Spirituality of SFS: A Way of Life

To journey in simplicity along the way of Our Lord is, in fact, to proceed in a liberty of spirit. Francis wants people to be free in their service of God, for God is Love and Freedom and he doesn’t want before him people who are slaves and still in fear of him. Rather, he wants sons and daughters, freely welcoming his love and freely responding to that love.

When Scripture speaks of our being created “in God’s image and likeness”, it is expressing a fundamental reality: we are capable of both liberty and love. Francis cites this passage from Genesis very frequently. His vision of the human person is founded upon it. It indicates for him that the human person is gifted with intelligence and freedom, and is capable of love and of being related to God.

He is himself continually turned toward this divine source, and he points all who seek his guidance in that same direction. If we truly believe that we are made in God’s image, then people ought to be able to find in our human lives a reflection of this God who is Love and Freedom. “Having created us in his image and likeness, he desires that, as in Himself, everything in us be ordained by love and for love” (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 1, Chapter 6). Wouldn’t the most beautiful expression of liberty be, lives and actions which are led only by love and which have no other goal but love?

This is why the expression, “Do everything through love” turns up again and again, like a leitmotif, on the lips and from the pen of Francis de Sales. “Holy liberty and simplicity must reign supreme in everything; we must have no law or constraint other than what love permits” (Letter of June 8, 1606). He explains that he “fights for a worthy cause” when he defends “holy and charitable liberty of spirit”, and that he “esteems it very highly, provided that it is a true liberty of spirit”, that is, “when it is no way associated with dissolute living and license.”

In acting in this way, Francis considers that he is acting in a way that imitates God himself, who calls, suggests, encourages and infinitely respects each person he addresses. The Gospel call of Jesus, “Come, follow me” or “Go, sell what you have”, are always accompanied by the words, “if you wish.” Even when he upbraids someone, as in Revelation 2:5, “Come now, repent!” he leaves that person free to respond or not.

Even when thrown from his horse and blinded by the brightness of light (Acts 22:1-21), Saul remains free to give his “yes” or his “no” to the call being addressed to him, because

Grace is so gracious, and so graciously does it lay hold of our hearts in order to draw them on, that it disturbs nothing whatsoever of the liberty of our will. Grace touches powerfully yet so delicately the springs of our spirit that our fee will is in no way forced or compelled. Grace has the power not to overpower but to allure our heart; it has a holy violence, not to violate our liberty, but to render it all loving; so strongly yet so gently does it act that our will is in no way overwhelmed by such power; it presses but does not oppress our freedom. So true is all this that we are able, under its influence, to consent or to resist its movements as we please (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 12).

The spiritual pedagogy of Francis de Sales is expressed well in these lines. His absolute respect for human liberty is a reflection of God’s absolute respect for his creatures. “No one can overcome the liberty of the human will, even God, who created it, in no way whatsoever wants to force or do violence to it” (Sermon for Easter Tuesday, 1620; AE IX, 300).

He also knows from experience that the human heart does not want to be forced. However, it needs courage and strength to choose the good. The Salesian method flows from all this: to invite, suggest, use persuasion, all the while pointing out the good sense of making this choice or that decision and being altogether gentle and patient. “The human spirit rebels against rigour but is pliable in everything when gently approached,” according to Francis as reported by his friend, Bishop Camus. Even when it is necessary “to contradict someone or to oppose our opinion with that of someone else, we must do so very gently and with great skill, so as not to be offensive to anyone. Nothing whatever is gained by being harsh” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 30).

Not to be forced and yet to have vigour or strength enough to choose what leads to life could easily sum up the liberty offered to the human family as suggested by Deuteronomy 30:15-20: “Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom… Choose life then… by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him; for that is life…”

It is of this liberty that Francis speaks, a liberty which excludes indifference, as well as laxity and license; it also excludes scrupulosity and an unhealthy anxiety which drain and greatly weaken a person. There is a famous expression which he wrote in large letters in a letter of Jane de Chantal on October 14, 1604:

DO ALL THROUGH LOVE, NOTHING THROUGH CONSTRAINT; LOVE OBEDIENCE MORE THAN YOU FEAR DISOBEDIENCE. I want you to have a spirit of liberty, not the kind that excludes obedience (this is freedom of the flesh), but the liberty that excludes constraint, scruples and anxiety (English translation, Letters of Spiritual Direction).

In the same letter, he goes on to explain how to become increasingly more free. The best way is to follow Christ, because no one in the whole world was more free than he was. He was free regarding wealth and power; free regarding traditions handed down by the scribes and Pharisees; even free regarding handing over his life and taking it up again. His life is summed up by the little phrase, “I always do what is pleasing to him” (Jn. 8:29). To do what is pleasing to his Father – that expresses well the liberty Jesus knew. Such is then the way of liberty for us too. Francis has no doubt about that. Following Saint Paul, he writes that “the liberty I speak of is that of well beloved children (Rom. 8:21). And what is that? It is the Christian’s letting go of everything else so as to follow God’s known will.”

Thus, we become increasingly more free to the extent that we grow in our capacity to do what pleases the Father. By allowing ourselves to be led by the Spirit whom Jesus gives, we become with him sons and daughters of God, capable of saying, “Abba, Father!’ in truth and joy.