X. Poverty

Summary. — Necessity for one who seeks God of renouncing every creature, material goods to begin with. — I. St. Benedict’s requirements concerning individual poverty. — 1 1. How everything necessary is to be hoped for from the Abbot. — III. Exercise of the virtue of poverty inseparable from that of hope. — IV. Christ, the Model of poverty ; deep aspect of poverty in the inner life of Christ. — V. Precious blessings that God bestows on those who are detached.

In our seeking after God, we are hindered by the obstacles we find upon our way or within ourselves. To find God perfectly, we must first of all be freed from every creature in so far as it keeps us back on the path of perfection. The young man of the Gospel who comes to our Lord and asks wha the must do to have life everlasting, is given this answer : “ Keep the commandments. ” “ All these have I kept from my youth, ” replies the young man. Then our Divine Saviour adds : “ If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and . come follow Me. ” At these words the young man goes away sorrowful. “ For ” says the Gospel, “ he had great possessions 1. ” Riches held his heart captive and because of them he could not follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

Our Lord has given us the immense grace of letting us hear His Divine voice calling us to perfection : Venite post Me 2. By an act of faith in His word and in His Divinity, we have come to Him and have said like St. Peter : “ Behold we have left all things, and have followed Thee ” : Ecce nos reliquimus omnia et secuti sumus te 3. We have relinquish¬ ed material goods, in order that being voluntarily poor, no longer having anything to hold us back, we may fully consecrate ourselves to the pursuit of the one true immutable Good.

If we keep ourselves in the fervour with which we totally abandoned all worldly possessions, we shall surely find the Infinite Good even here below. “ What therefore shall we have ? " Peter asked our Lord : Quid ergo erit nobis? And Christ replies : “You shall receive an hundredfold and shall i. Matth. xix, 16-22. — 2. Marc. 1, 17. — 3. Matth. xix, 27. possess life everlasting. ” God is so magnificent in His dealings with us, that in return for the things we leave for Him, 'He gives Himself to us even now and here with incom¬ mensurable generosity. “ Amen, I say to you... there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands for My sake... who shall not receive an hundred times as much, now in this time ” : Amen dico vobis: Nemo est qui reliquerit domum... -propter me... qui non accipiat centies tantum nunc in tempore hoc. He puts no bounds to His Divine communications, and this is the one source of our true beatitude : “ Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ” : Beati pauper es spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum 3.

Only it is important that we always remain in that dis¬ position of faith, hope and love, whereby we left all to place our beatitude in God alone ; it is important that we should no longer be attached to what we have given up for ever. And this is often very difficult.

Thus as St. Teresa remarks, our nature is so subtile that it seeks to take back, in one way or another, what it has once given. " We resolve to become poor, ” she writes, “ and it is a resolution of great merit ; but we very often take care not to be in want, not simply of what is necessary, but of what is superfluous ; yea, and to make for ourselves friends who may supply us ; and in this way we take more pains, and perhaps expose ourselves to greater danger, in order that we may want nothing, than we did formerly, when we had our own possessions in our own power. ” And the great Saint adds these words which I have already cited but which are always good to read again : “ A pleasant manner this of seeking the love of God ! We retain our own affections, and yet will have that love, as they say, by handfuls... This is not well, and we are seeking things that are incompatible one with the other. ”

You see that if voluntary poverty is an indispensable condition for finding God fully, for being perfect disciples of Christ Jesus, it is extremely important, in the course of our monastic life, not to take anything back from what we have once given as regards the renunciation of exterior goods. Let us then see in what this renunciation consists, how far it extends, and with what virtue we ought to link it so as to practise it in its perfection. We shall see that our Holy Father shows himself singularly exacting upon this point of individual poverty, and the practice of this renunciation to be a very lofty form of the theological virtue of hope.¹

I

Although St. Benedict does not make the word " poverty ’* enter into the formula of the vows, he prescribes, however, that the monk at his profession shall distribute his goods to the poor, or bestow them on the monastery ; he is to reserve nothing for himself : Nihil sibi reservans ex omnibus. Even when parents offered their sons to the monastery, they had to promise that never, either of themselves, or through anyone else, would they give anything whatsoever to their son once he has become a monk, lest occasion should be given him of violating, to the detriment of his soul, the poverty that he has promised.

Moreover, the practice of poverty enters into this conversio morum 2 which we vow at the moment of our profession. For, by this vow, we are bound to seek the perfection of our state. Now the exercise of poverty is necessary for one who wishes to be a perfect disciple of Christ. Thus we see our Holy Father consecrate a very remarkable chapter, in his Rule, to the ascetical matter which he has not espe¬ cially mentioned in the act of profession. He calls private ownership for the monk, “ a vice " : vitium proprietatis ; a “ baneful vice ” : vitium nequissimum 3 which must be cut off at all costs.

And yet has not man a natural right to possess ? The simple Christian living in the world can fully use his faculty of having possessions without compromising his salvation and perfection ; for, in this matter, it is not a precept but a simple counsel that our Lord gives when He speaks of leaving everything in order to be His perfect disciple. The action of Divine grace in the soul of the simple Christian is fettered only by the ill-regulated attachment which makes the soul a captive of exterior possessions.

But for us who for love of Christ, and in order to follow Him more freely, have voluntarily renounced this right, it would be in some measure a sin to attempt to take it back unduly.

Our Holy Legislator wishes to eliminate this vice in every form. As you know there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that the monk can receive or give, without leave of his Abbot,

1. Rule, ch. lviii. — 2. Ibid. — 3. Rule, ch. xxxin.

Cl rist , the Ideal of the ^onk. nothing that he can possess as his own : Ne r quis praesumat aliquid dare aut accipere sine jussione abbatis, neque aliquid habere proprium, nullam omnino rem ; “ neither books, nor writing-tablets nor pen, nor anything whatsoever " : Neque codicetn, neque tabulas, neque graphium, sed nihil omnino 2.

What is still more significant is the last means he points out by which a monk may dipossess himself of every object : the monk has not even power over his own body or his own will : Quippe quibus nec corpora sua nec voluntates licet habere in propria voluntate 3. This is the application of the words of the Gospel : Ecce nos reliquimus omnia. Our Holy Father goes so far to the root of the matter that he does not tolerate that one should account as his own, even in words, anything whatsoever : Nec quisquam suum esse aliquid dicat 4. The monk may not receive anything, “ neither letters, nor eulogies 6, or the least gifts without the order of the Abbot, " and as to the gifts which have lawfully found their way into the enclosure it remains in the power of the head of the monastery to give them to whomsoever he pleases : Quod si jusserit suscipi, in abbatis sit potestate cui illud jubeat dari 8. St. Benedict takes care to warn the monk for whom the gift had originally been intended by those outside “ not to be grieved, lest occasion be given to the devil 7 . ”

Why does the great Patriarch, ordinarily so wide in his views, enter here into such minute regulations ? It is be¬ cause a question of principle is at stake, and when it concerns a principle, as we have many times seen, he knows how to show himself uncompromising. The principle here involved is that of dependence on authority, and detachment of heart. To give or receive anything without the Abbot’s permission, is an act of independence, and nourishes the spirit of ownership. And nothing is so contrary to the absolute detachment that we have vowed.

We must then have nothing of our own. You perhaps say to yourself : ' I am quite at rest on that point. ' If it be so, thank God for it, for it is a great grace to be fully detached. However, let us examine things more closely, for there is more than one way of having anything of one’s own.

It cannot even be a question here of hoarding. At the last Day we should fear to appear before God, if we had possessed the least hoard. But, without going so far as this, there are different fashions of making any object what¬ soever ‘‘one’s own. ” It may happen, for example, that a religious makes himself from the very first so difficult that he surrounds some book or other object with a hedge of thorns, so to speak, and in such a way that no one dare ask it from him. In theory, this object is foi the common use ; in fact, it has become the property of this religious. Little things, in themselves ; but the detachment resulting from them can become dangerous for the soul’s liberty ; the principle of our perfection itself is at stake.²

" Let all things be common to all, ” says our Holy Father. That is one of the characters of monastic poverty such as he intends it to be : Omnia omnibus sint communia 1 : by these words he refers to the community of goods that existed between the faithful of the early Church. He ordains that “ anyone who treats the things of the monastery in a slovenly or negligent manner shall be punished 2. " Why this seve¬ rity ? Because the monastery being the “ house of God, " all things in it ought to be considered “ as if they were the consecrated vessels of the altar " : Omnia vasa monaster ii cunctamque substantiam, ac si altaris vasa sacrata conspiciat.

Once more in this lofty motive, we see the deeply super¬ natural and “ religious ” character with which the holy Legislator wishes to steep the monk’s whole existence, even in the least details.

II

The care of these goods, “ sacred ” in the sight of the great Patriarch, is confided to the Abbot. It is for him to provide for all the necessities of his monks ; he is the shepherd of the flock, the father of the family, and it is from him, says St. Benedict, that the monk must hope for everything : Omnia a patre sperare monasterii*. A profound saying and one which marks the character of our poverty.

The monk is to look for everything from the Abbot. At our profession we despoiled ourselves of everything and put ourselves in the hands of the Abbot ; it is through him that God will give us what is necessary.

Our Holy Father follows this chapter on poverty with another chapter entitled : “ Whether all ought alike to receive what is necessary. " Again citing, in his reply, the Acts of the Apostles, where it is said : “ distribution was made to everyone according as he had need, " St. Be¬ nedict adds that the Abbot “ ought not to have respect of persons but consideration for infirmities. ” Necessities are not mathematically the same ; one has need of more, another of less. As the Abbot has not infused knowledge, we ought to tell him our needs with simplicity, and to confide ourselves to him, for he is the father of the monastic family. What does not come from the Abbot does not come from God ; never let us then try to obtain anything, however small it may be, by roundabout means ; do not let us be diplomatic in order, as St. Teresa says, to make friends who will give us what we want.³

A trait in the life of St. Margaret Mary shows how pleasing to God is this manner of expecting everything from our Superior. The Saint had revelations sometimes from the Saviour touching the line of conduct that her director, Pere de la Colombiere, should follow. One day when the latter was setting out for England, she sent him some words of advice amongst which the following were contained : “ that he should take great care not to draw good (direct) from its source. ” She further told him that this short saying contained much which God would give him to understand according to the way he acted on it. Pere de la Colombiere read and re-read this phrase without at first comprehending its meaning ; but, some days later, during prayer, our Lord gave him light on it. On account of the difficult situation in which he found himself, being in a land of persecution, he received a small pension from his relations. This was not without his Superior’s permission but the pension did not pass through the latter’s hand ; and Christ gave Pere de la Colombiere to understand that this was not pleasing to Him. “ I under¬ stood, " wrote P. de la Colombiere, “ that this saying con¬ tains much because it concerns the perfection of poverty... and that this is the fount of a great inward and outward peace x. ”

It is the same for us. Everything is to be looked for from the father of the monastery : Omnia a patre sperare monasterii. For all that has to do with the health, clothing, food, exceptions, and all else, let us with confidence tell our wants to the Abbot or to those whom he has delegated to replace him in this domain. See what our holy Legislator writes on this subject ; his words show, as ever, with much exactitude and discretion, the supernatural line of conduct that we should follow : “ Let him who has need of less give thanks to God, and not be grieved thereby ; and let him who requireth more be humbled by his infirmity and not be made proud by the mercy shewn to him L " And St. Benedict concludes with this sentence so full of his spirit : Et it a omnia membra erunt in pace, 2 “ and thus all the members of the family will be at peace. ” Peace is the fruit of de¬ tachment ; the soul has no longer any disquietude ; it belongs altogether to God.⁴

It certainly requires great faith to conform ourselves per¬ fectly to this programme : but we may be persuaded that if we observe all the points of it, God will not fail us in anything, and our soul will taste deep peace because it will look for everything from Him Who is the Beatitude of all the Saints.

As to the Abbot, he is to provide for all things. To enable him to do this, St. Benedict leaves the monastery the power of possessing. In the practice of poverty the great Patriarch does not understand it as it has been under¬ stood and carried out since St. Francis of Assisi’s day. St. Paul says, there is but one Spirit Who governs and directs the Church of Jesus but the inspirations of this Spirit are manifold. It is the same as to the ways that He opens out : these are very varied although they all have in view the perfection of Christ’s Mystical Body : In aedificationem corporis Christi. To the wonderful Poverello of Assisi, the Holy Spirit inspired a radical form of poverty touching not only individuals, but the convent itself ; and for the sons of St. Francis this is an inexhaustible fount of precious graces. The same Spirit gave to our holy Legislator another direction, supernatural also and not less fruitful. In the Benedictine Order,, individual detachment is to be carried as far as possible, but the monastery may have possessions.

Our Holy Father bids the postulant, about to make pro¬ fession, to choose either to distribute his goods to the poor or give them to the monastery, and in this latter case, he takes care to wrap this donation in solemn legal forms : Res si quas habet ant eroget prius pauperibus, aut facta solcmniter donatione, confer at monasterio. In the intention of St. Benedict, the monastery keeps the faculty of possessing, and our whole tradition, in accord with the Church, has con¬ firmed this concept.⁵

We know, moreover, how the splendour of Divine worship has benefited with us from this state of things ; again it is thanks to this, that, in the course of centuries, our abbeys nave so ofien been able to relieve, Christ in His disinherited members, with abundant alms. Certainly this use of earthly goods had been clearly foreseen by our Holy Father.

For all that concerned charity towards the neighbour, he showed himself great and wide-hearted. We see how in a time of famine he ordered that the small quantity of oil remaining in the monastery should be distributed to the poor ; you know how he caused the vessel of oil, that the disobedient cellarer had kept in spite of his command, to be thrown out of the window and what miracle God wrought at St. Benedict’s prayer in order to reward this charity. We likewise see by the life of our Patriarch that the monastery of Monte Cassino had provisions 2 ; St. Benedict, full of the spirit of the Gospel, intends that even material misery shall be succoured ; he wishes guests, pilgrims, and the poor to be welcomed at the monastery. Among the “ instruments of good works ” he points out that of “ relieving the poor " : pauperes recreare 4,. and he orders the monk, charged with the temporal administration of the monastery, to have especial care of the poor : Pauperum cum omni "sollicitudine cur am gerat 5. It is evident that these very clear precepts of the holy Legislator could only be carried out if the monastic confraternity had goods at its disposition^

III

Let us return to that individual poverty which the monk ought to embrace so closely and let us try to enter more fully into its spirit. We should understand it wrongly if we limited it to material privation. There are some rich people who are detached from their riches, according to the saying of St. Paul, “ who use this world, as if they used it not 6 ” ; in the midst of their wealth, their heart is free ; they are of those poor in spirit to whom Christ has promised His Kingdom. There are some poor people, on the contrary, who covet riches, and cling with attachment to the little they possess ; their poverty is only material. Have these poor people the virtue of their state ? Certainly not ! As the Kingdom of God is within the heart, • — Regnum Dei intra vos est — it is above all in our heart that the virtue of poverty is perfected and developed : one can be poor while wearing the robes of a king. The man who is perfectly poor will be ready to seek God alone : never let us forget that this is the end that St. Benedict points out to us : to seek God in the sincerity of our heart, that is to say, solely : Si revera Deum quaerit K⁶

Now the practice of the virtue of poverty is inseparable from that of hope under a lofty form. What in fact is hope ? It is a supernatural habit which inclines the soul to regard God as its one Good, and from Him to hope for all necessary graces whereby to attain the possession of this supreme Good. " Thou art, O Lord, the portion of my inheritance ” : Dominus, -pars hereditatis nteae 2. When in the soul there is living faith it comprehends that God infinitely surpasses all earthly goods ; as St. Gregory says, speaking of St. Benedict, “ all creatures appear as small ” to the soul that contemplates the Creator : Videnti Creatorem angusta est omnis creatura. Faith shows us in the perfect possession of God that precious pearl of which the Gospel speaks ; 4 to gain it, we sell all, we leave all ; it is a homage rendered to the Divine Goodness and Beauty. Faith blos¬ soms into hope. The soul is so enamoured of God that it no longer wishes for any other good, and the privation of any good, except. God, does not trouble it. Deus mens et omnia 5. My God, to such as extent art' Thou my All that I need nothing besides Thee ; I want nought but Thee ; I could not bear to have anything besides Thee for my heart to cling to ; Thou alone sufficest me, “ For what have I in Heaven ? and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth ? " Quid mihi est in caelo, et a te quid volui super terram? “ Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever ” : Deus cordis mei et pars mea Deus in aeternum 6. Like St. Paul, the soul counts all things as dung, ut stercora, that so it may perfectly gain Christ : Ut Christum lucrtfaciam 7 . Neither is it attached to the gifts of God, although it may ask for them, not for their own sake, but because they help the soul to advance ; neither is it attached to consola¬ tions from on high, although God never severs it for ever from the sweetness of His service : it wants God alone.

This is why the soul despoils itself, disengages itself, in order to have more liberty ; and if, even when God hides Himself, even when He leaves the soul in dryness and deso¬ lation, or gives Himself only in the nudity of His Divinity in order to detach it not only from the earth but from itself ; if, I say, the soul remains faithful to seek God only, to place its beatitude in Him alone, it may be assured of finding at last, never more to lose Him and to enjoy Him in all peace, this God Who surpasses all treasures : Vade, quaecutnque habes vende... et habebis thesaurum in caelo.⁷

Hope has another aspect : it is that of inclining us to look to God for all that is necessary for our sanctification.

Monastic profession, as we have said, is a contract. When, having left all things for Christ Jesus, we remain faithful to our promise, Christ must, if I may thus express myself, bring us to perfection. He has bound Himself to do this. “ Wilt thou be perfect ? ” He says to us, “ Go, sell whatso¬ ever thou hast... and come. ” God is a father, says our Lord Himself ; when a child asks his father for bread, will he give him a serpent ? And if, adds Jesus, you who are evil, “ know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in Heaven ” give you what is necessary for you.

And how true this is ! St. Paul tells us that the tender¬ ness, as well as the authority, of the fathers of this world has its source in the Heart of God 4. And if our Heavenly Father loves us, what will He not give us ? While we were His enemies He reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son : He gave Him to us that He might be our salvation 5, and, says St. Paul, " how hath He not also, with Him given us all things ? ” Quomodo cum Mo non omnia nobis donavit 6. All that we can desire for the perfection and holiness of our souls, we find in Christ Jesus ; in Him are all the treasures of the Godhead : Omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae 7. The indubitable will of the Eternal Father is that His beloved Son should be our redemption, our justice, our sanctification ; that all His merits, all His satisfactions, — and their value is infinite — should be ours. You are made so rich in Christ, exclaims St. Paul, " that nothing is wanting to you in any grace 9 " : Ita ut nihil vobis desit in utta gratia.

Oh, if we know the gift of God! Si scires donum Dei! If we knew what inexhaustible riches we may possess in Christ Jesus, not only should we not go begging happiness from creatures nor seeking it from perishable goods but we should despoil ourselves of them as much as possible in order to increase our soul’s capacity for possessing true treasures. We should be watchful not to attach ourselves to the least thing that could keep us back from God.⁸

It is this that gives assurance to our hope and renders it invincible : when our heart is truly loosened from all things, when we place our beatitude in God alone ; when for love of Him we detach ourselves from every creature, and look but to Him for all necessary graces, then God shows Himself magnificent towards us : He fills us with Himself : Ego merces tua magna nimis: I, Who am God, will leave to none other the care of assuaging your thirst for beatitude !

IV

To arrive at this supreme degree of adherence to God, it has first been necessary to leave the world and despoil our¬ selves of all ownership. We must remain in that first fervour which made us forsake all things for love of Christ. Let us then be watchful that the observance of our vow of poverty remains intact. For example, let us often make the inven¬ tory of what we have for our use, and if we find that we have a fondness for anything, or that we have such or such an object that has not been given or permitted by the Abbot, let us restore it to the common use, let us cast it from us, projice abs te z, for it might become a veritable obstacle to the development of the perfection we* have vowed. Thus to break off from everything needs an effort, it needs gene¬ rosity ; but if we have a living faith in Christ, if our hope is sincere, if our love for Him is ardent, we shall find in Him, through prayer, this strength and this generosity. We have all made great sacrifices to give ourselves to God on the day of our entering the monastery. How can we allow ourselves, after this, to be held captive by the nothings which keep back the soul from w'inging its flight to God !

Let us contemplate our Lord Who is our Model in all things, Whom we wish to follow for love’s sake. What does His life teach us ? He, so to speak, espoused Poverty.

He was God : Non rapinam arbitratus est esse se aequalem Deo ; legions of angels are His ministers ; with a single word, He drew heaven and earth out of nothing ; He decked them with riches and beauty which are but a pale reflection of His infinite perfections : Domine, quam admit abile est nomen tuum in universa terra*! His power and magnificence are so extensive that, according to the Psalmist’s expression. He has but to open His hand to fill “ with blessing every living creature ” : Afieris tu manum tuam, et imples omne animal benedictione 1.⁹

And behold this God becomes incarnate to bring us to Himself. What way does He choose ? That of poverty.

When the Word came into this world. He, the King of Heaven and earth, willed, in His Divine Wisdom, to dispose the details of His birth, life and death, in such a manner that what most transpired was poverty, contempt for the things of this world. The poorest are born at least under a roof ; He first sees the day, as He lies upon straw, in praesepio, for “ there was no room " for His Mother in the inn. At Nazareth, He leads the obscure life of a poor artisan: Nonne hie fabri filius? Later on, in His public life, He has nowhere to lay His Head although, " the foxes have holes. ” At the hour of His death, He is stripped of His garments and fastened naked to the Cross. He leaves His executioners to take possession of that tunic woven by His Mother ; His friends have forsaken Him ; of His Apostles, He sees only St. John near Him. At least. His Mother remains to Him : but no ; He gives Her to His disciple : Ecce mater tua 5. Is not this absolute renunciation ? Yet He finds a means of going beyond this extreme degree of destitution. There are still the heavenly joys with which His Father inundates His Humanity ; He renounces them, for now His Father abandons Him : Deus mens, ut quid dereliquisti me 6 ? He remains alone, hanging between heaven and earth.

This is the example that has filled the world with monas¬ teries, and peopled these monasteries with souls in love with poverty. When we contemplate Jesus poor in the manger, poor at Nazareth, poor upon the Cross, holding out His hands to us and saying : “ It is for you, ” we under¬ stand the follies of the lovers of poverty.

Let us then keep our eyes fixed on this Divine Poor One of Bethlehem, of Nazareth and of Golgotha. And if we feel some of the effects of poverty, let us accept this generously ; do not let us look upon it as a world-wide calamity ! And let us not forget that we ought not to be poor merely out of convention, but because we have promised Christ really to leave everything to follow Him. It is at this price that we shall find in Him all our riches ; for if He has taken our miseries upon Himself it is in order to enrich us with His perfections ; the poverty of His Humanity serves Him as the means of coming near to us and bringing even to our souls the riches of His Divinity : Scitis enim gratiam Domini nostri Jesu Christi quoniam propter vos egenns factus est, cum esset dives, ut illius inopia vos divites essetis.¹⁰

Such is the wonderful exchange made between the Divine Word and ourselves. He brings His infinite riches; but, let us remember, He brings them to those who are poor : Esurientes implevit bonis; and those who most despoil them¬ selves receive the most.

We can never go too far in this voluntary detachment. There is one aspect of the inner life of Christ Jesus that St. John brings forward and of which the imitation forms a very thorough exercise of the virtue of poverty. To understand this aspect, let us raise our hearts and minds as far as the mystery of the Adorable Trinity ; but let us raise them with faith and reverence, for these things are only to be well understood in prayer.

In the Trinity, as you know, God the Father has an attri¬ bute proper to Himself which is distinctive from His Person : He is the First Principle, proceeding from none : Principium sine principio. This is true only of the Father ; the Son is a principle, yes ; He Himself has told us so : [Fgo] principium qui ct loquor vobis, only this is relatively to us ; with the Father and the Holy Spirit, He is the fount of all life for every creature. But when we speak of the Three Divine Persons, the Father alone is the Principle proceeding from no other Person ; from Him proceeds the Son ; and, from the Father and the Son, proceeds the Holy Spirit. This attribute is personal to the Father.

The Son, even as God, holds everything from the Father : Omnia quae dedisti mihi abs te sunt*. The Son, in beholding His Father, can say to Him that all that He is, all that He has, all that He knows, is from His Father because He proceeds from Him, without there being between the First and Second Person, either inequality, or inferiority, or succession of time. This is one side of the mystery.

This sublime truth is especially revealed to us in the Gospel of St. John where Our Lord constantly protests that He holds everything from His Father. Consider for a moment the mystery of the Incarnation. The Sacred Hu¬ manity of Christ Jesus is perfect, integral ; nothing is wanting to It which can constitute and adorn human nature ; Per/ectus homo. And yet it has no proper personality; there is no human person in Christ. It is the Word Who, in Him, is the Person, and it is in the Word that the Human Nature subsists.- This is an ineffable mystery.¹¹

In the words of Jesus we shall find some expressions of this mystery. He tells us, — and it is the Incarnate Word Who speaks — “ My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me ” : Mea doctrina non est mea, sed ejus qui misit Me. He says again, “ I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father hath taught Me, these things I speak " : A meipso facto nihil, sed sicut docuit me Pater, haec loquor 2. He then adds in all truth that He seeks not His own will nor His own glory, but that of Him Who sent Him. This glory is to refer everything to His Father, by Whom He is begotten : the Father gives all to Him and the Son refers all to His Father, as the Principle whence He proceeds : Pater, mea omnia tua sunt, et tua mea sunt. True of the Humanity of Jesus, it is likewise so, in a very lofty sense, of His Divinity. The Son has not anything that He has not received from the Father ; He proceeds from Him wholly ; when the Father beholds His Son, He sees that there is nothing in this Son that does not come from Him ; and this is why all is Divine in the Son, all is perfect, and this is . also why the. Son is the object of His Father’s love. Filius dilectionis suae.

This aspect, one of the deepest and most essential in the life of Jesus Christ, should enlighten us as to what our poverty ought to be. Let us imitate Christ in being not only ma¬ terially poor but poor of spirit ; let us imitate Him in despoil¬ ing of ourselves of all that is our own, of all that comes from self: attachment to our own judgment, our self-love, our self-will, which are so many forms of " the vice of ownership, " in order that we may no longer have any but the thoughts, the desires, and the will of God, and no longer act save from motives that come from on high. Then, everything in us will proceed, as it were, from God. God will see in us the realisa¬ tion of the Divine idea that, from all eternity, He has formed for us. When in our thoughts and actions we add something that is not from God, something that comes from our own self, sin or imperfection, we impair God’s image within us. God then sees in us some proprium ; and as this proprium does not come from Him, it does not go, it cannot go, to God. The great obstacle to heavenly grace, to the love of God, is this “ vice of ownership ” which in our case is manifested not only by possessing or disposing of material things, or even by simple attachment to these things, but still more by inordinate attachment to what is personal or proper to ourselves. In the two following conferences we will point out in detail how, by humility and obedience, we can arrive at entirely despoiling ourselves of self-love, self-esteem, and self-will. But it has been expedient for us now to bring together the different aspects of the same vice, this “ vice of ownership ” which forms a radical obstacle to Divine communications and produces a thousand fruits ot sin and death. “ Pride, ” said our Lord to Blessed Angela of Foligno, “ can exist in those alone who possess anything or believe that they possess anything. Man and angel fell, and fell by pride, because they believed they had something of their own. But neither angel nor man has aught of himself ; all belongs to God 1. ”¹²

We hence understand why St. Benedict, so enlightened upon the ways of God, wishes that the spirit of ownership in us should be “ cut oh by the roots ” : Radicitus amputdur 2.

V

When this holy destruction has been wrought, God puts no bounds to His graces : the Kingdom of God is promised by Jesus to “ the poor in spirit. " This Kingdom is first of all within us ; it is established in us in the very measure that we strip ourselves of every creature and of self. All our spiritual life consists in the imitation of Christ Jesus. The Word, being the Son of God, proceeds entirely from His Father, He lives by Him, He lives for Him : Ego vivo propter Patrem 3 ; this sums up the whole life of Jesus, the Incarnate Word. It will be proportionately the same for us ; the more tnat our life and aims flow from God, the more that our activity finds the source of its inspirations in the will of God — the higher and more supernatural will our life too become. We need great abnegation in order to establish this disposition in us and never to seek the principle of our actions save in God ; for the natural instinct of man urges him to make himself his own centre and to seek the principle of his life in himself alone, in that which is personal and proper to himself. On the contrary the life of our soul must be en¬ tirely subject to the Divine good pleasure and must have no movement that does not come from the Holy Spirit.

This is what we ask of our Lord each morning at Prime, on beginning the day. “ O Lord our God, King of heaven and earth, vouchsafe this day to direct and sanctify, to rule and govern our hearts and our bodies, our feelings, our words, and our works, according to Thy Law, and in the doing of Thy commandments... O Saviour of the world. Who livest and reignest world, without end ” : Dirigere et sanctificare, regere et gubernare dignare, Domine Deus, Rex caeli et terrae, hodie, corda et corpora nostra, sensus, sermones et actus nostros, in lege tua, et in operibus mandatorum tuorunt. We here ask the Word to direct, to take in hand all that is in us ; our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, all that we are, all that we have, all that we do. All that is ours will then come from God through Jesus Christ and His Spirit, and will return to God. We shall bring our personality into subjection to Christ Jesus, in order to destroy what is bad in us, and to make all that is good converge towards the doing of His Divine will : then without ceasing to remain ourselves, we shall do everything under the impulsion, by the action of His grace and of His Spirit. It will be no longer in our self-love, our self-esteem, nor our self-will, that we shall seek the mainspring of our thoughts, words, and deeds, but in the love of Christ’s will, in cleaving to His law : In lege tua et in operibus mandatorum tuorum. We shall have laid down our personality to put on Christ : Christum induistis. Doubtless, in this union of ourselves with the Word, two distinct persons always remain, for this union is only moral, but we can strive to subject our perso¬ nality in the order of activity so perfectly to the Word, that this personality will disappear as far as possible leaving to the Divine Word all the initiative of our life.¹³

The same prayer contains moreover the principle on which it rests, namely, that the Word is King, King of heaven and of earth. The Word lives and reigns in God : Vivit et regnat Deus. Christ only lives where He reigns ; He is essentially King ; He lives in us in the degree that He governs all in us, that He reigns over our faculties, that He rules our acti¬ vity. When all within us comes from Him, that is to say when we no longer think save as He thinks, when we no longer will save as He wills, when we act only according to His good pleasure, we place our whole self in subjection at His feet ; then He reigns in us ; all that is proper to us, all that is personal, disappears to give place to the thoughts and will of the Divine Word. This domination of Christ within us must be complete. We ask this a hundred times a day: Adveniat regnum tuum! May that day come, O¹⁴

Lord, when Thou wilt reign entirely in me ; when no selfish motive will hinder Thy power in me, when, like Thee, I shall be entirely yielded up to the Father, and nothing within me will be opposed to the Holy Spirit's action !

On that day we shall have done all that within us lies, to bring our own personality to naught before the dominion of Christ. He will truly be for us “ All in all " : Omnia in omni bus 1 ; morally speaking, we shall no longer have anything of our own ; all will be subject, all will be given to Him ; this is to be pauper spiritu. Who are those whom Our Lord calls pauper es spiritu 2? Those who own nothing either in mind, heart, or will, who wish to have nothing except from God. Daily they lay down their own judgment, their manner of seeing things, their will, everything, at the feet of Christ ; they say to Him : “ I do not want to have anything of myself; I want to have only what comes from Thee, to do only that which, from all eternity. Thou, as the Word, hast decided for me : to realise Thy own divine ideal concerning me. " They can then make their own the words which literally belong to St. Paul: Vivo autem, jam non ego ; vivit vero in me Christus 3. “ I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me ; ” but this will not be without having heroically taken the same means as he did. The Apostle did not arrive in one day at this consummate union, for his personality was of a rare power. A succession of immolations had made all that was contrary to the Christ-life die within him, and leave the initiative of all his movements to the Spirit.

This is perfection at its height. On the day of our profes¬ sion we renounced the principal motives which bring all natural human activity into play : money, love, indepen¬ dence ; we are in the best conditions for the divine life to be able to take full possession of us. Let us then try to despoil ourselves as completely as possible, not only of created things but even, in the domain of our activity, of our perso¬ nality ; let us try to act in such a way that, through prayer and through our eyes being ever fixed upon our Model, all our motives may be supernatural, so that the Father’s Name may be sanctified. His Kingdom come and His Will be done : — then our whole life will be truly deified.

Then, too, our whole life, returning to God, will become like an unceasing hymn of praise, extremely pleasing to our Heavenly Father. Enlightened, inspired, united, through His Word and His Spirit, Spiritu Dei aguntur 4, we shall be able to say : “ The Lord ruleth me ” : Dominus regit me.¹⁵

And at once we shall add with the Psalmist : “ And I shall want nothing”: Et nihil tnihi deerit. For the Father, beholding in us only what comes from Himself, from the grace of His Son and the inspiration of His Spirit, beholding us, according to His desire, united in all things to His Son, embraces us with the same love of complacency that He bears to His own Son and pours out upon us the inexhaustible riches of His Kingdom. Our work has been to lay aside self that we may be led to God by Christ. Christ Jesus then carries us with Him to His Father, in sinu Patris 2 ; for it is essential to the Son “ to belong to His Father ; " and, all that belongs to the Son belongs to the Father : Mea omnia tua sunt.

But likewise all the benedictions poured out upon the Son become our lot and our inheritance : Tu es qui restitues hereditatem meam mihi a. God abandons to the nothingness of their pretended riches those who, believing themselves to possess something, confide in themselves ; but His infinite mercy fills the needy, who hope only in Him, with gifts from on high : Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes 3. i. Ps. xxii, i. — 3. Roman Pontifical, Ordo ad clericum faciendum. — 3. Luc. 1, 53-

Footnotes

1. 1, Matth. XIX, 27 — 2. Marc, x, 29-30. — 3. Matth. v, 3. — 4. Life by Herself, ch. XI, translated from the Spanish by David Lewis. ↩

2. 1. Rule, ch. xxxm. — 2. Ibid. — 3. Ibid. — 4. Ibid. — 5. Ibid. ch. liv. The eulogy is properly speaking the morsel of blessed bread distributed to the faithful during the solemn Mass ; it symbolised the union that should exist among Christians. By extension, this term has been applied to fruit, holy pictures, medals, relics. — 6. Ibid. — 7. Ibid.
   ↩
3. 1. Rule, ch. xxxm. — 2. Ibid. ch. xxxii. — 3. Ibid. ch. xxxi. — 4. Ibid, ch. xxxm. — 5. Ibid, ch. xxxiv.
   ↩
4. 1. Cf. Vu de la Bienheureuse Marguerite-Marie, by Hamon, ch. VII. Journal des retraitesdu R. P. de la Colombiere. Edition Descl6e, 1896, p. 164, 169.
   ↩
5. 1. Qui minus indiget, agat Deo gratias, et non contristetur ; qui vero plus indiget, humilietur pro infirmitale, non extollalur pro misericordia. — 2. Rule, eh. xxxiv. — 3. On this subject see the suggestive commentary made by D. G. Morin, in The Ideal of the Monastic Life. — 4. Cf. I Cor. xii, 4 sq. — 5. Eph. iv, 12. — 6. Rule, ch. lviu.
   ↩
6. 1. S. Greg. Dialog. I, II c. cxxvm, xxix. — 2. Cf. Ibid. c. xxix. — 3. Rule, ch. liii. — 4. Ibid. ch. iv. — 5. Ibid. ch. xxxi. — 6. I Cor. vii, 31. — 7. Luc. xvii, 21.
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7. 1. Rule, cb. t.vttt. — 7. P1?. xv, 5. — 3. Dinloi’. L. TT, r. xxxv. — 4. Matth. xin, 6, _ 5. si Francis oi Assisi. — 6. Ps. lxxh, 25 and 26. — 7. Philip. hi, 8.
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8. 1. Marc, x, 21. — 2. Ibid. — 3. Matth. vii, 9 and 11. — 4. Eph. 111, 15. — 5. Cf. Rom. v, 10. — 6. Ibid, viii, 32. — 7. Cf. Col. 11, 3. — 8. Cf. I, Cor. 1, 3°- — 9-1 Cor. 1, 7. — 10. Joan, iv, 10, — 11. Joan, iv, 10.
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9. 1. Gen. xv, i. — 2. Matth. v, 29-30. — 3. Philip. 11, 6. — 4. Ps. cxliv, 16.
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10. 1. Ps. cxliv, 16. — 2. Luc. II, y. — 3. Matth. xiii, 55. — 4. Luc. ix, 58, — 5. Joan, xix, 2 7. — 6. Matth. xxvii, 46.
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11. 1. II Cor. viii, 9. — 2. Luc. i, 53- — 3- Joan, viii, 25. — 4. Ibid, evil, 7. _ 5, Ch. v, vii, viii, xiv. — 6. Creed attributed to St. Athanasius,
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12. 1. Joan. VII, 16. — 2. Ibid, vm, 28, cf. xiv, 10. — ■ 3. vin, 50. — 4. Ibid xvii, 10. — 5. Cf. Col. 1, 13.
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13. 1. Book of Visions, ch. lv. — 2. Rule, ch. xxxm. — 3. Joan, vi, 58.
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14. 1. Gal. hi, 27.
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15. 1. I Cor. xv, 28. — 2. Matth. v, 3. — 3. Gal. n, 20. — 4. Rom. vm, 14.
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