Part one (10): Charity and Zeal for the Salvation of Souls

Xxviii. Charity and Zeal for the Salvation of Souls

Above all, have a particular charity for the souls of all men, especially of those who are related to you or depend upon you, and do everything you possibly can to effect their salvation. For St. Paul tells us that "if any man have not care of his own, and especially, those of his house, he hath denied the faith, and i s worse than an infidel" (I Tim. 5, 8). Remember that these souls were bought at the price of the labors of God made Man, of His thirty-three years of suffering, of His blood and His life, and that the greatest and most Godlike work, the task most pleasing to Jesus that you could do on earth, is to labor with Him for the salvation of souls, so dear and precious in His sight.

And so, offer yourself to Him to share the work for souls in every way He asks. Consider yourself most unworthy to be employed in so great a work. Yet, whenever you see a chance to help in the salvation of some poor soul (and if you are alert, such chances will occur most frequently), do not let it slip by, but first ask grace of Our Lord and then apply yourself, according to your condition and to the means He puts at your disposal, with all the care, diligence and love you can muster, just as you would in the case of some business of the highest importance, or if all temporal goods and the lives of all the men in the world were at stake. Do this purely for the love of Jesus, so that God may be eternally loved and glorified in souls. knowing that you should consider it a great favor and blessing to employ all your time, your health, your life and all the money in the world, if they were in your possession, to help in the salvation of a single soul for whom Jesus Christ shed all His Precious Blood, spent all His time, His strength and His life.

0 Jesus, zealous lover of souls, and lover of the salvation of men, may it please Thee to implant i n the hearts of all Christians the sentiments and dispositions of Thy zeal, and of Thy most ardent charity for souls. 74-

True Christian Devotion and the Forming

Of Jesus Within You

Xx1x. True Christian Devotion

After what has been said so far about Christian virtues, it is easy to see what true Christian devotion is, and in what it consists. Since all the Christian virtues are nothing else but the virtues which our Lord Jesus Christ practised on earth, which must be continued by us while we are in this world, i t necessarily follows that true Christian devotion is simply Jesus Christ's holy and divine devotion, that we are bound to perpetuate and fulfil in ourselves.

Now, for our Lord Jesus Christ devotion was a matter of accomplishing, with the greatest perfection, everything that His Father willed, and of taking all His pleasure in this alone. His devotion consisted in serving His Heavenly Father, and in serving even men for the love of His Father, since He willed to take the form and lowly condition of a servant, in order to pay more honor and homage to the supreme greatness of His Father by His own abasement. His devotion consisted in loving and glorifying His Father and in causing His Father to be loved and glorified in the world; of doing all that He did purely for the glory and love of His Father, with most holy, most pure and most divine dispositions-namely, with the most profound humility, the most burning charity for men, the most perfect detachment from self and from all created things, the closest union with His Heavenly Father, the most rigorous submission to His Father's will and with all joy and satisfaction. Finally, His devotion consisted in being altogether immolated and sacrificed purely for the glory of His Father, since He willed to take upon Himself the role of victim , and in this capacity to undergo every sort of contempt, humiliation, privation, interior and exterior mortification and, finally, a cruel and shameful death. for the everlasting glory of His Divine Father.

These were three solemn professions, three vows, as it were, pronounced

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by Jesus from the moment of the Incarnation. And these He carried out most perfectly in His life and in His death.

1. At the moment of His Incarnation, He vowed obedience to His Father, that is, He made profession never to do His own will, but to obey most perfectly everything willed by His Father, and to find in so doing all His bliss and joy.

2. He professed servitude to His Father. This is the character given to Him by His Father, speaking through a prophet: Servus meus es tu, Israel, quia in te gloriabor (Isa. 49, 3). And this is the character which He Himself adopts: Formam servi accipiens . (Phil. 2, 7), lowering Himself to the state and condition of a humble and servile life with respect to His creatures, even to the cruel shame and servile death of the Cross, for love of us and for His Father's glory.

3. He professed to become a host and victim entirely consecrated and immolated to His Father's glory from the first moment of His life to the very last.

Such was the devotion of Jesus. Since Christian devotion is simply Jesus Christ's devotion, our own devotion must, therefore, consist of similar vows of submission. In order to make it so, we should enter into the closest and most intimate contact and union with Jesus, and adhere to Him most closely, concentrating upon Him all our attention, throughout our whole life, in all our functions and acts.

This is the solemn vow, the first and most important public profession, which is made at baptism i n the presence of the entire > Church. At that time, to use the terms of St. Augustine, St. Thomas' Summa, and the Catechism of the Council of Trent, we made a solemn vow and profession to renounce Satan with all his works and to be united with Jesus Christ as members are one with their head, to deliver and consecrate ourselves entirely to Him and to dwell in Him. A Christian who professes to adhere to Christ and dwell i n Him, professes to adhere to His devotion, His dispositions, His intentions, His laws and rules of conduct, His spirit and His behavior, His life, His qualities, and His virtues, and all that He did and suffered.

Thus, when we vow to adhere to Jesus Christ and dwell in Him-and this is "the greatest of all our vows," says St. Augustine, votum

maximum nostrum-we make three great professions, which are very sacred and sublime, deserving frequent consideration.

1. We profess, with Jesus Christ, never to do our Own will but to submit to everything willed by God, to obey persons of all kinds, in whatever is not contrary to God, and to seek all our satisfaction and heavenly bliss in acting so.

2. We profess servitude to God and His Son Jesus Christ, and to all the members of Jesus Christ, according to the words of St. Paul: Nos servos vestros per Jesum (II Cor. 4, 5). In consequence of this avowal, no Christian can call anything his own, any more than a slave can. Nor has a Christian the right to make any use of the faculties of his soul, or of his life, or his daily time, or his temporal goods, except for Jesus Christ and the members of Jesus Christ-that s, all who believe in Him.

3. We profess to become victims continually sacrificed to God's glory-Spirituales hostias (1 Pet. 2 , 5), as St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, expresses it. Obsecro, vos, fratres, per misericordiam Dei, u t exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem, sanctam, Deo placentem says St. Paul: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom. 12, 1). What is here said of our bodies must also be said of our souls. So we are obliged to glorify and love God, in proportion to all the powers of our body and soul, to do everything possible that He may be glorified and loved, and in all our acts and in all things to seek nothing but His glory alone, His love alone,, and to live in such a way that each Christian life may be a ceaseless sacrifice of praise and love. And we should be ready to be completely immolated and consumed for His glory.

In a word: Christianismus est professio vitae Christi: "Christianity is the profession of the life of Christ," says St. Gregory of Nyssa. St. Bernard assures us that Our Lord does not admit to the ranks of those professed in his religion, anyone who does not live His life: Non inter suos deputat professores, quos vitae suae cernit desertores. That is why we profess Jesus Christ at Holy Baptism. We profess the life of Christ, Christ's devotion, His dispositions and intentions, His virtues and His perfect detachment from all things. We profess to

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believe firmly everything that He teaches, either by His own words and example or through His Church, and to choose death before swerving, however little, from this belief. We profess to join Him in a fight to the finish with sin; to live, as He lived, in a spirit of uninterrupted prayer; to carry His Cross with Him, as well as to bear His mortification in our bodies and souls; to continue the practice of His humility, His trust in God, His submissiveness and obedience, His charity and zeal for the glory of His Father and the salvation of souls. We profess to live, on earth and in heaven, only in order to belong to Jesus and to love and honor Him in all the states and mysteries of His life, in all that He is, in Himself and in the universe. Finally, we profess to be ever ready to undergo every form of torture and to die a thousand deaths, if i t were possible, purely for His love and for His glory.

Such are the vow and profession made by all Christians at their baptism. This is what constitutes true Christian devotion. Any other devotion, if it be possible for any other to exist, is mere deception and perdition.

Xxx. Practice of Christian Devotion

If you would enter upon the path of this holy devotion, adore Jesus in His most perfect devotedness, and in the profession He made to His Father at the instant of His Incarnation, which He observed most perfectly throughout His whole life. Bless Him for the glory rendered to His Father by consecration. Beg Him to pardon your faults against the vow you made at baptism, and to atone for them in His most great mercy. Consider in the presence Of God what great obligations go with this vow and profession. Frequently renew your desire to live up to these obligations, pray that Jesus Christ will give you the grace to do so and implant His ~devotion within you. Make all your devotions consist in the practices described above, the essentials that comprised the devotion of Jesus Christ. In all that you do Or suffer, make a point of uniting yourself with Christ's devotion as follows:

"0 Jesus, I give myself to Thee, to do this action, or bear this affliction, in union with the most perfect devotion with which Thou didst perform all actions and suffer all afflictions."

In so doing, you will live in true and perfect devotion, by means of which Christ will be shaped within your own souls, according to the Apostle's wish: Donec formetur Christus in vobis (Gal. 4, 19). You will be transformed into Jesus; in eamdem imaginem transformamur (II Cor. 3, 18). This means that you will cause Jesus to live and reign in you; you will become one with Him, and He will be all in you, according to Holy Writ: Consummati in unum, et omnia in omnibus (John 17, 23). This is the goal toward which all Christian life, piety and devotion must tend. Hence it is necessary to show you how important i s this work of forming Jesus in your souls, and what needs to be done in order to form Him there.

Xxx1. Formation of Jesus Within You

The mystery of mysteries, and work of works, is the formation of Jesus, indicated in these words of St. Paul: Filioli, quos iterum parturio, donec formetur Christus in vobis, "My little children, of whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4, 19). It is the greatest mystery and the greatest work that is ever accomplished, either in heaven or on earth by the most excellent Beings in existence, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Blessed Virgin, and Holy Mother Church.

This is the greatest act performed by the Eternal Father, in all that eternity during which He i s continually occupied in producing His Son within Himself. Nor did He accomplish anything more astounding outside of Himself, in forming the human nature of His Divine Son, at the moment of the Incarnation. I t excels all works effected by the Son of God on earth, forming Himself within His holy Mother, and in His Eucharist. It is the noblest of all the works of the Holy Ghost, Who formed Him in the sacred womb of the Virgin Mary. Neither did she ever, nor will she ever do anything more perfect, than when she cooperated i n this divine and wonderful formation of Jesus in herself. It is the greatest and holiest of all the works of Holy Church, who exercises no function more exalted, even when she brings Him forth, in a sure and wondrous way, by the lips of her priests, in the Holy Eucharist, than when she brings Him to life in the hearts of her children. For, in all that she does, she

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has no other aim than that of forming Jesus in the souls of all Christians.

So it should be your desire, your care and your chief occupation to form Jesus in you, to make Him live and reign in you together with His spirit, His devotion, His virtues, His sentiments, His inclinations and dispositions. This should be the aim of all your good works. God places this task in your hands, for you to work at it without interruption.

Two most compelling reasons should stir you up to work energetically for the completion of this task:

1. You should desire the accomplishment of the Eternal Father's plan and of His great yearning to behold His Son living and reigning in you. Since His Beloved Son destroyed Himself for His glory and your love, He wants to repay Him, for His annihilation, by establishing Him in all things and making Him reign over all creatures. He loves His Most Amiable Son so much that He desires to see nothing but Him in all things, nor does He wish any other object to contemplate, delight in, or love. Thus He wants Him to be in all things omnia in omnibus (I Cor. 15, 28), so as to see and love nothing but Him in all things.

2. You should desire that Jesus, once established in your hearts should there give His Eternal Father and Himself the love and glory they deserve, according to the words of St. Peter: ut in omnibus honorificetur Deus, per Jesum Christum (I Peter 4, 11), since He alone is capable of glorifying His Eternal Father and Himself worthily or adequately.

These two reasons ought to enkindle in you a most ardent desire to form and establish Jesus within yourself and to seek out every possible means of achieving this end. A few of these methods will now be proposed for your consideration.

Xxxii. Manner of Forming Jesus Within You

There are four things to be done, in order to form Jesus within you.

1. You must make it your practice to see Him in everything, in your devotions and in all your acts, to have no other objective than ]Him and all His states, mysteries, virtues and actlons. He is in all

things. He is the being of things that exist, the life of things that live, the beauty of things beautiful, the power of the strong, the wisdom of the wise, the virtue of the virtuous, and the sanctity of the saints. There is hardly any action of your ordinary lives that does not find some counterpart in the actions He performed during His time on earth, so you must keep your eyes on every similar act of His, and imitate it i n performing your own. By this means you shall fill up your understanding with Jesus, and shall form and establish Him in your mind, by thus frequently thinking of Jesus, and seeing Him in all things.

2. You ought to form Jesus, not only in your mind, by thinking of Him, seeing Him in everything, but you must also keep Him alive in your hearts by the frequent practice of His divine love. To do this, you should become accustomed to lifting up your hearts frequently to Him in love, after the manner of the various exercises in this book, and to do everything purely for love of Him and to consecrate every affection of your heart to Him.

3. You ought to form Jesus in yourself by a complete annihilation of yourself and of all things within you. If you want Jesus to live and reign in you perfectly, you must destroy all creatures in your minds and hearts. You must no longer look at them or love them in themselves, but only in Jesus, seeing and loving Jesus in them. You must see to it that the world and all that is in the world, so far as you are concerned, i s put to death, and that nothing remains for you but Jesus, and that you no longer seek to please, contemplate or love anyone but Him.

You must also labor to destroy yourself, your own opinion, your own will, self-love, pride and vanity, all your perverse inclinations and habits, all the desires and instincts of a depraved nature, and everything that comes from yourself. Everything in you is depraved and corrupted by sin and, by that fact, is contrary to Jesus Christ and opposed to His glory and love, therefore it is necessary for all to he destroyed and consumed in order that Jesus Christ may live and reign perfectly in you.

Here you have the main foundation, the first principle and the first step in Christian living. It i s what is called, in Holy Scripture