Chapter 12. The Gift of Counsel

The second gift that perfects the practical intellect is counsel. The gift of science rectifies and sanctifies the intellect. It recti fies it by bringing it back from the illummism and aberrations of false science, from the criticism and vagueness of rationalism; from the atheism and immorality of modern scepticism; and it sanctifies the intellect by the light of faith, by submission to the Divine Teacher, and by conformity to the truth and to the law of God — that is, to God Himself.

But what science begins, counsel makes perfect.

What, then, is it, and what are its opera tions and its fruits?

1. First, as the cardinal virtue of prudence guides man in the natural order to rectitude of life and to happiness, so in the supernatural order counsel guides us to eternal life, to perfection, and to everlasting bliss.1 It therefore includes both prudence and science. It contains in itself the knowledge of the truth and of the law of God; of the presence and will of God in all things, and of all things, so far as they are known, in Him. Counsel is defined as a habit or quality impressed upon the reason, prompt ing us to follow the divine suggestions, and giving to it a discernment and a readiness to obey, in choosing freely the better and higher ways of life, even though they be arduous and hard of attainment. For in stance, the straiter ways of self-denial, humility, and mortification; the stricter watch 1 S. Thomae, Sum. Theol. 2. 2, q. 62.

over our senses, and control of our thoughts; or the choice of a state, as the life of the priesthood in poverty, obedience, and chastity; or of a nun in the cloister; or in the life of active charity among the poor, the sick, or little children. S. Leo says, * Nihil ardunm humilibus' — ' Nothing is hard to the humble.'

2. The operations and effects of counsel are complete conversion to God and aspiration after perfection.

Now there are in the lives of most men two conversions.

(1) The first is from sin to penance. For they who, without deviation or break, persevere in the even and continuous and unimpeded conversion of an innocent life of baptismal grace are few among the many who, more or less, offend but return in sorrow.

When the words, ' the wages of sin is death,'2 strike through the ear upon the heart, the gift of counsel moves the reason and the will to refuse the service which ends

3 Rom. vi. 23.

in death. When it hears, ' What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?'3 it moves us to refuse the fool's bargain; when it bears, * No man can serve two masters,'4 it resolves to serve one alone; when it hears, ' I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me,'5 it answers, * Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.' In all this there is a weighing, and wavering, and balancing, and a conflict of the sensitive and the superior will; the spirit of counsel persuading, and the spirit of Satan dissuading; and the will, in its weakness and its freedom, beset by desires and fears, resolving and retracting, till at last it freely chooses the way of salvation. At all costs it breaks with sin and error and the world. This is the first conversion, with out which no man shall see God.

(2) The second conversion begins where this is confirmed. It carries on the work of

« S. Mark viii. 36. • S. John xiv. 6.

« S. Matt. vi. 24.

counsel from penance to the way of perfection. All are called to penance and to perfection; for to be perfect does not mean to be sinless. It means to be in the love of God and our neighbour, and free at least from deliberate venial sin. It was of this S. Paul said, ' Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do; forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the high vocation of God in Christ Jesus.'6 And, as a means to this end, he denied his liberty. He said, ' All things are lawful unto me; but all things are not expedient/7 nor do they edify. * If meat scandalise — that is, make my brother to sin — I will never eat flesh, lest I should scandalise my brother.'8

• Phil. iii. 12-14. • 1 Cor. viii. 13.

' 1 Cor. vi. 12.

He would have said, ' If my right hand make me to offend, I will cut it off and cast it from me.'

All this is written for our instruction; and the spirit of counsel is always whispering in our hearts, and moving us to the same higher aspiration. When we are smitten on the right cheek, it says, ' Turn the other also.' When we are falsely accused, it whispers, ' Jesus held His peace/ When we are tempted to softness, it says, * Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow Me.' When men speak well of us, it says, ' Be a fool for Christ's sake.' These, and ten thousand voices, and lights, and whispers of counsel, are always working to draw us onward and upward, nearer to God in humility and charity. In whatsoever state we are, in the world or out of it, all this interior spiritual perfection is within our reach, for the essential perfection of the soul in time and in eternity is charity. ' God is charity;

and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him.'9

3. The fruits of counsel are many and great. A lax life has many sorrows, but a strict life has many joys. (1) The first fruit of counsel is true peace. Res scvera verum gaudium. True joy is a high and grave thing; it is too deep to be heard by outward ears. This peace is the peace of God, which comes from God, and is to be known only in God; and it passeth all sense, for it is spiritual, and keeps the * heart and the mind,' the inward world of affections and of thoughts. It is an in ternal silence, for the clamour of passions is stilled; and the mind is recollected or gathered into itself from the dissipation and disorder which comes from a multiplicity of interests, cares, and desires.

(2) This peace in God is also a union with God — a consciousness that only God is enough for our happiness, and that God alone is enough without any other; and m

• 1 S. Johniv. 16.

this consciousness of attainment there is great rest. In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam, — * In this peace I will sleep and take my rest.'10 As the Psalmist says, 'He shall give sleep to His beloved.'11 It is the nearest approach in this world to the rest when every man shall sit down under his vine and under his fig-tree in the Paradise of God.

(3) In the calmness of this quiet heart there is a clear consciousness of the presence of God, which may be called the vision of faith. ' He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.'12 But here it is easy to talk of what we do not understand.

1. Now there are three things that oppose and destroy the operations of the spirit of counsel.

(1) The first is the prudence of the flesh, which counsels what it calls modera-

'• Ps. iii. 6. » S. John xiv. 21.

" Ibid. cxxv. 3.

tion in all things — conformity to public opinion, to social customs, to the axioms of worldly wisdom. Prosperous, able, astute men are dangerous counsellors for the ser vants of Jesus Christ. They say to penitents and to earnest men what Peter said to his Master: ' Be it far from Thee; this shall not be unto Thee.'13 « Spare thyself.' There is a lax liberty of opinion and of action which lowers and slackens all high and generous aspirations, and an easy rule of leaving austerities to great sinners, and sacrifices to the days of persecution, which robs men of many graces and merits, vocations and rewards. S. Teresa says that it is a dangerous thing to be directed by worldly prudence, it kills off all high and generous aspirations; and if minds do not look upward they creep along a low plane which inclines downward; for if we do not ascend we are descending imperceptibly. There are some who, so long as they do not actually sin, think they have done enough; 13 S. Matt. xvi. 22.

and, worst of all, they find a priest who through timidity or respect of persons, is silent when he ought to speak.

(2) Another enemy of the spirit of counsel is its direct opposite, a presumption which makes a man sluggish and immovable to the spirit of counsel. It is what S. Bernard calls the duplex animce lepra, proprium consilium et propria voluntas — the twofold leprosy of the soul, self-counsel and self-will. The Wise Man says, * Hast thou seen a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.'14 He will go up by his own choice, and stand on the pinnacle of his temple, as if he had wings or the command of a legion of angels to bear him up. And yet he cannot walk on the plainest path without dashing his foot against the stones. He adheres to his own judgment about all things, especially about his own state and his own character. No body knows him but himself; nobody under stands, nobody appreciates him. ' Pride 14 Prov. xx vi. 12.

goeth before destruction, and the spirit is lifted up before a fall.'15

(3) Lastly, counsel is hindered by impetuosity, not only in evil but in good. Everybody is led either by the flesh or by the spirit. That which goes before us and gets first or is uppermost in our minds, that is the leader, and we are the follower. Now if the flesh outrun the spirit in any evil thing, we see the sin at once; but we do not so easily see it when it is in things that are good; and yet how much spirituality of mind is destroyed by emotion and excitement and imagination, which are often impetuosities of sense, that is, of the flesh. So again, when passion outruns the judgment, when ambition, or covetousness, or love of honours, climbs and snatches and schemes, like Balaam, who tempted God, counsel is baffled and destroyed. Sometimes zeal and haste and precipitation of mind hinder de liberation even in doing good. Men under take what they have no strength to do, or u Prov. xvi. 18.

they begin too soon, or they mistake the means, and because they fail they throw up their work. Satan, who could not hinder their beginning, wrecks the whole by driving them on to what is imprudent or impossible. This applies to mortifications, penances, rash resolutions, imprudent vows, excessive de votions, in number or in kind, and the like. The reaction carries many back from an overstrained beginning into an excess of laxity. They set out to be saints without counsel, and they end in giving up even the common practices of piety.

2. There are also three things which help the spirit of counsel. (1) The first is self-mistrust, which opens the ears and the heart to the voice of the Church, of the Holy Spirit, of our spiritual guide, and of the wise. (2) The next is a will detached from choices and likings, indifferent to all things so long as they help us onward and upward to Ged. (3) The third and last is singleness of heart. * The light of the body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome.'16

Thou hast shown me Thy light and Thy truth, and they have led me into Thy holy hill and into Thy sanctuary. Lead me up ward, 0 my Lord, nearer and nearer into the light of Thy Presence, that I may know myself and my state and my lot and Thy holy will in all things that concern me. Keep me from seeking the things that are my own, that in all my life and will I may seek Thee, and all that binds me, and con forms me more and more closely to Thee. All things are lawful to me, but not alJ 18 S. Matt. vi. 22. " Ibid. v. 8.¹

things will make me like to Thee in Thy humility.

Jesus, have mercy upon me.

Holy Mary, pray for me.

Footnotes

1. Blessed are the clean in heart, for they shall see God;'17 that is, when the heart is clean from impurity and from duplicity it is calm, serene, and clear; and in the light of a transparent conscience, the way of counsel and of perfection, and the will of God about us in our lot and state, are visible with out shadow of uncertainty or doubt. ↩