Why the Surrender That One Makes of Oneself to Religion by These Three Vows Is Called by the Saints a Second Baptism and a Martyrdom

NF so great value and merit before God is the entire surrender of oneself to God by these three vows of religion that theologians and saints say that thereby one gains remission of all one’s sins, so that, were you to die then, you would go straight to heaven without passing through purgatory, like one dying immediately after receiving baptism (St. Thomas 2a—2a, q. ult. art. 3, ad 3). And so St. Jerome, St. Cyprian, and St. Bernard call it a second baptism. And this does not happen by way of indulgences. As for plenary indulgences, novices gain one the first day they are received and are given the habit of religion, on condition of confession and Communion. But what I speak of happens not merely by virtue of an indulgence, but by virtue of the act itself being so excellent and heroic that, of itself and without any indulgence, it makes satisfaction for all the penalty due to one’s sins. Doctors quote in support of this what is read in the Life of St. Anthony. It appeared to the saint in a vision that the angels were carrying him up to heaven, and the devils came forth to get in his way and tried to bar his going up, accusing him of some sins that he had committed in the world. The angels answered: “If you have anything to accuse him of since he has been a religious, accuse him of that; but as for the sins that he committed in the world, they are already pardoned and atoned for; that account was wiped out on the day that he became a religious.” Whereupon the devils were dumbfounded.

The Prophet Daniel said to King Nabuchodonosor: Redeem thy sins by almsdeeds (Dan. iv. 24). But if to give alms out of part of one’s substance is such a satisfaction to God for one’s sins, how much greater satisfaction will he make who gives all! It is more to give all and leave all than to give only a part. A good thing it is, a very good thing, when a man of property shares it with the poor; but much better is his act who leaves all to follow Christ. St. Jerome, writing against the heretic, Vigilantius, very well proves this to be the better course by the testimony of Christ Himself uttered in the holy Gospel: If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow me (Matt. xix. 21). It is, therefore, the more‘ perfect thing to leave all by one act and follow Christ. St. Gregory on Ezechiel, quoted by St. Thomas, says that persons in the world, who keep their property in their own hands and share it with the poor, offer to God a sacrifice of their property because they give something to God while keeping something for themselves; but the religious, who keeps nothing for himself, but renounces all for love of God, offers to God a holocaust, which is more than a sacrifice. What, then, must it be to leave for God not only all one’s property, but also oneself—one’s body by the vow of chastity, and one’s will and understanding by the vow of obedience! What must it be to live ever denying and mortifying oneself for love of God! For that is the life of a religious: Ever carrying about, imprinted on our body, the mortification of Jesus (II Cor. iv. 10). The excellence and perfection of this deed is well seen by the fact that, though one has made a vow to go to Rome and Jerusalem, and give all one’s property and acquisitions to the poor, and serve in the hospitals all one’s life, and take the discipline every day, and fast on bread and water, and go about wearing a hair shirt, and anything further that you like to mention, he has only to enter religion, and all those obligations cease and are commuted into that, as being a better thing, more pleasing to God, and a thing of greater perfection. So it is laid down in the canon law, and all doctors hold it.

Finally, so great and heroic is this act of dedicating oneself and surrendering oneself entirely to God by the three vows, that the saints compare the religious state to martyrdom, and say that such is the life of a religious, and that not a short struggle like that of the martyrs, but continual and prolonged. St. Bernard says: “It does not look so horrible as the martyrdom of rack and knife, of gridiron and fire; but in point of duration it is much more irksome and painful.” The martyrdom of the martyrs of old was done with one stroke of the sword, and all was over; but the martyrdom of a religious is not done at a stroke, but always and every day they are to go about martyring you, mortifying you in honor and reputation, and doing violence to your self-will and judgment, according to the saying of the prophet: For thee, O Lord, we are mortified all day long, and treated as sheep for the slaughter (Psalm xliii. 22). We have to be ready for everything, exposed like sheep at the shambles. As the martyrs did not themselves choose at their will the torment and kind of death to be inflicted on them, but were ready to receive any that was given, so a religious should be like a martyr, disposed and on the lookout for every sort of mortification.

As, then, by martyrdom (so saints and councils say) a martyr gains the remission of all his sins, and goes straight to heaven without passing through purgatory—and it would be an insult to a martyr to pray for him, martyrdom being so heroic and excellent a work that, as Christ our Redeemer says: Greater love no man hath than to give his life for his friend (John xv. 13), because he has nothing more to give —so also by this offering whereby a man dedicates himself to God in religion by perpetual vows, being a work so excellent and heroic that thereby one gives all that one can give and has nothing more left to give, the taker of such vows has remitted to him the penalty of all his sins, and remains as he was just after baptism, or would have been, had he suffered martyrdom. And therefore the saints compare it to baptism and martyrdom, because in this respect they agree.