| We Have to Go on Bearing Ourselves Until God Bears Us to Heaven |
At our Living Jesus Chat this Sunday we will be talking about the following letter of St. Francis de Sales to Marie Bourgeois Brulart, of Dijon, wife of Nicolas Brulart who became president of the parliament of Burgundy in 1602, taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  “Let us be content that his presence will make us bear fruit sooner or later, or every day, or sometimes, according to his good pleasure, to which we should wholly resign ourselves.”Photo by Y S on Unsplash Written from La Roche in March 1605 Madam,I was extremely happy about your letter of 20 January, because it seems to me that in spite of all the afflictions you describe to me, you have advanced in the spiritual life and profited by your trials. My answer will be shorter than I should like it to be, because I am rather busier than I thought. All the same I shall say enough for you to be going on with till I can write you a really long letter.You tell me that you are upset because you do not reveal yourself openly enough to me, as it seems. And I tell you that although I do not know what you are doing while I am at a distance because I am not a prophet, it seems to me all the same, that considering how brief our contact was, no one could know you better than I do, both your inclinations and motives. I am convinced that there are few secret places of your heart which are not accessible to me; and when you open the doors of your heart even a very little way, I feel I can look right in and see all there is to see. This is of great advantage to you because you want to use me for your salvation.You complain that a number of imperfections and faults slip into your life in spite of your longing for perfection and for pure love of God. It is impossible for us to escape from self entirely. While we are here below, we have to go on bearing ourselves until God bears us to heaven, and while we are bearing ourselves, we are not bearing anything that’s any good. So we must be patient and not imagine that we can cure ourselves in a day of all the bad habits we have contracted by being careless about our spiritual health.God did, of course, cure some people suddenly, without leaving them any mark of their former diseases, as for instance in the case of Mary Magdalene whom he transformed from a sink of iniquity into a pure fountain of perfection; nor was she ever troubled from that moment onwards. But on the other hand, the same God left many of his dearest disciples marked with their evil inclinations for some time after their conversion, and this was for their greater good: witness blessed St. Peter who after his first vocation stumbled several times, and on one occasion fell outright and grievously when he denied Our Lord.Solomon said that a serving maid who suddenly becomes the lady of the house is a very insolent sort of creature. There is a great risk that the soul which has served its own passions and affections for a long time might turn proud and vain if it mastered them immediately. We must acquire this mastery little by little and inch by inch, for the saints themselves spent many decades conquering themselves. I entreat you to be patient with everyone but first of all with yourself.You say that you do nothing at all in prayer. But what do you want to do when you pray except precisely what you are doing, which is to present and to represent to God your nothingness and your poverty? The most effective appeal which beggars can make to us is to show us their sores and their neediness. But then again, sometimes you don’t even do that, you tell me, but you kneel there like something inanimate or a statue. Well, this is no mean achievement either. In the palaces of princes and kings there are statues whose sole purpose is to delight the prince when he happens to see them: be satisfied with playing this part in God’s presence. He will give the statue life when he thinks fit.Trees only bear fruit because of the presence of the sun, some sooner and some later, some every year and others every three years, nor is their harvest always equal. We are very fortunate to be able to remain in the presence of God; let us be content that his presence will make us bear fruit sooner or later, or every day, or sometimes, according to his good pleasure, to which we should wholly resign ourselves.What a marvelous thing you said when you wrote to me: as long as I am serving God, I don’t care what kind of sauce he puts me in. But be careful to chew this over and over again in your mind; let it melt in your mouth and do not swallow it whole. Mother Theresa whom you love so much and in whom I too rejoice, says somewhere that we often say certain words by habit and, as it were, only half aware of their meaning; we think they come from the depths of our soul, but we may discover later on when it comes to the test that this is far from being the case. Well, you tell me it is all the same to you whatever the sauce. Come now, you know very well into what sauce he has put you, into what state of life and condition; and tell me, is it all the same to you? And you also know that he wants you to pay that debt day by day, and you write and tell me about it, and surely this is not all the same to you. Dear Lord, how subtly self-love slips into our feelings, even if they look and seem so very devout!The great secret is this: find out what God wants, and when you know, try to do his will gaily or at least bravely; and over and above that we must love God’s will and the obligation it lays upon us, even if we have to herd swine all our lives and do the most abject things in the world; for it must be all the same to us, whatever the sauce God choses for us. This is the centre of perfection at which we must all aim, and whoever gets closest to it will win the prize.But don’t lose heart, I entreat you; gradually train your will to follow God’s will wherever it leads; see that your will is strongly roused as soon as your conscience tells you: God wants this; and little by little these feelings of repugnance which go so deep in you will grow less intense and soon disappear altogether. But the chief thing is that you should struggle not to show outwardly the repugnance you feel inwardly, or at least to tone down the display of feeling. When people are put out or annoyed, some only show their irritation by saying: good Lord, what’s all this? And then there are others who speak more heatedly, their words showing a certain pride and spite as well as annoyance. What I mean is that you should gradually lessen these exhibitions of feeling, moderating them gradually day by day. As to your desire to see your family making great progress in God’s service and in Christian perfection, I praise it infinitely, and since you ask me, I shall add my feeble prayers to your supplications to God in this matter. But to tell you the truth, Madam, and to speak quite openly: I am always afraid that these desires which are not of the essence of our own salvation and perfection, may have some trace of self-love and self-will in them. For example, we may indulge so much in these not really essential desires as not to leave enough room in our hearts for longings which are more justly indicated and more useful, as for instance our longing to be humble, resigned and meek of heart. And also, I am afraid we might pursue these desires so ardently that they make us anxious and over-eager; and finally, we might not submit them so perfectly to God’s will as we should.This is what I fear in desires of this kind, and that is why I beg you to be very careful not to run such risks but to pursue your aims in this matter gently and kindly, that is to say, without being a nuisance to those whom you would like to influence towards perfection, and without even letting them guess your intention; for believe me, that would do more harm than good. So you must work by your example and by what you say, quite gently sowing the good seed which might later on come up; and without making it obvious that you want to instruct them or win them over, you must gradually fill their hearts with holy ideas and considerations. And so you will do much more real good than in any other way, especially if you pray about it. Reflections: St. Francis says in the letter: “It is impossible for us to escape from self entirely.” Does this mean everyone will be going to purgatory?Why is it important if we achieve a certain status/stature that we must remain humble?How can we learn to be content as we are, while at the same time always desire to grow?How can we know God’s will?How could it be that we could be too anxious about growing in virtue?Think of the phrase, “As long as I am serving God I don’t care what kind of sauce he puts me in.” When do we find ourselves complaining about the sauce we find ourselves in? And how so, in our thoughts and words? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time |