In Which the Above Is Confirmed by Sundry Examples

IN the lives of the Fathers it is told of the Abbot Isaac that he came one day from the solitude in which he lived to a company of monks and judged ill of one of them, thinking him worthy of punishment because he saw in him some signs of small virtue. Afterwards he returned to his cell and found at the door an angel standing, who barred his entrance; and when the holy man asked the reason, the angel answered that the Lord had sent him for an answer, where he wished or commanded them to cast this monk whom he had judged and condemned. ‘Then the abbot recognized his fault and begged pardon of the Lord. The angel told him that the Lord forgave him that once, and bade him for the future greatly beware of playing the judge or passing sentence on anyone before the Lord, the Judge of all, judged him. St. Gregory relates of Cassius, Bishop of Narnia, a great servant of God, that his nose was naturally very red and fiery. Totila, King of the Goths, seeing it, judged that it came of his being a great toper. But the Lord was careful to strike in at once for the honor of His servant by permitting the devil to enter of a sudden into one of Totila’s courtiers, his sword bearer, and torment him in the sight of the king and of all the army. They took the possessed person to the saint and he, praying and making the sign of the cross over him, delivered him at once from the devil, whereat the king changed his judgment and held him in great honor ever after.

In the lives of the Fathers it is related that there were two monks, very holy and brotherly together, on whom the Lord had bestowed this favor, that each saw in the other the grace of God that dwelt in him by some visible sign— what it was the history does not say. One of them went out one Friday morning from his cell and saw a monk eating; and as soon as he saw him, without further examination of the necessity or cause he had for eating so early, said to him: “How comes it that you are eating at this hour, today being Friday ?”—taking that to be a fault in the other. When he returned to his cell, the monk, his companion, was greatly afflicted, not seeing in him the customary sign of the grace of God, and said to him: “Brother, what is that thou hast done since thou wentest out?” And he answered that he did not know he had done anything bad. His companion answered: “Perhaps thou hast spoken some idle word.”” At once he remembered what he had said and the judgment he had passed on the other monk. He told him what had passed and they both fasted a fortnight in penance for this fault. When that was over, he saw the sign as usual, In the chronicles of St. Francis there is related a marvelous vision that the Lord showed to Brother Leo, one of the companions of St. Francis. He saw a great number of Friars Minor in procession, very shining and fair, among whom he saw one more glorious, from whose eyes flashed rays brighter than those of the sun; so bright and fair they were that he could not look him in the face. Holy Brother Leo asked who this friar was whose eyes shone so bright, and was answered that it was Brother Bernard de Quintaval, first companion of St. Francis, and that the light shone from his eyes so brilliant because he always judged on the more favorable side whatever he saw in others, and took all others to be better than himself. When he saw the poor in their rags he used to say: ‘“These people observe poverty better than you,” and judged them as if they had voluntarily promised and chosen that poverty. When he saw the rich and well-dressed, he used to say with much compunction: “Maybe these wear haircloth under their clothes and secretly chastise their flesh and outwardly dress in this manner to shun vainglory, and so it may be that they are better than you.” For this simplicity in his eyes the Lord gave him that particular glory in them. This is the example we should copy. St. Dorotheus says: ‘‘When you enter another’s cell and see it all in disorder, say in your heart: ‘O happy and blessed brother, who art so absorbed in God as not to see these things!’ And when you see it well-arranged and tidy, say: ‘That is the way he keeps his soul.’ ”

In the same chronicles it is related how, when St. Francis was going about Italy preaching, he found on the road a poor and very infirm man, on whom he took pity and compassion, and began to talk to his companion in words expressive of his compassion for the infirmity and poverty of this poor man; and his companion said to him: “Brother, it is true that this person looks very poor but maybe he is richer in desire than all that there are in the land.” St. Francis scolded him at once very severely for this speech and rash judgment, and said to him: “Brother, if you wish to stay in my company, you must do the penance I shall give you for this sin against your neighbor.” The brother submitting himself with great humility and acknowledgment, ready to do any penance, St. Francis commanded him to cast himself naked at the poor man’s feet, and confess that he had sinned against him by detraction, and beg his pardon and prayers. His companion entirely accomplished on the spot the penance laid upon him.

We read also in another place of the same chronicles that the same saint, having for a time almost quite lost his sight by profuse and continual weeping, went to look for Brother Bernard to find comfort in conversing with him of God, of which he had special gift, so that they often spent the whole night together talking of spiritual things and heaven. When he came to his cell, which was in a remote part of the mountain, Brother Bernard was wrapt in prayer; and the holy man Francis called from hard by his cell, saying: “Brother Bernard, come to talk to this blind man.” But he, all entranced as he was in God, heard nothing and made no answer to the saint. After a little interval he repeated his call once more: “Brother dear, Friar Bernard, come to console this poor blind man.” As Friar Bernard did not answer him, St. Francis turned away, very sad and murmuring within himself that Brother Bernard, though called many times, had not taken the trouble to answer. The saint thus went his way, lamenting on the road and abashed. Then he went apart from his companion, and put himself in prayer on this doubt, how it was that Brother Bernard would not answer him, and at once heard God’s reply, Who reproved him and said to him: “Why art thou troubled, little man? Can it possibly be reasonable that a man should leave God for a creature? Brother Bernard, when thou didst call, was with Me and not by himself, and therefore could not come to thee nor answer thee a word because he did not hear thee.” The holy father at once returned to Brother Bernard in a great flutter, to accuse himself and receive from him penance for this thought; and finding that he had got up from his prayer, he threw himself at his feet, telling his fault and relating the rebuke which the Lord had given him, and bade Brother Bernard under obedience to inflict on him the penance which he should command him to inflict. But Brother Bernard, suspecting that the saint would command something extreme in the way of humility, as he was wont to do in contempt and chastisement of himself, sought means to excuse himself, and said: “I am ready, father, to do what you command provided you promise me on your part that you will do what I tell you.” The holy father was content to agree to this, being readier to obey than to command. Then the saint said: “I command you under holy obedience that in punishment of my presumption, when I am lying my length upon the ground, you put your feet one on my breast and the other on my mouth, and thus step three times over me, treading on my breast and my mouth, saying the words that I deserve: ‘Lie there on the ground, caitiff son of Peter Bernardon; whence came upon thee such pride, seeing thou art so base and vile?’”’ Brother Bernard, hearing this, was in doubt what to do; but for obedience sake, and not to distress the holy father, he did it with as much reverence as he could. That done, St. Francis said: “Now do you command what you wish under holy obedience.” Said Brother Bernard: “Under holy obedience I command you that, whenever the two of us are together, you chide me very severely for my faults.” Father St. Francis was much pained at this, for he held him in his great reverence for his holiness; and from that time forth the saint never stayed any long time with Brother Bernard, not to have occasion to scold so holy a soul; but when he went to see or hear him speak of God, he brought the interview shortly to a close.

Surius relates that one day the priest of the church came to visit the holy Abbot Arsenius, who was ill. He found him lying on a carpet, and at the head of the bed a pillow. There came with the priest an aged monk who, finding Arsenius thus, began to take scandal, thinking that these were comfortable quarters enough for a man who they said was so holy, not knowing who Arsenius was. Then the priest, who was a sagacious man, took the aged monk a little apart and questioned him: “Pray tell me, father, what you were before you became a monk.” He answered that he was very poor and had no property nor means of livelihood to speak of. Then the priest replied: “But know that Arsenius, before he was a monk, was a person very well off and in a high station, a tutor to princes, and gold rolled in his house; and for a man like that to have left all things and come to this poverty and humility, see whether there is not something to admire there and whether the carpet and pillow that he has is an excess of comfort for a man reared in such abundance and now aged and infirm.” The old man stood abashed and convinced.

Cassian relates of the Abbot Machetes that, discoursing and teaching on this subject that we must not judge anyone, he told of himself that he had judged his monks particularly on three things. The first was that some monks had abscesses formed inside their mouths which gave them much pain, and to be rid of it they put themselves under treatment and had it lanced, which he judged to be a fault and a mark of want of mortification. The second was that some others, enfeebled somewhat by the rigors of the rough life they led, under necessity made use of a coverlet of goats’ hair to lie upon and cover themselves withal, and he judged this to be an excess of comfort and a departure from the austerity that monks should practise. The third was that secular persons came and were moved by devotion to beg blessed oil of the monks, and they blessed and gave it them; and he thought this great presumption on their part, giving themselves out as though they were saints. He further acknowledged that in punishment for these blameworthy judgments, God had let him fall in all three particulars and that he had done the same thing which he condemned in others. For first of all an abscess formed in his mouth, and, compelled by the great pain and torment it gave him, and the advice of his elders, he had put himself under treatment and got it lanced. And under stress of this same infirmity he made use of the aforesaid coverlet; and constrained by the earnest entreaties and importunity of secular persons, he had given them blessed oil. He concluded by admonishing all to take warning by his example, and to dread and carefully shun this vice, saying that they would come to fall into the same case on which they pronounced judgment, as had happened to himself.

Anastasius, Abbot of the Monastery of Mount Sina, who flourished at the time of the Sixth General Council, relates that there was in his monastery a monk who did not pay so much attention to the practices of the community, choir, disciplines, and the like, and was not taken to be such a good religious. The hour of his death came, and they found him in great joy. Anastasius reproved him: ‘How now, can a monk who has taken life so easily be so cheerful at this hour?” The monk replied: “Be not astonished, father; the Lord has sent me an angel to tell me that I am saved because I have accomplished His word: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven (Luke vi. 37). And though it is true that I have not been so faithful to the exercises of the community, partly through negligence, partly through my want of health, yet I suffered them to illtreat me and forgave them from my heart and judged them not, but rather excused what they did or said; for this I am full of joy.”