I. “To Seek God”

Summary. — Importance of the end in the human life. — I. " To seek God ", the end of the Monastic Life. — II. To seek God in all things. — III. To seek Him only. — IV. Precious fruits of this search. — V. How Christ Jesus is the perfect Model of this seeking after God.

When we examine the Rule of St. Benedict, we see very clearly that he presents it only as an abridge¬ ment of Christianity, and a means of practising the Christian Life in its fulness and perfection.

We find the great Patriarch declaring from the first lines of the Prologue of his Rule, that he only addresses those who wish to return to God under Christ’s leadership. And in ending the monastic code he declares that he proposes the accomplishment of this rule to whomsoever, through the help of Christ, hasteneth to the heavenly country : Quisquis ergo ad patriam caelestem fesiinas, hanc... regulam descriptam, adjuvante Christo, perfice L ,

To his mind, the Rule is but a simple and very safe guide for leading to God. In writing it, St. Benedict does not wish to institute anything beyond or beside the Christian life : he does not assign to his monks any special work as a particular end to be pursued ; the end is, as he says, " to seek God ” : Si r ever a quaerit Deum 2. This is what he re¬ quires, before all, of those who come to knock at the door of the monastery to be there received as monks ; in this disposition he resumes all the others ; it gives, as it were, the key to all his teaching, and determines the mode of life he wishes to see led by his sons. This is the end. that he proposes, and this is why we ought always to have this end before our eyes, to examine it frequently, and above all only to act in view of it.

You know that every man, as a free and reasonable crea¬ ture, acts from some deliberate motive. Let us imagine ourselves in a great city like London. At certain hours of the day the streets are thronged with people ; it is like a moving army. It is the ebb and flow of a human sea. Men are coming and going, elbowing their way, passing to and fro, i. Holy Rule ch. i.xxiii. — 2. Ibid. ck. lviii.

Christ, the Ideal of the Monk. and all this rapidly — for “ time is money, ” — almost without exchanging any signs among themselves. Each one of these innumerable beings is independent of the others, and has his own particular end in view. Quid quaerunt? What are they seeking, these thousands and thousands of men who are hurrying in the City ? Why are they in such haste ? Some are in search of pleasure, others pursue honours ; these are urged by the fever of ambition, those by the thirst for gold ; the greater number are in quest of daily bread. From time, to time, a lady goes to visit the poor ; a Sister of Charity seeks Jesus Christ in the person of the sick ; unnoticed, a priest passes by, the pyx hidden upon his breast, as he carries the Viaticum to the dying... But out of this immense crowd pursuing created things, only a very small number are working for God alone.

And yet the influence of the motive is predominant in the value of our actions. See these two men who are embarking together for a far-off destination. Both leave country, friends, family ; landing on a foreign shore, they penetrate into the interior of the country ; exposed to the same dangers, they cross the same rivers and the same mountains ; the sacrifices they impose upon themselves are the same. But the one is a merchant urged on by the greed of gold, the other is an apostle seeking souls. And this is why, although the human eye can scarcely discern the difference, an abyss which God alone can measure separates the lives of these two men ; this abyss has been created by the motive. Give a cup of water to a beggar, a coin to a poor man ; if you do so in the name of Jesus Christ, that is to say from a supernatural motive of grace, and because in this poor man you see Christ Who said : “ As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me, " your action is pleasing to God ; and this cup of water, which is nothing, this small coin, will not remain without a reward. But pour out hand¬ fuls of gold into the hand of this poor man in order to pervert him : on this account alone, your action becomes abominable.

Thus then, the motive from which we act, the end that we pursue, and that is as it were to direct our whole life, is for us of capital importance.

Never forget this truth : a man is worth that which he seeks, that to which he is attached. Are you seeking God ? are you tending towards Him with all the fervour of your soul ? However little removed you may be from nothingness by your condition of creature, you raise yourself, because you unite yourself to the infinitely perfect Being. Are you seek¬ ing the creature ? gold, pleasures, honours, satisfaction of pride, that is to say yourself under all these forms ? Then, however great you may be in the sight of men, you are just worth as much as this creature, you lower yourself to its level, and the baser it is, the more you debase yourself. A poor Sister of Charity, a simple Lay Brother, who, seeking God spend their lives in humble and obscure labours in order to accomplish the Divine will, are incomparably greater in the sight of God — Whose judgment alone matters, for He is eternal — than a man who has heaped up riches, or is surrounded with honours, or lives only for pleasures.¹

Yes, a naan is worth what he seeks. This is why St. Benedict, who shows us the adepts of the cenobitical life as " the most strong race ”, coenobitarum fortissimum genus, requires so supernatural and perfect a motive from one who wishes to embrace this career : the motive and ambition of possessing God, si r ever a Deurn quaerit 2.

But, you may say, what is it to “ seek God ? ” And by what means are we to find Him ? For it is needful to seek in such a way that we may find. To seek God constitutes the whole programme ; to find God and remain habitually united to Him by the bonds of faith and love, in this lies all perfection.

Let us see what it is to seek God ; — let us consider the conditions of this seeking ; we shall next see the fruits that it brings to whomsoever applies himself to it. We shall have pointed out at the same time, with the end that we pursue, the path that will lead us to perfection and beatitude. For if we truly seek God, nothing will prevent us from finding Him, and, in Him, we shall possess all good.

I

We must seek God.

But is God in some place where He must be sought ? Is He not everywhere ? Assuredly, as we know, God is in every being by His Presence, by His Power, and by His Essence. In God the operation is not separated from the active virtue whence it is derived, and the power is identical with the essence. In every being, God operates by sustaining it in existence.

In this manner God is in every creature, for all exist and continue to exist only by an effect of the Divine action that supposes God's intimate presence. But reasonable beings can, moreover, know and love God, and thus possess Him In themselves.²

However, this kind of immanence was not sufficient for God as regards us. There is a more intimate and elevated degree of union. God does not content Himself with being the object of a natural knowledge and love on man's part, but He calls us to share His very life and His own beatitude.

By a movement of infinite love towards us, God wishes to be for our souls not only the Sovereign Master of all things, but a Friend, a Father. It is His will that we should know Him as He knows Himself, the source of all truth and of all beauty. It is His Will that we should possess Him, the Infinite Good, here below in the dimness of faith, and above in the light of glory.

To this end, as you know. He raises our nature above itself by adorning it with sanctifying grace, infused virtues and the gifts of the Spirit. God wills, by the communication of His infinite and eternal life, to be Himself our perfect beati¬ tude. He does not wish us to find our happiness apart from Himself, the plenitude of all good ; He leaves to no creature the power of satisfying our heart : ego merces tua magna nimis 1 “ It is I myself who am thy reward exceeding great. ” And Our Lord confirmed His promise when about to pay the price thereof by the sacrifice of His Precious Blood. “ Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me ; that they may see My glory.,, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me, may be in them 2. "

Such is the unique and supreme end to which we must tend ; we have to seek God ; not only the God of nature, but the God of Revelation. For us Christians, then, " to seek God ”, is to tend towards Him, not only as simple creatures who move towards the first principle and last end of their being, but supernaturally, that is to say as children who wish to remain united to their Father with all their strength of will urged by love, and through that mysterious participation in the very nature of God, of which St. Peter speaks 8 ; it is to have and to cultivate with the Divine Persons an intimacy so real and so profound, that St. John calls it, the “ fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, " in their common Spirit.

It is to this the Psalmist alludes when he exhorts us to “ seek the face of God ” Quaerite faciem ejus semper 5 : that is to say, to seek the friendship of God, to seek His love, as when the bride looking upon the bridegroom seeks to behold in his eyes the depth of his soul telling her of his tenderness. God is to us a Father full of goodness. He wills that even here below we should find our happiness in Him, in His ineffable perfections.³

St. Benedict has no other views for his disciples. From the first lines of the Prologue, he warns us not to grieve by our evil deeds the God Who has vouchsafed to count us among His children.

“ To attain to God, ” this is the end that St. Benedict wishes us to have ever before our eyes. This principle, like a life-giving sap, circulates through all the articles of the monastic code.

We have not come to the monastery then, in order to devote ourselves to science, nor the arts, nor the work of education. It is true that the great Patriarch wishes us at all times to serve God with the good things He has given us : ei (Deo) omni tempore de bonis suis in nobis parendum est: He wishes the house of God to be wisely governed by prudent men 2 ; doubtless this recommendation primarily foresees the mate¬ rial organisation, but it can be equally applied to the moral and intellectual life of the monastery. St. Benedict does not wish the talents given by God to remain hidden, he permits the cultivation of the arts ; a constant tradition, which we ought humbly to respect, has in the same way sufficiently established for monks the legitimacy of studies and apostolic labours, and the Abbot, the head of the monastery, will certainly have it at heart to preserve the diverse manifesta¬ tions of monastic activity ; he will endeavour to develop for the common good, for the service of the Church, for the salvation of souls, and for God’s glory, the various aptitude that he finds in each of his monks.

But once again, the end does not lie in this. All these works are only means in view of an end ; the end is higher : it is in God, it is God sought for Himself, as the Supreme Beatitude.

Thus as we shall see later, the Divine worship itself neither constitutes nor can constitute the direct end that the monastic institution established by the Rule wills to attain. St. Benedict will have us seek God, — seek Him for His own glory, because we love Him above all things. He would have us seek to unite ourselves to Him by charity. There is not, for us, any other end, or any other perfection. The worship of God proceeds from the virtue of religion, doubtless the highest of the moral virtues, and it is united to the virtue of justice, but it is not a theological virtue. The infused theological virtues : faith, hope, and charity are the specific virtues of our state as children of God. Properly speaking, the supernatural life is based here below on these three virtues. They regard God directly inasmuch as He is the author of the supernatural order. Faith is like the root, hope the stalk, and charity at once the flower and the fruit of the supernatural life.⁴

Now, it is this charity, whereby we are and remain truly united to God, that constitutes the end assigned by St. Benedict and the very essence of perfection : Si revera deum quaerit.

This end establishes the true greatness of the monastic life ; it also establishes the true reason of its existence. In the opinion of the Pseudo-Denys the Areopagite, we are given the name of “ monks ” t uovo; “ alone, one ” on account of this life of indivisible unity, whereby, withdrawing our mind from the distraction of manifold things, we hasten towards divine unity and towards the perfection of holy love 1.

II

The ambition of possessing God : — such is the primal disposition that St. Benedict requires of the postulant who presents himself at the door of the monastery ; he sees in this a proof of a sure vocation ; but this disposition must extend to the monk’s whole life.

For the abbot himself, the great Patriarch wishes that first and foremost he should seek “ the Kingdom of God 2 ” in charity, as Christ commanded ; that he should have care, above all to establish this kingdom in the souls entrusted to Him. All material activity exerted in the monastery ought to have but this one end in view : Ul in omnibus glorificetur Deus : “ that in all things God may be glorified, » for in all things love refers everything to His glory.

Let us carefully notice these words : “ in all things ”, in omnibus. This is one of the conditions of our seeking God. In order for it to be “ true, ” as St. Benedict requires, our seeking after God must be constant ; we must “ seek His face evermore ” : Quaerite faciem ejus semper. You may say : but do we not possess God from the time of our baptism, and as long as we are in possession of sanctifying grace ? Undoubtedly. Then why seek God, if we possess Him already?⁵

“ To seek God ”, is to remain united to Him by faith, it is to attach ourselves to Him as the object of our love. Now we know that this union of faith and love admits of a vast number of degrees. “ God is everywhere present, ” says St. Ambrose, “ but He is nearest to those who love Him, He dwells far from those who neglect His service Dominus ubique semper est : sed est praesentior diligentibus, negligentibus abest. When we have found God, we can still seek Him, that is to say we can always draw nearer to God, by an ever intenser faith, an ever more fervent love, an ever more faithful accomplishment of His will, and this is why we can and ought always to seek God, until the day when 'He will give Himself to us in an inamissible manner in the glorious splendour of His indefectible light.

If we do not attain this end, we shall remain useless and unprofitable. The Psalmist says, — and St. Benedict quotes these words in the Prologue in commenting upon them, — that “ the Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become un¬ profitable together ”. Dominus de caelo prospexit super filios hominum ut videat si est intelligens aut requirens Deum; omnes declinaverunt, simul inutiles facti sunt. How many men indeed do not understand that God is the source of all good and the supreme end of every creature ? These men have turned aside from the road that leads to the end, they have become unprofitable. Why is this ? What is a useless being ? It is one that does not correspond to the end for which it was created. For instance, in order to fulfil the end for which it is purchased, a watch must show the time. It may well be of gold, studded with diamonds, encrusted with precious stones, but unless it keeps time it is useless.

We too become useless beings if we do not tend unceasingly to the end for which we came to the monastery. Now, this end is to seek God, to refer all to Him as to our Supreme End, to place in Him our sole beatitude ; all the rest is “ vanity of vanities 3. ” If we do not act thus, we are useless, it is in vain that we spend ourselves ; even though this spending of ourselves should appear remarkable in the eyes of the world, in God’s sight, it would be that of profitless beings, who do not fulfil the conditions required by their existence, and have lost sight of the end to which their vocation pre¬ destined them. How terrible is the uselessness of a human life ! And how much there is that is useless sometimes in our life, even our religious life, because God is absent from our actions !...⁶

Do not let us, then, be of those foolish people of which Scripture speaks, who are stayed by vain and passing trifles K Let us be attentive to seek God in all things : in the Supe¬ riors, in our brethren, in all creatures, in the events of life, in the midst of contradiction as in hours of joy.

Let us seek Him always, so as to be able unceasingly to put our lips to this source of beatitude ; we can always drink from it, without fear of seeing the waters exhausted, for, says St. Augustine, their abundance surpasses our need : Fons vincit sitientem. It is of them that Christ Jesus said that they become in the soul “ a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting. "

III

Another condition of the sincerity of our seeking is that it be exclusive. Let us seek God solely ; I look upon this condition as capital.

To seek God solely, that is without doubt the same as saying to seek God Himself. Notice the term “ God, ” not the gifts of God, although they help us to remain faithful ; nor His consolations, although God wills that we taste the sweetness of His service 3 ; but we ought not to stop at these gifts nor be attached to these consolations. It is for God Himself that we have come to the monastery ; our seeking will then only be “ true, ” as St. Benedict wishes it to be, it will only be pleasing to God, if we are attached to nothing apart from God.

When we seek the creature, when we are attached to it, it is as if we said to God : “ My God, I do not find all in Thee. ” There are many souls who have need of something with God, of something more than God ; God is not all for them ; they cannot, like the Saint of Assisi, look at God and say to Him, with all the truth of their being : “ My God and my All " : Deus mens et omnia. They cannot repeat after St. Paul : omnia detrimentum feci et arbitror ut stercora ut Christum lucrifaciam : “ I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord ; for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung that I may gain Christ. ” i. Sap. iv, 12. — 2. Joan, iv, 14. — 3. Cf. Ps. xxxm, 9. —⁷

Never forget this extremely important truth : as long as we experience the need of a creature, and are attached to it, we cannot say that we seek God solely, and God will not give Himself entirely to us. If it is our will that our search be sincere, — si revera quaerit, — if we want to find God fully, we must detach ourselves from all that is not God, and that would shackle in us the operation of His grace.

This is the doctrine of the saints. Listen to what St. Catherine of Sienna said on her death bed. Feeling her end approaching, she gathered her spiritual family around her, and gave them her last instructions which have been collected by her confessor, the Blessed Raymund of Capua : “ Her first and fundamental teaching was that he who enters into the service of God, ought necessarily, if he truly wishes to possess God, to root out from his heart all sensible affection, not only for persons but moreover for any creature whatever, and tend towards His Divine Creator in the simplicity of an undivided love. For the heart cannot be given entirely to God if it is not free from all other love, and if it does not open itself with a frankness exclusive of all reserve. "

St. Teresa, speaking from the same experience says, “ We are so miserly, so slow in giving ourselves to God that we never finish putting ourselves into the necessary dispositions. And yet Our Lord will not allow us to enter into the enjoyment of so precious a treasure (the perfect possession of God) without paying a high price for it. I see clearly that there is nothing upon earth wherewith it can be purchased. ” How¬ ever, the Saint adds, “ if we did all that depended upon ourselves not to cling to anything earthly, if our conversation and all our thoughts were in heaven, such a treasure I am convinced would be granted to us. ” The Saint next shows by some examples how it often happens that we give ourselves to God, entirely, but afterwards take back little by little what we have given ; and she concludes : “ A nice way for¬ sooth to seek the love of God ! We must have it at once and “ in handfuls " as the saying is, but on condition of retaining our affections. To take possession of it, we do not make any effort to fulfil our good desires, we allow them to drag miserably upon the earth. And with all this, we must moreover have many spiritual consolations ! Truly, they will not be granted to us. In my opinion, these two things are quite incompatible. Therefore it is because our gift is not entire that we do not receive without delay the treasure of divine love 2. ”⁸

It is to find God, “ to please Him alone, ” that, after the example of the great Patriarch, we have left all : Soli Deo placer e desiderans, says St. Gregory. We must always remain in this fundamental disposition. It is only at this price that we shall find God. If, on the contrary, forgetting little by little our initial gift, we allow ourselves to turn aside from this supreme aim, if we cling to some person, some employment, some charge, some work or occupation, some object, then, let us be convinced of this, we shall never possess God fully.

Oh ! if we could say, and say in all truth, what the Apostle Philip said to Jesus : “ Lord, shew us the Father, and it is enough for us ! ” But in order to be able to say this in truth, we must also be able to say with the Apostles : “ Lord, we have left all things and have followed Thee... ” Happy are they who carry out this desire to its end. to extreme, actual and perfect renunciation I But let them not say : this trifle to which I cling is nothing. Do you not know the nature of the human heart ? However little we leave to it, it will not be content till it has obtained all its desire. Tear all away, break all asunder, hold to nothing. Happy indeed are they to whom it is given to carry out this desire to the end, to pursue it even to attainment a.

IV

If we seek God in spite of every trial, if each day, each hour, we give Him this homage, so extremely pleasing to Him, which consists of placing in Him, and in Him alone, our beatitude ; if we never seek anything but His will ; if we act, in such a way that His good pleasure is the true motive power of all our activity, God will never fail us. “ God is faithful 8 He cannot forsake those who seek Him : Non dereliquisti quaerentes te, Domine 4. The nearer we approach Him by faith, confidence and love, the nearer we approach our perfection. As God is the principal author of our holi¬ ness, since it is supernatural, to draw near to Him, to remain united to Him by charity constitutes the very condition of our perfection. The more we set ourselves free from all sin, from all imperfection, from all creatures, from all human springs of action, in order to think only of Him, to seek only His good pleasure, the more, too, life will abound in us and God will fill us with Himself : Quaerite Deuni, et vivet anima vestra 5.⁹

V

There are souls who so sincerely seek God that they are wholly possessed by Him, and no longer know how to live without Him. “ I declare to you, ” a holy Benedictine nun, the Blessed Bonomo, wrote to her father, " that it is not I that live, but another in me Who has entire possession of me ; He is my absolute Master. O God ! I know not how to drive Him from me!... "

When the soul is thus wholly given to God, God also gives Himself to the soul, He takes a particular care of her ; one might at times say that for such a soul God forgets the rest of the universe. Look at St. Gertrude. You know what a special love Our Lord manifested towards her ; He declared that He had not then upon the earth “ any creature towards whom He stooped with more delight 2 ; " to the point that he added He would always be found in the heart of Gertrude, whose least desires He loved to fulfil. One who knew of this great intimacy dared to ask Our Lord what were the attractions whereby St. Gertrude had merited a like preference. “ I love her in this way ” replied Our Lord, " on account of her liberty of heart wherein nothing enters that can dispute the sovereignty with Me.” Thus because, entirely detached from every creature, she sought God only in all things, this Saint merited to be the object of divine delight truly ineffable and extraordinary.

Let us, then, seek God always and in all, after the example of this great soul, herself a worthy daughter of the great Patriarch ; let us seek Him sincerely, from the depth of our hearts. Let us often say to Him like the Psalmist : “ Thy face, O Lord, will I seek ". Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram 3. “ For what have I in heaven, and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth ?... Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever ” Quid enim mihi est in caelo, et a te quid volui super terram? Deus cordis mei et pars mea Deus in aeternum 4. My God, Thou art so great, so beautiful, so good, that, as Thou knowest, Thou dost fully suffice me. Let others cling to human love, not only dost Thou permit it but Thy Providence has established that it should be so, and this mission of preparing the elect for Thy Kingdom is a great and high mission : Thy Apostle says : Sacramenium hoc magnum est 5 ; Thou givest abun¬ dant blessings to those who observe Thy law in this state. As for me, I want Thee alone so that my heart may be un- divided and solicitous only for the interests of Thy glory and may cleave to Thee without impediment L¹⁰

And when created things present themselves to us, let us say inwardly : Discede a me, pabulum mortis : “ Depart from me, for thou art the prey of death. ”

If we act in this way, we shall find God, and with Him all good things. “ Seek Me, ” He says Himself to the soul, “ with that simplicity of heart which is born of sincerity, for I am found by them that tempt me not, and shew Myself to them that have faith in Me. ” 3

In finding God, we shall likewise possess joy.

We were made to be happy ; the human heart has a capacity for the infinite ; only God can fully satisfy us. “ Thou didst make us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee ” : Fecisti nos ad te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donee requiescat in te 4. This is why when we seek anything apart from God or from His will, we do not find stable and perfect happiness.

It may be said that in any rather numerous religious community, different categories of souls are to be met with. You will see some living in continual gladness. Their inward joy radiates outwardly. I am not now speaking of that sen¬ sible joy which often depends upon the temperament, the state of health, or of circumstances independent of the will, but of joy abiding in the depth of the soul which is like a foretaste of heavenly bliss. Have' these souls then never any trials ? Have they no conflicts to sustain, nor contradictions to undergo ? Certainly they have, for each disciple of Jesus Christ has to carry his cross 6 ; but the fervour of grace and divine unction make them endure these sufferings joyfully. Other souls do not feel this gladness ; inwardly, and often even outwardly, they are troubled, distressed, unhappy. Whence comes this difference ?

Because the first seek God in all things, and seeking Him alone they find Him everywhere, and, with Him, supreme good and unchanging bliss : Bonus est Dominus animae quaerenti ilium 6. The others are either attached to created things or seek themselves, by egotism, self-love, levity ; and it is themselves too that they find — themselves, that is to say nothingness, and this cannot content them, for the soul, created for God thirsts after perfect good. “ What fills your mind ? Where your thoughts naturally turn, there is your treasure, there is your heart. If it is God, you are happy ; if it is anything mortal, unceasingly consumed by rust, corruption, mortality, your treasure will escape you, and your heart will remain poor and arid x. ”¹¹

When a man of the world tires of his own hearth, he forgets his boredom by seeking distractions outside ; he goes to his Club, or he travels. But the religious has not these resources; he has to stay in his monastery, where the regular life, with its successive exercises for which the bell inexorably rings, is uninterrupted by those natural distractions which people in the world may lawfully seek ; with souls for whom God is not all, weariness easily slips into that monotony inherent to all regular life ; and when the monk does not find God, because he does not seek God, he is very near estimating that the burden he has to carry is too heavy.

He could, doubtless, become absorbed in an occupation, torget himself in his work, but, says Blosius, this is an insuffi¬ cient and illusory diversion : Quidquid praeter Deum quaeritur mentem occupat, non satiat 2. And why is this ? Because, especially in the monastery, there are always hours when a man has to come face to face with himself, that is to say with his own nothingness ; the soul in its depths does not taste that transporting joy, it does not experience that deep and peaceful fervour which is given by the intimate nearness of God ; it does not go straight to God ; it hovers unceasingly around Him without ever finding Him perfectly.

But when the soul seeks God, and seeks Him alone, when it tends towards Him with all its energies, when it clings to no created thing, God fills it with joy, with that overflowing joy of which St. Benedict speaks when he says that in the measure wherein faith, and with it hope and love increase in the soul of the monk, he runs, “ with heart enlarged and unspeakable sweetness of love, in the way of God's command¬ ments " : Dilatato corde, incnarrabili dilectionis dulcedine curritur via mandator um Dei,

Let us then often repeat like that great monk St. Bernard : Ad quid venisti? “ Wherefore have I come ? ” Why have I left the world ? Why have I separated myself from all who were dear to me ? Why have I renounced my liberty ? Why have I made so many and such great sacrifices ? Did I come to give myself up to intellectual labours ? To gain knowledge ? To occupy myself with the arts, or with teaching ?¹²

No, we came, never let us forget this, for one thing, and one thing only : “ to seek God Si r ever a Deum quaerit.

It was to win this one precious pearl of the possession of God that we renounced everything : Inventa una pretiosa margarita vendidit omnia quae habuit et emit earn.

We should examine ourselves to see to what degree we seek God, to what point we are detached from the creature. If we are loyal, God will show us what there is in us that hinders us from going to Him with all our heart. Our end and our glory is to seek God ; it is a very high vocation, that of belonging to the race of those who seek God : Haec est generatio quaerentium eum; in choosing the one thing necessary, we have chosen the better part : Hereditas mea praeclara est mihi 3.

Let us remain faithful to this sublime vocation. We shall not arrive at the realisation of our ideal in a day nor yet in a year ; we shall not arrive at it without difficulty or without sufferings, for that purity of affection, that absolute detachment, full and constant, which God requires of us before giving Himself entirely to us, is only gained by much generosity ; but if we have decided to give ourselves com¬ pletely to God, without reservation, and never to bargain with Him for the least corner of our heart, to admit no attachment, however slight it may be to any creature, let us be assured that God will reward our efforts by the perfect possession of Himself, wherein we shall find all our beatitude. “ With what mercy God treats a soul, ” says St. Teresa, “ when He bestows upon her grace and courage to devote herself generously and with all her might to the pursuit of such a good ! Let her but persevere, God refuses Himself to none : little by little He will increase her courage, and finally she wall gain the victory. ”

When we are thoroughly resolved, ” wrote a soul who had understood how God is everything, and knew faithfully how to seek God alone, “ it is only the first steps that count; for from the moment that our well beloved Saviour sees our good will, He does all the rest. I will refuse nothing to Jesus Whose love urges me. You know how eloquent is the voice of Jesus. Besides, no one is foolish enough to give up the whole for a part. The love of Jesus, that is the whole ; the rest, whatever one may think, is but a negligable quantity, despicable even, in contrast with our unique treasure. I am resolved to surrender myself to the love of Christ. I am indifferent to all else ; I wish to love Him even to folly ; men may break and crush my will and understanding, all that you will, but I do not intend to let go of the sole good, our Divine Jesus, or rather I feel that it is He Who will not let me go. It is needful that our souls should please Jesus, but no other person.”¹³

VI

In this seeking after God, the principle of our holiness, we cannot find a better model than Christ Jesus Himself.

But, you will at once say, how is this, can Christ be our Model ? how could He “ seek God, ” since He was God Himself ?

It is true that Jesus is God, the true God come forth from God, the Light arising from the Uncreated Light, the Son of the Living God, equal to the Father. But He is likewise man ; He is authentically one of us, through His human nature. And although this human nature is united in an indissoluble way to the Divine Person of the Word, although the holy soul of Jesus has ceaselessly enjoyed the delights of the Beatific Vision, although it has been drawn into the divine current which necessarily bears the Son towards the Father, it remains true to say that Christ’s human activity, which was derived from His human faculties as from its immediate sources, was sovereignly free.

It is in the exercise of this free activity that we can find in Jesus that which we call the " seeking after God. " What are the innermost aspirations of His soul, those to which He Himself refers all His mission, and in which He sums up all His life ?

St. Paul tells us ; he raises for us a corner of the veil to enable us to penetrate into the Holy of Holies. He tells us that the first throb of the soul of Jesus on entering into this world was one of infinite intensity towards His Father : Ingrediens niundum, dicit:... Ecce venio, in capite libri scripturn est de me: ut faciam, Deus, voluntaiem tuam.

And we see Christ Jesus, like a giant, rejoice to run the way, in the pursuit of the glory of His Father. This is His primal disposition. Let us hear how, in the Gospel, He clearly tells us so. “ I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. ” To the Jews, He proves that He comes from God, that His doctrine is divine, because He seeks the glory of Him that sent Him. He seeks it to such a degree that He has no solicitude for His own 2. He has ever these words upon His lips : " My Father ; ” His whole life is but the magnificent echo of this cry: Abba, (Pater). All for Him is summed up in seeking the will and the glory of His Father.¹⁴

And what constancy in this seaach ! He Himself declares to us that He never deviated from it : “I do always the things that please [my Father] ” : Quae -placita sunt ei facio semper 3 ; at the supreme hour of His last farewell, at the moment when about to deliver Himself up to death, He telles us that all the mission He had received from His Father was accomplished 4.

Nothing, moreover, stayed Him in this search. It was to pursue it that at the age of twelve years He left His Mother, the Blessed Virgin, at Jerusalem. Never did child love his Mother as Jesus loved the Blessed Virgin. Put together all the love that can animate the heart of a son ; it is only a flickering spark beside this furnace of the love of Jesus for His Mother. And yet, as soon as it concerns His Father’s will, or His glory, one would say that this love no longer counts for anything. Jesus knew into what an abyss of anguish He plunged His Mother’s heart during three days, but the interests of His Father required it, and hence He did not hesitate : “ Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business ? 5 ” These words fallen from the lips of Jesus, are the first that have been gathered up by the Gospel. Christ therein sums up all His Person, condenses all His Mission.

The sorrows and the ignominies of the Passion, even death itself, does not diminish this burning fervour of the Heart of Jesus for His Father’s glory ; quite the contrary. It is because in all things He seeks the will of the Father, as manifested by the Scriptures, that He delivers Himself, out of love, to the torments of the Cross : Ut impleantur scripturae 6. The waters of a river do not rush towards the ocean with more majestic impetuosity than the soul of Jesus tended inwardly towards the abyss of sufferings wherein the Passion was to plunge Him. “ That the world may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father hath given Me command¬ ment, so do I ” : Et sicut mandatum dedit mihi Pater, sic facio 7.

If, as God, Jesus is the term of our seeking, as Man, He is the unique Exemplar wherefrom we ought never to turn our gaze. Let us take to ourselves these words and say : Ingrediens monasterium, dixi: Ecce venio. On the day of my entering the monastery I said : Behold I come. In the head of the Rule, which is for me the book of Thy goodpleasure, it is written that I should seek Thee in doing Thy will, for it is to Thee, 0 My heavenly Father, that I will to attain.¹⁵

And in the same way as Christ Jesus rejoices “ to run the way ” ad currendam viam \ let us run in His train, since He is Himself the Way. “ Run, ” says St. Benedict, " while ye have the light of life ; ” carried along by the holy desire of reaching the Kingdom where our heavenly Father awaits us, let us press forward unceasingly in the practise of good deeds ; that is the indispensable condition for attaining the goal. Nisi illuc bonis actibus currendo minime pervenitur 2.

And again in the same way as Christ Jesus, coming down from heaven, only finished His glorious course when He gain¬ ed the height of heaven ; Et occursus ejus usque ad summum ejus, so let us not grow weary, as we follow after Him, in seeking God, in seeking Him solely, until we arrive at that which the great Patriarch so well calls, at the close of his Rule, the culmina virtutum, the celsitudo perfectionist, the " lofty summits of virtue, ” " the heights of perfection. " The soul thus “ arrived ” lives habitually united to God Whom she seeks, she has already a foretaste of the delights of the ineffable union which is attained in the beatitude of the Father’s Bosom : apud Patrem.

“ O Lord, my God, my one hope, hear me so that I may never weary of seeking Thee, but that with unfailing ardour my soul may ever seek Thy Countenance. Grant the strength to seek Thee, O Thou Who givest the grace to find Thee after having more and more given the hope of attaining Thee. ” x. Ps. xvni, 6. — 2. Prologue to the Rule. — 3. Ps. xvm, 7. — 4. Rule, ch. lxxiii. — 5. Domine Deus meus, una spes mea, exaudi me, ne fatigatus nolim te quaerere, sed quaeram taciem tuam semper ardenter. Tu da quaerendi vires qui invenire te fecisti, et magis magisque inveniendi te Spem dedisti / S. Augustin. De Trinitate, 1, xv, c. 28.

Note

“ SEEKING AFTER GOD ”, ACCORDING TO ST. BERNARD.

" It is a great good, this will to seek God. In my opinion it deserves to be esteemed second to none of all the goods of the soul. It is the first grace which the soul receives, and it is also the last advance she makes in her pro¬ gress towards perfection. It follows after no virtue, neither does it yield place to any. What virtue can it be supposed to follow, since it is preceded by none ? Or to what virtue can it give place, since it is itself the crown and consummation of all ? For how can any virtue be ascribed to the man who has not the will to seek God ? And as to him who does seek God, what term shall be appointed for his seeking ? “ Seek His Face evermore ”, says the Psalmist, by which he implies, as it seems to me, that even after God has been found He shall not cease to be sought. For it is not by bodily locomotion that we have to seek God, but by fervent desire. Now this desire, so far from being extinguished by the happy attainment of its Object, is on the contrary greatly intensified. How is it possible that the consummation of joy should be the exclusion of desire ? It would be more true to say that the former is to the latter as oil to flame, because desire is in truth a flame. So it is, my brethren. The joy is made perfect, yet there is no end to the desire, and by consequence no end to the seeking. But conceive (if you can) of this eager seeking as implying no absence of what is sought, and of this ardent desire as being accompanied by no solicitude. For absence is incompatible with possession and solicitude with security of tenure ». In Cantica, Serm. LXXXIV, i, translated by a priest of Mount Melleray.

Footnotes

1. 1. I Matth. xxv, 40.
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2. 1. Holy Rule, ch. i. — 2. Ibid. ch. lviii. — 3. S. Thomas, II Sentent. Dist. xxxvii, q. I, a. 2.
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3. 1. Gen. xv, i. — 2. Cf. Joan, xvu, 24, 26. — 3. II Petr. 1, 4. — 4. I Joan. i» 3- — 5. Ps. civ, 4.
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4. j. Prologue of the Rule. — 2. Rule, ch. liii. ↩

5. 1. Cf. “ Of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ". — 2. Holy Rule, ch. 11 (Cf. Matth. vi, 33)- — 3- Ibid. — 4. Ibid. chap. lvii.
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6. x. St. Ambrose. — '2. Ps. xm, 2-3. — 3. Ec.de. 1, 2. ↩

7. 4. Philip, hi, 8.
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8. 1. Life by Raymund of Capua. — 2. Life by herself , ch. xx.
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9. 1. 1 Dialog. lib. n. — 2. Bossuet. Meditations upoti the Gospel, The LastSupper, 2nd part, 83rd day. — 3. Thess. v, 25. — 4. Ps. ix, 11. — 5. Ps. i.xvm, 33.
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10. 1. D. duBourg, Im Bse J. M. Bonomo, martial e bdnSdictine, Paris 1910, P. 56. — 2. Herald 0/ Divine Love. Book I, chap. in. — 3. Ps. xxvi, 8. — 4- Ps. LX.XII, 25-26. — 5. Eph. v, 32. — 6. Ps. cxxvii.
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11. 1. I Cor. vn, 32, 35. — 2. Office of St Agnes, I»t Ant. I Noct. — 3 Sap. 1, 1-3. — 4. S. Aug. Conf. Lib. 1, c. i. — 5- Cf. Luc. ix, 23. — 6. Thren. in, 25.
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12. 1. Bossuet. Meditations on the Gospel, Sermon on the Mount. 29th day. — 2. Canon vitae spirilualis, c. 15. The great Abbot was moreover in this but the echo of an old monk: Ad imaginem Dei jacta est anima ralionalis ; caeteris omnibus occtipari potest, repleri non potest; capacem Dei quidquid Deo minus est non implebU. P. L. t. 184, col. 455. — 3. Prologue to the Holy Rule.
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13. 1. Matth. xiii, 46. — 2. Ps. xxiii, 6. — 3. Ps. xv, 6. — 4. L. c. p. 145.
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14. 1. Une dme bdnidictine, D. Pie de Hemptinne. 5* 6dit., p. 264. — 2. Credo at the Mass. — 3. Hebr. x, 5-7. — 4. Joan, v, 30.
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15. 1. Joan, vii, 18. — 2. Ibid, vm, 50. — 3. Ibid, vm, 29. — 4. Ibid, xvn, 4. — 5. Luc. 11, 49. — 6. Mark, xiv, 49. — 7. Joan, xiv, 31.
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