10. Of Two Ways That the Christ Taught

THE Christ, the Son of the living

God, taught us and practised in

His own life two ways which

Love's Gradatory lead to eternal Life, if we will but follow Him. The first is the way of the Commandments, the second that of the Counsels.

The Saviour said : " If thou wilt be perfect and become My disciple, leave all that is dear to you, father and mother, brother and sister, wife and children, houses and lands, and every thing in the world that may be an obstacle or drawback to intimacy with God; leave and despise all that, if thou wilt be like unto Me." " Behold, I send you as My Father hath sent Me; and I had nowhere to lay My head." Thus you may keep no attachment nor inordinate affection for the world, but leave all,

• St. Matt. xix. 29. 2 St. John xx. 23.

Love's Gradatory if you will grow in interior life. If you are capable of this, you can become a disciple of the Christ and poor in spirit, domin ating the entire world which you have overcome ; and although you have nothing of your own, you possess all things in God, Who gave you power to conquer. Moreover, the Christ said: " Leave all thou hast and follow Me," that is, to honour God and forgo all complacency in self. This is, in fact, what the Christ did, as He says : " I seek to honour My Father Who sent Me ; if I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing." In this manner man resembles the Son of God Who gave us the Wisdom of Humility. Again, the Christ said : " Whoso

Love's Gradatory will come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me." Of this He has given the example, renouncing Himself even to the delivering of His Body to death at the hands of His enemies,'and committing His Soul to the will of the Father ; and having given all that He was and of which He was cap able, He cried with a loud voice, " It is consummated," 2 bowed His head, and gave up the ghost And so should we do likewise.

Consequently, if we will, in our turn, be perfected in Charity and in the interior life, we must abandon ourselves entirely to the most dear Will of God, being disposed and ready to die for His honour, or for our neigh-

Love's Gradatory hour, if so we can assure to him Eternal Life. Then only is our Charity perfect toward God and our neighbour, and thereby we become like unto the Holy Spirit Who operates all works of love, perfecting them unto Life Eternal. The sincere practice, as before God, of these three kinds of renunciation constitute the Counsels of our Lord and a hidden way to go to God, found by but few, for exterior Poverty only, without interior and other virtues, is not sufficient to find it ; on the contrary, riches, wisely used and liberally distributed to the poor for the love of God, reach to this way, hidden to unwilling and insincere Poverty.

But the common road to go to

Love's Gradatory

God is by way of the Command ments. The Christ said truly : " If you will enter into life, keep the Commandments." x And again : " If you keep My Com mandments you abide in My love, as I also have kept My Father's Commandments and abide in His love." 2 For to love is the first and greatest of the Commandments, and none can love if they live not in the Christian Faith. To one who believes, all is possible ; but the unbeliever is a brand of hell-fire. To keep the Commandments, Faith is necessary, confidence in God, purification from sin according to Christian law and the Precepts of Holy Church, and also willing obedience to no

Love's Gradatory

God and superiors ; conforming to customs and practices generally in use in Holy Church ; each according to our power and with a wise discretion, after the ordinary conduct of Prudence and the customs of the country. Your life should be regulated by the knowledge of the Ten Commandments, the seven deadly sins feared and shunned, that God be not offended and eternal Punishment merited. Observe the Fasts of Holy Church ; be zealous and assiduous in good works as far as may be ; be faithful to God and self in all good, as behoves a good servitor toward his Master, waiting until He calls you to Him. Such is a life conformable to the Commandments of God, in

Love's Gradatory to which we are all bounden. Therefore the Angels of God, who belong to the lowest Choir, assist us every day of our life so as to be able at last to present us, pure and without stain of sin, before the Face of the Lord.

Next, there is the second stage, a more elevated way in the active life — innocent Patience. Innocence is born of Charity, and Patience is its sister. From these three virtues, with the Grace of God, spring all good works, because they refrain the evil tendencies of Nature, and all distinction among the virtues may be reduced to the unity of this innocent Patience ; for who so possesses that, lives in fear of the Lord and at peace with God,

Love's Gradatory is humble, gentle, obedient, kind, affable, courteous, simple, with out dissimulation, bearing all, easily influenced to good, being docile and willingly instructed by the Spirit, thus receiving continually from God the discipline of veritable Peace. When you possess the whole of these vir tues, you are at the second stage, and resemble the Archangels, who constitute the second Choir, commanding and presiding over all the Angels of inferior order in the first Hierarchy ; and in this way you surpass all those who live in the inferior stage of good works, where, however, they attain Salvation.

Lastly, there is a third stage, where all active life pleasing to God comes to full perfection.

Love's Gradatory

Consider: when a simple Christian observes the Law and the Commandments of God be cause He so orders and wills, and not by custom or constraint, he is just and pleasing to God in the inferior degree of the spiritual life. Then, when he rises to a higher stage and interiorly acquires numerous virtues, which ornament the Soul so as to make it like God, His Angels and Saints, and all the Just, by esteem for Virtue and hate of vice, and also in view of eternal Life and peace of Conscience, as for the joy and well-being he tastes in the sincerity of his life, then he is far more agreeable to God than the common run of those in the inferior Choir. But when, lifted

Love's Gradatory above all exterior good works and all interior virtues, he fixes his inner regard on God with great confidence and Christian Faith, loving and seeking Him above all things, attaching him self to Him above all else, then he reaches the third stage, where all active life is consummated. Truly the Soul there resembles the Angels of the third Choir in the inferior Hierarchy, who bear the name of Virtues, for the virtues are perfected when thus offered to God, loving and desiring Him beyond them all.

Such is the perfection of the active life, composed of three stages leading to Eternal Life, from higher to higher, as we profit by the grace bestowed and according to our merits, as

Love's Gradatory before God. If you have any experience of this inner life, strive to keep it and dwell in it ; self must be emptied out, and detachment from creatures ob tained; more than all must the Soul rest in God, seek and love Him, desiring His Glory far above all else. In this way the Soul remains established before the Face of God in Eternal Reverence.