XVII. Good Zeal

Summary. — The life of prayer and of union with God is the source of zeal. — I. St. Benedict begins by condemning bad zeal. — II. Forms of good zeal which he wishes to see us practise towards our brethren in the cloister : respect. — III. Patience. — IV. Promptitude in rendering service. — V. Diversity of faults committed against charity. — VI. Good zeal ought to be extended to the whole Community. — VII. Divers forms of good zeal towards souls living in the world. — VIII. How all this holy fervour has its principle in the love of Christ Jesus: Christo omnino nihil praeponantl ne of the most precious results of the life of union with God is the keeping alive of the fire of love in the soul, not only the fire of divine love, but also fo charity towards our neighbour. By frequent contact with the furnace of substantial Love, the soul is set on fire for God’s interests and glory, and for the extension of Christ’s reign in hearts. The true inner life makes us give ourselves to souls as well as to God : it is the fount of zeal. When one truly loves God, one desires that He be loved, that His name be hallowed. His Kingdom come in souls and His will be done in us : Sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum, fiat voluntas tua stout in caelo et in terra 1 / The soul that truly loves God, deeply resents the injuries that are done to the object of its love ; “ a fainting takes hold of it because of the wicked that transgress the divine law Defectio tenuit me pro peccatoribus der eliquentibus legem tttam 2. It suffers at seeing the empire of the prince of darkness extended by sin ; for Satan “ as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour 3, ” and he has accomplices into whom he breathes an incessant ardour, a zeal of hatred against the members of Jesus Christ.

The soul that loves God sincerely is also devoured with zeal, but it is for the glory of the house of the Lord : Zelus domus tuae comedit me 4.

What in fact is zeal ? It is an ardour that burns and is communicated, that consumes and is spread abroad ; it is the flame of love — or of hatred — manifested by action.¹

The soul inflamed with holy zeal spends itself for the interests of God without counting the cost, it strives to. serve them with all its powers. And the more glowing this inward fire is, the more it radiates outwardly. This soul is animated with that fire which Christ Jesus came to cast upon earth, and so ardently desires to see kindled in us.

Every Christian who truly loves God and Christ, who wishes to respond to the desire of the Heart of the Divine Master, ought then to be inspired with this zeal. But this ardour ought above all to be enkindled in those whom Christ has rendered participants of His Priesthood. The priest is called, by his function and dignity, to work more than any other for the extension of the Kingdom of Jesus ; he can fully accomplish his mission only by unceasing mediation between souls and God.

Let us then see, in the cloister itself to begin with, what form the exercise of this zeal towards our brethren ought to take. Indeed, if we must be zealous for the salvation of our neighbour in general, there are, however, evident degrees in spiritual “ proximity. ” Our neighbour is first of all he with whom we live in community of vocation and life. To be enlightened in this matter, we have only to read over together the magnificent chapter wherein our Holy Father has condensed in truly lapidary formulas how “ good zeal ” is to be manifested. We will next consider the divers manifestations of this zeal outside the cloister ; — we will finish our comments by showing in what furnace the fire of the love of souls is nourished.

I

Our holy Father declares first of all that there is " an evil zeal that leads to hell 2. ” It is the zeal of the agents of Satan who are intent on snatching from Christ’s hands, by every means, the souls redeemed by His Precious Blood. This baneful ardour constitutes the most bitter form of evil zeal : the devil keeps it alive with his breath ; this is why the holy Patriarch says it ends in the eternal abyss.

Other forms of evil zeal, taking the appearance of good, are to be met with. There is, for example, the zeal of Pha¬ risees, strict observers of the outward law. This “ bitter ” zeal, as our holy Lawgiver styles it, has its source, not in the love of God and of our neighbour, but in pride. Those who are tainted with it are filled with inordinate esteem for their own perfections ; they do not conceive of any other ideal than their own ; all that does not accord with it is ne¬ cessarily blameworthy ; they want to bend everyone to their own way of seeing and doing ; hence arise dissensions. This zeal tends to hatred. See with what acrimony the Pharisees, moved by this zeal, pursue the Lord Jesus, putting insidious questions to Him, setting snares to entrap Him, seeking not to know the truth, but to find Christ in fault. See how they press Him, how they try to induce Him to condemn the woman taken in adultery : “ Now Moses in the law command¬ ed us to stone such a one. But what sayest Thou ? ” Tu ergo, quid diets? See too how they reproach Him for healing on the Sabbath day 2 ; how they complain of the disciples for rubbing the ears of corn in their hands on the day of rest 3 ; how they are scandalised at seeing the Divine Master sit down to table with sinners and publicans. These are so many manifestations of this “ bitter zeal ” into which hypocrisy so often enters.²

There is also excessive zeal, ever strained, ever restless, tormented, agitated ; nothing is ever perfect enough for souls possessed by this ardour. Our holy Father carefully fore¬ warns the Abbot against this unseasonable zeal. “ Let him not be turbulent and over anxious, not impatient and self-opinionated, not jealous and prone to suspicion, or else he will never be at rest” : Non sit turbulentus et anxius, non sit nimius et obstinatus, non zelotypus et nimis suspiciosus, quia nunquam requiescet 5. “ Even in his corrections, let him act with prudence and not commit any excess, for fear that in being too eager to scrape off the rust from the vessel and make it too clean, he break it... Let him never lose sight of his own frailty... 6 ” In a word he is “ not to let a false zeal of envy or bitterness be kindled in his soul ” : Ne forte invidiae aut zeli flamma urat animam . What he says of the Abbot, the holy Legislator repeats to the monks : they must “ not give way to animosity and envy ” : zelum i. Joan, vm, 5. " The Pharisees were urged not by the zeal of justice which fears the contagion of evil example, but by the impatience of a bitter zeal, or the ostentatious pride of an affected piety. ” “We exert a species of tyranny over our brethren, we are moved by a spirit of bitterness or a spirit of disdain against them, and become censors to such a degree that we forget we are brothers. Such was the vice of the Pharisees : it was not compassion for our common weakness that made them reprove the sins of men : they held themselves to be beyond compare ; and as if they alone had been impeccable, they always spoke disdainfully of publicans and sinners : they set themselves up as public censors, not to heal wounds and correct sin, but to exalt themselves above others, and arrogantly display their proud justice. “ Bossuet. Sermon on the Woman taken in adultery. — 2. Luc. vi, 7 ; Joan, v, 16 ; ix, 16. — 3; Matth. xii, 2. — 4. Ibid, ix, 11. — 5. Rule, ch. lxiv. — 6. Ibid. — 7- Ibid. ch. lxv. non habere ; invidiam non exercere. This is a wise precept. Religious are to be met with who frequently criticise what is done ; they believe themselves to be full of zeal, and it is true : zeal animates them, but it is a contentious zeal, a . zeal of bitterness 2. And why is this zeal “ bitter ” ? Be¬ cause it is impatient, indiscreet, and wanting in sweetness.

It is of this zeal that our Lord speaks in the parable of the sower, when the servants ask the master of the field if they may go to pull up the cockle sown by the enemy, not thinking how they run the risk of also rooting up the good grain. “ Wilt thou not that we go ? " Vis imus 3? It is this zeal that carried away the disciples with indignation and made them want to call down fire from heaven upon the city of Samaria in punishment for not having received their Divine Master. “ Lord, wilt Thou ? " A word would suffice : Domine, vis dicimus ui ignis descendat? But what does Christ Jesus reply to this headstrong ardour ? “You know not of what spirit you are ” : Nescitis cujus spiritus estis. “ The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save 4. ”

II

Good zeal knows not this excess ; it is not eager to impose its personal conceptions of perfection upon others, nor is it full of the sense of duty accomplished, nor of inconsiderate, violent impulses, but of the love of God, pure, humble, full of sweetness. Let us see how the holy Patriarch would have us manifest it.

As for the forms of the good zeal of the monk towards his brethren, St. Benedict reduces them to three : respect, patience, and promptitude in rendering service.

Our Lawgiver requires first of all respect : “ Let monks prevent one another with marks of honour. ” These words are borrowed from St. Paul : Honor e invicem praevenientes 7. There are some who think that respect acts as a constraint i. Rule, ch. iv. — 2. “ The important point is to know what we have in our hearts. Perhaps we should have to answer : “I love myself much ; scarcely anyone else counts. I possess a very keen self-assertiveness ; I belong heart and soul to my own views — that is to my delusions. And since I am not alone in the world and there is a multitude of other selves around me who limit me and try to check me, my zeal easily becomes impatience, anger, contentiousness and rebellion : Zelus amaritudinis malus. " Abbot Delatte. Commentary upon the Rule of Sl Benedict, translated by Dom Justin Me Cann, p. 487. — 3. Matth. xm, 28. — 4. Luc. ix, 54-56. — 5. We have had already to touch rapidly upon these three points so' as to give a general view of the cenobitical society ; we must now return to them here more in detail on account of the importance given to them by the Gospel and the Rule. — 6. Rule, ch. lxxii. — 7. Rom. xn, xo. to love, while in fact these two sentiments can be perfectly allied to one another : respect safeguards love. We are souls consecrated to God ; that is the first source of our mutual love. “ I pray for them, ” said Jesus in speaking to His Father of His Apostles, “ because they are Thine ” : Quia tui sunt. Christ loved His disciples because, while being near to Him, they were still nearer to His Father. We are all “ one 2 ” in Christ’s Mystical Body ; we have all been called by Him to the same monastic vocation ; therefore we ought to love one another. But, as this Christian and religious vocation gives us first of all to God, to Jesus Christ, as our souls are the temple of the Holy Spirit, We ought to respect what is divine in our neighbour ; our love, however fervent it be, should never degenerate into familiarity ; far from drawing closer the bonds of affection, this wrong kind of familiarity ends by breaking them ; far from keeping charity alive it ends by exstinguishing it. Our love should be supernatural ; that is what Our Blessed Father indicates by these words : " Let all exercise fraternal charity with chaste love Caritatem fraternitatis caste impendant amore 3. He does not wish the brethren to call each other by their simple names, but he requires that the name be prefixed by a term expressing respect 4 ; he wishes that the young should show to their elders a respect that has in it something of veneration : he carefully determines the forms 5. In all these precepts, we see manifested that spirit of religion that the holy Patriarch brings to bear in all the articles of his Rule.

Never let us permit a creature, however holy in appearance, to turn us away in the slightest degree from the object of our love. All sensible or too natural affection ought to be pitilessly rejected. Our heart is insatiable for love, but once it is consecrated to the Divine Spouse it is no longer per¬ missible to go begging from the creature for the wherewithal to satisfy it.

You may say : Must not we then love one another, not even in the bosom of the monastic family ? Are we to be for each other like abstractions ? Certainly we must love one another, really, intensely, but in God, and for God. Our love for others must be supernatural, and this character, which keeps our affection in all purity, also gives it invincible strength. We see that Christ Jesus, our Divine Model, had very real affections. With a truly human Heart, He loved His Mother, St. John, His friends at Bethania, Lazarus,

1. Joan, xvii, 9. — 2. Ibid. 21 ; cf. I Cor. x, 17. — 3. Rule, ch. lxxii. — 4. Ibid. ch. lxiii. — 5. Ibid.

Christ, the Ideal 01 the Hook.

Martha and Mary, and His disciples. At the tomb of Lazarus, He did not fear to let His tears flow, so that the Jews, who witnessed this touching spectacle, could not refrain from exclaiming : “ Behold, how He loved him ! ” Ecce quomodo amabat eum.

Our affections ought to be the reflection of His ; He Him¬ self said : “ Love one another, as I have loved you ” : Sicut dilexi vos 2. His affections were divinely human : divine in their source and mainspring, human in their expression.

You know too with what tenderness St. Paul addresses his dear disciples of Philippi ; he calls them his “ joy and his crown 3 ; " he declares that he has them all in his heart ; he takes God to witness that he loves them all tenderly. And whence does the great Apostle find the secret of this love ? In the Heart of Christ : in visceribus Jesu Christi 4.

It is especially when a soul has arrived at a high degree of veritable detachment, where God is really its all, that it can love with a holy liberty, because its affections, being rooted in God, serve to increase its charity. The history of St. Teresa shows us this. At the beginning of her spiritual life. Our Lord reproaches her for loving creatures too naturally , when, later, Teresa is entirely dead to all created things, the Divine Master restores to her all her affections, but supernaturalised. We are astonished to see the exquisite tender¬ ness with which her letters overflow, but we feel truly, by a thousand details and expressions, that it has its source in God 5. In the same way, in no correspondence does affection overflow as it does in that of St. Anselm with his friends; we have no longer any conception in our days of such out¬ pourings, such depth and fervour of affection ; but his great heart was all for Jesus, and it was in his love for the Word Incarnate that he found this wealth of affection.

Our love for our brethren must then be true, sincere, fervent, but it must come from on high, depend upon God, and be subordinate to Him.

The second form of “ good zeal ” is patience with one another . Let the brethren most patiently bear with one another s infirmities whether physical or moral ” : Infirmitates suas sive corporum sive morum patientissime tolerent 6. Not one of us is exempt from infirmities and defects ;

, A1’ w' ~12' lbid‘ XI11’ 34> ~ 3- PhiliP- IV. I. — 4- Ibid, i, 7-8. —

5- U Life by Herself, ch. xxiv a xxvii ; letters 180, 227 4 312 ; History of S ferrsa, according to the Bollandists. Vol. I. — 6. Rule, ch. lxxii. even souls who sincerely seek God, who are very near to Him, who are the object of His particular favours, keep their limitations and imperfections. God leaves them these miseries, says St. Gregory, in order that these souls may always be kept humble : Etiam quibus magna dona tribuit, parva quaedam reprehensibilia relinquit, ut semper habeant quod mentem non erigant L To be astonished at the presence of these frailties betrays a lack of experience ; we show that we are still imperfect if we are troubled by them ; it belongs only to saints to understand all miseries and to compassionate them. Our defects may also be accentuated by the lack of education, by bad habits, or aggravated by the painful train of infirmities that age brings with it ;they may be born of natural antipathy ; the very presence of a person may be sometimes sufficient to cause annoyance, or even aversion.

Now, what will throw a veil over all this ? What will prevent coldness from gaining the heart, and repugnance from manifesting itself outwardly ? The warmth of charity. Indeed charity alone will bring about this marvel of causing us to overcome nature and to love all our brethren as we find them.

Is it not thus that God treats us ? Unquestionably He loves each one of us in an individual manner ; He loves us, taking us as we are, with that something which makes each one himself and not another ; with all the gifts of nature and grace that lie Himself has placed within us ; with all that human weakness admits of limitations and defects. And of what pitying patience has He not given us the proof while wc were for Him as enemies, “ children of wrath 2 ” ? If He had then treated us with all rigorous justice, where should we be now ? And how many times has not God forgiven us ? With what truly Divine magnanimity has He not often waited for us like the Father of the Prodigal, enlighten¬ ing us in our darkness, bearing with our resistances, and opening out His arms to us as soon as we return to Him ?

We shall find in our holy Father St. Benedict an admirable example of this condescension and patience. His great soul, arrived at perfect holiness and so near to God, overflowed with indulgence and compassion. Is not the Good Shepherd the ideal especially cherished by him and presented as model to the Abbot 3 ? Like the Good Shepherd, like the Patriarch Jacob whose conduct St. Benedict brings forward, he must not cause his flock to be overdriven but have consideration for those among his sheep whose progress is more painful. The Abbot has not always to do with heroic souls. While striving to remain himself at a high level, he must know how to stoop towards souls who mount slowly, sustaining them by his example as well as by his encouragement and charity.³

And what astonishing indulgence the holy Patriarch manifests in regard to delinquents ! He is not scandalised, he is not angry ; like a kind physician he does all he can to save them, and to console the wavering and troubled culprit “ lest he be overwhelmed with excess of grief 2.

It is not until he has duly proved that his efforts and prayers are unavailing and that the offending brother’s wnl is obstinately anchored in evil that St. Benedict cuts him off from the monastic flock. Up to this point he bears with everything ; he even wishes that the door of the monastery shall be re-opened to fugitives as many as three times from the moment they show sincere repentance 4. See too with what thoughtful tenderness, what almost maternal solicitude, he concerns himself with the weakness of children, the infirmities of the aged 5, with what ingenious love he wishes the sick to be borne with and nursed. It truly seems that no other religious rule demands such perfect patience from those who follow it.

“ Have we ever read elsewhere anything to compare with this for generous compassion ? We might search all tradi¬ tions from the end of the sixth century to this time, when ecclesiastical discipline appears most to take human weakness into account, without finding anything to surpass, or even to equal, the merciful large-mindedness shown by St. Bene¬ dict. Only perhaps to some exceptionally great soul, an Augustine or a Gregory, has it been given to share this immense treasure of condescending charity. If it be true that the Benedictine Rule is a compendium — “a mysterious abridgment ” of the whole Gospel — and that the Gospel itself may be reduced to the one word “ charity, ” it may be said that the Rule has found means (at least, in most cases) to epitomise still further; it is all compassion. ”

The Rule is here truly the pure reflexion of the Gospel. It is remarkable that wherever St. Benedict speaks of this x. Rule, cb. lxiv ; of. Gen. xxx, 13. — 2. Ibid, ch. xxvii. — 3. Ibid, ch.xxvm — 4. Ibid. ch. xxix. — 5. Ibid. ch. xxvii. — 6. Ibid. ch. xxxvi. — 7. D. G. Morin. The Ideal of the Monastic Life found in the Apostolic Age, ch. x. Discretion and Breadth of View, translated from the French by C. Gunning, p. 165. charity towards our brethren, he recalls Christ to our minds l. Our Blessed Saviour Jesus is in truth the most perfect Example of this wonderful patience. He wishes us especially to learn that He is “ meek of heart 2. ’’ The Evangelist applies to Him that beautiful text of Isaias — a text that the holy Legislator repeats in order to apply it in his turn to the Abbot — “ The bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench. ”

Far from extinguishing the smoking flax, He awaits the hour of grace, the hour when it will burst forth in a magni¬ ficent flame of pure love. Thus it was with Magdalen and the Samaritan woman and so many others. What indulgent loving kindness He manifested to misery under every form, including that of sin which is most hideous in His Divine sight 4 ! And what unwearied patience He shows with His disciples ! He sees and hears them dispute among themselves, and express their ambitions ; He sees the weakness of their faith ; He witnesses their impatience : one day, they want to send little children away from Jesus 5 ; more than once, even after His Resurrection, He has to rebuke them for their hardness of heart, their slowness to believe in Him 6, despite so many miracles wrought under their eyes. He is the Model of admirable patience even so far as to endure naving near Him the one He knows is to betray Him.

Whence comes the indulgence of Christ ? From His love. He loves His disciples, because He sees in them the nucleus of that Church for which He gives His life, Dilexit Ecclesiam et seipsum tradicLit pro ea 7 ; and, because He loves them He bears with them with infinite sweetness.

Such is our Model. Let us keep our eyes ever fixed upon Him, and we shall learn, by His example, to be meek and humble of heart. ” Far from being scandalised at our neighbour’s faults, we shall see in each of our brethren all that God has put in him that is good and noble, and we shall bear willingly, with inexhaustible patience, patientissime, all the imperfections of character, all the physical infirmities that may be found in him. We shall know how to remain in the company of our brethren, at recreation for example, even if this exercise of the common life is burdensome to us ; not only shall we never seize a vain pretext for dispensing

I. Rule, ch. XXVIII, xxxvi, liii. — 2. Matth. xi, 20. — 3- Ibid, xn, 20 ; Isa. xlii, 3 ; Rule, ch. lxiv. — 4. For the further development of this idea, we refer the’reader to the conference, Some Aspects of the Public Life of Jesus, in our work : Christ in His Mysteries . — 5. Matth. xix, 13* h. Marc*

14 ; Luc. xxiv, 24. — 7- Epb. v, 25. ourselves from it, but we shall bring to it a spirit of cordiality: this is one of the precious occasions when fraternal charity may be manifested in its every form. Neither shall we look with a severe eye on the exceptions granted to our brethren ; when one’s own health does not need any special exceptions, one is easily inclined to see in the dispensations granted to others concerning rest, food or work, concessions granted to their self-indulgence, and one is tempted to criticise the conduct of the Superiors.

I would say to you with St. Paul: "Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God ” as those who tend towards charity and are dear to the Lord — “ the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience : bearing with one another. ” And how right St. Paul is ! He who is humble does not consider himself as the only one who is perfect, he is not exacting towards others, he does not lay stress on the weaknesses of his neighbour in order to criticise them with malignity and hardness ; he has not that " bitter zeal " which, arising in the soul from the sense of one’s own perfec¬ tion, so easily becomes imperious and intransigeant. As patience is the daughter of humility, so pride often gives birth to impatience.

" I therefore beseech you, ” St. Paul says again, " that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, with all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ”

The reason the great Apostle gives for these earnest exhor¬ tations is that we are all one in Christ, that we are all members one of another in the Mystical Body of Jesus : we ought therefore to bear with one another, thus imitating our Head, the Lord Jesus, Who gave His life for each one of us ; so that by this charity which makes us to be of one mind, we may, with one mouth, glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus bearing with one another, we shall fulfil, in its pleni¬ tude, all the law of Christ : Alter alterius onera fortate, et sic adimplebitis legem, Christi 5.

This humble and patient charity, which is "the bond of perfection, ’ is at the same time the source, for us, of God’s gifts : it brings us in abundance that most excellent gift of our common vocation " the peace of Christ ” : Caritatem habete, quod est vinculum perfectionis, et pax Christi exsultet in cor dibus vestris, in qua et vocati estis in uno corpore.⁴

IV

To respect and patience, St. Benedict adds promptitude in rendering mutual service ; he would have emulation in this matter: Obedientiam sibi certatim impendant 2. 'This is the faithful echo of St. Paul’s counsel : “ By charity of the spirit serve one another ” : Per caritatem Spiritus servite invicem 3. And again : “ Let every one of you please his neigh¬ bour unto good, to edification, " Unusquisque vestrum proximo sua placeat in bonum 4.

Naturally, this is not a question of orders properly so called, nor demands which might be against the commands of the Superiors, but of small services of which each may have need. In such a matter, we must be very generous. God looks with pleasure upon a soul that forgets itself to think of its neighbour : this is what St. Benedict wishes. “ Let no one follow what seemeth good for himself, but what seemeth good for another”: Nullus quod sibi utile judicat sequatur, sed quod magis alio. It is the precept of the Apostle to the Philippians : “ Each one not considering the things that are his own, but those that are other men’s ”: Non quae suae singuli considerantes sed ea quae aliorum 6. To think more of our neighbour, of his interests, his satisfaction and his joy, than of ourselves is the unequivocal sign of true charity : for to act in this way, not once, not ten times, but always, under every circumstance, towards all our bre¬ thren without distinction, one must love God truly ; a like love of the neighbour requires too much abnegation to be sustained for long for his own sake : it can only be so if it is born of God. Therefore charity towards the neighbour is given by Jesus in person as the special sign of God’s pre¬ sence in the soul. This is what St. Gregory wrote to St. Au¬ gustine of Canterbury whom he had sent to preach Christ to the pagans of Great Britain. Augustine had addressed to the holy pontiff an account of the marvels God wrought by his hands for the conversion of these pagans : “ Think

1. Col. hi, 41-15. — 2. Rule, ch. lxxii. — 3. Gal. v, 13. — 4. Rom. xv, 2. — 5. Rule, ch. lxxii. S* Anselm wrote the same to his disciples : “ Let the love that you have for one another cause you to live in peace and concord ; and in order to cherish this love let each study to do the will of others rather than his own ” : Ad invicem pacem et concordiam per mutuum dilccttor.em habete, quum dilectionem sic nutrire et servare poteritis si unusquisque non ut alius suam, sed ut ipse alterius voluntalem faciat studuerit. Epistol. 49, L.III, P. L. 159, col. So-81. — 6. Philip. 11, 4.

4oS that the gift of miracles is not given thee for thyself, ” the great Pope replied to him, “ but for those whose salvation is entrusted to thee. There are miracles wrought by the repro¬ bate, and we know not if we are of the number of the elect. God has given us only one sign whereby to recognise His elect : it is that we love one another. ”

What indeed is charity ? It is the love of God enfolding in a single embrace God and all that is united to Him : the Humanity of Christ, and, in Christ, all the members of His Mystical Body. Christ is afflicted in the afflicted. He suffers in those who suffer, He is sad in those overwhelmed with sadness. Are not these the words of Infallible Truth : “ As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me 2 ” ? In becoming incarnate. Our Lord took upon Himself all our infirmities : V ere languores nostros ipse tulit 3. In ministering to these infirmities, it is Himself to Whom we minister.

The lives of the Saints are full of traits verifying this teaching. St. Gregory the Great recounts to us the history of the monk Martyrius who met upon his way a leper weighed down with misery and exhaustion. Martyrius wrapped the sick man in his cloak and carried him upon his shoulders as far as the monastery. But, behold, the leper appeared as Christ Himself Who, before disappearing from the monk’s gaze blessed him in saying : “ Martyrius, thou hast not been ashamed of Me upon earth, and I will not be ashamed of thee in Heaven 5. ”

So St. Gertrude, that worthy daughter of St. Benedict, showed inexhaustible charity throughout her life. It is related 6 that during the last days of Holy Week, her soul remained so united to Christ, Whose sorrowful mysteries were then being renewed, that it became almost impossible for her to tear away her thoughts from Jesus and apply i Epistol. xxviii, lib. XI, P. L. 77, 1140-1141. — 2. Mattb. xxv, 40. — h LI.n’ 4: ~ 4‘ „ ,You ca°not render Me any service, " God said to ~ Catherine ot Siena, but you can come to the help of vour neighbour and if you seek the glory ana salvation of souls, it is the proof that I dwell in your heart by grace. The soul enamoured of My truth, allows itself no rest while ever seeking to succour others. It is impossible for you to render personally the love I exact, but I have given you your neighbour that you may be enabled to do for him what you could not do for Me : to love A™ disinterestedly, without looking for any gratitude or anv advantage trom him I then consider as done to Myself what you do for your neigh- 1 Dml°Sue’ ch- yn. lx iv lxxxix. Our Lord several times used the fnd pS^ge/Tn speakmg to S* Mech tilde ; cf. The Book of Special Grace, * P T1’ S' rL and 4 Part’ cb- 49- — 5- Horn, in Evangel, jib. II homil. j.oo. See an analogous trait in the life of S‘ Wandrille. (D. Besse, S. Wandrille, pp. 38-40). — 6. The Herald of Divine Love, b. IV, ch. 25. her senses to exterior things. However, if it concerned acts of charity, she recovered her liberty and performed them without any hesitation ; an evident proof, adds the Saint’s biographer, that the Guest to Whom Gertrude inward¬ ly clung in the ecstatic repose of those days was He of Whom St. John wrote : “ God is charity : and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him L ”

These examples of charity show us how important it is to give ourselves to our brethren, in the measure that is permitted by obedience to the Rule and the orders of the Superiors. God loves one who is happy to give himself. Such a disposition is the contrary of official charity, which is so often but the simulation of love that an English proverb says : “ Cold as charity. ” Our charity ought to be warm, ready to adapt itself generously, lovingly and always, to all our brothers’ needs. Let us behold Christ Himself in the brother who comes to knock at our door and we shall then serve him with delight. If we think it is Our Lord Who comes to ask this service of us, shall we say : “ Yes, Lord, but wait till I’ve finished what I am doing ” ? Quite the contrary ! Applying to this fraternal obedience what our holy Lawgiver says of obedience to the Abbot, we shall immediately ieave our own occupations in order to serve Christ with joy: Relinquentes statim quae sua sunt, mox ex occupatis manibus ... If we have these views of faith, our love will always be zealous, disinterested, and we shall not complain if we have often to give ourselves to others.

Christ Jesus will not leave our generosity unrewarded. Was it not He Himself, the source of all grace as of all truth, Who said : “ Give, and it shall be given to you ” : Date, et dabitur vobis? He who gives to his neighbour receives in his turn from God. There are souls who do not advance in the love of God, because God acts sparingly towards them ; and God shows Himself sparing because they are selfish and will not give themselves to Christ in His members. It is not always on account of the lack of afflictive morti¬ fication that inward progress is retarded in so many souls ; this cause must often be sought for in the selfishness that makes them indifferent to the needs of their brethren, in the stiffness that they show towards them : “ With the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again ” : eadem quippe mensura, qua mensi fueritis, demetietur vobis 4. j. I Joan. 16, 16. — 2. Rule, ch. v. —⁵

Herein lies the secret of the spiritual sterility of more than one soul ; God leaves in their isolation those who sur¬ round themselves with precautions to safeguard their selfish tranquillity: by shutting themselves up from their neighbour these souls close themselves to God.

And as God is the Fount of every grace, as without Him we can do nothing for eternal beatitude, what can a soul hope for that thus voluntarily closes the avenues of grace ? God lets Himself be touched by our miseries, but on condition that we are ourselves sensible to the miseries and needs of our brethren.

Let us then give, as Christ ; this is His own precept : Sicut dilexi vos L Our Divine Saviour has no need of us ; and yet He has given Himself, Heart, Blood, Life ; He still delivers Himself up daily in the Eucharist. Every day, Christ Jesus gives Himself to all those who wish to receive Him, whatever be the state of their soul : “ Both the wicked andthe good” receive Him: Sumunt bom, sumunt mali 2. Let us too give without reservation, let us listen to our Lord Who tells us : “ I Who am God, have loved this neighbour, I have given Myself for him, I call him to the same eternal beatitude as yourself ; why do you not love him, if not in the same measure that I have loved him, at least as ardently as you can for My sake, and in Me ? ” That is our ideal, and it is by ever striving to reach this ideal that, according to the precept of St. Benedict, we shall fully pay off the debt of fraternal charity : Caritatem fraternitatis impendant amore 3.

V

As to faults against charity, they are of two kinds.

The first are faults of weakness, whereby the will is taken by surprise : movements of temper or impatience, unkind words, heat in discussion. It is such as these that the great Patriarch so well names “ thorns of scandal ” : Scandalorum spinae. These slight frictions “ are wont to arise, ” he adds : Quae oriri solent 4, above all in a rather numerous Community. Such faults are not grave, because they generally arise with¬ out premeditated intention.

On these occasions, when we are the object of them, we ought not to be touchy, and think that a crime of lese-majest has been committed against us. If we take these little failings in a high and mighty way, if we turn over in our mind the offence that has been done to us, we shall always live in trouble ; even to think of it once is once too often. Our holy Legislator wishes, like St. Paul, that we should very readily forgive one another these small offences ; he wishes the Abbot, the Father of the monastic family, to sing the Pater Noster from beginning to end in the choir, twice a day during the Divine Office, in order that in asking God to forgive us our faults, we may thereby be ready like¬ wise to forgive our brethren 2. Our holy Father St. Benedict also wishes that in case we are at variance with anyone we should be reconciled before the setting of the sun : Cum discordante ante solis occasum in pacem redire.⁶

Other faults which in the long run can become grave, because they are deliberate, are those of wilful coldness towards anyone, the cherishing of resentment, prolonged indifference, and other forms of evil which St. Benedict names in order to combat them, in his list of the instruments of good works : “Not to give way to anger ; not to harbour a desire of revenge ; not to foster guile in one’s heart ; not to give insincere tokens of friendship. ” Such faults are too contrary to the spirit of Jesus for it to be necessary to insist more upon this.

Only let us give a forcible reminder that such failings in charity paralyse the soul and hinder spiritual progress. And what is the reason of the greatness of the wrong thus done to oneself ? It is that Christ Himself is the object of this coldness, this resentment. If you wound me in one of my members, the eye or the hand, it is myself you wound. Now, says St. Paul, “ you are the body of Christ, and mem¬ bers of member ” : Vos estis corpus Christi, et membra de membro 4.

This language is that of faith. Do we live by this faith ? Do we always reflect that all we think, all we say, all we do against our neighbour, we do and say against Christ Himself ? If our faith is weak, we do not live by these truths ; we easily offend our neighbour and, in him, Christ in person.

When a person thus fails in charity, and receives Christ in Holy Communion, he cannot say to Him : “ My Jesus, I love Thee with all my heart. ” It would be a lie, since he does not envelop Christ and His members with a self-same love. He has not accepted the mystery of the Incarnation in its totality ; he stops at Christ’s individual Manhood, and forgets the spiritual prolongation of the Incarnation which is the Mystical Body of Jesus. So, then, when we communicate, we ought ever to be ready to embrace, in one and the same charity, Christ and all that is united to Him ; for the measure of the giving of Christ to our souls is that of our own donation to our brethren. The Eucharist is a Sacrament of union with Christ, and of union between souls L⁷

Thus a soul who draws near to our Lord, in Communion, in these dispositions of unreserved love towards the neighbour is very pleasing to the Sacred Heart. Christ showers magni¬ ficent gifts upon it ; moreover, faults and shortcomings in respect to the other virtues are at once forgiven, because of this fervent love it bears towards the members of Jesus. This is what Christ Himself made St. Gertrude see one day during Mass. She suddenly beheld her soul adorned with precious stones of marvellous brilliance : it was the reward for an act of charity towards an infirm nun. But this adorn¬ ment revived St. Gertrude’s sense of her own unworthiness ; she remembered several slight faults which she had not been able to reveal to her confessor, then absent from the mo¬ nastery ; and she was troubled at not being able to accuse herself of them before Communion. Then Jesus said to her : “ Why lament these shortcomings since thou art so gloriously apparelled in this mantle of charity which covers a multitude of sins ? ” The Saint replied : “ How can I be consoled in that charity dissimulates my faults, when I still see myself all sullied with them ? ” “ Charity, ” replied the Saviour,

“ not only covers sin, but like to a burning sun, it consumes and effaces all venial sins ; moreover, it fills the soul with merits 2. ”

When, on Maundy Thursday, the Abbot has communicated all the members of the monastic famity, the Angels who i. Symbolum unius illius corporis, cujus ipse CChris(us) caput existit, cuique nos, tamquam membra, ardissima fidei, spei et caritatis connexione adstridos esse volj.it, ut tdipsum omnes diceremus nec essent in nobis schismata. Cone, Tnd. Sess. xm, c. 2. — 2. L. c. b. Ill, ch. 61. Our Lord said likewise to S‘ Mechtilde, the companion of S‘ Gertrude : “ If anyone wishes to make Me an acceptable offering, let him be careful never to forsake his neighbour in need or distress ; let him ever be ready to extenuate and excuse his brother’s failings and sins as much as he can. I promise to be attentive to all the necessities of the one who so does, and to cover his sins and negligences in excusing him to My Father... This practice is so pleasing to Me as to pay every debt that he may have contracted towards bis neighbour. " The Book of Special Grace, 4th Part, ch. 7. behold us see that we are all one in Christ, each one being united to Christ Jesus, and Christ being one, we are then truly one in Him. We thus fulfil the dearest desire of the Word Incarnate.

Indeed, at the supreme farewell hour, when Christ Jesus spoke for the last time with His Apostles before entering into His sorrowful Passion and sacrificing Himself for the world’s salvation, what is the exclusive theme of His discourse and the first object of His prayer ? Spiritual charity. “A new commandment I give unto you... by this shall all men know that you are My disciples... Father... that they may be one, as We also are one, I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one 1. ” That is the testa¬ ment of Christ’s Heart.

Our Blessed Father St. Benedict, in concluding his Rule, also leaves us as his last testament, his magnificent teaching on good zeal. After having set forth in detail the ordering of our life, he sums up all his doctrine in this short chapter. And what does he tell us ? Does he speak to us of prayer ? of contemplation ? of mortification ? Undoubtedly, the holy Patriarch forgets nothing of all this, as we have seen ; but having reached the end of his long life so full of experience, at the moment of closing the monastic code which con¬ tains for us the secret of perfection, he speaks to us, before all else, of mutual love ; he wishes, with that intense desire which was that of Jesus at the Last Supper, to see us excel in most fervent love : Ferventissimo amore exerceant 2. This chapter is the worthy crowning of a Rule which is but the pure reflection of the Gospel.

VI

The exercise of good zeal ought not to be limited distributively to the person of each of our brothers in particular ; the character of the cenobitical society requires that it be extended likewise to the Community whereof we are members, taken as a whole. V/e ought to love this community to which the vow of stability binds us for ever. To love is to wish well 3 ; we should then desire, and, in the measure of our power, procure the spiritual welfare, and,according to the views of Providence, the material well-being of this community.

In this domain, we may have duties to fulfil in the capacity

1. Joan, xm, 34-35 ; xvii, 22-33. — ch. lxxii. — 3- St. Thom.

Sum. Theol. 1, q. xx, a. 2. of “ officials. ” As soon as obedience entrusts us with a function to fulfil in the monastery, we are responsible, before God and before the Abbot, as to the manner in which we acquit ourselves of it. Good zeal here consists in acquitting ourselves of this function according to the instructions given by the head of the monastery, and with the utmost perfection possible. In this matter, the field of zeal may be boundless ; the acts of self-abnegation, patience and de¬ votion are numberless. Let us devote ourselves to the accomplishment of this charge even if it absorbs our time and makes painful demands on us. We must not fall into a false mysticism which would make us substitute prayer for the accomplishment of our duties. “ Believe me, ” writes St. Teresa on this subject, “ it is not length of time that enables a soul to make progress in prayer; if it is given up to active works also, [by charity and obedience] that is a great help whereby the soul in a very short time may attain to a greater enkindling of its love than it could attain to by many hours spent in meditation All has to come from His hand L ” Do not let us think we only approach God when we pray ; we are near to Him and find Him when we do the work obedience has laid upon us so that we may come to the help of our brethren.

Even when obedience does not lay any charge upon us, there still remain to us many opportunities of exerting good zeal towards the Community to which we belong. What form ought this zeal to take ?

We ought to love our monastery with an ardent indefect¬ ible love, never allowing ourselves, especially when with outsiders, to throw the least shadow upon it by mentioning the imperfections which human weakness ever bears in its train ; such indiscretion and evil speaking moreover shock the ears upon which they fall, as we are all hurt by hearing anyone speak unkindly or to the disadvantage of our own family.

We ought especially, within the monastery, to labour with all our might, each for his own part, to render the monastic Community less unworthy of God’s loving kindness, more skilled in serving Christ’s interests in the Church ; — we ought to avoid all that, even remotely, can diminish the fervour of the Community, impair its spiritual health, lessen its supernatural radiation : in a word, we must be entirely⁸

4T5 faithful to observe all the details of the code which rules the cenobitical life. Experience shows that the least breach in this matter can bring disaster. Nothing is more lament¬ able than the decadence of great monasteries, founded by saints, inhabited by souls dear to God, souls who throughout the centuries have embalmed wdth the fragrance of their virtues the cloisters where they lived. How are such down¬ falls brought about ? Is it at one blow that institutions at first so vigorous have fallen away ? More than once, undoubtedly, exterior circumstances, ravaging wars, decima¬ ting plagues, revolutions by which the very walls were destroyed, have hastened these downfalls ; but more than once also, ruin has come from within, and was prepared long in advance. The decadence began with slight failings ; these failings became habits, they took root and were pro¬ pagated ; soon the dikes thrown up by monastic discipline were destroyed, relaxation entered in, and, with it, the prin¬ ciple of destruction.

Let us be strict on these points, let us beware of infringing the least of our observances, however insignificant they may appear. Let us jealously and lovingly safeguard the tradi¬ tions, the customs, which form the very physiognomy of the monastery. This is the best form of zeal that we can exert in our community ; it is also the principle of our perfection.

In fact the more we endeavour to practise our rule and our observances, the more we shall enter into the spirit of our holy Patriarch, and realise the destiny God has for us. This is because a very real relation exists between our spiri¬ tual vocation to the Order of which we are members, and our sanctification. It is evident that the Divine call out¬ wardly manifests God’s special design and that to each soul He distributes His lights and gifts according to the measure in which that soul responds to its own particular vocation.

We should often ask our holy Patriarch to make us live according to his spirit ; God was pleased to pour signal graces upon him ; but he received them as head and lawgiver in order to make them overflow upon all those who, living under his Rule, seek to be imbued with his spirit. As in the Old Testament, the blessing of the Patriarchs was a pledge of the protection of Jehovah for their descendants, so the blessing of the founders of different Orders is the source of favours from on high for those of their disciples who walk in their footsteps. The wide mantle of the Patriarch of monks preserves and safeguards those who take refuge under its folds, while awaiting that they in their turn and in his train may ascend by that magnificent luminous way by which his great soul went, up into heaven.

VII

Of its nature, zeal is ardent, it tends to diffuse itself. From the cloister, monastic zeal has naturally spread itself abroad in manifold manifestations which we cannot pass over in silence : they form part of our history and constitute an intangible and inalienable part of our purest traditions.

We have seen that the time at the monk’s disposal, apart from the hours of the Divine Office, is consecrated by St. Be¬ nedict to manual labour or to the lectio divina.

Among manual labours was included, as the Rule itself insinuates 2, the transcribing of manuscripts ; to copy a manuscript was as meritorious as to sow a field or exercise a craft.

Little by little, by a quite natural evolution, which has its principle in the monastic code, and has been accentuated since the elevation of monks to the priestly dignity, brain work has taken the place of the labour of the hands, and the abbeys have thus become important centres of intellectual life and Christian civilisation. How many names it would be necessary to cite among so many monks who have placed their knowledge at the service of truth, either to defend it against its adversaries, or to elucidate it, or to guide souls in the path of the inner life from St. Gregory the Great and i. S. Greg. Dialog, lib. II, c. 37. — 2. Ch. xxxttt. — 3. The monks were moreover applied to this work with a wonderful broadmindedness, transcribing with the same fervour, upheld by obedience, not only Holy Scripture and the works of the Fathers, but also the writings of profane antiquity : in their libraries the manuscripts that contain the works of Cicero and Livy are side by side with those where are to be read S' Paul’s Epistles, the treatises of S' Augustine and the homilies of S' Gregory. Read on this subject the discourse delivered in September 1910 on the occasion of the io"» centenary of Cluny by an eminent member of the Institute, M. E. Babelon. “ There is one side of the activity of the monk which ought to be sufficient to assure to them, as long as the human race lasts, the gratitude of every man who thinks and reflects. I his is that they have passed down from century to century, and bequeathed to us, the inestimable treasure of ancient literature. The monks of the Middle Ages are the bond of intellectual union between antiquity and the modern spirit. They prevented, in the normal evolution of the human mind, a complete rupture, a solution of continuity suddenly taking place which would have swamped civilisation and thrown it back for an incalculable number of centuries... Deprived of the literary treasure of the Greeks and Romans, the principal foundation of our modern culture would have been wanting to us : who would dare to estimate the consequences in which a like catastrophe would have involved the human race ? " the Venerable Bede, Alcuin, Rabanus, St. Anselm and St. Ber¬ nard, down to the Ven. Blosius, Dom Mabillon and Bom Martene, Dom Gueranger, Dom Maurus Wolter, .Bishop Ullathorne and Bishop Hedley. Doctors full of wisdom, theologians or consummate scholars, ascetics full of doctrine, they have rendered inestimable service to the City of God. The scientific study of Holy Scripture, of the Fathers of the Church, of the Liturgy and ecclesiastical and monastic history : all these forms of zeal and activity are justified by the most ancient and constant tradition, the interpreter of the Rule; they have found and still find in the cloister fervent representatives who have had and still have it at heart to put their talents and the fruit of their labours at the service of the Church and of souls.

The education of youth likewise takes an important place in the series of the works of monastic zeal. One of the great¬ est monks of the last century, Dom Maurus Wolter, called attention to this work which he declared to be especially confided to monks and is, moreover, several times indicated in the Rule itself. He calls it, in all truth, " an ancient and traditional mission.” Not indeed that it is a question here of vast over-peopled colleges of which the care would absorb all the vital strength of the abbey ; but of schools where the limited number of students is favourable to edu¬ cation, at the same time that it permits those devoting themselves to this work to safeguard habitually the regular life of Benedictine cenobitism.

Another form of apostolic zeal dear to sons of St. Benedict is the exercise of hospitality. One of the most beautiful chapters of the Rule is devoted to this subject. It is here that St. Benedict reveals the greatness of his soul ; he rises above any narrow point of view to embrace all mankind in the charity of Christ Jesus. One of the greatest reproaches that the Word Incarnate made to the Pharisees was for preferring their human traditions to the most explicit precepts of the Divine law, above all, the precept of charity. Religious

1. We know that four conditions are requisite in order to be inscribed in the catalogue of “ Doctors " of the Church : purity of orthodoxy, eminence of doctrine, holiness, and, what consecrates all, the express declaration of the Church. The number of “ Doctors " for the entire Church is at present twenty three, among which the Order of S‘ Benedict numbers S‘ Gregory the Great, the Venerable Bede, S‘ Peter Damian, Sl Anselm and S‘ Bernard. — 2. Cf. D. Mabillon, Traits des Etudes monastiques, and the beautiful book of D. Besse : Le Moine benedict in. — 3. La Vie monastique, ses elements essentiels, ch. vi. Cf. D. Berliere. L’Ordre monastique des origines au XIIe siecle.

Christ, the Ideal of the Monk. are to be found who, by a small and superficial way of understanding the exigencies of the cloister, would exclude their brethren in the world from the monastery. But do they not thereby shut out Christ Himself from the sphere of their charity ?

Did not Christ Jesus say : " As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me 1 ” ? This is the supernatural principle held by our holy Father St. Be¬ nedict, always so penetrated with the pure spirit of the Gospel. For if he desires that his sons shall not seek contact with the world, he well knows that in order to be a monk, one does not cease to be a Christian, and that the basis of the true Christian spirit is not only the love of God but also love of our neighbour. Thus he wishes that far from closing the door to the poor, to pilgrims and guests, all those who come shall be received as if they were Christ in person, for He will say to us one day : I was a stranger, and ye took Me in ” : Omnes supervenientes tamquam . Christus suscipiantur , quia ipse dicturus est: Hospes fui et suscepistis me 3. The great Patriarch secondly ordains that guests shall be treated with all respect and charity. He even goes so far as to enjoin on the Superior to break his fast out of consideration for the guest who arrives — unless it be a fast day of the Church.

True sons of St. Benedict in nowise fear to imitate their Father s example and to let Christ enter their monastery in the person of guests. St. Teresa pleasantly jests at those who during prayer dare not stir nor make the least movement for fear of interrupting the union of their soul with God 4. All proportion guarded, it may be said that he who, under pretext of preserving tranquillity, wished to exclude guests from the cloister, would understand nothing about charity and his pietist recollection would be very fragile and propped up on a very artificial basis.

Experience proves that where monastic hospitality has

, V XXV’ 4 d — 2" We know to° how s‘ Paul insists upon the duty of hospitality : see Rom. xn, 13 ; Tit. 1, 8 ; I Tim. v, 10. Hebr. xm, 1-2 —

Tte'fnLrinr ~ th' ^eT Lxfe V*%tten ^ herself, ch. xv ; see above all Smnbrook 'Sn Mansion, ch. hi, translated by the Benedictines of btanbrook. When. I see people very anxious to know what sort of prayer they practise covering their faces and afraid to move or think, lest they should lose any slight tenderness and devotion they feel, I know how little thev thteersStaasndtbhr °N?ttair7mi°n With God’ since they think it consists in such things as these. No, sisters, no ; our Lord expects works from us ! If you see a sick sister whom you can relieve, never fear losing your devotion

Sarnate herF }f she is in Pain- feel for it as if wfreyour own and* when there is need, fast so that she mav eat, not so much for her sake as

SVciS"* ““ “ <* *»• “ «“ trueunioo“feo“ been exercised in a spirit of true Christian charity, surrounded moreover with the safeguards St. Benedict himself prescribed, the monks, far from suffering from these visits of Christ, have received abundant blessings from them because they have known the Divine Guest in fractione panis.

This love of the neighbour, the fruit of true love of God, has necessarily led monks to occupy themselves directly with the care of souls. This is one of the most fruitful aspects of monastic zeal.

The normal and habitual place of the monk is in his monastery. It is there that he was hidden with Christ on the day of that second baptism which is the religious profession ; it is there that he diligently works out his sancti¬ fication ; there is properly speaking the workshop where he is to spend his activity : Officina ubi haec omnia diligenter operemur claustra sunt monasterii 3. Thus St. Benedict desires that the monks shall be able to find in the enclosure all that is necessary to their existence and occupations 4.

However if we study the question in the light of the exam¬ ple that our holy Father St. Benedict himself gives us, we see that this “ cloistered ” or “ enclosed ” life is not to be understood in too absolute and too exclusive a sense. St. Be¬ nedict was the perfect imitator of Christ. Christ is before all things the Adorer of the Father, and this is why the great Patriarch wills that no work be preferred to the Opus Dei. But he does not forget that Christ is also the Saviour of men, that He consecrated to them three years of preaching, that He shed for them the last drop of His blood ; and there¬ fore St. Benedict also, so steeped in the true Christian spirit, wished to devote himself to the salvation of the neighbour. He tells us that the Abbot ought to instruct his community especially by his example, and that he ought not to do anything that he teaches his brethren to avoid in their own conduct : Omnia vero quae discipulis docuerit esse contraria in suis factis indicet non agenda 5. St. Gregory assures us that St. Benedict’s own life was the authentic commentary on his Rule 6, and he adds how “ The man of God by continual preaching, converted many of the people there¬ about ” : Vir Dei commorantem circumquaque multitudinem praedicatione continua ad fidem vocabat . And elsewhere the great Pope remarks that in a certain town not far from the monastery, no small number of people, by the exhortations of Benedict were converted to the faith of God. ” The Saint himself therefore evangelised the neighbouring populace. We read too that he sent certain of his monks “ often, ” crebro, to instruct some nuns who were at a distance from the monastery.⁹

What St. Benedict taught his monks by word and example, the best traditions of the Order have consecrated by the practice of centuries 3. Without touching the integrity of the community, nor the essential exigencies of stability, the monastic Order has exerted this fruitful apostolate which has converted so many nations to the light of the Gospel and extended the boundaries of Christ’s Kingdom. None can deny the title of true sons of St. Benedict to those great monks, full of the love of souls, such as were St. Gregory, St. Augustine of Canterbury and his companions, St. Boniface, St. Anscar, St. Willibrord, St. Adalbert and, nearer to our selves, Mgr. Marty, Bishop Polding and Archbishop Ullathorne, Bishop Salvado and so many others, “men powerful in word and deed, ” according to the expression of Dom Gueranger, “ illustrious Saints of the monastic order, great religious souls who were at the same time by their whole life the most vivid expression of the spirit which our great Patriarch has laid down in his holy Rule 4. ” The zealous life of these great monks constitutes one of the most beautiful pages of monastic holiness ; they are themselves the purest glory of a past singularly fruitful for the Church of Christ 5.

One of the most remarkable characteristics of the life of these great monks is their boundless devotion to the Apostolic and Roman Church. This union with the Apostolic See “ was, to our fathers, always an assured pledge of vitality and glory. Wherever the Benedictine monk turned his steps, he was considered as the born representative of Roman influence. Whether he is called Augustine in England, Willibrord in Frisia, Boniface in Germany, Adalbert in the Slav countries, it is always Rome who sends him, who blesses his beginning, seconds his efforts, hallows his success. Having i. Dialog, c. 19. 2. Ibid. — 3. Cf. L’Apostolat Monastique, in Berli^re, l. c. — 4. Notions sur la vie religieuse et monastique. — 5. See at the end of this conference a quotation from Dom Maurus Wolter and one from 1). Gueranger, too long to be inserted, here. — 6. Of these great monks may be said what G. Kurth wrote of S* Boniface : “ Perhaps no part of his correspondence places the greatness of his character in a more striking light than his letters to the Sovereign Pontiffs. It is known with what devo+ion faith, and tenderness, his heart turned towards Sl Peter’s See. He never loved anything here below so much as the Holy See, and all the glory that he coveted consisted m being the minister of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. " S Boniface p. 119. ' ' lent its concourse to the great liturgical work of Rome, and, side by side with the Roman faith, introduced civilisation to the farthest boundaries of Europe, the Monastic Order [whose power was then concentiated at Cluny] will be called to a still higher mission. Identified for the time being with the destinies of Rome, it will furnish, inspire, and support in every way those great Popes of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the heroic defenders of the sanctity and indepen¬ dence of the Church. ”

“ After this epoch it begins, from various causes to play a less important part. Nevertheless, it is an established and significant fact that the Popes have never ceased their efforts to protect and uphold it, and to attach it to themselves as the principal member to the head — velut principalia capiti suo membra 2 — to use the expression of Pope Gregory VII. ” Have we not ourselves had the happiness and conso¬ lation of witnessing the attachment of the last Pontiffs to our Order ? It is to the princely munificence of Leo XIII, of glorious memory, that we owe the erection in Rome of the international college of St. Anselm ; and without speaking of other facts, the Roman Church has asked the monks of the French Congregation to place at her disposal the results of the admirable work they have done for sacred music, that all Christian assemblies may benefit by it : she has con¬ fided to St. Benedict’s sons the arduous and delicate task of the critical revision of the biblical text of the Vulgate. These are undubitable marks of singular confidence. Let us see that we respond to it, “ ever remembering that the monk to be faithful to his mission, must show himself ‘ St. Peter's man, ' the servant and the devoted son of the holy and Apostolic Church of Rome 4. ”

And what was the source of this zeal ? Where did these holy monks find the secret of becoming, when God called them by obedience or circumstances, great apostles and wonderful men of action ? Whence did they obtain that irresistible ardour, that generous and indomitable strength which enabled them to accept every labour, confront every difficulty, endure every suffering for the extension of the

1 Cf Mgr. Baudrillart, Clunv et la PapauU. — 2. S. Gregor, p. vii, Epist. 69. P. L. 118, 420. — 3. D. Morin, The Ideal of the Monastic Life found in the Apostolic Age , translated from the French by C. Gunnmg, p. 74. — 4- D. Morin l. c. p. 75. Let us say by way of completing these statements, that, given' the extreme variety of Benedictine works, not only docs the Abbot proportion and distribute tasks to each monk, but each monastery has in some way its own part in this vast inheritance ; and furthermore, we have seen and still see Benedictine' Congregations, according to the period and the country, specialise, here in the direction of colleges and of the sacred mmistery, there in matters of Liturgy and sacred learning, etc.

Kingdom of Jesus Christ ? The love of God and of Christ was the inward furnace where the living flame of zeal was enkindled.

It was the great monk, and at the same time great apostle, St. Bernard, who wrote these lines : “ It is the characteristic of true and pure contemplation that it not only inflames the soul with the fire of divine charity, but it also occasionally fills her with such zeal and desire to gain others to God who shall love Him as she loves Him herself, that she gladly interrupts her contemplative repose and devotes herself to the labour of preaching. Afterwards, having satisfied this longing at least to a certain extent, she returns to her solitude with all the more eagerness in proportion as she knows that her apostolic efforts have been fruitful. Then when she has recruited her strength once more with the sweet food of prayer, she again issues forth with renewed zeal and energy to resume her work for souls x. ”

This was also the opinion of St. Gregory : " If it is a good thing, ” he writes, “ to pass from the active to the contem¬ plative life, it is generally also useful for the soul to return again to the active life : the ardour obtained in contemplation allows the works of the active life to be all the better accomplished... 2 ”

St. Teresa does not speak otherwise : “ Oh, the charity, ” she writes, “ of those who truly love our Lord and who under¬ stand their own state ! How scanty the rest they will be able to take if they but see they can in any degree help a single soul to advance, and to love God more, or be able to comfort it in any way or rescue it from any danger ! How ill at ease such souls will be when they are at rest ! And when they cannot help them in act they have recourse to prayer, beseeching our Lord on behalf of the many souls whom it grieves them to see going to ruin ; they abandon their own comfort, and look on it as well lost, for they think not of their own rest, but only how they may more and more do the will of our Lord 3. ” i. In cantica ,Sermo lvii, translated by a Priest of Mount Melleray. And again : Zelum tuum xnfiammet caritas (In cantica Serrao xx, 4. Ibid. col. 868) * Est emm tantum lu cere vanum , tantum ardere parum , ardere et lucere per tectum (Sermon on the Nativity of S' John the Baptist). — 2. In Ezech. lib. II, Homil. n, n ir Cf. also Ibid. lib. I Homil. v, n° 12. — 3. The Foundations, ch. \ ^f?ns^atec^ from the Spanish by David Lewis. All this remarkable chapter should be read. The Saint seeks to discover "whence comes that inward dissatisfaction which we generally feel when we have not passed the greater part of the day alone and absorbed in God. " This dissatisfaction proceeds, according to the Saint, from two causes: " One, and this is the chief, is self-love which thrusts itself in here in a most subtle way, and accordingly escapes detection; that is, we would please ourselves rather than God...

For us, who must do all things in obedience, the outward exercise of this zeal has its limits fixed by the kind of activity assigned to the monastery by traditions, circumstances, and above all by the orders of the Abbot. But each one of us, in the sphere given to him, ought to become Jesus' apostle. Although we ought deeply to love and eagerly to seek soli¬ tude, recollection, the hidden life, we must, when obedience imposes charges upon us or active offices to fulfil in the monastery or outside, give ourselves wholly up to them. It is not to leave Christ when we give ourselves to His members by obedience. Quite the contrary ! All that we do for the love of our brethren — of His brethren — touches Christ Himself. This is what He Who is the infallible Truth and unique Fount of our perfection has told us in His own words.

VIII

Does not St. Benedict himself give us to understand this capital truth that good zeal springs from the love of God and of Christ ? Indicating the different forms which good zeal ought to take in regard to our brethren, the great Patriarch adds, in the same page of the Rule, three precepts concerning the exercise of this zeal. He repeats to us once more, as if he wished to sum up his thought before leaving us, “ to tear God, to love the Abbot with a humble and sincere affection, finally, never to prefer anything to Christ. " A passion for the rights of God, the Sovereign Master; obedience to His representative ; the love of Christ : have we not here the most life-giving and purest springs for the nourishing of zeal ?

We need not come back to the two first points ; we have seen, in other conferences, what an important place they occupy in the monk’s life. Let us insist only, like our Blessed Father himself, upon the last phrase of this chapter “ of Good Zeal, " with which the great Patriarch has chosen to close the holy Rule : “ Let monks prefer nothing whatever to Christ " : Christo omnino nihil praeponant. It will be good for our soul to stay a few seconds to consider this absolute love which we ought to bear to the Person of Christ Jesus.

The second source of this dissatisfaction, in my opinion, is that the soul seems to live in greater purity when left in solitude, because there are fewer opportunities therein of offending God. " The Saint admirably shows how this second cause itself, is not always sufficient and how one may have illusions on this point. — The Eternal Father likewise showed to S* Catherine of Siena how, in this matter, spiritual self-love may be a deception for the soul. Dialogue, ch. xxxix.

Our heart, as you know, is made to love ; it is a necessity of our life ; hence we shall love either the Creator or the creature. Did not our Lord say that a man cannot serve two masters ? And this love will be so much the more ardent as our capacity for affection is the more profound. Now our Blessed Father St. Benedict tells us that Christ is to hold the first place in our heart : Christo omnino nihil praeponant. Notice how absolute are these two terms : Omnino nihil. And why is St. Benedict so forcible in expressing this precept ? It is because we are consecrated to Christ ; on the day of our profession, we lost the right of giving our soul to creatures. There is — always supposing the essential order of finality secure — a division that God allows io persons in the world ; He does not ask of them that entire, complete, dominating love ; but as for us, we have promised to love God solely, to seek Him always, and Him alone, and to love creatures only in Him. We have said to Him : “ My God, I know that Thou art so great, so powerful, so good, that Thou alone canst content all the aspirations of my soul and the needs that lie the deepest in my heart, therefore I want only Thee, I want to live only for Thee. "

God is pleased with such an act of faith ; we made it gladly on the day of our monastic profession. We should remain always at the height of this faith. Now this is very difficult for the human heart. In His immaterial nature, God is so far above us that, to keep ourselves in the love that seeks Him uniquely, we need an objective, concrete, tangible support. God knows this need, and He satisfies it through the Incarnation. The Incarnate Word is God made visible and living in our midst, and the love we manifest to Jesus Christ reaches God Himself.

So we should have the most absolute, burning and constant love for Christ Jesus.

How is this love to be expressed ? We must first strive to know the Saviour, to render ourselves familiar with His Person, His works, His mysteries. All that touches Him ought to interest us, not to increase a coldly intellectual knowledge, but to become a source of prayer. The more we know Him in this way, the more we shall be attached to Him.

There is one affection which we ought chiefly to have in presence of the person and mysteries of Jesus ; it is that of admiration. Indeed it is an excellent way of honouring these mj^steries “ to remain before God in great admiration and great silence, at the sight of His loving kindness and wonders... In this kind of prayer, it is not a question of producing many thoughts, nor of making great efforts : we are in God’s presence : we are filled with wonderment at the graces He gives us : with David we repeat a hundred times without ever speaking a word: Quid est homo?... What is man that Thou deignest to be mindful of him ?... One is lost in astonishment and gratitude without thinking of wishing to frame, either within or without, the least word, as long as this blessed and most simple state lasts... This admiration is an act of love. The first effect of love is to make us admire what we love, to make us always regard it with complacency, to bring it before our eyes, not to lose sight of it. This way of honouring God is marked in the saints of early times... It is David’s way when he says : Quam admirabile! quid homo! Quam magna multitudo dulcedinis tuae, Domine ! How wonderful is Thy Name ! What is man ! How great is the multitude of Thy sweetnesses ! It is the canticle of all the Saints in the Apocalypse... We are silent then, not knowing how to express our tenderness, reverence and joy, nor in fine what we feel of God. And there is “ silence in Heaven, as it were for half an hour ” : a wonderful silence, which cannot last long in this turbulent and tumultuous life \ ”

This way of loving and honouring Him in His mysteries is acceptable to our Lord. Did He not Himself give us the example when He exulted with holy enthusiasm at the sight of His Father’s adorable perfections and His wonderful ways with souls ? Exsultavit Spiritu Sancto 2.

This admiration and this attachment find their practical expression in frequently seeking Christ’s company. When the heart is overflowing with love for anyone, the mind is always occupied with the same object. And we shall find our Lord wherever we will, in the oratory, in the tabernacle, in our cell, in the sanctuary of our soul. We shall find Him as He was seen by His contemporaries :the Shepherds and Magi at the Crib, the multitudes upon the roads, Martha and Magdalen at Bethania, the disciples in the Supper-room ; the same Christ Who spoke with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, and said to her : “ If thou didst know the gift of God ” ; the same Who healed the lepers, Who calmed the angry waves ] the same Christ Jesus, Son of the bather, our Saviour, become our Redeemer, our Wisdom, our Holi¬ ness. We shall find Him in the plenitude of His Almighty power, in the virtue of His Divine mysteries, in the infinite superabundance of His merits and satisfactions, in His love's ineffable mercy. And this contact established between us and Himself by faith will bring to our souls help, light, strength, peace and joy : “ Come to Me, and I will refresh you “ : Venite ad Me et ego reficiam vos. He is, in truth, a faithful, compassionate, magnificent Friend ; He receives us that He may bring us to His Father and make us partakers, in the holy and beatifying splendours, in the eternal glory of the Only- begotten Son, the object of infinite delight.¹⁰

Finally, the most indubitable token of our love will be that in all things we seek to do His will and that of His Fa¬ ther : “ Whosoever shall do the will of My Father, ” said Jesus Himself, “ he is My brother, and sister, and mother. ” And elsewhere : “ If you love Me, keep My commandments " : Si dili gifts me, mandata mea servate. When we love anyone are we not ingenious in giving him pleasure ?

There cannot be a more sure means of pleasing Jesus, of manifesting to Him that absolute love which He alone merits, than in ever seeking “ with most fervent love ” to do the will of His Father Who is also ours ; in keeping united to Him, the Father’s Beloved Son ; and in striving to reproduce in ourselves the dispositions of reverence and love for His Father, of charity for our brethren, of humility and obedience, which animated His blessed soul here below.

The exercise of this most fervent love : ferventissimo amore, will provide us with the secret of being among these souls of ardent zeal, such as our holy Patriarch requires us to be. It is in giving ourselves up fervently throughout our life to this exercise that we shall find the assurance of seeing fulfilled the wish expressed by St. Benedict at the end of the chapter upon good zeal : May Christ, the supreme object of our love, “ bring us all alike to life everlasting ” : Christo omnino nihil praeponant, qui nos pariter ad vitam aeternam perducat.¹¹

NOTE (See above p. 420).

The founder of the Congregation of Beuron, Dom Maurus Wolter, a learned and pious monk, whose monastic spirit was imbibed at the purest sources, thus summed up his teaching, on the subject of the monastic apostolate : “ The monk being by excellence God’s son, His liege-man and His vassal... as soon as the king or His Church calls a monk or an army of monks, they intrepidly come forward, and whatever be the fierceness of the combat, their invincible courage carries off the victory... Ready for every work of zeal, monks show in action a sovereign scorn for every human consideration and place so much magnanimity, firmness and valour at the service of the Church that to see them combat, we at once recognise in them, in all its fulness, the very strength of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what has brought forth from the cloister that wonderful phalanx of apostles, confessors, doctors and martyrs, whose labours have so powerfully contributed to found, preserve, and multiply the great Christian family. Enkindled with this zeal, innumerable legions of monks have not hesitated to give themselves entirely to this task, to sacrifice to it their very life, and consummate it by the shedding of their blood. The Gospel in one hand, the Rule in the other, they penetrated into the most distant regions and by the new peoples they have constantly added to the Christian family, they founded, extended and strengthened the Kingdom of the Cross throughout almost all the universe... ’’ 1

Dom Maurus Wolter had been in the school of D. Gueranger who helped him in the establishment of the Constitutions of the Beuron Congregation. The illustrious restorer of the order of S* Benedict in France wrote in his N otions sur la vie religieuse et monastique (Solesmes, 1885), destined for the formation of novices : “ Although one of the essentials of monastic life is separation from the world, we must, nevertheless, beware of the idea that the monk may possibly arrive at the perfection proper to his state without including zeal for his neighbour in his intentions and mode of life... Monastic life tends to draw man nearer to God by submission and love. So the monk, entering into the spirit of his vocation, should be carried away by a holy zeal for the welfare of his neighbour, the great and eternal occupation of God, for which end He delivered up even His only-begotten Son.

“ Let no one imagine that monastic life consists exclusively in working out our own perfection, regardless of the sanctification of our neighbour... Nothing can be more contrary to charity, which is the distinguishing mark of every true disciple of Christ, than a petty occupation with self, which would conceal from the eyes of the monk the needs of those who will always remain his brethren... . ,

“ Husband the time before your holy profession and prepare yourselves well for those works of zeal which may be entrusted to you by obedience, be they employments within the monastery, or works which have for their object the propagation of the truth in writings destined for the public, or the exercise of the sacred ministry, preaching the word of God and administering the Sacraments... ,

“ We will magnanimously recommend to God the works of zeal performed in our Order. Let us often entreat Him to accept our endeavours, whether they regard our own deeds or those of the public, or serve directly the sublime object of the salvation of souls. Ask Him frequently that for His divine glory and service our Order may be filled with men powerful in word and deed, men after the pattern of the many illustrious Saints of the monastic life, who became all things to all men and knew so well how to serve the Church and the souls ransomed by Jesus Christ. The whole life of these great religious souls was, at the same time, the most vivid expression of the spirit which our great Patriarch has laid down in his holy Rule. ” 3 x. La Vie monastique, ses principes essentiels, pp. 131, 132 sq. — 2. Translated from the French by Rev. Jerome Veth, O. S. B., under the title of Religious ana Monastic Lilt Explained.

XVIII. — THE PEACE OF CHRIST. Pax Christi exsultet in cor dibus vestris.

Footnotes

1. 1. Matth. VI, 9-IO. — 2. Ps. cxvm, 53- —3-1 Petr, v, 8. —4. Ps. lxviii, jo ; Joan, 11, 17.
   ↩
2. 1. Cf. Luc. xii, 49. — 2. Rule, ch. ixxii.
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3. x. Dialog, lib. Ill, c. 14, P. L. col. 249. — 2. Eph. 11, 3. — 3. Rme, cn. II, XXVII. ↩

4. 1. Col in, 12-13. — 2. This is what the Eternal Father several times re¬ peated to S Catherine of Siena. See Dialogue , Passim and especially where it treats of Obedience. — 3. Eph. iv, 2-3 ; Cf. 32 a I Thess. v, 14 : Patientes estate ad omnes. — 4. Cf. Rom. xv, 1-7. — 5. Gal. vi, 2.
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5. 3. Luc. vi, 33. — 4. Luc. vi, 38.
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6. 1. Joan, xm, 34. — 2. Sequence Lauda Sion. — 3. Ruie, ch. lxxii. — 4. Ibid. ch. xm.
   ↩
7. 1. Donantes vobismetipsis, si quis adversus aliquem habet quaere-lam sicut et Dominus donavit vobis, ita et vos. Col. ill, 13 ; cf. Eph. iv, 32. — 2. Rule, ch. xm. — 3. Ibid. ch. iv. — 4.. I Cor. xii. 27.
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8. 1. The Book of the Foundations, cli. v. Translated from the Spanish by David Lewis.
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9. 1. Luc. xxiv, 3s. — 2. Cl. Col. hi, 35. — 3. Rule, ch. iv. 4. Ibid, ch.i.xvi. Cf. above p. 72 sq — 5. Rule, ch. 11. — 6. Dialog, lib. II, c. 36 : V ir sanctus nullo modo potuit aliter docere quatn vixit. — 7- Ibid. c. 8.
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10. x. Bossuet, Elevations sur les My stores, XVIII0 semaine, IIe Elevation. — 2. Luc. x, 2i. — 3- Joan, iv, 10. ↩

11. 1. Matth. xi, 28. — 2. Ibid, xii, 50. — 3. Joan, xiv, 15.
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