That We Should Chiefly Mortify Ourselves in That Vice or Passion Which Has the Greater Sway Over Us and Makes Us Fall into Our Greatest Faults

IN the First Book of Kings Holy Scripture relates that God commanded Saul by the Prophet Samuel utterly to destroy Amalek, leaving, as they say, neither chick nor child, great or small, nor men nor animals nor herds. And, says Holy Writ, Saul and the people spared King Agag, and the fattest of the cattle large and small, and all that was precious and valuable; but all that was cheap and worn out and worthless they destroyed (I Kings xv. 9). So there are some who mortify themselves in little trifling things; but in greater things, which are important and make more difference to them, they spare themselves and remain quite alive to the quick. For the information of such persons I say that the chief thing that we should set our eyes upon, to mortify it and offer it to God, should be the most precious. Samuel went thereupon to Saul and reproved him severely on the part of God for what he had done. He made them bring Agag, King of Amalek, before him. And Agag was brought forth, very fat and shaky, and Samuel hewed him to pieces in Galgala before the Lord (I Kings xv. 32-33). He made a sacrifice of him to God. This, then, must be the chief thing that you are to sacrifice and offer to God by mortification—this Agag of your swollen vanity and pride that has most sway over you, this craving to be regarded and thought much of, this impatience, this asperity of temper that is habitual to you.

There are some who seem to place all their care and all their holiness and perfection in the exterior, practising a modesty and composure that is very edifying and not letting appear in their exterior any fault; but of interior mortification, which is the most precious and sublime, they take no account, but are all alive and sensitive in respect of their own will and judgment, their honor and reputation. To these we may say, in its measure, what Christ said to the scribes and Pharisees: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who are at much pains with the exterior cleanness of the platters and cups with which ye eat and drink, and within are full of uncleanness, of theft and rapine. Blind Pharisee, make first the inside clean, that the outside may come to be clean also (Matt. xxiii. 25-26). Cleanse and mortify first the interior, that the exterior may be pure and clean; for if this exterior modesty does not spring from that which is within, from inward peace and maturity of heart, it will be all hypocrisy and pretense. Be not, says Christ our Redeemer, like the whitened sepulchers, that look very fair outside and within are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. And in the same chapter, even more to our point, He reproves the same scribes and Pharisees, Saying: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who take care not to let go untithed the mint, and the anise, and the cummin, and omit the weightier things of the law, right judgment, mercy, and fidelity to God, and take no account of them (Matt. xxiii. 23).

This is literally what we have been just saying, that there are some who take great care to mortify themselves in matters of small moment which cost them nothing; but in what hurts them, in what goes to the quick, there is no touching them. That, then, must be the chief thing that we are to mortify—that passion, or that vice or inclination or bad habit that puts us in greater dangers and makes us fall into greater faults. We see by experience that each one commonly is wont to feel in himself one or two things which alone or chiefly make war upon him, hinder his advancement, and are the cause of all his disorders. We say, then, that it is on this that each one should principally fix his eyes, to rid and root it out of himself by mortification. On the same account we are wont to insist that the particular examen should be made also on this matter, and that it should be mainly dwelt upon in meditation as being each one’s principal necessity.