CONTINUATION OF THE TEACHING ON HOW EACH ONE SHOULD LOVE THOUGH NOT PRACTISE ALL THE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS. ALL THE SAME EACH ONE SHOULD PRACTISE WHAT ONE IS ABLE
All the counsels can neither be nor should be practised by each individual Christian. Yet each one is bound to love all of them because all of them are very good. You have a headache. The scent of the musk annoys you. If so, for that reason, would you fail to say that musk has a good and pleasant fragrance? If a garment of gold does not suit you, would you say that it is of no value. If a ring does not fit your finger, because of it would you throw the ring into the mud? Praise, therefore, Theotimus, and dearly love all the counsels which God has given to humans. May the Angel of good counsel[1] be blessed for ever! (Isa. 9:6). May all the advices and exhortations he has given to humans be praised for ever! The heart is made joyful by perfumes and good fragrances, says Solomon, the soul is sweetened by the good counsels of a friend (Prov 27:9).[2] About which friend and which counsels are we speaking now? O God, it is the Friend of friends and his counsels are more lovable than honey. The friend is the Saviour. His counsels are for salvation.
Let us rejoice, Theotimus, when we see others coming forward to follow the evangelical counsels which we cannot or should not keep. Let us pray for them, bless them, encourage them and help them. For charity binds us to love not only what is good for ourselves but also what is good for our neighbour.
We will sufficiently bear witness to the love of counsels if we devoutly follow what is suitable for us. It is exactly like one who believes in an article of faith because God has revealed it by his word and is taught and proclaimed by the Church. He will not disbelieve the other articles of faith. One keeps a commandment for genuine love of God. He is fully ready to keep all others when there is an opportunity for doing so. It is the same with the one who loves and esteems an evangelical counsel because God gave it. Hence he cannot but esteem all the others because they are also from God. We can easily practise several of them though not all of them together. For God gave several of them so that each one may keep some of them. There is no day in which we have no chance of practising them.
Does charity compel you to stay at home to care for your father and mother? If so, keep up your love and affection for being away from the world. Do not keep your heart attached to home except for doing there what charity enjoins. Is it difficult for you to keep perfect chastity because of your state of life? Then keep at least what you can without offending charity. He who is unable to do everything, let him do what he can. You have no obligation to seek out the one who offended you. It is for him to become aware of the offence he has committed, come to you and offer reparation. For he was the one who offended and insulted you. Nevertheless, go, Theotimus, do what the Saviour counsels you. Be the first to do good to him. Render him good for evil (Mt 5. Lk 6). Thus heap over his head and heart burning coals of fire (Rom 12:20) as an expression of your charity. Such charity will inflame his whole heart and force him to love you.
You are not bound by strict law to give alms to all the poor people you meet with. You have to help only those who are in very great need. All the same, do not cease to give alms willingly to all those whom you find in need following the counsel of the Lord. (Mt 5:42, Lk 6:30). Help them in so far as your situation and the real necessities of your affairs shall permit you. You are not bound to make any vows. However, make some vows which your spiritual father thinks appropriate for your progress in divine love. You can freely use wine within the limits of sobriety. But following the advice of St. Paul to Timothy, do not take wine except for relieving your stomach (1Tim 5:23).
There are different degrees of perfection in the [practice of the ] counsels. Almsgiving is a counsel. Its first degree is to lend to the poor who are not in very great need. It is a higher degree to give them something free. A still higher degree is to give them everything. Finally the highest is to give one's own self dedicating oneself to the service of the poor.
Hospitality is a counsel if it is not a case of those in extreme need [when it becomes a duty]. To welcome a stranger is the first degree of this counsel. A higher stage is to go to the highways and approach roads and invite the strangers like Abraham. (Gen 18:2). A still higher stage of this counsel is to stay in dangerous places to give shelter, to help and to serve the travellers. The great St. Bernard of Menthon, a native of this diocese [Geneva] was outstanding in this form of service. He hailed from a very illustrious family. He dwelt for many years in the mountain tops and the cliffs of our alps. There he gathered together several companions to wait for, to lodge, to help and to deliver the travellers and passers by from dangerous tempests. Often they would have died due to storms, snow and cold were it not for the hospices which this great friend of God founded and established on two mountains. For this reason, those two mountains are called by his name, the great St. Bernard in the diocese of Sion and the little St. Bernard in the diocese of Tarentaise.
To visit the sick who are not in extreme need is a praiseworthy, charitable practice. To serve them is still better. But to dedicate oneself to their service is the perfection of this counsel. This the Clerics of the Visitation of the Sick practise in their own institute as do many ladies in different places. They are imitating the great St. Samson, a Roman gentleman and physician. He was ordained priest in the city of Constantinople. He dedicated himself entirely to the service of the sick with wonderful charity in a hospital which he started there. The emperor Justinian erected it and completed the construction. They are imitating also Saints Catherine of Siena, Catherine of Genoa, Elizabeth of Hungary and the glorious friends of God St. Francis [of Assisi] and Blessed [St] Ignatius of Loyola who at the beginning of their religious orders practised this good work with great zeal and incomparable spiritual benefit.
The virtues have certain stages of perfection. Normally we are not bound to practise them to the highest degree of their perfection. It is enough that we make some progress in practising these virtues so that we really have them to some extent. But to go beyond this and make progress in perfection is a counsel. The heroic acts of virtue are not usually commanded but only counselled. It is possible that in certain circumstances we are bound to practise them. Such occasions are quite rare and unusual which make their practice necessary to preserve God’s grace.
The blessed jail keeper of Sebaste saw one of the forty Christians who were being martyred lose courage and the crown of martyrdom. He took his place without anyone urging him. Thus he became the fortieth of those glorious and triumphant soldiers of our Lord. St. Audactus saw that St. Felix was being led out to be martyred. “And I," he said, though no one urged him, “I am also a Christian like him adoring the same Saviour." Then he kissed St. Felix and walked along with him to martyrdom and was beheaded. Thousands of ancient martyrs did the same. They could have equally avoided martyrdom without sin or undergone it. They chose gloriously to undergo martyrdom rather than avoid it lawfully. In them, then, martyrdom was an heroic act of fortitude and constancy which an abundance of divine love gave them.
However, when it is necessary to suffer martyrdom or renounce one’s faith, martyrdom does not cease to be martyrdom and a perfect act of love and courage. Yet I do not know if it is to be called an heroic act since it is not chosen by any excess of love. Here martyrdom is an obligation of faith which in this case commands it. The practice of the heroic acts of virtue consists in the perfect imitation of our Saviour. He, as St. Thomas [Aquinas] says, had all the virtues in an heroic degree from the moment of his conception. Indeed, I would willingly say more than heroic since he was not simply more than human but he was infinitely more than human. It means: He was true God.
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[1] Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God (Isa. 9:6) NRSV
[2] Perfume and incence make the heart glad, but the soul is torn by trouble (Pro 27:9) NRSV. Hebrew text, the sweetness of a friend is better than ones own counsel