THE EXAMPLE OF SEVERAL SAINTS WHO SEEMED TO HAVE PRACTISED ZEAL WITH ANGER DOES NOT GO AGAINST THE ADVICE OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER
It is true, surely, Theotimus, my friend, that Moses (Ex 32:19 29), Phinehas (Num 25:7-11), Elijah (1Kings 18:40; 2Kings 1:10-12) Mattathias (1Macc 2: 24,26) and several great servants of God made use of anger to practise their zeal on many memorable occasions. But, pay attention, I beg you, that they were also great persons. They knew very well to control their passions and regulate their anger. They were like the honest centurion of the Gospel who said to his soldiers: “Go and they went; come and they came" (Mt 8:9). But as for us, almost all of us are surely little common folk. We do not have such control over our passions. Our horse is not so well-trained that we can make it gallop and stop it as we wish.
Clever and well-trained hounds go in advance or return by themselves as the hunter tells them. But the young dogs in training go astray and are disobedient. The great Saints have made their passions docile to them by mortifying them through the practice of virtues. So they can turn their anger in any direction, can unleash it or withdraw it as it seems good to them. As for us, we have untamed passions all fresh or at least badly trained. So we cannot let loose our anger except at the risk of much disorder. For, once let loose, we are not able to hold it back or regulate it as needed.
St. Denis told the same Demophilus who wanted to give the name of zeal to his rage and fury: He who wants to correct others should first of all “take care to prevent anger from rejecting the control and authority of reason over the soul which God has given to it. Anger should not arouse rebellion, riot and confusion within us. So we do not approve of your violent deeds urged by an imprudent zeal. You may repeat a thousand times the examples of Phinehas and Elijah. In fact such words did not please Jesus when told to him by his disciples. They had not yet learned to share the gentle and kind spirit of Jesus".
Phinehas, Theotimus, on seeing an unfortunate Israelite offend God with a Midianite woman killed both of them (Num 25:7-11). Elijah had foretold the death of king Aha- ziah (Ochozias). The king was enraged at his prediction. So he sent two captains one after the other at the head of 50 soldiers each to arrest him. The man of God made fire to come down from heaven which consumed them (2 Kings 1:10 12).
One day, our Lord was passing through Samaria. He sent messengers ahead of him to arrange for a lodging in a town. The Samaritans knew that Jesus was a Jew by nationality and he was going to Jerusalem. So they did not want to offer him lodging. Seeing this, Saint John and Saint James said to our Lord: Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Then he turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know of what spirit you are of, for the Son of man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them" (Lk 9:54-56).[1]
It is thus, Theotimus, that St. Denis would tell Demoph- ilus who cited the example of Phinehas and Elijah. St. John and St. James desired to imitate Elijah by making fire from heaven come down on the people. They were corrected by our Lord. He made them understand that his spirit and his zeal were gentle, kind and gracious. He did not make use of indignation or anger except very rarely when there was no hope of any other way of doing good.
St. Thomas Aquinas, the star of theology, was sick with the illness of which he died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanova. The monks there requested him to make a short commentary on the Song ofSongs following the example of St. Bernard. He told them: “My dear Fathers, give me the spirit of St. Bernard and I will interpret this divine song like St. Bernard." It is truly the same, if we poor, little, wretched, imperfect and weak Christians are told: Make use of the anger and the fury of your zeal like Phinehas, Elijah, Mat- thathias, Saint Peter and St. Paul, we ought to reply: Give us the spirit of perfection and pure zeal with the interior light of these great saints. Then we will excite our anger like them. It is not the gift of everyone to know how to be angry when to be angry and how it should be.
The great Saints were directly inspired by God. Hence they could make good use of their anger without danger. For the same Spirit who moved them to these achievements also restrained their just anger. So they did not go beyond the limits he had set in advance for them. An anger inspired or aroused by the Holy Spirit is no more human anger. It is the anger of humans that we must flee. For as the glorious St. James says, it does not work the justice of God (Jas 1:20). In fact, when these great Servants of God made use of anger it was for events so solemn and against crimes so great that there was no danger of the punishment exceeding the crime.
Once the great St. Paul called the Galatians foolish (Gal 3:1). He placed before the Cretans their evil tendencies (Titus 1:12). He opposed St. Peter, his superior, to his face (Gal 2:11). Because of these should we take the liberty to condemn sinners, find fault with nations, censure and criticize our leaders and prelates? Certainly, each one is not a St. Paul to know how to do these things in the right way. But persons who are bitter, fretful, self-conceited, scandalous employ their tendencies, moods, dislikes, audacity to cover their injustice under the cloak of zeal. Each one in the name of this sacred fire allows himself to be burnt by his own passions. The zeal for the salvation of souls makes him desire the bishopric, so says the ambitious priest. Zeal makes the monk meant for the choir to run here and there, so says the restless religious. Zeal makes him criticize rudely and grumble against the bishops of the church and against princes, so thinks the arrogant. He speaks only of zeal. We do not see any zeal at all but only scandal mongering, anger, hatred, envy and restlessness of spirit and tongue.
We may practise zeal in three ways: Firstly, we exercise zeal by doing great acts of justice to repel evil. This is the task of those who hold public authority. They have to correct, condemn and reproach as they have the rank of superiors like princes, magistrates, bishops, preachers. Since this duty is honourable, everyone undertakes it, everyone wants to involve in it.
Secondly, we make use of zeal for doing great virtuous deeds, by giving good example, by suggesting remedies for evil, by advising people to make use of them, by doing good opposed to the evil we want to destroy. This is the duty of each one. All the same few people come forward to do it.
Finally, we practise zeal most excellently by suffering and enduring much to prevent and turn away the evil. Scarcely anyone wants to exercise this kind of zeal. To make a show of zeal is our desire. It is the one for which each one makes use of one’s talent. But we do not take care to realize that it is not zeal that we are seeking by it. Instead, we are seeking our glory, the gratification of our audacity, anger, vexation and other passions.
Surely, the zeal of our Lord was mainly seen in his death on the cross to destroy death and the sins of humans. In this, the wonderful vessel of election (Acts 9:15) and of charity imitated him to the highest degree. Thus St. Gregory Nazianzen describes him in golden words. Speaking of this holy Apostle [St. Paul] he says:
He fights for all. He offers prayers for every one. He has an intense jealousy on behalf of all. He is inflamed with love for all. He has dared to be more than that for his brothers according to the flesh. I myself may say this very boldly. He desires that they may take his place beside Jesus Christ (Rom 9:3). O, supreme courage and incredible fervour of spirit! He imitates Jesus Christ who was made a curse for our sake (Gal 3:13) who bore our weaknesses and carried our diseases (Isa 53:4). Or I may speak more soberly. He was the first after our Saviour who did not refuse to suffer and be considered guilty in their place.
Thus, Theotimus, our Saviour was whipped, condemned, crucified like a man devoted, intended and set apart to carry and bear disgrace, shame, and punishment deserved by all the sinners of the world. He was made a curse, separated from and abandoned by his eternal Father (Mt 27: 46, Gal 3: 13). So too according to the excellent teaching of this great Nazianzen, the glorious apostle St. Paul desired to be overwhelmed with disgrace, crucified, separated, abandoned and sacrificed for the sin of the Jews. This was in order to bear on their behalf the curse and the punishment they deserved.
Our Saviour carried the sins of the world and was made a curse, sacrificed for the sin and abandoned by his Father. Even then, he did not cease to be for ever the beloved Son in whom the Father was well-pleased (Mt 3:17, 17:5). Similarly the holy Apostle desired to be a curse separated from his Master, abandoned by him and given over to the disgrace and punishment deserved by the Jews. Yet he never desired to be deprived of the charity and grace of his Lord from which nothing could ever separate him (Rom 8: 35 39). In other words, he desired to be dealt with like a man separated from God. But he did not want to be really separated from God nor deprived of his grace. For such a thing cannot go with holiness.
The heavenly bride declares that love is strong as death which separates the soul and body (Song 8:6). Zeal which is a burning love is stronger still. For it is like hell which separates the soul from the sight of our Lord. It is never said, nor can be ever said, that love or zeal is similar to sin which alone separates from the grace of God. How can it be that the fervour of love makes one desire to be separated from grace since love is grace itself or cannot be without grace. Now the zeal of the great St. Paul was practised in some way, so it seems to me, by the little St. Paul, I mean, St. Paulinus. To set free a slave from slavery, he made himself a slave, sacrificing his freedom to give it to his neighbour.
“O, how happy is he," says St. Ambrose, “who knows to discipline zeal." “The devil" says St. Bernard, “will play very easily on your zeal if you neglect knowledge." “Let your zeal be burning with charity, adorned with knowledge, strengthened by constancy."
True zeal is the child of charity, for it is charity’s earnestness, intensity. That is why like charity, zeal is patient, kind, without trouble, without strife, without hatred, without envy, rejoicing in the truth (1Cor 13:4-6).
The intensity of true zeal is similar to that of the hunter. He is diligent, careful, active, hardworking and eager in hunting but without anger, without disturbance. If hunting is done with anger, fury and vexation, it will not be so much loved and so much liked. Similarly true zeal has intense fervour but unchanging, solid, gentle, hard working, equally lovable and untiring. On the contrary, false zeal is wild, rude, arrogant, proud, angry, transient, equally violent and unreliable.
________________________
[1] NRSV, footnote z