How This Temptation Is Apt to Disguise Itself Not Only under the Appearance of Piety, but of That of Duty, and the Remedy to Be Applied Thereunto

ae this temptation is apt at times to make its way and avail itself not only of the pretext of piety, but ever of duty—and these are the most dangerous temptations— to prevent and obviate the great mischief that might other wise result in the Society, our Father in his Constitutions enacts that all who enter it should be asked whether in case of any doubt arising as to their being bound to go to the aid of parents or relations, they will let themselves be guided by what the Society and the superior thereof shall ordain and not allow themselves to be carried away by their own judgment. For in an affair of relations, as in an affair of our own, affection blinds us and readily leads us astray, so that we cannot be good judges in such a case. For the quietening of all consciences and the banishment of all scruple, our Father has provided this remedy. Therefore everyone is bound to acquiesce in what the Society shall tell him in this matter, there being in our body so much learning and so much fear of God; and he will find its decision quite conformable to sound theology and conscience. To this end the proposal is made and the question asked at the outset of everyone who wishes to enter the Society, and they do not receive him unless he is ready to submit to this. We owe many thanks to God that we can securely throw off all solicitude on this point, and so are left free to apply more earnestly to our advancement and perfection.

For this same reason our Father also directs that, when one of our Society makes his renunciation of property and there is question of dividing the property among his relations on the score of their being poor, he must leave it to the judgment of two or three learned and conscientious persons, to be chosen by the individual with approval of the superior, and it is for them to judge whether his relations are really poor and are in real need, to the end that affection for flesh and blood may not lead him astray. Thus to give away one’s property to strangers, this consultation is not necessary, but to give it to one’s relations it is required, on account of the danger of natural love and affection. So St. Gregory observes on that case in which Christ forbade a young man to go to bury his father (Luke ix. 60), that what He would not have forbidden him to do for a stranger, but rather would have advised it, and it would have been a work of mercy, He forbids in the case of his father, to give us to understand that what may be done for strangers often cannot be done with propriety for relations, on account of the danger that usually attaches to it and the disedification of those who see a religious involved and embarrassed in things of flesh and blood. It is clear that one behaves in a different way in the business of a stranger from that in which one acts in the affairs of one’s own kinsmen and relations; for the former is done without anxiety and disturbance, but the latter, as experience shows, causes great restlessness and robs a man of the peace of his soul, and stands greatly in the way of his spiritual exercises. Thus, when at times it may be necessary to give some help to relations, the better and safer course for the man himself and the more edifying for neighbors is that some other father should take charge of the transaction, and he be out of it. And in the Society we have an order that the thing be done in that way, and such is the teaching of St. Basil. Besides, when a man is employed on his own in these matters, if there be in him anything of the world and of the flesh, he would wish his people not to be poor, nor to suffer, while God would have them be poor and suffer need, that being more expedient for them for their salvation, and for him for his humiliation. There is also another vanity and folly apt at times to come in here, in that some religious make it their aim and endeavor that their parents and relations may be more and have more than they would have been and would have had but for some of their family being religious. Herein those persons show that they are religious but in name only, since, where they ought to be more humble, they display more vanity and presumption.

And for our sins we have experience more than we could wish, how many under this pretext are tempted in their vocation, and contrive to leave their order under color of providing for the needs of their parents or brothers. I go further and say that such persons, commonly speaking, do not start from this, nor is this the main cause that makes them falter in their vocation, but other hidden causes that they themselves know—to wit, their small stock of virtue and mortification, the weakness they feel in themselves for bearing the rigor and perfection of religious life, that is what makes them flag therein; and as they cannot openly quote this title, they have recourse to others that are more or less colorable. That it is so, we have practical experience daily, and see the cause clearly working in its effects. Oftentimes these renegades have it not in their power to meet the necessities they speak of, nor do they meet them by quitting their order; they would do their families more good by staying init. That is not their motive in leaving their vocation, but a desire of liberty and living at their ease. Thou hast not lied to men, but to God (Acts v. 4). You can never deceive God. Woe to him that begins to hobble and halt, and not acquiesce in what his superiors and his constitutions tell him!

Finally, it is the proper means for gaining the end for which we came into religion, to withdraw from the conversation and affairs of our relations and give them the go-by. He will keep well the commandments of God and the counsels of his profession who, the better to serve God, forgets his relations, and says to father, mother, and brothers, I know you not (Deut. xxxiii. 9). St. Bernard says very well, and it is the common doctrine of the saints, that the religious ought to be like another Melchisedech, of whom the Apostle St. Paul (Heb. vii. 9) says he was without father, or mother, or lineage—not that he had none, because, being a real man, he could not be without them, but he is said to have had none because Holy Writ, speaking of him by reason of his priesthood, mentions nothing of this, nor of the beginning or end of his days, to give us to understand that priests (and much more religious) must be detached from all that sort of thing as though they had nothing of it, and as dedicated to spiritual and divine things as though they had dropped down from heaven. Thus they should be at heart like another Melchisedech, having nothing in the world to hold them back or hinder or retard their eager haste to go on their way to God. Let us conclude, then, with the conclusion made by St. Bernard: “Recollect thyself and sit apart, away from the multitude of the rest of men; forget, too, thy native place and thy father’s house, and God shall desire thy beauty (Psalm xliv.11).” St. Jerome on these words of the prophet says: “A great thing it must be for a man to forget his parents and relations, since such a great reward is promised him for it, that God shall desire his beauty.”

In the chronicles of the Order of St. Francis it is related that there entered the order at Paris a master in theology, whose mother had supported him by alms and out of much poverty till she placed him in that rank. Hearing that her son had become a friar, she came to the convent, and with many tears and importunities entreated and cried out to her son, baring her breasts and putting before him the labors with which she had reared him and the need and misery in which he was leaving her. The master was moved by these tears to abandon his purpose, and determined to leave his order the next day. Feeling a great struggle going on in his heart about this, he had recourse to prayer according to his custom and, prostrate before the figure of a crucifix, he said in the agony of his heart: “Lord, I do not wish to abandon Thee! Never do Thou permit such a thing; I wish only to succor my mother, who is in sore need.” Saying these words, he raised his eyes to the figure and saw that from the Savior’s side there was streaming real blood, and therewith he heard a voice that said to him: “Thou hast cost Me more than thou hast thy mother, seeing that I have created thee and redeemed thee with this blood; thou oughtest not to leave Me for love of thy mother.” The master was overpowered with this warning; and, preferring the love of Jesus Christ to the natural love of his mother (who was trying to move him by her necessities to leave that state of life), he persevered in the order and ended his days in it with much praise.

Though in this treatise it seems that we have spoken only to religious, yet if seculars would draw a lesson from it as we desire, not to disturb religious, nor implicate them in their affairs, nor intrigue with the government of the order, trying to get a relation or a friend to come and stay with them, that will be no small fruit gained as well for them as for us.