COUNSELS FOR THE GUIDANCE OF HOLY ZEAL
As zeal is an intensity and violence of love, it has to be guided wisely. Otherwise it will break the limits of moderation and prudence. Surely, it does not mean that divine love, however intense it may be, can ever be excessive in itself either in its activities or inclinations it gives to our minds. But divine love puts understanding to the realization of its plans. It orders the understanding to seek the means to make them succeed. Among the means enjoined are daring, boldness and anger to overcome the difficulties love meets with. Often it happens that the mind suggests and makes us take very bitter and violent means. Anger and daring, once aroused, do not remain within the limits of reason and lead the heart into disorder. Hence by these means, zeal is practised indiscreetly and immoderately. This makes zeal wrong and guilty.
David sent Joab with his army against his disloyal and rebellious son Absalom. He commanded him above all things not to do any harm to his son, ordering him at all events to have concern to save him. But Joab being on the task, hot in chasing victory, he himself with his own hand killed the unfortunate Absalom. He did not care for all that the king had told him (2Sam 18:5,14).
In the same way, zeal makes use of anger against evil always with a definite command: in destroying sin and wickedness, if it is possible, it saves the sinner and the wicked. But anger once in the heat of passion, like a horse on rage steals away and carries away the rider out of the lists and never stops till it is out of breath.
The good householder whom our Lord describes in the Gospel knew well that his servants were earnest and zealous. They were accustomed to go beyond the intention of their master. For they came forward on their own to go and weed the field to root out weeds. No, he says to them, I do not want it for fear that in uprooting the weeds, you also pull out the wheat together with them (Mt 13:24,29).
Assuredly, Theotimus, anger is a servant. Being powerful, courageous and a great undertaker, at first, it does also a lot of work. But it is so strong, so exciting, so thoughtless and violent that it does not do anything good. Rather it does more harm. It is not good housekeeping, say our country folk, to keep peacocks in the house. Though they chase spiders and get rid of them, they spoil the furniture and the roof. So their usefulness is less than the loss they cause. Anger is a help given by nature to reason. It is used by grace at the service of zeal to achieve its designs. But it is a perilous help scarcely desirable. If anger grows strong, it becomes the master, upsets the authority of reason and the loving laws of zeal. If it is weak, it does nothing which zeal alone can do without its help. Anger always causes a well - founded fear that growing strong, it may seize the heart and zeal, and subject them to its tyranny. It is like a deliberately caused fire which sets on fire a building in a moment. No one can put it out. It is an act of desperation to keep foreign troops in a city. They may make themselves the strongest.
Self love often deceives us. It fosters its own passions in the name of zeal. Formerly zeal made use of anger once. Now anger employs the name of zeal to hide its shameful disorder, under this mask. I say that anger avails itself of the name of zeal because it is not able to make use of zeal in itself. It is the particular quality of all the virtues to be “so good that no one can abuse it." This is very specially true of charity of which zeal is a subordinate.
A notorious sinner, one day, came and threw himself at the feet of a good and a worthy priest. He insisted with much obedience that he came to find a cure for his sins. A certain monk, Demophilus by name, thought in his opinion that this poor repentant sinner came too close to the holy altar. He was overcome by such a violent rage that he kicked him severely with his feet, pushed him and chased him out from there. He insulted insolently who according to his duty had welcomed the poor sinner. Then the monk rushed to the altar, removed the holy objects and carried them away. It was for fear that the proximity of the sinner had desecrated the place as he would have people to believe.
After this outburst of zeal, the monk did not stop there. He made a great joyful display of it to the great St. Denis, the Areopagite, by writing a letter to him. He received a sublime reply worthy of the apostolic spirit of this great disciple of St. Paul. He made him see clearly that his zeal was indiscreet and shameless. Zeal for the honour of holy objects is good and praiseworthy. Yet in exercising it, he was unreasonable, unkind and rash. So he kicked with his foot, showered insults, rebukes and reproaches in a place, on an occasion and against persons whom he should honour, love and respect. Thus the zeal cannot be good since it was practised with such great disorder. In this same reply, this great Saint relates another wonderful example of the great zeal of a very good person. All the same, it was spoiled and tainted by extreme anger it had aroused.
An unbeliever had led astray a Christian of Crete (Can- dia) newly converted to the faith. He made him go back to idolatry. Carpus was a man renowned in purity and holiness of life. Probably, he was bishop of Crete. He felt great wrath such as he had never experienced before. He allowed himself to be carried away by this passion. It was to such an extent that on rising at midnight to pray, as was his custom, he drew this conclusion: it is not reasonable that wicked men live any longer. He prayed with great anger to the divine justice to strike dead with the thunderbolt both sinners together, the non-Christian seducer and the seduced Christian.
Listen, Theotimus, what God did to correct the bitterness of the passion of the poor Carpus who was enraged. First of all he made him see like another St. Stephen the heaven fully opened and Jesus Christ, our Lord (Acts 7:55) sitting on a great throne. Jesus was surrounded by the crowd of angels in human form who assisted him. Then he saw below, the earth opened like a dreadful and large abyss. He saw the two strayed persons for whom he had wished so much evil on the edge of this precipice. They were trembling and almost fainting with dread because they were almost on the point of falling into it. From one side, they were dragged by a crowd of snakes coming out of the abyss, coiling round their legs. They were pulling them and pressing them with their tails to make them fall. On the other side, some men were pushing and beating them to make them fall. They appeared to be on the point of being swallowed up in this abyss.
Reflect, I pray you, Theotimus, the fury of the passion of Carpus. For he himself related this to St. Denis soon after. Carpus did not think of contemplating Our Lord and the angels who were seen in heaven. He was so much delighted to see below the dreadful distress of these two miserable, wretched men. He was only angry that it took so long for them to perish. Hence he himself tried to throw them down. He could not do it soon. So he fretted about it and cursed them till, finally, he raised his eyes to heaven. He saw that the gentle and infinitely merciful Saviour had been moved with extreme pity and compassion at what was happening. He rose from his throne and came down to the place where these two miserable wretches were. He extended his helping hand to them as did also the angels who from both sides kept them from falling into the abyss.
Finally, the kind, loving Jesus spoke to the furious Carpus. “Well, Carpus," he said," “Strike me, henceforth, I am ready to suffer once more to save humans. It would be pleasing to me if it could be done without the sin of other people. Moreover, consider which is better for you, either to be in this abyss with the serpents or to stay with the angels who are such great friends of humans".
Theotimus, the holy man Carpus was right in practising zeal towards these two men. His zeal rightly aroused anger against them. However, his anger, once aroused, left reason and zeal behind. His anger went beyond all bounds and limits of love. As a consequence, from zeal which is the fervour of love, anger changed hatred of sin into hatred of the sinner and the most gentle charity into fierce cruelty.
Thus there are persons who think that they can have great zeal if only they have great anger. They imagine that they cannot do anything unless they spoil everything. On the contrary, true zeal very rarely uses anger. We do not apply cauterizing iron and fire to the sick as long as we can do otherwise. So too holy zeal does not make use of anger except in extreme cases of necessity.