Spirituality of SFS: A Way of Life

First of all, interiority. That is a fundamental mental principle with Francis de Sales. But he is not looking for the interiority associated exclusively with intimacy; that can become nothing more than pure introspection; it can remain on the level of religious sentiment or romantic feeling. Rather, he desires an interiority where reason reigns, a well-ordered interiority.

One must begin with the human heart. But Francis wants to see the heart enlightened and guided by reason, that most human of faculties. In fact, “it is reason alone that makes us men.”

The human being is a “rational” being. This faculty distinguishes us from all other living beings of the animal world, with which we otherwise have much in common. Like all other animals, for instance, we have the fundamental needs to eat, drink, sleep and reproduce. We even have an instinctual life in common with them. The difference is that animals are led only by instincts whereas we are led by reason.

Animals do some things better than us. We need only think of certain bird nests. But they have no choice. Their “how to” is inscribed in their nature. They can’t depart from that instinctual “how to” and choose another. To be itself, an animal need only follow its instinct, but it can only follow that instinct. Even when trained to do something new, it is in no way creative; it simply repeats and does what it has learned to do under certain very restricted circumstances.

Human beings, on the contrary, can control their instincts, emotions, passions. They can direct and orientate them because they are capable of thinking and choosing. To be human, one must orientate instincts and all faculties toward the end proper to human beings. This process is slow, difficult and never automatic because reason’s superiority is in no way guaranteed or permanent.

Our God-given existence has the possibility of “being the highest entity in the visible world,” but at times it becomes “rebellious because of its disordered affections” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 1, Chapter 9).

Francis notes this realistically:

We are only human because of our reason and yet truly reasonable people are rarely found. Why is that? Self-love, that is, love which is inappropriately self-centred, usually clouds our reason, causing us to go off course, and leading us almost imperceptibly into a thousand kinds of little but dangerous injustices and evils, which are just like those ‘little foxes’ spoken of in the Song of Songs (2:15) and which ‘destroy the vines.’ Since they are little, no one pays much attention to them; yet, because there are so many of them, they invariably cause us a great deal of harm (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 36).

If we pause to reflect a bit, we can identify those ‘little foxes’ which we have let into our lives, and which at times are the causes of our becoming imbalanced, bizarre or trivial, and ruin our interiority. One example is to eat or drink without moderation, control, or real need. Another example is to waste time on pointless or useless matters which can make our lives lack both consistency and goal. It is to speak without reflection and to get involved into everything without discernment; it is to pray only when we want to; to begin some enterprise without really knowing where it will lead; to judge others solely on the basis of good or bad feelings toward them…

There is no lack of examples! Francis gives some others from everyday life. “We blame our neighbour for trifles but excuse ourselves even in major matters; we want to sell something for a huge profit but buy cheaply; we insist on strict justice for others but mercy for ourselves… In everything, we prefer the wealthy to the poor, even if the former are not of better condition nor as virtuous as the latter…; we readily complain of our neighbour but want no one to ever complain of us… In shore, we have two hearts: a gentle, gracious, and kind one for ourselves; and a hard, sever, and rigorous one for our neighbour. We have two weights… (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 36). In acting in this manner, we are not being “just and reasonable.” We are allowing ourselves to be led by feelings, emotions and passions which keep us centered on ourselves.

It can be seen from all this that being “reasonable” is something more and other than “rational” but not opposed to it. Rational refers to logic and is what guides the development and expression of thought. Rational qualifies the logic of reasoning, even abstract reasoning. Reasonable is also logical but it can never be simply abstract; it must always be related to real life. Thus, when Christians are asked to be “logical and coherent Christians” they are being asked to live in conformity with their faith. This is what Francis means by “reasonable” Christians.

According to him, it is reasonable to conform to justice, human dignity, and the goal of human life. It is reasonable for the Christian to be conformed to Jesus Christ and to his Gospel.

He notes that there are very few truly reasonable people around. At the same time he believes that people are capable of becoming reasonable if they allow themselves to be guided. That’s why he wants to help us to make our spiritual journey according to reason. Two examples of truly reasonable people will help us here.

Francis himself is a beautiful example of someone who is reasonable in line with the Gospel.

In his life he gave feelings, passions and emotions their proper place. He described himself as “the most affectionate man in the world.” He loved passionately and was faithful to his friends; he resented the suffering of separations from them; at times he was “upset and angry” and boiling inside… At the same time, he controlled and directed his affectionate heart according to God, that is, conformed to what God wanted from him as a man, a Christian, a priest, and a bishop.

A letter (1620 or 1621) to Jane de Chantal, just a year or so before his death, is enlightening. At one and the same time it shows him very affectionate and yet unequivocally belonging to God, his Supreme Being.

No one in the world, I believe, cherishes others more heartily, tenderly and, in all candour, more lovingly than I do. It has pleased God to make my heart that way. Yet, I love independent and hardy souls which are in no way soft. For too great a tenderness clouds the heart and upsets it; it distracts it from its loving prayer before God and blocks its total resignation, self-oblation, and death to self-love. What is not God is absolutely nothing to us.

Another letter to the same Jane de Chantal, dated November 2, 1607, and thus thirteen or fourteen years earlier, already reveals Francis affectionate and yet reasonable heart. Good balance between heart and reason, feelings and faith, seem to be a constant in his life. This letter is written after the death of his youngest sister, Jeanne, age 14, who was with Jane de Chantal when she died. He loved her with all his heart; she was his little sister and hers was his first baptism as a young priest. One can appreciate how much her death affected him. It was on this occasion that he wrote that he was “only human”. But one mistakes this kind of “humanism” if the phrase is taken out of context. Fro this letter begins with a line which sets its tone: “Isn’t it reasonable that God’s most holy will be exercised toward those we cherish as toward all others?”

There follows a picture of a man who, even though his heart is broken, is nevertheless still at peace because he is totally rooted in God;

You want to know how I’m doing. Alas I am only human, nothing more. My heart is moved more than I ever thought possible. But, in all truth, my mother’s grief, and yours too, has largely contributed to my state because I have feared for both your hearts. But as for the rest, ah!, may Jesus live! I shall always concur with divine Providence which makes and disposes all things well (Sg 12:16-18). [Ravier, Letters, p. 244]

What he himself lived, Francis de Sales taught his friends and those he corresponded with.

They mustn’t allow themselves to be led solely by feeling, passion or emotion. Feelings, desires and fancies change daily, even hourly, and according to circumstances. They can mislead, even enslave us, rather than help us to grow in our humanity and holiness. To be helpful they must be controlled and submissive to reason. It was to convince Jane’s son, Celse-Benigne, of all this that Francis wrote to him as he “was about to set sail on the high seas of court life” in Paris [Letters of December 8, 1610].

I beg you to be careful not to gent entangled in petty love affairs, and never to allow your affections to overtake your judgement and reason in what you choose to love. Once affections have taken hold, they drag judgement along like one enslaved and make impertinent choices which merit the repentance and regret which soon follow” [Ravier, Letters, p. 342].

What does it means to live according to reason?

For Francis de Sales, it is to know what one is about and where one is going. It is to have deep convictions and to live according to a good balance.

To know what one is about, to know why one does what one does and where one is going this is necessary for everyone, individually and collectively. Without this, one risks useless activism and finding oneself some day totally nonplussed, with no meaning in what one is doing and experiencing.

The parable of the “tower to be built” applied to everyone. One must begin by sitting down and assessing whether one can complete the task at hand (Lk. 14:28-33).

In December, 1622, a few days before his death, Francis preached a Christmas sermon in which he noted that “we are well advised, in everything we do and begin, to have the goal or object of our efforts before us.”

That is how he himself acted. When anyone asked him for spiritual guidance, he always began by pointing out the merit of this desire to live the Gospel fully, and he indicated where such a desire leads. “I will never stop begging the good God to perfect in you his holy work, that is, your good desire and the hope to reach the perfection of the Christian life. You must cherish and tenderly nourish this desire in your heart as a work of the Holy Spirit and as a spark of his divine fire” [to Jane de Chantal, May 3, 1604].

This way of acting is a matter of honesty for him. The person must know where the journey being made, goes and where the way taken, leads. It is also a principle of pedagogy and pastoral action, whose model is God himself. In meditating upon the Christmas mystery, for example, Francis sees God acting in this way. Before building a house or a palace, one determines who is going to live there so as to construct something suitable to their needs. “The eternal Father has acted in the same way in creating the world. The end or goal of his work was thus its beginning, since from all eternity his divine Wisdom had foreseen that the Word would take up our nature and come upon this earth.”

When it is a question of material reality, one spontaneously acts in this fashion. Before building or buying a house or an apartment, one determines whether it is for one person or for a family, large or small; whether it is for a group who will use it regularly or only occasionally…

When dealing with the faith or with the Christian life we sometimes forget to act similarly. “We are in a hurry to get on with what we have undertaken rather than to take the time to reflect on what its end ought to be? [Assumption, 1618, AE IX, 188].

Well, the goal of life, through death, is to share in the very life of God. it is what the Eastern churches call the “divinisation” or “deification” of our being.

Thus, the goal of our activities, choices and decisions is to do what God wills of us so as to realize our vocation to the divine life and to assist others in responding to this same vocation, for “the destiny of the human family is one, to experience the divine” (Gaudium et Spes, 22, 5).

To have the goal present at the beginning and throughout our activities, choices, decisions and declarations is a principle with many applications in daily life.

For example, take the respect due to life from conception. Why respect and defend life at this first stage? Because, from this first moment, a human being begins to exist who is called to share in the very life of God.

Take as another example someone who requests baptism. From the very start, that person will be instructed in what is entailed in that decision; requirements, responsibilities, joys, a long preparation for this new life, etc…

To live according to reason means to have strong convictions too.

Francis’ pastoral work with the individuals and groups he accompanied on the spiritual journey was directed toward helping them to acquire strong convictions. He wanted Christians who were deeply convinced so as to be incapable of being “buffeted and carried away by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14-16), but quite capable of “giving an account of the hope which is in them” )1 Pet. 3:13-17).

This was the goal of his many serums, all of which were nourished by the Word of God and the doctrine of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. It was the goal of his thousands of letters – of which a few more than two thousand have been preserved – to many very different people: lay Christians, both men and women, from all walks of life; male and female religious; priests and bishops. Father Ravier has published some of these letters under the title of Lettres d’amitie spirituelle (Letters of Spiritual Friendship). In his preface, he notes that ”there are very few of Francis’ letters which do not deal with matters of the faith, or are not inspired by it,” even when they treat of “very routine or business matters.”

This is the goal of his “treatises” written for the use of priests, to assist them in preaching, teaching catechism, confessing, and celebrating Mass with faith and dignity.

This is the goal of the “catechism” which he compiled for those women entering the Visitation Order who needed to shore up on the fundamental elements of their religious knowledge. On Christmas Eve, 1620, he told them: “The plan of this sermon is to give you a little catechism on the Incarnation … for how can we meditate on what we do not know? For this very reason, catechism is taught in the monasteries of the Visitation, so that they may know what they are to believe and understand what they meditate (AE IX, 447).

It is the goal of the Introduction to the Devout Life, that manual for people living in the world. From the very first part, Francis wants “to convert Philothea’s simple desire to live the gospel into a firm resolve to do so,”

This concern for formation is found today with Christians in every country. The Second Vatican Council has reiterated its necessity, and the majority of local churches have organized programmes for the formation of adults in addition to the usual preaching, catechesis, and the many possibilities offered by communities, groups and movements. This formation is never purely intellectual; rather, it is always a blending of the doctrinal, spiritual and pastoral.

To become convinced people, we must, in fact, go through a process of study, prayer and practice. In this way, our knowledge will not only be intellectual but experiential and vital as well. If the process is completed, our convictions will be solid and lasting because they will have been reasoned, prayed over, and lived. Then we will be able to speak and witness.

This witnessing always has to be done “gently and respectfully and with a clear conscience” (1 Pet. 3:16). The following manner of speaking and witnessing will no doubt distinguish a person who is convinced as was Francis de Sales from one who is simply obstinate and doctrinaire: the humility of one’s witness, an openness to the other in everything that is not incompatible with the Gospel, a tranquil and respectful affirmation of one’s own conviction.

Bernardette of Lourdes gave a beautiful example of a convinced person when she was before her judges; her conviction was expressed with neither stubbornness nor harshness. She was pressed many times to retell her story of the apparitions to see if she would contradict herself. She finally told those important people who were questioning her in this way that “the Holy Virgin simply charged me with telling you what I saw and experienced, not with forcing you to believe it.”

Her witness was an echo of that of the Apostle who, when pressed to temper the ardour with which they spoke of the risen Jesus, said: “We cannot help speaking of what we have heard and seen” (Acts 4:20).

Living according to reason results in Good Balance.

Salesian equanimity seems in fact to be the expression and result of “living according to reason”. Good balance between heart and logic; between faith and reason; in one’s relationships with others; in one’s entire moral life. Francis de Sales exhibited an “harmonious synthesis of virtues” in his own life and he enables others who desire that same synthesis to realize it.

Good balance between heart and reason stood out clearly in his life. Very revealing here is the way he reacted to the deaths of his little sister, his mother, and other loved ones. He wrote the following to a woman whose sister had just died: “I refrain from telling you not to cry. No, because it is quite reasonable and justified for you to cry a bit; but just a bit, not inordinately… We wouldn’t know how to keep our poor heart from feeling the loss of those who were our special companions in life, but we must not, for all that, deny the solemn profession we made of joining our will inseparably to God’s” [Ravier, Letters, 462-63].

Even outside the domain of faith, in which good balance between feelings and will is expressed in the letter just mentioned, we must see to it that it is reason which controls and guides our feelings, desires, passions and emotions because reason “is the queen of all the faculties.”

Commenting on Luke 11:17, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste,” Francis made this application to the interior realm of each person: the unity referred to here by Jesus, among others, is “the union which we must have within, in the kingdom within us, where reason must be the queen, to whom all the faculties of spirit, senses, and even body must be subjected. Without this obedient submission, we will be unable to keep ourselves from desolation and trouble of all sorts” [Sermon for February 2, 1622; AE X, 265].

Good balance between faith and reason was the constant in the life and teaching of Francis de Sales, especially in his discussions with the Calvinists. Faith and reason cannot contradict one another in as much as each has its origin in God; they are “daughters of the same Father.” He gives us reason so that we may be human and know that God exists; he gives us faith so that we may be Christian and know that God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“God is the author in us of natural reason, and he hates nothing that He has made (Wis. 11:25). This is so much the case that we must never imagine that the supernatural light which He gives to his faithful is at war with or contradicts the natural light with which He has also marked us. They are daughters of the same Father; therefore they can and must live together as very affectionate sisters. Whether in nature or above nature, reason is always reason, and truth is always truth…” (The Catholic Controversy, Article 8).

There is, therefore, no opposition between faith and reason, natural and supernatural knowledge, theology and reason. Faith may indeed be able to see beyond what human intelligence can discover, but it never contradicts nor destroys that knowledge. If it were to do so, such faith would be ‘fideism’ which the Catholic Church has never recognized as doing justice to either God or the human reason.

“Theology does not destroy the use of reason; it presupposes it. It does not ruin it even through it surpasses it” (Standard of the Cross, AE 2, 35).

Each of these types of knowledge, faith and reason, apprehends the truth with its own proper capacity. The eye which observes this truth is one, the human person. The truth discovered by the light of human intelligence and by the light of faith is one as well, because “truth never contradicts itself.”

Therefore, we must never set up a competition between science and faith, between reason and theology; rather we must look for points of encounter and any assistance they can render one another.

Good balance between heart and reason must also live in our relational life with one another. Too often our relationships are governed by likes and dislikes, by our many passions, prejudices or impressions… Reason allows us to rise above these and to see persons and events in a more just way because it helps us to be more objective. Instead of two hearts, one gentle understanding toward ourselves, and one harsh and exacting toward others, we will gradually come to have only one heart, a “royal, fair and reasonable one.” On this point Francis extols a sure method. “Always mentally exchange places with your neighbour and you will judge appropriately.” Look at your usual behaviour. “Often examine your heart to see whether it is acting toward your neighbour as you would want someone to act toward you in a similar situation; that is the touchstone of true reason” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 36).

When the occasion arises to make some observation or to correct someone, Francis again insists on the “reasonable” approach. If an observation, even a just one, is made with anger or spite, the other person is likely to accept it poorly. In fact, “a correction, even a just one, made with passion is less well received than on flowing from reason alone. This is so because the rational soul is naturally subject to reason and will be subjected to passion only through force. Besides, when reason is accompanied by passion, it is odious…” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 8). It can only force the other to capitulate. Thus, it may win but it hasn’t necessarily won over or persuaded the other.

Acting with reason presupposes a deep interior strength and serene control of one’s passions. Courage and self-mastery are essential to live peacefully in situations like that which prompted a letter (April 26, 1617) to Madame Le Blanc de Mions whose husband was unfaithful. To be diplomatic, the letter is written in the third person. “I told her to speak with firm resolve when necessary so as to restrain the person in question; but I also said that strength is actually stronger when it is tranquil and when it is reason’s child alone, without any passions mixed in with it…” [Ravier, Lettres, 615].

The character and self-mastery which Francis helped this woman to achieve are truly admirable.

Finally, good balance – or “perfection” – of the moral life depends on both reason and charity. In one’s natural life, everything is affected by everything else. “If someone is wounded in the foot or in the arm, the whole body is disturbed, affected, and altered thereby. If we have a stomach ache, our eyes, voice and whole being feel it.”

In one’s “moral” life, everything is also affected by everything else. The virtuous life, which Francis defines as a “force and strength of soul,” integrates everything. Of course, no one can possess all the virtues to the same degree nor all together. That simply means that, while on earth, we never fully attain that realized harmony to which all human life tends.

It is reason which permits virtues to grow and to integrate harmoniously. Reason plays the same role in the human person as the river in Eden did in watering the entire earthly paradise. “A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches” (Gen. 2:10). Well, the human person is an “earthly paradise” in which God makes the “river” of reason and natural light to flow and to water the entire paradise of our heart” (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 11, Chapter 8)

“Reason is our heart’s soul.” Reason permits the acquisition of virtues one after the other. “It seizes now this passion, now that one, so as to moderate and govern them.” In this way, one’s moral life is gradually strengthened.

“Reason is the life of our soul. It is never content nor relaxed in the soul until it occupies and possesses all its faculties and passions; and when it is offended or wounded in any one of those passions or affections, all the rest lose their vim and vigour and become strangely languid.”

One could say that reason is the coordinating agent of the moral life. It holds the many virtues together and allows them to develop and grow. It does this particularly with the four virtues considered the pillars of the well-integrated life: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. (They are like the four branches of the one river of which Genesis speaks). Life is crippled is any of these four is lacking “because no virtue is perfect if it is not accompanied by all the others.”

Like every “reasonable” person, the Christian tries to lead a life in the light of reason. The Christian also believes that God graciously calls him or her to a love called “charity,” which waters his or her entire being and assures the harmony and growth of all the other virtues.

“Among virtues, charity is like the sun among the stars; it gives them all their brightness and beauty. Faith, hope, fear and penitence ordinarily precede charity in the soul, preparing its lodging there. But once charity is there, they and all the other virtues are obedient to her and at her service. She, in turn, animates, adorns and vivifies them by her presence” (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 11, Chapter 9).

There is an echo of St. Paul in all this: He writes in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 13:1-13): If I do not have charity, I am nothing… Charity never passes away…

At the conclusion of these two chapters on the heart and reason, we can better appreciate the foundation for the Salesian method of developing the under-developed aspects of each personality. Francis de Sales says something like the following: “If you are someone who is intellectual, rational and logical, you would do well to cultivate your cordial, affectionate and intuitive side. If, on the other hand, you are affectionate, emotional and feeling, you would do well to cultivate your rational and reasonable side. If you are slow and nonchalant, you will have to give yourself a push. Whereas if you tend toward hyperactivity, you will have to slow down and pace yourself somewhat…” In this way, everyone will be able to achieve a better balance. If we only follow our natural tendencies, we are strongly at risk of accentuating our faults and shortcomings. This will result in imbalanced lives, with some over-developed aspects and some underdeveloped aspects. If we develop the latter and moderate the former, on the other hand, our lives will be fuller and more harmonious.