THE CONTEMPT OF THE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS IS A SERIOUS SIN
The words with which our Lord exhorts us to tend to and aim at perfection are extremely forceful and urging. So we cannot conceal the obligation which we have to commit ourselves to this task: Be holy, says he, because I am holy (Lev. 11:44; 2 Pet. 1: 16). Who is holy, let him be made still more holy and he who is righteous let him be made still more righteous (Rev. 22:11). Be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5: 48). Thus St. Bernard wrote to the glorious St. Guerin, Abbot of Aux, whose life and miracles have spread the sweet fragrance [of holiness] in this diocese.[1] He wrote: The just man never says it is enough. He has always hunger and thirst for justice (Mt. 5:6).
It is certain, Theotimus, as regards temporal goods, nothing is sufficient for the person for whom what is sufficient is not enough. For what can be sufficient for a heart to which sufficiency is not sufficient? But in spiritual matters, one does not have enough if one thinks that it is enough to have what is sufficient for oneself. Such a sufficiency is not sufficient. It is because true sufficiency in divine things partly consists in the desire for abundance. God at the beginning of the creation ordered the land to germinate green plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind yielding their fruits, each according to its species bearing also its seed within it (Gen. 1:11). Do you not see from experience that plants and fruit trees have their full growth and maturity only when they bear their grains and seeds? Do not these serve as seeds for the production of plants and trees of a similar kind?
Our virtues never reach their perfection and sufficiency till they produce in us desires to make progress. These like spiritual seeds help to produce new grades of virtue. It seems to me the earth of our heart has the order to germinate the plants of virtues which produce holy works each one according to its kind. These are the seeds of desires and decisions always to multiply and advance in perfection. The virtue which does not produce the grain or seed of these desires has not reached sufficiency and maturity.
“O, then," says St. Bernard to the Lazy, “You do not want to make progress in perfection?"
“No."
“And you do not want to grow worse?"
“Of course Not!"
“And what then? You want to be neither better nor worse? Alas! Poor fellow, you wish to be what you cannot be. Nothing indeed is either permanent, stable or firm in this world (Eccl 2:11;3:1)." It is still said about humans in a special way that they never remain in one state (Job 14:2).[2] Hence one has to advance or one has to go back.
I do not say, any more than St. Bernard, that it is a sin not to practise the counsels. Certainly not, Theotimus, that is the specific difference between a commandment and a counsel. The commandment obliges us under pain of sin. The counsel invites us without pain of sin. All the same, I affirm that it is a great sin to hold in contempt the intention of aiming at Christian perfection. It is all the more so to despise the call by which our Lord invites us to it. It is an unbearable wickedness to despise the counsels and the means to practise them which our Lord shows us. It is a heresy to say that our Lord has not counselled us well. It is a blasphemy to tell God: Leave us alone! We do not desire to know your ways (Job 21:14). It is a terrible lack of respect towards him who invites us with so much love and sweetness to say: I do not wish to have a share in your benevolent love or to follow the counsels which you give me to make progress in perfection.
We may not follow the counsels. In doing so we do not sin because we have our affections elsewhere. For example, we may not sell what we have to give to the poor. It is because we do not have the courage to do such a great sacrifice. Or one may get married because that person loves a lady. Or one does not have enough strength to undertake the war which one has to wage against the flesh. In such cases one may get married. But a person declares that he is not willing to follow the counsels nor any one of them. Such an act cannot be done without contempt of God who gives the counsels. Not to follow the counsel of virginity in order to marry is not bad. But to marry in order to prefer marriage to chastity, as the heretics do, is a great contempt of the counsellor of the counsel. One is overcome by thirst or the fancy to drink. Then to drink some wine against the advice of the doctor is not really to despise him or his advice. But to say: I do not want at all to follow the opinion of the doctor, arises from the lack of esteem one has for him. As regards men, we may not often respect their opinion, but we do not despise those who gave it. For it is not to show disrespect that a man has made a mistake.
Now concerning God, to reject his counsel and despise it cannot but come from an opinion that he has not advised well. Such thoughts can come only from a blasphemous spirit. It is like thinking that God was not wise enough to know or good enough to give good counsel. It is the same as regards the counsels of the Church. The Church has the constant assistance of the Holy Spirit who teaches and leads into the whole truth (Jn 16: 13) so that it can never give bad advices.
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[1] This abbey, in the diocese of Geneva, was dedicated to our Lady of the Alps. It was founded in 1133. See Kerns, TLG, p.334.
[2] NRSV. comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last.