“Saint Francis de Sales, a master for our time” by Msgr. Yves Boivineau
Savoyard, bishop, man of letters and saint, François de Sales (1567 – 1622) was ordained priest in 1593 and consecrated bishop in 1602. In an epoch marked by the Reformation, he traveled in his diocese to present the Catholic faith. With Saint Jane de Chantal, he founded the order of The Visitation of Holy Mary in 1610.
A spirituality based on experience
The first thing that touches us of Francis de Sales’s personality is his kindness: his demand is equal only to his kindness and attention to people. What is his secret? We must remember the spiritual crisis that he went through. He is 19 years old when he is seized by a strong crisis of anguish and despair, until he loses hunger and sleep. In the context of the Reformation, the question of predestination agitates theological reflection. Francis is persuaded that he is to be forever excluded from the friendship of God, to be damned. He is freed from this anguish when, in front of the statue of the Virgin, in the church of Notre-Dame des Grès in Paris, he pronounces this act of complete abandonment: “Whatever happens … I will love you Lord, at least in this life if I am not allowed to love you in eternal life … and I will always hope in your mercy. He chooses “pure love.” The liberty of Francis de Sales is the fruit of this internal liberation. He who has experienced mercy can witness mercy. This founding experience was already shaping the one who will be called “the Doctor of Divine Love and Evangelical Gentleness” and will mark his whole life and work.
Conciliar Bishop in a Changing World
Four hundred years have separated us from Francis de Sales. His time is not ours. There are, however, many similarities. These two periods of history are marked by a profound cultural mutation. They have in common, therefore, the time for the implementation of a Council. Francis de Sales had the desire to initiate the reforms requested by the Council of Trent (1545-1563): “Above all,” he wrote to one of his newly appointed colleagues, “have in hand the Council of Trent and its catechism (Editions d’Annecy, XII, 191).
It was in this spirit that he undertook the pastoral visit of his vast diocese. He devoted much time to preaching: did not the council prescribe that “the first and principal office of the bishop is to preach”? He knew how to speak simply and touch hearts: “Our words must come out of the heart more than from the mouth. In vain do we speak, but the heart speaks to the heart, and the tongue speaks only to the ears “(EA XII, 321). He liked to teach catechism to children: he saw little by little Saint Dominic church (now Saint Maurice’s church in Annecy) filled with parents, adults, who had everything to learn. He had also called for catechists to assist him in his formation, and he met them once a month.
Each year he summoned the priests of the diocese to a synod in order to implement the desired reform.
All were called to holiness, to the perfection of charity
The major feature of Francis de Sales’s teaching is undoubtedly his conviction that “wherever we are, we can reach the perfect life” (Introduction to Devotee Life, 1,3). Thus Paul VI wrote: “He was a teacher of spirituality who taught Christian perfection for all states of life. He was in these aspects a forerunner of Vatican II “(29 January 1967). In order to “strive for perfection”, should not everything in our lives be “ordained by love and love” (Traité de l’Amour de Dieu, 1,6)? Even if it is necessary to “accommodate the practice of devotion to the forces, affairs and duties of each individual”.
“Start from the inside”
The true reform begins with the reception of the life and love of God, and the conversion of the heart: “For me, I have never approved the method of those who reform man begin outside : The maintenance, the clothes, the haircut … It seems to me, on the contrary, that we must start from the inside … Who has Jesus in his heart, will soon have it in all his external actions …. Which of man gaineth the heart, and gaineth the whole man “(ivd. 3:23). The priority for Francis de Sales is to let Christ live in our hearts so that He may irrigate our whole life. Hence his insistence on the practice of prayer as heart to heart with God. “Devotion does not spoil anything when it is true, but it perfects everything … Everyone becomes more pleasing in his vocation” (IVD 3,1).
Living the Present
The spiritual life of the Christian is his ordinary life, lived in the Spirit of Christ. Francis insists on the duty of state. We must “work in the field where we are” and not “send our oxen with the plow elsewhere, to the field of the neighbor, where nevertheless we can not reap this year” (EA XIII 207). It is a question of loving our vocation, of living fully “where the Lord has planted us”: “What is the use of building castles in Spain since we have to live in France? It is my old lesson … “(EA XIII, 289).
And Francis de Sales recommends the virtue of patience. It is, he says, “the one that assures us most of perfection, and if we must have it with others, we must also have it with ourselves” (EA II, 202). Dreaming of exploits: “Great works are not always in our way, but we can at any time make them small excellently, that is to say with a great love. ”
A contagious “art of living”
François de Sales is an endearing personality. His spirituality of the Incarnation makes him profoundly human. More than a human wisdom, it is an evangelical art to live the daily life he proposes to us. Among all his counsels, the one he addressed to a young wife is well suited to everyone: “You must not only be devout and loving devotion, but you must make her amiable to everyone. But you will make her kind to others if you make her useful and agreeable. ”
If Francis de Sales asks to “begin from the inside,” it is to testify in all the circumstances of life that “our God is the God of the human heart” and that the joy of man is to Tending to the “perfection of charity.”
Mgr Yves Boivineau
Bishop of Annecy
Source: http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/approfondir-sa-foi/temoigner/figures-de-saintete/370516-/