Of the Great Mischief That Comes of Making Light of the Rules, Even though It Be in Small Things

HE that is faithful in the least, is faithful also in the greater; and he that is unjust in a little thing, is unjust also in a greater (Luke xvi. 10). On account of the great prevalence of this temptation, whereby the devil endeavors to make us careless in the observance of rules, saying that they are things trivial and of small importance and that our advancement in perfection does not depend thereon, we will set forth two considerations in this matter: first, the great mischief that comes of undervaluing these small things and not taking account of them; secondly, the great good that comes of the contrary. Christ our Redeemer tells us both the one and the other in the words above quoted.

On the first head He says that he who is bad and unfaithful in what is little, will be the like in what is great. That is what the Holy Ghost had said before by the mouth of the Wise Man: He that despiseth small things shall fall little by little (Ecclus. xix. 1), even in what is great. This should be enough to make us very diligent and careful in the observance of rules, that we should not dare to fail in their observance under the idea that they are small things and unimportant; since we know on the word of God that he who despises such small things shall fall little by little, and not stop till he comes to great things.

In this way a city comes to be lost and captured by the enemy. The Prophet Jeremy says (Lam. ii. 8): The Lord hath been minded to destroy Jerusalem—that city so well fortified and girt around with towers, with wall and barbican—He hath made his plans, he hath taken his measurements and hath not removed his hand until he hath accomplished his design. But how did He do it? Would you know? Jeremy says that the barbican fell, and soon afterwards the wall also was breached and battered down, and so the city was entered and taken. In this way, then, our enemies enter and take the city of our soul. The rules, as we saw in the first chapter, are the outer wall or barbican which protects and defends the wall of the law of God. And if you allow this barbican to fall, in a short time the wall also will be destroyed, and your soul sacked and robbed— He that breaketh through the hedge, the serpent shall bite him, says the Wise Man (Ecclus. x. 8). If you, then, start tearing down this hedge of your rules, and destroying your palisade, the old serpent will enter through the gap and bite you. If you take away the hedge from the vineyard and do not trouble about what you have within, soon everyone will come and pluck the fruit. Why hast thou broken down the hedge thereof, so that all they who pass by the way do pluck it? (Psalm Ixxix. 13).

That this point may be better understood, since it is of very great importance, I will put aside metaphors and figures and speak plainly. Do you wish to know how it is that the Holy Spirit tells us that he who despises little things shall little by little fail in great things? It is as theologians and saints tell us about venial sin, and we ourselves teach children in their catechism. Venial sin, they tell us, is a disposition towards mortal sin. No matter how many venial sins we may commit, it can never amount to a mortal sin, nor suffice to kill the soul or sever us from the grace and friendship of God. But they dispose the soul, debilitating, weakening, and unnerving it, so that it is easily overcome by any temptation or occasion which presents itself, and so comes to fall into mortal sin. It is the same with the first cannon shots which are fired against a wall; they do not demolish it, yet they shake and weaken it, so that subsequent discharges bring it to the ground. Or see the drops of water that fall upon a rock; although any one drop in itself is not enough to hollow it out and pierce it, yet it is enough so to dispose the rock that, in virtue of this predisposition, the following drops hollow it out and make a hole in it. Waters wear away the stones; and the ground by little and little is washed away by freshets (Job xiv. 19). So it is that venial sin disposes the soul for mortal sin. Little by little we lose the fear of sin, and begin to do that which is away from the love of God, and very soon this becomes something which is against Him. So it is that one who thinks nothing of telling a lie or swearing without necessity, will soon stumble and mix up the one with the other, swearing to something which is a lie, or at least doubtful, and there you see him fallen into mortal sin. He who has no remorse about detraction in small things will soon come across something not so trivial, and find himself in danger of mortal sin. He that is careless about glancing at unchaste objects and is negligent in driving away evil and impure thoughts that come to him is near a fall; for some day, when he is more than usually careless, his heart will get ahead of his eyes or thoughts, and in a moment he will find himself fallen. Thus it is that the devil tries to dispose us to mortal sin by carelessness and venial sin. Thus it is that by breaking the rules and making small account of them we are disposed and carried on little by little to greater evil, until at last we fall into some grievous fault. At the beginning there is some remorse of conscience about breaking the smallest rule; then not so much, till finally we do it without the slightest remorse. In this way a religious becomes careless and tepid in prayer and examen and his other spiritual exercises, for those again are no more than a rule. Sometimes he omits one or other, at other times he makes them carelessly and merely mechanically, drawing no fruit from them. From these beginnings, which seem small, generally come the awful downfalls of a religious.

Thus it is that the saints understand those words of the Gospel concerning the murmuring of Judas, when Mary Magdalen anointed the feet of our Savior with the precious ointment. Judas said that it would be better to sell it and give the price to the poor. St. John, however, notes: He said this, not because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and, having the purse, stole from the things that were put therein (John xii. 6). As it would be his business to sell the ointment, since he held the office of steward, it hurt him that he had lost an occasion of filching ‘“‘one in ten”; and to make up the loss he determined to sell Christ our Redeemer for thirty pieces of silver. St. Augustine says: “Notice that Judas was not lost when he betrayed Christ. No; his fall did not begin then, for the evil had settled on him long ago; already he was a thief and a lost man, for he followed Christ with his body only, and not with his heart.” In like manner, when you see a religious fall into some grave sin, do not think that the mischief began then; he was a lost man before that. For a long time that man had been in religion in body only; he kept not up his spiritual duties, neither meditation nor examen, and he thought nothing of breaking the rules. From these accumulations of dust came all the rest that ensued. St. Jerome observes the same: “That miserable man Judas thought to make up by selling his Master the damage he had sustained by the loss of the ointment.” See to what a pitch of evil Judas was carried by covetousness and his beginning to steal things little by little, and his fondness for having something of his own, that we may fear to begin to fail, even though it be in small things.

This is what Job says: Before the approach of the enemy cometh want (Job xli. 13). First the soul is impoverished and weakened by the accumulation of imperfections and venial sins, by failure of prayer and spiritual exercises, and then it comes to fall into grievous and mortal sins. He that goes on quite recklessly gulping down imperfections will soon gulp down clear and manifest sins. Let us beware, then, how we give entrance to the devil by losing all fear of breaking the rules and esteeming them of small value.

Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, says our Lord through the prophet, lest my soul depart from thee and I lay thee waste and turn thee into a land uninhabited (Jerem. vi. 8). Learn to conform yourself to that religious discipline and observance which your rules teach you; lest, perchance, God turn His face from you and abandon you and you come to a great crash.