“If baptism really makes us enter into the holiness of God (…), it would be nonsense to be satisfied with a mediocre life (…). Ask a catechumen: “Do you want to receive baptism?” means asking him at the same time: “Do you want to become a saint?” This means putting on his path the radical character of the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5,48)”.
Saint Francis de Sales would certainly recognize himself in these words of Pope John Paul II. He never ceased to call everyone to fully live their baptism, that is to say, to become saints. Holiness is not reserved for a privileged few, it is the vocation of all the baptized.
The text proposed today is taken from a letter to Madame Brûlart (cf. Esprit de Cordée from March). From the first letter he sent to her, on May 3, 1604, Francis de Sales noted: “You have a great desire for Christian perfection: it is the most generous desire you can have. Feed it and grow it every day.”
The means of attaining perfection are diverse according to the diversity of vocations. For nearly twenty years, the rich correspondence of the Bishop of Geneva with her reveals how he offered her a path to holiness adapted to her life as a mother. Text Letter 361 to Madame Marie Brûlart September 1606 Complete Works, Annecy Edition, vol. XIII, p 214
My dear daughter, we must not judge things according to our taste, but according to that of God. This is the big word: if we are holy according to our will, we will never be so well; we have to be according to the will of God. Now, the will of God is that, for the love of him, you do so freely: that you frankly love the exercise of your state. I say that you loved and cherished it, not for what is exterior and which can look at sensuality in itself, but for the interior, because God has ordained it, because, under this vile shell, the holy will of God is accomplished. My God, how often we are wrong! I tell you once again that we must not look at the external condition of actions, but at the interior, that is to say whether God wants it or does not want it
Commentary
Françis de Sales does not propose a holiness at a discount: one must be holy “according to the will of God”, and not “according to our taste”. The demand to accept the will of God is constantly present in the letters he addresses to the people he accompanies. We sometimes imagine the will of God as a straitjacket that would slow us down, a yoke that would weigh on our shoulders. Now, relying on the will of God is a dependence of love which in no way diminishes man, but increases him and opens him to infinity. Far from imprisoning us, the will of God sets us free from many patterns of thinking and acting imposed by society.
In the same letter to Madame Brûlart, Françis de Sales lets it be understood that “worldly conceptions” often cloud our thoughts. On the contrary, the will of God is like a reliable compass by which we can orient ourselves and find our way. Seeking the will of God is in no way an escape from the world, from everyday life.
Mme Brûlart’s great desire for holiness must be integrated into her concrete life as a wife and mother. It is necessary, writes Françis to her, “that you frankly like the exercise of your state”. This is why, while giving her advice for a life of regular prayer, he invites her to live her daily life as a place where God gives her an appointment, a place of union with the Lord: “We must carefully observe the particular commandments that each one has with regard to his vocation; and whoever does not do this, when he raises the dead, he does not cease to be in sin (…). As, for example, it is recommended to the bishops to visit their sheep, to teach them, straighten them up, console them: that I remain all week in prayer, that I fast all my life, if I do not do this, I lose myself. That a person works a miracle while being in a state of marriage, and that she does not return the duty of marriage to her part or that she does not care about her children, she is worse than unfaithful” (letter of 13 October 1604). It is not enough to observe outwardly the will of God and the demands of his vocation. You still have to “love them frankly”, put your whole heart into them.
The path to holiness cannot be traveled in a single day. Every morning, we have to get back to work, recharge our batteries in the love of God and expose ourselves to the love of our neighbour. One day, Madame Brûlart will be able to write to Françis de Sales: “May God put me in whatever sauce he wants, it’s all one to me, as long as I serve it”