look to his providence for the harvest of our desires and efforts.

 

If we feel that we are not growing or advancing in devotion as well as we should wish, let us not upset ourselves, but be at peace, never traitors to tranquillity of heart.  Ours is the task of tilling the garden of our souls, so we must be faithful in devoting all our attention to it; abundance of crop and harvest we are to leave in our Lord’s care.  The ploughman will never be taken to task for not having a good harvest; only for not tilling his fields, for not sowing his seed.

 

Let us not be disconcerted at finding that we are always novices in the practice of virtue … devotion is a monastery where each soul never thinks of itself but as novice, where the whole of life is a time of trial.

 

But wait, it may be objected: if I know that my slow rate of progress in practising the virtues is due to my own fault, how can I help being dismayed, disturbed?  I have already answered this in my Introduction to Devotion (Part 3, Chapter 9), but I gladly repeat it here; it can never be said too often.  We are to be sorry for the sins we have committed, but our contrition is to be powerful, solid, steadfast, peaceful; it is not to be wild, uneasy, despondent.

 

You admit to lagging on the path of virtue through your own fault … Come, then!  Abase yourself in God’s sight; beg his clemency; bow down and crave his pardon; confess your sin, cry mercy in the ear of your confessor, so as to win absolution.  But this done, be at peace.  Hate your sin, but love the self-abasement you will feel at having made so little spiritual progress.

 

Take that good man over there … He really wants, really tries to rid himself of a tendency to anger.  In this he has had the help of God’s grace; it has set him free from all sins due to anger.  That man would rather die than utter an insulting word or show the slightest sign of hatred.  Yet he is still a prey to the onset, the initial impulse of that passion.

 

There is nothing sinful about these initial stirrings or tremblings of anger, yet the unfortunate soul that is often seized by them becomes agitated, frets and worries; it even thinks its dismay is a good thing brought on by the love of God.  nevertheless, this agitation is not the work of charity, which only takes offence at sin; it is prompted by self-love, which would have us exempt from the anguish, the effort, to which the onset of anger gives rise.

 

We are not exempt from rebellion on the part of our sense appetite, in the matter of anger or concupiscence, in order to give us training in resistance, in acquiring courage of soul.  It is the Philistine army which all true Israelites must ever strive against, but never get the better of (cf. Joshua 23:13).  Weakened it may be, but never suppressed; it dies only when we do, and so is with us all our lives.

 

A sting to distress his outward nature, an angel of Satan, roughly goaded St. Paul, to make him fall into sin.  The poor apostle felt he was suffering a shamefully degrading wrong; that is why he called it an outrage, a rebuff, and begged God to rid him of it.  But God replied: My grace is enough for thee, Paul; my strength finds its full scope in thy weakness.  With which that great and holy man complied by saying: More than ever, then, I delight to boast of the weaknesses that humiliate me, so that the strength of Christ may enshrine itself in me (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

 

Notice, if you will, that even this chosen instrument (cf. Acts 9:15) knew a sense rebellion; but, by taking refuge in the remedy of prayer, he shows us what weapon to use against the temptation we feel.  Notice further that, if our Lord allows these grievous revolts within a man, they are not always punishments for sin, but evidence of the strength, the power of God’s helping grace.  And notice, finally, that not only are we not to worry over our temptations, our weaknesses, but we are to boast of them, so that the strength of Christ may show itself in us – a prop to our weakness in face of the stress imposed by suggestion, by temptation.

 

What St. Paul calls his weaknesses were the impure stirrings and sensations he felt, of which he claimed to boast, for though he was pitifully aware of them, yet by God’s mercy he did not give way to them.

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