Chapter IV. Two Methods of Examination of Conscience

As a practical application of the doctrine just developed concerning mortification, two methods of examination of conscience will now be proposed. Both serve to point out those things in us needing mortification and they show us also, in part at least, the obstacles we possess to divine union. Later we shall have to discuss the passive purifications of the senses and the spirit which act as a means of destroying obstacles to divine union and of configuring the fervent and generous Christian more and more to Christ crucified.

Examinations of conscience generally follow the order of the commandments and of our duties to God, to our neighbor, and in relation to ourselves. For growth in self-knowledge, it is useful sometimes to vary this examination and the questions comprising it. While remembering that whenever we look at self we should always keep our gaze on God, the exemplar of all virtue, we will find it helpful at times to examine ourselves in reference to the seven capital sins and the sins derived from them, and at other times, on the contrary, by considering the hierarchy of the virtues that constitute the different functions of our spiritual organism. It is important, too, for us not to neglect the relation between the interior life and external behavior.

An examination of conscience concerning the capital sins and their consequences can easily be made by using the enumeration given by St. Thomas¹ following St. Gregory die Great. As organized under the following headings, the sins called capital because dicy are the head or principle of all the others reveal themselves as derived from the three concupiscences spoken of by St. John the Apostle. They are called capital not because they are the gravest of all sins but those toward which we are most inclined and which lead to estrangement from God and still graver wrongdoing. Vainglory, for example, leads to disobedience, hyprocrisy, and animosity. And animosity is the principle of discord and obstinacy in heresy. No man reaches complete perversity all at once ; he is led there step by step.

St. Thomas says that every sin originates in egoism. 2 Inordinate love of self prevents us from loving God above all things and prompts us to turn away from Him. From inordinate self-love proceed the three concupiscences of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life. From the three concupiscences the capital sins, the principles of all the others, are derived.

This outline shows us how the capital sins are the principles of all other sins, and themselves spring from pride and concupiscence: pride turning us away from God, and con-

Vainglory, from which arise disobedience, boastfulness, hypocrisy, contention, discord, eccentricity, and obstinacy. Vainglory has as a further consequence the following sin:

Sloth, a disgust for spiritual things and the work of sanctification. It is contrary to the love of God and gives birth to malice, spite, faintheartedness, despair, spiritual sluggishness, neglect of the commandments, and the seeking for unlawful things.

Envy, or sadness at another's good as though it subtracted from our own exaltation. From it come hatred, tale-bearing, detraction, joy at another's misfortune, and grief at his prosperity.

Anger, which is opposed to meekness and from which are born quarreling, swelling of the mind, contumely, clamor, and blasphemy.

Covetousness, which is contrary to liberality and often to charity and justice as well, and from which are derived treachery, fraud, falsehood, perjury, restlessness, callousness, and violence.

Gluttony, which engenders unseemly joy, scurrility (buffoonery), uncleanness, loquaciousness, and dullness of mind.

Lust, the contrary of chastity, from which proceed blindness of mind, thoughtlessness, rashness, inconstancy, self-love, hatred of God, and an attachment to the world destructive of any hope in a future life.

cupiscence inducing us to seek our highest happiness in earthly goods.

We see, too, the importance of humility, how it well merits being called the fundamental virtue because it checks pride.

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Pride is, in fact, the source of all other sins in the sense that the act of turning away from God found in every mortal sin appertains more directly to pride than to any other sin. Inordinate love of our own excellence makes us refuse submission and obedience to God. 3

A thoughtful reading of the preceding classification will reveal how vainglory can bring us by degrees to terrible falls, even to apostasy. It leads first to disobedience and boastfulness, then stoops to hyprocrisy to hide its ugly inner core, turns then to contention and discord and, in matters of doctrine and religious practices, prompts us to eccentricity to the point of clinging obstinately to error and even to heresy.

Another consequence of vainglory is the capital vice of sloth, disgust for spiritual things and the work of sanctification. This sin goes directly contrary to the love of God and the holy joy resulting from love. When a man's life no longer mounts towards God, it starts to go down the path away from Him; the man's soul is weighed down with sadness, with a disgust for holy things. Not only weakness but malice may follow, showing itself in spite toward neighbor, faintheartedness before duty, slackness and sloth in spiritual matters. The same discouragement that leads the spiritual sluggard to neglect the commandments sets his mind hunting a refuge in forbidden things. By losing their footing on the slope of pride, vainglory, and sloth, many unfortunately have abandoned their vocation, forgotten the promises they made to God, and started down the way of damnation.

This kind of consideration of the sources of sin makes it possible for us to avoid two contrary faults in the examination of conscience. On one hand, we are forewarned against the

carelessness of the quietists, who called examination of conscience useless, under the pretext that the heart of man is so inscrutable that he can know it only superficially. They even said, and this statement has been condemned, that "all reflection on self is harmful, even the examination of our sins," and they added that it is a grace from God no longer to be able to reflect on our sins. 4 The rejoinder to this statement is easy: precisely because the nature of our interior dispositions is so difficult to know, we must examine them well and ask for divine light to discern whether they are as upright as we would have them be.

On the other hand, we thus avoid the meticulous searching for every least fault taken in its materiality, a search apt to lead to scrupulosity and sometimes to the neglect of really important things. Statistical compilation is beside the point here. To cure a skin eruption no doctor sets about counting every pimple on the surface of the skin. He looks for the source of the trouble and tries to remedy it. We do wisely not to neglect contemplating God lest we may spend too much time considering our own soul. We have no need to anticipate divine prevenient grace but only to follow it faithfully as duty requires.

Self-examination in the way just described, especially through considering the capital sins in relation to spiritual things, as St. John of the Cross does, 5 helps the soul to discover its predominant fault, the source of its other failings. Some people are more prone to pride, others to spiritual sloth, others to sensuality, others to impatience or anger, or even to excessive natural activity insufficiently ordered to God, to

4 Dcnzingcr, nos. 1230 ff. » The Dark, Night, Bk. L a 9 2 THE LOVE OF GOD fruitless agitation which makes them forget their last end, the one thing necessary: to love God above all things.

The people who live with us generally know our predominant fault well enough. Often it stands in their way as a hindrance to the common good. We ourselves should be able to recognize it and, if the superficiality of our self-examination prevents that, we should bear with having others call it to our attention.

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE WITH REFERENCE TO THE HIERARCHY OF THE VIRTUES

For us to know our predominant fault is not sufficient; it is expedient for us besides to examine ourselves in regard to our fidelity to the principal inspiration by which God draws us to Himself. In the order of salvation we can do nothing without grace. Our Lord says: "Without Me you can do nothing." 6 We must, therefore, be attentive to the divine inspiration given to us, whether in the broad sense, that is, in every prevenient actual grace, or by inspiration properly so called, as it proceeds from the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Not only must we be attentive to the inspiration of God but we must ask to be more enlightened and more impelled by it that we may triumph over all attachment to sin and go ahead generously in the practice of virtue.

Just as every soul has a predominant fault, it has also a particular spiritual attraction, answering to the name God has given it from all eternity. In die parable of the good shepherd it is said that "he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth

them out." 7 In some souls the intellect naturally dominates; they receive special graces of enlightenment and, if they are faithful to these, they will also receive a greater and greater degree of die graces of fortitude to lead them to perfection. Others climb toward the mountain peak by another approach. They receive graces which lead them to spend themselves without calculation in the service of God; in them graces of enlightenment are hardly perceptible at first and become evident only later. Others, in whom memory and practical activity dominate, receive chiefly graces of fidelity to daily duty and can be led by that way to a very high degree of perfection, to a wonderful exercise of the theological virtues and the corresponding gifts. Each soul has, in the natural order, a particularly strong aptitude, which grace delights in perfecting that it may then enlighten and enliven abilities less strong. Some people are more attracted to prayer, others to austerities, still others to the apostolate in one form or another.

Certainly no special supernatural inclination need be resisted. It ought to grow stronger, serving as a means of making a man die to sin and attain to perfection. The action of grace ought not to destroy whatever is good in our personality but should perfect it by abnegation and the cross. So saints are made. "Be supernaturally yourselves minus your faults," as an excellent director expressed it. Wisdom warns us not to imitate clumsily whatever is unsuitable for us. It is a wise David who sticks to his slingshot and lets Goliath wear the armor.

Frequent self-examination by the yardstick of the virtues will help us to attain to being ourselves minus our faults. The

virtues are, as it were, the different functions of our spiritual organism. By considering them we understand better the things within us opposed to their perfection.

In the outline that follows, the hierarchical character of the virtues stand out. At the top is charity, the highest of the theological virtues. Directly beneath the theological virtues we find prudence, and under prudence the moral virtues, which it directs. Beside the virtues are their opposites, the contrasting vices which, because of this contrast, show up more clearly in their ugly gravity.

We can picture the hierarchy of the virtues as the spiritual edifice of traditional symbolism. The necessary excavadon made for its foundation represents humility. This must be dug not once and for all as in house building but worked at until the end of life, for the spiritual edifice is in fact a growing organism and the taller it gets the farther its roots must reach into the earth. The dome of this temple is supported by the twin columns of faith and hope. The keystone of its great value is love of God, charity, the highest virtue and life-giver of all the rest. Opening inward, two great doors swing on four great hinges or cardines, the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The wrought iron about these hinges is the annexed virtues. Justice is companioned by religion, penance, obedience, truthfulness; fortitude by magnanimity, patience, and perseverance; temperance by chastity, meekness, and humility. For each cardinal virtue there is a corresponding gift of the Holy Ghost, symbolized by a precious stone set in the door. And into the column of faith is fastened the sconce of the gift of understanding, and from the keystone of the vault swings the lamp of wisdom, illuminating the whole interior.

3 > towards God, and the gift disgust for spiritual"] Charity -\ of wisdom things towards neighbor, and mercy envy, discord, scandal

Hope confidence, abandonment, presumption and the gift of fear opposed despair to presumption

Faith and the spirit of faith, and the gifts of understanding and knowledge infidelity, blasphemy, blindness, culpable ignorance

Prudence, docility to good advice, and the gift of counsel

Justice and the annexed virtues of religion (gift of piety), of penance, of filial piety, of obedience, of gratitude, of truthfulness, of fidelity, of liberality

Fortitude and the gift of fortitude, with the annexed virtues of magnanimity, patience, and perseverance

Temperance (sobriety and chastity) and the annexed virtues of meekness and humility imprudence and negligence, carnal prudence, craftiness injustice, impiety, superstition, hypocrisy, lying foolhardiness, meanness, pusillanimity intemperance, lust, anger, pride, curiosity

The final important point to be made regarding methods of examination of conscience is that the relationship between the interior life and external behavior should not be neglected. Some directors have beginners pay a great deal of attention to their deportment at prayer, while assisting at Mass, when receiving die sacraments, in dealing with their superiors, their equals, and, as a matter of fact, in every situation. This is as it should be, but carried to excess such a method leads to a certain hypocrisy, to neglect of the interior life while keeping up appearances. Our Lord said: "When you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward." 8

Reacting against this excess, others do not give enough attention to external behavior and, as their souls are not united closely enough to God, their ways leave much to be desired. They wish to "skip a grade" and, through unconscious pride, do not take sufficiently into account those things that are useful or necessary for both beginners and proficients. Man, being composed of spirit and body, knows spiritual and interior things only in the mirror of sensible and exterior things, in speculo sensibilium. The latter, while remaining quite secondary, ought to be given their proper place in the scheme of things. 9

Here again truth rises like a mountain top above and between two contrary tendencies. It rests on the principle that the end sought, though first in the order of intention, comes last in the order of execution. A man putting up a building first sees its noble beauty as an idea in his own mind. Then he decides on whatever means are necessary to have it built, neglecting nothing and beginning with the meanest part of the work, for the foundations have to be laid. All the time, little by little, at every stage of the undertaking, he is pushing on to the realization of the end he desires to obtain. In die same way, a man who desires a doctorate must first follow a course of study in a graduate school, and before he can do even that he must register there.

The same can be said of man's approach to perfection. Aldiough reached at the very last, the end of the interior life has to be first in die order of intention, and with the help of grace efficaciously willed. Those who lean to preoccupation with externals need to remember this fact.

On the contrary, when we start to put our intention into execution, we must not neglect the little means so necessary for beginnings. We must give real attention to our external behavior, the framework, as it were, of our spiritual life. Without exterior recollection, union with God is impossible, and unless we practice humility externally we shall never come to possess true humility of heart. 10 Our inner life and outer conduct are interrelated, as are the physical and the moral, the sensible and the intelligible, the image and the idea, the passions and the will. The image precedes the idea, which is abstracted from it; then afterward the image serves to express the idea.

Bodily worship and vocal prayer dispose us for mental prayer, which then animates psalmody and the liturgical chant. The interior surely has the primacy; yet the exterior cannot be neglected without real loss to ourselves and probably scandal to our neighbor.

By means of this twofold examination of conscience, we come to see plainly the necessity bodi for mortification and for those passive purifications or crosses which God sends us to cleanse us from all attachment to the world and to self that our love for Him may take first place in our soul and be

10 Ibid., q. 161, a.6, ad 2um: "Man arrives at humility in two ways. First and chiefly by a gift of grace, and in this way the inner man precedes the outward man. The other way is by human effort, whereby he first of all restrains the outward man, and afterward succeeds in plucking out the inward root. It is according to this order that the degrees of humility arc here enumerated."

reflected in all our acts. By whatever form we examine ourselves, we do well not to look at ourselves without keeping our eyes on God, the exemplar of all perfection. This look at God is a look of faith, perfected by the gift of wisdom, and it makes us judge all things in relation to God, the first cause of our salvation and our last end.

In thinking about the divine perfections of truth, beauty, love, justice, and mercy, we see the misery of man and the disorder of sin the better for this contrast. In thinking about the book of life and the whole story of our own life written diere with absolute truth, we can see more clearly, and as if from above, how much we have been of and for ourselves dirough pride, vanity, jealousy, and concupiscence instead of being of and for God, ex Deo nati, by humility, meekness, the spirit of faith, hope, and charity. Made in this way, examination of conscience tends to become transformed into prayer, into prayer that begs for efficacious grace to enter again into intimacy with God. 11

11 In The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an English mystic of the fourteenth century, we read (chap. 39): "Prayer i n itself is nought else, but a devout intent directed unto God, for the gettingot good and the removing of evil. And therefore, since it so is that all evil is comprehended in sin (either by cause or by being) let let us therefore, when we will intently pray for the removing of evil, either say, or think, or mean, nought else and no more words, but this little word SIN. And if we will intently pray for the getting of good, let us cry, either with word or with thought or with desire, nought else and no more words, but this word GOD. For in God is all good, both by cause and by being. . . .

"But although the shortness of prayer be greatly commended here, nevertheless the oftcness of prayer is not therefore restrained. For as it is said before, prayer is made in the length of the spirit; so that it should never cease till the time were that it had fully gotten that that it longed for." See, too, chaps. 5, 9, 36 fL, 74 ff.

Footnotes

1. Summa, la Ilae, q.77. •Ibid., a. 4, 5- ↩