A Further Declaration of the Rectitude and Purity of Intention Which We Ought to Have in Our Actions

4 pleas is a very good piece of advice ordinarily given to those who deal with their neighbor, telling them how they ought to be disposed in the works and ministries that they do; and this same advice declares very well how pure should be our intention in our actions and with what detachment and simplicity we should seek God in them; the same is the teaching of those glorious Fathers and doctors of the Church: Jerome, Gregory, and Chrysostom, as we shall see. When you take in hand any work to the end that some good, general or particular, may thence accrue to your neighbor, have not chiefly in view the fruit and good success of the work, but the doing therein of the will of God. Thus, when we hear confessions, preach, or lecture, we must not have chiefly in view the conversion or amendment and profit of those with whom we speak or whose confessions we hear or to whom we preach, but the doing of the will of God in that work, and doing therein the best we can to please God. The success of such work, the amendment of our neighbor and his actually drawing fruit from the sermon—that is not our affair, but God’s. I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase (I Cor. iii. 6). To plant and water, says the Apostle, that is what we can do, as the gardener does; but the plants’ growing, and the trees’ bearing fruit, that is not the work of the gardener, but of God. The fruit of souls, their rising out of sin and being converted and growing to perfection, is all to be laid to God’s account. The value and perfection of our work does not depend on that. This purity of intention, then, we must strive to have in our actions, and in this manner our intention will be very pure and we shall enjoy great peace. He who does his works in this spirit is not troubled when somehow the success and fruit that he aimed at in his good work is hindered or rendered impossible, since he does not make this his end nor set his heart on that, but on doing therein the will of God and making the best job of it that he can to please God. But if, when you preach, hear confessions, or do business, you are much wedded to the result and fruit of your good work and make that your principal end, and then in some way your design is thwarted, you are sure to be troubled and come to lose sometimes not only peace of heart, but patience also and even suffer further loss still.

Our blessed Father Ignatius used to illustrate this by a very good example or comparison. Do you know, he says, how we ought to behave in our ministrations to our neighbor? As the Guardian Angels behave to those whom they receive in charge from the hand of God, to advise, defend, direct, enlighten, move, and help on to good so far as they can; but if their charges make an ill use of their liberty and prove rebellious and obstinate, the angels do not distress themselves on that account, nor are they pained, nor lose one jot or tittle of the blessedness they enjoy in God, but rather say with Jeremy: We have treated Babylon and she is not healed, let us leave her (Jer. li. 9)—so we should take all possible means to draw our neighbors out of sin and do them good; and after we have done our duty diligently, we must remain in much peace of soul and not lose heart because the patient holds on to his malady and has no mind to be cured.

When the disciples returned from preaching, mightily pleased with themselves because they had worked miracles and cast devils out of men’s bodies, Christ our Redeemer answered them: Rejoice not in that, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke x. 20). Our joy must not depend on our success, even though it be as good success as that; but see whether you are doing works such as to merit thereby that your name be written in the kingdom of heaven; see if you are doing the duties of your office. It is in that that you should put your joy and satisfaction; as for those other successes and conversions and marvels, they stand not to your account, and the reward and glory to be given to you will not be in proportion to them, but in proportion to your labors, whether men be converted and improved or not. This is seen clearly, taking the thing the other way about. Supposing great fruit gained and all the world converted by your sermons and ministrations, and you have not gone on as you ought, what will it profit you, as Christ our Redeemer says in the Gospel? So in like manner, if you do what you ought, though not a soul be converted, not on that account will your reward be less. In a fine plight certainly would the Apostle St. James be if his reward depended on that, and he were to set up his rest on that, since they say he converted only seven or nine persons in the whole of Spain; but not for that did he merit less, or please God less, than the rest of the apostles.

Furthermore, we find another great consolation in this fact, that not only will God not ask of us an account whether we have gained much fruit or not, but He will not even demand an account whether you have preached a fine sermon or given a grand lecture. That is not what God commands us, nor does in that our reward lie; but what God commands and requires of me is that I do that which shall be possible and be in my power according to the talent that I have received—if little, little; if much, much; and with that He rests satisfied. Of him to whom they have given much, much shall be required; and little of him to whom little has been given (Luke xii. 48).

St. Chrysostom explains this very well. Treating of the parable of the talents, he asks what is the reason why the servant who gained two talents receives the same reward as he who gained five? When the master came to ask an account of the talents he had divided among his servants, the holy Gospel says that he came who had received five, and said: Lord, thou gavest me five talents; thou seest that I have gained an increase of other five. And the master says to him: Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful in a little, I will set thee over much. He comes who had received two talents, and says: Lord, thou didst entrust me with two talents. See here, I have gained an increase of other two (Matt. xxv. 20-23). And the master answers in the same words, promising the same reward to him as to the other who had gained five talents. What is the reason of this? A very good reason, answers the saint, since the gain of five talents in the one case, and of not more than two in the second, was not a matter of greater or less diligence, but because they gave five talents to the one, wherewith he was able to double the amount and gain an increase of another five, while to the other they gave only two; yet the one showed as much diligence as the other, and worked as hard as the other in making the best of what he had received, and so was able to merit and receive the same honor and recompense.

This point is very profitable and very consoling, being applicable to all things and to all offices and duties. If one man works and takes as much pains as another in the charge committed to him, he may merit as much as the other, although he does not do so much. For example, if I labor as much over preaching a sorry sermon as you Over preaching a good one, it may be that I merit as much as you and even more. In the same way in studies; though your neighbor be but a poor scholar and you a good one, though he knows little while you know much, it may be that he merits more with the little that he knows than you with the great deal that you know; and the same in all occupations. Though I do not do my job to such a nicety as you do yours and my abilities and talent do not go so far as that, yet it may be that I merit more with the little that I do than you with the great results that you achieve. This consideration will help much to keep the one party from vainglory, the other from discouragement.

This is also the doctrine of St. Jerome on the same parable. “The master receives with like good grace and honor him who brought in four talents as him who brought in ten; for God regards not so much the amount gained as the good will, diligence, and charity with which the work is done.” “God is more pleased with the affection shown than with the value of our offerings,” says Salvian. As also says St. Gregory: “God does not regard what is given, but out of how much love it is given” —Deus non respicit quantum, sed ex quanto. God regards the heart rather than the gift. Thus one with fewer works may please God better than another with more, if he does them with greater love. Herein clear shines forth the greatness of God, since no service, however great it be, is great before Him if it proceed not from great love, since God has no need of our goods and cannot increase in riches nor in any other good thing. Jf thou beest just, what wilt thou give him thereby, or what shall he receive at thy hand? (Job xxxv. 7). What He does look for and value is being loved, and our doing what is in our power. We see this literally laid down in the matter of the two mites which that widow in the Gospel offered. Christ our Redeemer was sitting hard by the treasury, or charity box, of the Temple, where people threw in their alms; and there came those Pharisees or those rich men, and some threw in silver coins, others perhaps gold. Then came a poor widow and threw in two mites. Christ turns to His disciples and says to them: Verily I say to you, this widow hath offered more than all; because the others have given out of their superfluity, and even so have not given according to their condition, but she of her poverty hath given all that she had (Mark xii. 43-44). So, says St. Chrysostom, in the same way God will regard those who preach, study, labor, and do other ministries and offices; He will not look so much to what they do as to the good will, love, and diligence with which they do it.