Of Other Means to Help Us in Keeping the Rules

BESIDES what has been said, we shall be greatly helped to be diligent and careful in the observance of our rules, first by the consideration of the good example and edification that we are bound to give, according to the saying of the Apostle St. Paul: Careful to do good not only before God, but also before all men (Rom. xii. 17; II Cor. viii. 21). It is not enough for us to be good ourselves; we must shed light on the world by our life and example. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. v. 16). In such sort we must shine before men that they, seeing our life so exemplary, may praise and glorify our Father Who is in heaven, as men are wont to praise God when they see a tree flourishing and laden with fruit, or a very beautiful and sweet-smelling rose. We are bound to give this good example to all the world, and hold up to them the light of our good life; but this should be done especially to our brethren with whom we live and converse. Now this good example and edification does not consist in your not committing grave faults, but in your avoidance of small ones. Let all see that I am very exact in obedience and the observance of rules, and that I set a value on small and minute points of religious observance and make much account of them. He gives the best example and edification who is very remarkable and distinguished in this; and the older you are in religion and the most advanced in learning, the more edifying it is to see you careful and diligent in small matters. This ought to be the mark of seniority, and in this it should be seen who is of longest standing, in his being the most humble, the most mortified, the most exact, in the observance of rules and all points of obedience, however small they be. Such is the teaching of Christ our Redeemer and Master in the Gospel: Whoever is greater among you, let him be the least, and let him who is head become as him who serveth (Luke xxii. 26). These are they who by their good example uphold a religious order, and promote virtue and religious discipline; these are the pillars who keep the house standing. I will make him as a pillar in the temple of my God, says God in the Apocalypse (iii. 12). I have set thee as a pillar of iron and as a wall of brass, He said to Jeremy (i. 18).

On the other hand, you cannot do more harm in religion than by giving bad example in it; and the older and more gifted you are, the more harm you will do, because example is the most effectual of forces to move and carry others away, as the saints and experience show us; and example is far more potent for evil than for good. If your neighbor sees you, the senior man, practise the rules in this fashion, and make small account of little things, what is he to do, considering the natural inclination that we all have to liberty and laxity, and our repugnance and aversion for walking by rule and under control? When he sees the way well trodden, and the postern gate open, what else is he to do but walk through? That is what he was looking for, and was only waiting for someone to show him the way and rid him of his bashfulness. That is the way religious discipline comes to be relaxed, and you to be the cause and origin of the relaxation. You will have an account to render to God, not only of your own faults, but of the faults of others, since you were the cause of them by your bad example, according to the saying of the prophet: From mine hidden sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from the sins of others spare thy servant (Psalm xviii. 13). This should help us to be very observant of our rules, and not do anything that might give disedification.

The second means to secure the observance of the rules to be in full vigor is a very familiar and easy means, and our Father lays it down in his Constitutions and Rules, where he says: “Sometimes every year let all ask the superior to give them a penance for neglect of observance of the rules, that this may be an indication of the care they have of their spiritual advancement in God’s service.” We should have such a high idea of the rules that, every time we fail in their observance, we should not only repent inwardly of the transgression, but show our repentance externally by asking and doing some penance for it. In this way, though one fails sometimes in keeping the rules, that infraction is made whole and atoned for by the penance, and the rules remain in their integrity, vigor, and observance, as though they had never been broken. Doctors of law and theologians also say that the law then remains in its force and vigor, in viridi observantia—green, fresh, and entire observance, as though it had just been made—when whoever breaks it is punished. For the law to be in full force and observance, it is not necessary that it should never be broken by its subjects; it is enough that account be taken of such infraction, and the offender be chastised and punished. But when the law is broken out and out, and no one is punished or checked for that, then they say it is a sign that that law is not in observance, nor has the force of law, being derogated from and abrogated per non usum, by disuse and practice to the contrary. We may say the same of our rules. When in an order there is such care taken that, no sooner is the fault committed and the rule broken, than penance comes atop of it, then the observance of rules flourishes. But when on the one side rules are broken and many offenses committed against them, and on the other we see that no penances are asked or performed on that score, then we may well say with truth that the rules are not kept, since now they are broken so freely and so recklessly that nobody minds, no punishment is inflicted, and no account taken. Tomorrow you will say that this observance no longer has the force of a rule, since contrary usage has abolished it, and under the eyes and with the knowledge of superiors the rule is broken, and no penance done for it. Hence it is that superiors, who are bound to see to it that the rules remain in force and are observed, and watch as sentries and guards over the order, are obliged to give penances for breaches of observance. When the superior gives you a penance and a scolding, it is not because he has any spite against you, or because he esteems you less. He knows that we are men, and that there is nothing to be surprised at in a rule’s being let slip here and there; he does it to fulfil his duty, which obliges him to stand up for the rules. If when they are broken, he were to pass the matter over and take no notice of what he sees going on, nor give any penance, that would be showing that he sets no store by rules and has no objection to their being broken; thus little by little the use and practice of them falls into neglect, and religious discipline is weakened and relaxed. It is this, says St. Bonaventure, that makes the difference between orders observant and reformed, and lax orders—not that in the latter wrong things are done, and in the former not; that is impossible, for we all offend in many things (James iii. 2); but that in observant and reformed orders he who breaks the rule is rebuked and punished, and not in the others.

Now in what the superior does under the obligation that he has by virtue of the office that he holds, our Father wishes all to help him to do it. So he says sometimes in the year to give them penances for their failure to observe the rules. It would be putting the superior to too much trouble to expect him to act the constable on duty over every individual, giving him a penance for every rule he broke. That would be impossible; and even if it could be done, it would not be in accordance with the gentle system of government usual in the Society. It is you that should take upon yourself this care, and be the first to tell your fault to the superior and ask for penance. You should not let your superior come to know your fault for the first time by the report of another about you; this is your affair, and you have more to gain by it than anyone. And the reason should be much considered which our Father assigns in the same rule: “That hereby may be shown the care which each one has of advancing in the service of God.” Thus a man’s being careful, when he fails in a rule, to go and ask a penance for it, shows that he is careful of his spiritual advancement; while one who breaks rules and commits many faults against them, and never takes the trouble to ask a penance for it, shows that he has little care of his advancement. When this practice prevails in a house, and there are many penances and mortifications, we may say that the house is going on very well in great fervor, and all are greatly edified and animated to good thereby.

This, then, is the second means, which we give now, and it is very easy. I do not say that we should commit no faults against the rules. For that, it would be needful that we should be no longer men, but angels; we shall often fail in them, and who is there, however just he be, who escapes venial faults and sins? There is no man that sinneth not (III Kings viii. 46). When, then, you fail, show some sense of what you have done; let it be seen that you are a religious, that you value and appreciate the rules and have a habitual desire to keep them. Let them see you at once telling your fault, for by this trifling penance that you do you repair the breakage of the rule. You even gain more than you have lost; and the devil shall have no cause to plume himself on the fault he has made you commit, but shall be angry and confounded at the ample satisfaction that you have made for it. So the devil himself confessed to St. Dominic much against his will, when the saint took him through all the rooms of the monastery, and made him tell him how he tempted his religious in each. Coming to the chapter room, which is the place where they tell their faults and receive rebukes and penances, ‘‘Here,”’ said the devil, “I lose all I gain in the parlor, in the refectory, and in all other places.” And not only before God, but also before men, atonement is made and the breakage of the rule repaired by these penances. Have you neglected to ring the bell, or to answer punctually some call of obedience? Have you committed a public fault which all have seen? By a public penance that breakage will be repaired, by your at least telling your fault. But if they see the fault, and see no penance done for it, they may reasonably say that in this house no account is taken of exact observance, but that things are done in a free and easy style.

But it must be observed here that, though it is true that it is more usual in the Society to ask for penances than to give them, and so it is right that it always should be; yet it would not be well for the second manner of doing penance, which the rule mentions, to be forgotten, which is “when the superior obliges you to them for the same end.” From forgetfulness of that, penances given by the superior would be rendered difficult, and some would come to resent inordinately having such penances given them. That would be notably prejudicial to religious discipline, and cause great disedification. So we must not give entrance to this abuse in any way; but let the usage of penances’ being given by the superior go on, and be practised generally upon all, for there is always room for it. And even were there not, our Father says that all should be ready to accept and accomplish with a good will all penances imposed upon them, even though given without any fault for which they were to blame. Hereby a better display is made of virtue and humility and desire of improvement, according to the saying of the Apostle St. Peter: What thanks are due to you for suffering chastisement when you sin? But when in doing right you suffer it patiently, that is pleasing in the eyes of God (I Pet. ii. 20). Many thanks, or few thanks rather, are yours, when you commit a fault and, there being good reason to blame you, you then take rebuke and penance patiently. But when you have done nothing to deserve it, and still they rebuke you and give you a penance as though you were in fault, and you take it patiently and in an edifying way, that is a thing of high estimation.

That will also be a help to keeping the rules which the last rule of the Summary and the last of the Common Rules prescribe, namely, to know them and understand them. So it is ordered that all should take and read them, or hear them read, every month. Some are not content with hearing the rules read in the refectory, but along with the spiritual reading that they practise they read three or four rules every day, and so go through them all every month leisurely and with reflection. This is a good practice, and makes good spiritual reading. It will also be a great help to make the particular examen on the observance of rules, not taking them all together but each taking that rule on which he finds himself most apt to fail, and after that, another, and at other times on the rules of his office, and it will be a very profitable examen.

Suu TWENTY-THIRD | TREATIS Eitan The reader’s attention is called to the new Code of Canon Law, Canon 30, which affects this Treatise considerably.