That There Is Such a Thing as Good and Holy Sadness

| Be someone will say: Are we always to be cheerful? Never to be sad? Is there any sadness that is good? To this St. Basil answers that there is a sadness that is very good and profitable; for one of the eight beatitudes which Christ our Lord lays down in the Gospel is: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. v. 5). St. Basil says, and St. Leo Pope, and Cassian also mentions it, that there are two sorts of sadness. One is worldly, when one is sad for something of this world, its adversities and troubles; and that sadness they say the servants of God ought not to have. In the Lives of the Fathers we read of St. Apollonius that he used to preach to his disciples that sadness does not become the servants of God, who have their heart set upon the hope of the kingdom of heaven. Let the Gentiles be sad, he said, and the Jews, and the rest of unbelievers; let sinners too weep unceasingly; but as for the just, who hope with lively faith for the enjoyment of everlasting goods, let them be glad and rejoice. For if they who love perishable and earthly things rejoice and are glad at good success in attaining them, how much more reason have we to be glad and rejoice in God and in the everlasting glory that we hope for! And so the Apostle would not have us give way to unmeasured sadness even for the deaths of our friends and relations. We would not have you, brethren, be ignorant as regards the dead, that ye mourn not like other men who have no hope (1 Thess. iv. 12). He does not say absolutely that we should not mourn, for to show some sentiment of emotion on that account is natural, and not a bad but a good thing, and a sign of love. Christ our Lord showed this emotion, and wept at the death of His friend Lazarus, and the bystanders said, See how He loved him (John xi. 36). But what St. Paul means is that we should not mourn like unbelievers, who have no hope of another life, but moderate our sorrow with the comforting thought that soon we shall see them all united with God in heaven; that this one goes before, and we presently shall follow after him. Though, being men, we cannot omit to make use of the things of the present life, yet we must not dwell much on them, but take them on the way. Let them that weep, says the Apostle, be as though they wept not and them that rejoice as though they rejoiced not (I Cor. vii. 30).

Another sadness there is that is spiritual and according to God, good and profitable, and becoming the servants of God. This, St. Basil and Cassian say, is engendered in four ways, and of four things. First, of the sins that we have committed against God, according to that saying of the Apostle: I rejoice, not that ye have been sad, but that your sadness hath led you to repentance. Ye have been saddened according to God. The sadness that is according to God worketh repentance leading to salvation (II Cor. vii. 9-10). An excellent sadness it is, and well according to God, for a man to bewail his sins and be sad and grieved for having offended God. St. Chrysostom gives a reason worthy of his genius. There is no loss in this world that is repaired by sorrowing, grieving, and making oneself sad over it, only the loss that comes of sin; thus in all other matters sorrowing and grieving is time thrown away, but not in this. In the case of all other losses, not only is there no remedy in bewailing and being sorry for them, but they are rather augmented and increased thereby; but the loss entailed by sin is remedied by sorrow and grief, and therefore we should bewail it.

Secondly, this sorrow is engendered and springs from the sight of the sins of others, seeing how God is offended and made light of and His law broken. This also is an excellent sorrow, taking its rise from love and zeal for the honor and glory of God and the good of souls. Thus we see those holy prophets and great friends of God worn out and consumed with this sorrow and grief at seeing the sins and offenses committed against His Majesty, evils which they are unable to remedy. Fainting shall come over me by reason of sinners abandoning thy law (Psalm ecxviii. 53). So great was the affliction that the Prophet David felt on this account, that the grief of his soul enfeebled his body and made his blood run cold. My zeal hath consumed me for mine enemies forgetting thy words. I saw their transgressions, and wasted away at the sight of their not keeping thy words (Psalm exviii. 139, 158). The blood ran cold in my body; I shuddered to see the injuries and offenses committed against God. The Prophet Jeremy is full of similar complaints and sighs. This sadness is very good for us and very much becomes us, because the purpose of our institute is that the name of God be hallowed and glorified all the world over; and so the greater should be our sorrow to see that this is not done accordingly, but quite the reverse.

Thirdly, this sadness may spring from a desire of perfection, which means being so anxious to advance in perfection as to be ever sighing and groaning that we are not better and more perfect, according to what Christ says in the Gospel: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after virtue and perfection, for they shall have their fill (Matt. v. 6) ; God will fulfil their desires.

Fourthly, there may spring up in the servants of God a holy sadness at the contemplation of the glory of heaven and desire of heavenly goods, seeing themselves in exile away from them and put off, as the children of Israel bewailed their exile in Babylon when they remembered the Land of Promise (Psalm cxxxvi. 1), and the prophet lamented his exile in this life: Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged (Psalm cxix. 5). Those verses of the “Salve”: “To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, groaning and weeping in this vale of tears,” are sighs that make sweet and pleasant music in the ears of God.

Cassian specifies the signs by which we may know what sadness is good and according to God and what is evil and of the devil. He says that the former is obedient, affable, meek, gentle, and patient; in short, as springing from the love of God, it contains in itself all the fruits of the Holy Ghost, which St. Paul enumerates, which are charity, joy, peace, longanimity, goodness, faith, meekness, continence (Gal. v. 22). But the evil sadness that is of the devil is rude, impatient, full of rancor and fruitless bitterness, inclining to diffidence and despair, and withdrawing and removing from all good. Moreover, this evil sadness carries with it no consolation or joy; but the sadness that is of God, says Cassian, is in a certain manner joyful, and carries with it a certain consolation and comfort, and greatly fosters all that is good, as may be seen by running through the four sorts of sadness that we have mentioned. The very bewailing of one’s sins, though on the one hand it breathes affliction and pain, is on the other exceedingly consoling. We see by experience how content and satisfied we remain when we have been heartily bewailing our sins.

One of the things that go a long way to show the great difference for the better there is between the spiritual life of the servants of God and the life of worldly people is this, that we feel greater joy and delight in our soul when we have just done weeping for our sins than worldly people feel in all the feasts and pleasures of the world. St. Augustine makes good reflection on this point. He says: If this, which is the first of the true works of one who is beginning to serve God—if this weeping of the just, if their sadness, gives them such satisfaction, what must be the joy and contentment which they will feel when the Lord consoles them in prayer and allows them some of those spiritual transports which He is wont to impart to His elect! What must it be when He altogether dries their eyes and wipes away their tears! God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain shall be any more, for the things that were of old have passed away (Apoc. xxi. 4). See, then, the life of one who has continually made of himself a Jeremias, lamenting other people’s sins, what sweetness and satisfaction it raises in the soul, since it is a sign of good sons to be very jealous of the honor of their father! See, then, the life that has been spent in panting and sighing after perfection, and desires of being already in our heavenly country—what could there be sweeter and more delicious! St. Augustine says: “What more delightful state of mind than to be ever sighing after that glory and blessedness which we hope for, and to have our heart ever there where is true joy and satisfaction!”

Hence also it will be seen that the cheerfulness which we look for in the servants of God is no vain mirth of laughter and idle words, nor of witticisms and jokes, and chattering with everybody that one comes across; that would not be the cheerfulness proper to the servants of God, but distraction, foolish liberty, and dissipation. What we look for is an outward cheerfulness redounding from that which is within, according to the saying of the Wise Man: A joyful heart makes a cheerful face (Prov. xv. 13). As sadness of spirit redounds upon the body, drying it up and consuming it, even to the very flesh and bones—a sad spirit drieth up the bones (Prov. xii. 25)—so inward cheerfulness of heart redounds also upon the body and is shown in the countenance. So we read of many saints that there appeared in their face a cheerfulness and serenity which bore witness to the cheerfulness and inward peace of their soul. That is the cheerfulness that we want.

ON OUR TREASURES IN JESUS CHRIST