Letter 11. To Madame De Chantal. on Intellectual Temptation and Liberty of Spirit

TEMPTATION AND LIBERTY OF SPIRIT.

You ask a remedy in the trouble arising from temptations of Satan concerning the Faith and the Church. Such temptations must be dealt with like those of the flesh, without discussion; rather imitating the children of Israel, who were forbidden to

• From other letters it appears that M. Brulart objected to his wife’s communicating frequently.

break the bones of the Paschal Lamb, which they were to bum whole. You should not answer, or seem even to hear what the enemy says. Let him hammer as he will at the door, do not you ever say so much as. Who is there? You reply that this is true, yet nevertheless he troubles you, and drowns the inner voices you fain would hear. Never mind, be patient. Prostrate yourself before God, and remain at His Feet He will see that you are His, and that you claim His Help, even when you cannot speak. But beware that you never open the door, either to peep out and see what it is, or to drive away the clamour. In time he will be weary of assaulting you, and will leave you in peace. You say that it is time, forsooth, he did! Be brave, it will come. So long as he does not effect an entrance, it matters not But, indeed, it is a good sign when the enemy storms so lustily at the door \ it proves that he is not attaining his end. If he had attained it he would not clamour any more, he would go in and be satisfied. Keep this in min d, so as to avoid scmples.

I will give you another remedy. Temptations concerning the Faith aim directly at the understanding, seeking to draw it -into discussion, and to make it question and speculate. Now while the enemy is striving to scale the fortress of your intellect, do you make a sortie through the gates of the will, and charge him roundly. In other words, when you are tempted to question, How can this be? and if so and so, How can this other be? instead of tampering with your foe by discussing the matter, cry out with heart and voice. Traitor! fallen angel! thou wouldst have* me to fall! As thou didst offer the fatal apple to Eve, so now thou biddest me taste thereof! Get behind me, Satan; it is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” I will neither dispute nor argue; Eve argued and was lost I believe in Jesus, I cling to His Church.

Do you understand me? I would have you entrench yourself in affections rather than reasons; in passions, rather than considerations. It is true that in such times of temptation the troubled spirit is very dry, but so much the better; its blows will be all the harder to the enemy, who will discover that he is forwarding your progress, and confirming your faith by his assaults. After all, these temptations are like any other trials, and must be borne patiently. Holy Writ says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life*”* I have rarely seen any one make much progress without having some such trial, and you must be patient. After the storm God will send a calm.....

In your general rule, if you omit anything I have ^Janies, L 12.

6o enjoined, do not be troubled by scruples. Here is {he chief rule of our obedience, written in capitals:

Let everything be done for love, nothing for fear.

Love obedience more than you fear disobedience.

I leave you the spirit of liberty; not such as hinders obedience — ^that is a carnal liberty — ^but such as hinders constraint and scruple, or over-eagerness. If you love obedience and submission, I would have you look upon any just or charitable call to give up your religious exercises as a sort of obedience, supplying the deficiency by love.

All good men are free from the' constraint of mortal sin, and do not cling to any such attachments. This liberty of spirit is necessary to salvation. But I speak of a different sort of liberty — ^that of beloved children. And that is a thorough detachment from all things, in order to follow God’s recognised Will Let me show you what I mean. We ask God above all things that His Name may be hallowed. His Kingdom come. His Will be done in earth as in Heaven. All this is the true spirit of liberty; for so long as God’s Name be hallowed, • His Majesty reigning in you, and His Will fulfilled, the spirit cares fbr, nought beside. The first sign that the heart has this liberty is, that it is not attached to comforts, but accepts affliction meekly. I do not say that you will np^t wish for comfort, tiut without clinging to it Secondly, ^uch

Google a free heart will not cleave to spiritual exercises so as to be disturbed if sickness or other causes hinder them. Here again you may rejoice in them, but without excessive attachment. Such a spirit can scarcely lose its cheerfulness, because no privation saddens him whose heart has no earthly attachments. I do not say that he will never lose it, but it will not be for long.

The results of this liberty are great suavity of spirit, great gentleness and indulgence towards whatever is not sin, or leading to sin, a temper easily moved to all that is good and lovjpg. For instance, if you interrupt the meditation of one who cleaves closely to his religious exercises, he will be vexed and worried; but one who has the spirit of true liberty will leave it with an unruffled countenance, and a. heart well disposed towards the disturber. To him it is equally acceptable whether he serve God in meditation, or in bearing with his neighbour; both are alike God’s Will, but at this moment the Matter is more necessary.

The occasions which call for this liberty are found in whatever happens contrary to our inclination; he who is detached from self is not impatient when such inclinations are crossed. There are two opposite dangers which beset this liberty; instability or dissipation, and constraint o^: servility. The first is an excessive freedom, which leads us to change our practices, or our condition, without reason? or assurance that such is God’s Will The merest trifle leads us to alter our religious exercises, our object, our rule; the smallest cause disturbs our habit, and in this way we become dissipated and distracted, like an unenclosed garden, whence every passer by can gather the fruit.

The second is a lack of freedom which causes anger or vexation when we cannot do what we had intended, though it may be that we can do something better. For instance; I intend to make my meditation every morning, but if I have an unstable spirit, I shall defer it for the most trifling cause — perhaps a dog has disturbed my night’s rest, or I want to write a letter which would do just as well later. On the other hand, if I have the spirit of constraint and servile bondage, I shall refuse to give up my meditation, although some sick person needs my attention, or some important business requires despatch; and so on. I will give you two or three examples of this free spirit, which will show better what I mean. But first I must give you two rules to prevent errors.

I. No one should leave his ordinary practice and exercises, unless he plainly sees it to be God’s Will. Now that Will is manifested in two ways — necessity and charity. I purpose to preach somewhere in my diocese this Lent; but if I fall ill, or break my leg, it is useless to regret it and trouble myself because I cannot preach, inasmuch as it is clearly God’s Will that I should serve Him in suffering and not in preaching. Or supposing that I am not ill, but that I am called to some other place, where if I do not go the people are in danger of becoming Huguenots, this again is so obviously God’s Will as to change my course.

II. When charity requires us to use freedom of spirit, it must be without scandal or injustice. For instance, I know that I could be more useful in some distant place away from my diocese, but I must not use my liberty in this case, for I should be unjust and cause scandal, inasmuch as I am bound to be here. In like manner, it is a false liberty when married women absent themselves from their husbands under the pretext of devotion or charity, for a true spirit of liberty never interferes with one’s vocation; on the contrary, it tends to make everybody happy in their own, because such is God’s Will

Now as an example of what I mean I would cite Cardinal Borromeo,* who is shortly to be canonized. He was one of the most precise, rigid, austere men possible; he lived on bread and water, and during twenty-four years of his Episcopate, he only twice entered his brother’s house when he was sick, and twice went into his own garden; and yet this severe ascetic used to mix with his neighbours the Swiss, and even join in their carousals, in order to win them to * Carlo Borromeo, Archbbhop of Milan.

the truth. Surely this was holy liberty in the most austere man of our times I A lax spirit would have done too much; a constrained spirit would have feared to sin mortally; a true spirit of liberty did it out of pure charity.

Bishop Spiridion of old, receiving a pilgrim one Lent, who was almost perishing with himger, had nothing to give him but some salt meat The pilgrim refused to eat it, whereupon, out of mere charity, Spiridion ate some of it himself in order to remove the pilgrim’s scruple.

Ignatius Loyola, when slightly ill, ate meat directly that his doctor ordered it: — ^a servile spirit would have contested the matter ever so long.

But I will set before you an instance before which all these grow pale 1 I have often thought what was the greatest mortification endured by all the saints I ever read of, and after long deliberation, I think it was that which S. John Baptist bore. He went into the desert when he was five years old, and when there he knew that our Saviour and his was bom within reach of a day’s journey or so. Doubtless he who leapt in his mother’s womb for joy and love of that Saviour’s expected Birth, must have longed to enter His Earthly Presence. Yet he remained twenty-five years in the desert without coming to see Our Lord, continuing his work of preaching, waiting till his Lord should come to hint; and even then, after baptising Christ, S. John did not follow Him, but remained at his appointed work. Surely this was a truly mortified spirit! To be so near the Saviour and not to see Him 1 to know Him close at hand, and not to rejoice in His Presence! What is that, but to have a spirit wholly detached from self, and even firom God, when He demands it for His better service? To leave God for God; not to love Him, in order to love Him better, and with greater purity. I am overwhelmed with the magnitude of such an example!

I had well nigh forgotten to say that God's Will is known, not only by necessity and charity, but also by obedience; so that he who receives a command firom a righrilil Superior ought to hold it as God's Will.

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