LAWFUL OCCUPATIONS DO NOT PREVENT US FROM PRACTISING DIVINE LOVE
Curiosity, ambition, anxiety, unawareness and thoughtlessness of the purpose for which we are in this world are the causes why we have a thousand times more impediments than business, more turmoil than activity, more preoccupation than work. These hindrances, obstacles, Theotimus, in other words, the silly, empty, unnecessary works we undertake turn us away from the love of God. And it is not the genuine, lawful duties of our state of life. David and after him St Louis in the midst of so many hardships, toils and affairs of state they had, whether in time of peace or war truly, do not cease to sing:
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth
That I desire other than you (Ps 73:25).
St Bernard lost none of the progress he wanted to make in this holy love, though he was in the courts and armies of great princes. There he spent himself in promoting the affairs of state to the service of God’s glory. He changed places but he never changed his heart. His heart did not change its love nor his love its object [God]. To speak in his own language:[1] These changes were in his way of living but his way of life remained unchanged. For though these activities were quite different, he was indifferent to all activities and different from all activities. He did not receive the colour of these affairs and discussions like a chameleon which assumes the colour of the place where it is. But he remained always united to God, always white in purity, always red in charity and always full of humility. I know well, Theotimus, the opinion of the wisemen:
He flees the court and quits the palace,
Who wishes to live devout; rarely in armies We see souls animated by devotion:
Faith, holiness are the daughters of peace.
The Israelites were right in excusing themselves to the Babylonians who urged them to sing the sacred songs of Sion:
How could we sing the Lord’s song In a foreign land? (Ps 137:4)[2]
Do you not see that these people were not only among the Babylonians but also captives of the Babylonians? Whosoever is slave of the favours of the court, of success at the palace, of the honour of war, all is over with him. He is not able to sing the hymn of divine love. But he who is in the court, in war, at the palace because of duty, God helps him. God’s loving kindness[3] serves him as an epithem[4] on his heart to preserve him from the plague which reigns in these places.
When plague was spreading in Milan, St Charles [Bor- romeo] never showed any reluctance to frequent the houses and touch infected people. But Theotimus, he frequented and touched them only in so far as the need of serving God demanded it. He did not approach the danger simply but for genuine necessity for the fear of committing the sin of tempting God. So he was not touched by any illness. Divine Providence preserved him. He had such a pure trust in Providence that it was not mixed with fear or rashness. God has the same concern for those who go to the court, to the palace, to war only for the sake of duty. We should not be so afraid of such circumstances that we leave out good and lawful matters by not going there. We should not be so daring and presumptuous as to go and remain there without the express necessity of duty and business.
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[1] TLG Bk II, Ch.9
[2] NRSV. The original text has: Alas but in what melody, In this sorrowful exile, Could we sing holily, The Lord’s sacred song (Ps 136:4).
[3] Literally heavenly sweetness
[4] Any kind of moister or soft external application (The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).