Three Important Admonitions Upon This Subject

4 Bader are here three admonitions to be given, regarding three sorts of persons, for the consolation of the one, and the disenchantment of the other two. All men are not born with the same dispositions. Some natures are hard and feel great difficulty and contradiction of the flesh against works of virtue; they are thereby much afflicted and think all is lost. It is to such as these to whom I address the first advice I have to give, which is to let them know that there is no sin or imperfection in these repugnances and movements against reason, but only in following and acting upon them. Involuntary motions, bad thoughts occurring against purity, against faith, or against any other virtue whatsoever, for which many afflict themselves very much, are not sins. Wherefore the saints bid us not to put ourselves at all in pain for them; it is not the feeling these impressions but the consenting to them which makes the sin. When you loathe these temptations and endeavor to resist them, and do not entertain them or take satisfaction in them, they are no sin, but on the contrary an occasion of greater merit.

So of inclinations and evil emotions that we have of our nature, some more, others less, from which arise such evil stirrings in our appetite and such repugnances and reluctances for virtue—it is not in this point that one is good or evil, perfect or imperfect, for the thing is natural and not in our own control; it is the inheritance of sin. St. Paul, though he was St. Paul, felt the contradiction and rebellion of his flesh, and said: J see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin that is in my members (Rom. vii. 23). St. Augustine explains to this effect the verse of the psalm, Be ye angry, and sin not (Psalm iv. 6). “That is, though there arise in your heart some first motion, which now, being part of the penalty of sin, is not in our power, at least let not the will consent to it, but in mind let us serve the law of God, though yet in flesh we serve the law of sin (Rom. vii. 25). Though there arise in your appetite the movement of impatience and anger, do not let yourself be carried away or consent to it, and you shall not sin.” Those cows that drew the Ark of the Covenant bellowed as they went along because they had taken their calves from them, which they naturally loved; yet for all that they failed not to go straight on their way without turning either to the right or to the left. Do you the same. Persist in the straight way of virtue without permitting yourself to be put out of your way by the bellowing of flesh and blood, and herein you may be perfect.

The difference that there is between spiritual persons who labor after perfection and carnal and sensual persons who think not at all of it, does not consist in feeling or not feeling these motions and contradictions of their flesh, but in the fact that the one let themselves be carried away by them, the others do not. The live fish goes upstream and the dead fish downstream; so to know whether you are spiritually alive or dead, see whether you work upstream, whether you go against the current of your passions, or whether you let yourself be carried away by them downstream. The spiritual man hears not the cries and barkings of gluttony and the sensual appetite, nor lets himself be carried away thereby. He hearkeneth not to the voice of the exactor, says Job (xxxix. 7). Job calls the stomach the exactor, because it cries for more than is necessary. This is the whole point, says St. Gregory, not to hearken or consent to cravings that arise. Far from being discouraged by these evil inclinations, we should animate ourselves to make them the occasion of our gaining a greater crown from these as from other temptations. So St. Augustine, preaching on the Ascension and exhorting us all to mount up to heaven with Christ, assigns as other means to do that our passions and evil inclinations. And if asked how passions can help one to ascend into heaven, he answered that it was by the individual’s making generous efforts to subject them and get them under. In this way we shall make of our passions steps to mount on high; they will be below us to lift us up; they will be put under our feet to serve as steps to climb up to heaven.

We read in the Life of our holy Father that, being naturally hot-tempered, he had so overcome and changed his nature by the help and assistance of grace that they thought him to be of a phlegmatic temperament. Plutarch relates of Socrates that there came to see him a physiognomist, who could tell the natural inclinations of anyone from his outward mien and countenance, and pronounced that this man was evilly inclined to lewdness, gluttony, drunkenness, and many other vices. The disciples and friends of Socrates fell into a great rage and were ready to lay hands on the man, but Socrates restrained them, saying: “The man is in the right, for I should be such a one as he makes me out were I not given to philosophy and the practice of virtue.” But if a philosopher who had only the assistance of the light of nature was able after such a manner to overcome his bad inclinations, what may not a Christian or a religious man be able to do by the help of divine grace, as grace is more powerful than nature?

There are another sort of persons who are naturally well inclined. There has fallen to their portion a good soul (Wisdom viii. 9), as though they had not.sinned in Adam, as used to be said of St. Bonaventure by his master, Alexander of Hales. Their disposition is so good and sweet that every duty that meets them seems to be already done to their hand; they feel not in their flesh those contradictions and repugnances which others feel, but on the contrary they say: “Talk to me of the difficulties of religious life? Why, I find none!” It is to these to whom the second admonition appertains, which they must make use of to undeceive themselves. If God has given you such a happy constitution and good nature that you do not feel these difficulties and hardly know what a troublesome temptation is, be not puffed up or vain on that account, since this is not any virtue that you have gained, but the natural temperament with which you were born. Now virtue and spiritual progress are not measured by the cast of countenance nor exterior comportment, nor by gentleness of disposition, but by individual effort and by victory gained over self. This is the certain and sure measure of each one’s spiritual progress. And therefore one who is naturally hot-tempered does more when he resists and overcomes this passion of anger than you who find everything done for you. Plutarch praises Alexander the Great above all the monarchs of earth, saying that others were born to monarchy, but he gained monarchy with his right arm and spear and with many wounds received in divers battles. Such as have rendered themselves masters over their passions at the point of the sword, if I may say so, are more worthy of praise than those who are born with sweet and peaceable tempers and never have any provocation to fight at all. Wherefore neither the sweetness of your humor nor the natural heat and impetuosity of another, ought to make you esteem yourself the more or him the less; but on the contrary you must thereby take more occasion to humble yourself, acknowledging that what appears to be virtue in you is not so, but a pure effect of your natural temperament; whereas, in the case of your neighbor, everything that he does is virtue. You have made no progress because you have overcome yourself in nothing; while your neighbor has made great progress because he has withstood himself and overcome himself in many things. The fact of his encountering harder opposition and having a more rebellious nature to overcome, makes him take more care of himself and live with greater caution and fervor, and thus he grows continually in virtue. But to you your good natural endowment is an occasion of negligence and continual tepidity; and as you meet no enemies on your path, you become loutish and lazy.

It will be well also herein to consider what you would have been if God had given you a strong and difficult nature as He has given to that other, and to believe that the faults you would have committed would have been more numerous and greater than his. If with such a good natural disposition and so excellent an endowment you commit so many faults and are so tepid and remiss, what would have happened if you had encountered the strong oppositions and contradictions that he has had to meet? When God does not permit temptations to come upon you, we say you ought to think it is because of your weakness and your not having virtue enough to stand so much. So, too, you should make up your mind that it was a particular providence and mercy of the Lord to give you that good natural disposition and good endowment, because you would not have had virtue enough to overcome that strong and violent nature which your neighbor has. Thus you will preserve in yourself humility on the one hand, and on the other a good opinion of your brother.

The third admonition is for the undeceiving of a third class of persons, who feel not within themselves these repugnances and contradictions nor this rebellion of the flesh, but reckon themselves to be at peace, not because they are mortified, nor again because they have a good natural disposition and an excellent constitution like the former, but because they make no effort to restrain themselves, to deny and overcome themselves, but their delight is to gratify their desire and inclination, and on this line of action they feel not those repugnances and contradictions. They fancy they have peace, saying peace, peace, and it ig no peace (Jerem. vi. 4), but a false.and fictitious tranquillity. On that text of St. Paul (Rom. vii. 23) : I feel another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive by the law of sin, the glorious Augustine observes: “This war and contradiction of the flesh against the spirit and of the spirit against the flesh is experienced by those who are endeavoring to acquire virtue and root out vices from themselves.” So we see that worldly persons do not understand this talk of mortification, for it is their practice to follow their own will in all its caprices, taking that for their rule and their law. They do not know what it is to say no to themselves and to restrain their cravings, and so they experience no war nor contradiction within themselves, because there is nothing there to stand in the way of what they are bent upon. But those who aim at a spiritual life, and labor to acquire true virtues and root out their vices and bad inclinations, feel at once this war and contradiction of the flesh. As the bird does not know that it is caught till it tries to get out of the net, so man does not know the strength of his vices and evil inclinations till he labors to rid himself of them. In the embracing of virtue the contradiction of the contrary vice declares itself.

We read in the acts of the holy Fathers that one day a monk proposed this question to one of the old Fathers: “How comes it to pass that I feel not within myself those combats and that stress of temptation that others suffer?” To whom the holy man made this answer: “It is because you are like a great gate, by which he comes in who will and he goes out who will, without your knowing what is done and what goes on in the house. You keep a very lax conscience, little guard over your heart, little circumspection in your doings, little recollection in your senses, so do not wonder at what you ask me. But if you would keep the gate of your heart shut, if you hindered bad thoughts from entering, you would then see what a war they would make on you to get in.” If, therefore, you feel not this war within yourself nor any of these combats of your flesh, take heed lest this does not happen simply because you take your ywn way in all things, and use no endeavor to contradict your appetites and root out your vices and bad inclinations.