| In Death, Let God Strike Whatever Chord He Chooses on our Lute |
The following article is taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat on Sunday, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Photo by Rod Long on UnsplashTo the Baronne de Chantal, written from Sales, 2 November 1607 Is it not reasonable, dear daughter, that God’s most holy will should be done, in the things we cherish as in everything else? But I must hasten to tell you that my dear mother accepted this cup [Her daughter, Jeanne de Sales, had died in Burgundy while in the charge of Madame de Chantal to whom she had been sent for her education] with Christian constancy, and her goodness, which I always esteemed highly, has gone much beyond my expectations.On Sunday morning she sent for my brother, the Canon; and having seen the evening before that he and all my other brothers were very sad, she said to him: ‘I have been dreaming all night that my daughter Jeanne is dead; please do tell me, is this true?’ My brother was waiting for my arrival to tell her, for I was away on visitation; but seeing this good opportunity of giving her the bitter cup and seeing her in bed, he said: ‘It is true, mother,’ and that was all, for he was quite unable to say another word. ‘May God’s will be done,’ said my dear mother, and wept freely for some time; and then, calling her maid, Nicole: ‘I want to get up,’ she said, ‘to go and pray in the chapel for my poor child.’ And she at once did as she said. Not a word of impatience, not a moment’s loss of peace; she blessed God many times and resigned herself to his will. I never saw a more tranquil grief; she shed a great many tears because of the anguish of her heart but there was no rebellion. And yet Jeanne was her dear child. Am I not right to love this mother of mine most dearly?Yesterday, All Saints’ Day, I was confessor to the whole family and with the Blessed Sacrament I scaled my mother’s heart against all sadness. Meanwhile she thanks you very much indeed for the care and motherly love that you showed towards this girl and feels as deeply obliged to you as if God had preserved her life by this means. All my brothers send you the same message; they all showed up very well, especially de Boisy, [Jean-Francois de Sales, his brother’s successor as Bishop of Geneva] whom I love all the more for it. I know that you would like to ask me: What about yourself? How did you take it? Because you want to know what I am doing. Alas, dear daughter, I am human and no more. My heart was more grieved than I could have imagined possible; but the truth is that your grief and my mother’s had a large share in this, for I feared for you both. But as to the rest, may Jesus reign! I shall always take the side of divine providence: it does all things well and disposes everything for the best.How happy is this child to have been snatched from the world so that malice cannot pervert her spirit, and to have escaped the mire without being sullied! Strawberries and cherries are picked before even the most delicious kinds of pears and apples; but that is because they are in season at a different time. Let God gather to him whatever he has planted in his garden; he takes nothing out of season.You can imagine, dear daughter, how dearly I loved this child. I was her father in Our Lord, for I had baptized her with my own hand about fourteen years ago: she was the first being on whom I exercised my priestly office. I was her spiritual father and had high hopes of making something good of her; and what made her very dear to me (I am telling you the truth) is that she was in your charge. Nevertheless, dear daughter, in my heart of flesh and blood, which feels this death so keenly, I am very much aware of a certain sweet, tranquil and restful repose of my spirit in divine providence, and this makes me happy in the midst of my grief. I have described my feelings to you as best I can.But you, my dear daughter, what do you mean by saying that you revealed yourself as you really are on this occasion? Tell me, did your compass point all through to its guiding star, to its God? What did your heart do? Did you give any scandal to those who saw you in this extremity? Answer me clearly on this point, my daughter; for you see, I did not think it right that you should offer your own life or the life of one of your own children in exchange for hers.No, dear daughter. We must not only accept God’s stroke, but also be willing that he should strike wherever he sees fit; we must leave the choice to God, for it is his right. David offered his life for his son, Absalom, but that was because he was dying as a lost soul; and this is a case in which one can entreat God. But in temporal losses, my daughter, let God strike whatever chord he chooses on our lute, his harmony cannot but be good and right: Lord Jesus, may your will be done upon our father, mother, daughter, in everything and in every way, without any qualification, without and if, without a but, without any exception, without reserves. Of course I do not mean that we should not desire and pray for their preservation; but to say to God: leave this, and take that, dear daughter, that you must not do. And so with the help of his divine goodness we will not do it, will we, my daughter? I seem to see you before me, my dear daughter, with your vigorous heart which loves and wills powerfully. I like it for that, for what is the use of these half-dead hearts? But we shall have to make a particular practice, once a week, of wanting and loving the will of God more vigorously than anything else in the world; not only in things which are bearable, but in those which are most unbearable. You will find a good deal about it in the little book which I have so often recommended to you, The Spiritual Combat.To tell you the truth, my daughter, this lesson is an exalted one; but then God for whom we learn it is the Most High. You have four children; you have a father, a father-in-law, a brother whom you cherish, and also a spiritual father: all these are very dear to you, and rightly so, for God wishes it. Now if God were to deprive you of all of them, would you not still have enough in having God? Is that not everything, in your opinion? If we had nothing except God, would that not be a great deal?Alas, the Son of Man, my dear Jesus, had hardly as much as that on the cross when he had left everything for love of his Father, and in obedience to him, and was then, as it were, forsaken and left by him; and when the torrent of passions carried away his bark to the waters of desolation, he could hardly see his compass which was not only pointing towards God but inseparably united with him. Yes, he was one with his Father, but the inferior part neither knew nor felt anything at all of this: a trial which the divine Goodness had never imposed nor ever will impose on any other soul, for no other could bear it.You see therefore, my daughter, if God were to take everything away from us, he would never take himself away as long as we did not wish it. But there is another thing, which is that all our losses and separations are only for this brief moment of earthly time. Oh indeed, we must be patient as it is only for such a little while. Perhaps I am speaking a little too freely; but there, I am following my heart which never thinks that it is saying too much to this dear daughter.I am sending you an escutcheon to fall in with your wishes; and since you want to have the funeral service where this girl now rests, I agree to it, but let it be without great pomp, excepting whatever Christian custom rightly demands: for what is the point of anything more? Afterwards you will make an account of all these expenses and those of her illness, and send it to me, for this is my wish; and in the meanwhile, we will pray to God for her soul and as fittingly as possible give her all the little honors due to her. We shall not send an official representative to the memorial mass in a month’s time. No, we must not make such a to-do about a girl who never held any rank in this world, it would be ridiculous. You know me: I like simplicity both in death and in life. I should very much like to know the name and the dedication of the church where she lies. And that is all on this subject. Reflections: How can we better “accept the cup” given to us?How might death be an opportunity for evangelization?If we have the hope of heaven for someone, why do we still grieve?Why was it so important for Jesus to experience death? Why not just come down and flash sin and evil out of the world?How can we help someone who is grieving who doesn’t have faith or if the person who passed away didn’t have faith?How would we survive the loss of all of our friends and family, as St. Francis suggests? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time |