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As zeal is an ardour and vehemence of love it stands
in need of guidance; otherwise it would exceed the
limits of moderation and discretion.
Not indeed that divine love, however vehement, can
be excessive in itself, or in the movements or
inclinations which it gives to our spirit, but,
inasmuch as it makes use of the understanding in the
execution of its designs, ordering it to find out the
means whereby they may be effected, and makes use of
boldness or anger to surmount the difficulties which
it meets with, the understanding often comes to
propose and make us adopt courses too rough and
violent, and anger or hardihood once aroused, and
unable to contain itself within the limits of reason,
carries away the heart into disorder, so that zeal is
thus practised indiscreetly and inordinately; which
makes it bad and blameworthy.
David sent Joab with his army, against his
disloyal and rebellious child, Absalom, whom he
commanded them above all things not to injure,
ordering that in all events they should take care to
save him. But Joab being engaged, and being hot in
the pursuit of the victory, with his own hand slew
the poor Absalom, without regard to what the king had
said to him.
Even so, zeal employs anger against the evil, yet
ever with express order, that in destroying
wickedness and sin it should save, if possible, the
sinner and the iniquitous: but it, once in its fury,
like a hard-mouthed and wilful horse, runs away with
its rider out of the lists, without stop or stay,
while breath lasts.
That good man of the house whom our Saviour describes
in the Gospel, knew well that hot and violent
servants are wont to outrun their master's intention,
for his servants presenting themselves unto him to go
and weed his field in order to root out the cockle:
No, said he, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle you
root up the wheat also together with it.(1)
It is true, Theotimus, that anger is a servant
who, being strong, courageous and of great
undertakings, does also at first a great deal of
work, but withal he is so ardent, so hotheaded,
inconsiderate and impetuous, that he ordinarily does
no good things without at the same time doing many
evil. It is not good husbandry, say our countryfolk,
to keep peacocks in the house; for though they hunt
spiders and rid the house of them, yet they so spoil
the furniture and the buildings themselves that their
usefulness is not comparable to the harm they do.
Anger was given by Nature as a help to reason, and
is employed by grace in the service of zeal, to put
in execution its designs; yet it is a dangerous help,
and not greatly to be desired, for if it gets
strength it becomes master, overturning the authority
of reason; and while it does no more than zeal would
perform all alone, it keeps one in a well-founded
fear that waxing strong it may take possession of the
heart and of zeal, making them slaves to its tyranny,
like a carefully disposed fire, which in an instant
embraces a building, and which no one can extinguish.
It were an act of despair to put foreign auxiliaries
into a fortress, who may make themselves the
strongest.
Self-love often deceives us and leads us away,
gratifying its own passions under the name of zeal.
Zeal has once made use of anger, and now anger in its
turn uses the name of zeal, in order to keep its
shameful disorder covered under this. And mark that I
say it makes use of the name of zeal; for it can make
no use of zeal itself, since it is the property of
all virtues, but especially of Charity, whereof zeal
is a dependence, to be so good that none can abuse
them.
A notorious sinner, once went and threw himself at
the feet of a good and worthy priest, protesting with
much submission, that he came to find a cure for his
disease, that is, to receive the holy absolution of
his faults. A certain monk called Demophilus,
considering that, in his opinion, this poor penitent
came too nigh the holy altar, fell into so violent a
fit of anger, that throwing himself upon him, he
kicked and pushed him thence with his feet, railing
at the good priest in an outrageous sort, who
according to his duty had mildly received this poor
penitent. And then running up to the altar he took
off the holy things which were there, and carried
them away, lest, as he would have men think, the
place should have been profaned by the sinner's
approach.
Now having finished this fair exploit of zeal, he
stayed not yet there, but made a great rejoicing
about the matter to the great S. Denis the Areopagite
in a letter which he wrote about it, to which he
received an excellent answer, worthy of the
apostolical spirit wherewith that great disciple of
S. Paul was animated. For he made him clearly see
that his zeal had been at once indiscreet, imprudent
and impudent; because though the zeal for the honour
due unto holy things were good and laudable, yet was
it practised against all reason, without any
consideration or judgment, since he had employed
kicks, outrages, railing and reproaches, in a place,
under circumstances, and against persons, whom and
which he ought to have honoured, loved and respected;
so that the zeal could not be good, being practised
with such great disorder. But in this same answer,
that great saint recounts another admirable example
of a great zeal, proceeding from a very good soul,
which was however spoilt and vitiated by the excess
of anger which it had stirred up.
A pagan had led astray and made return to idolatry
a Christian of Candia, recently converted to the
faith. Carpus, a man eminent for purity and sanctity
of life, who, as is very probable, was the bishop of
Candia, conceived such an anger at it as he had never
before entertained, and let himself be so far carried
away with this passion, that having risen at midnight
to pray according to his custom, he concluded with
himself that it was not reasonable that the wicked
men should any longer live, with great indignation
beseeching the divine justice to strike down at once
with his thunderbolts these two sinners together, the
pagan seducer and the Christian seduced.
But hear, Theotimus, how God corrected the
bitterness of the passion which carried the poor
Carpus beyond himself. First he made him, as another
S. Stephen, see the heavens open, and our Saviour
Jesus Christ seated upon a great throne, surrounded
with a multitude of angels, who attended him in human
form; then he saw below, the earth gaping as a horrid
and vast gulf; and the two erring ones, to whom he
had wished so much evil, he saw upon the very brink
of this precipice, trembling and well-nigh paralysed
with fear, as being about to fall down it; on the one
side they were drawn by a multitude of serpents,
which rising out of the gulf, wrapped themselves
about their legs, and with their tails gradually
moved and provoked them to their fall; on the other
side, certain men pushed and beat them to make them
tumble in, so that they seemed on the point of being
swallowed up in this abyss.
Now consider, my Theotimus, the violence of the
passion of Carpus: for as he himself afterwards
recounted to S. Denis, he never thought of
contemplating our Saviour and the angels, who showed
themselves in the heavens, such pleasure did he take
in seeing below them the frightful distress of those
two miserable wretches. His only trouble was that
they were so long perishing, and thereupon he
endeavoured himself to precipitate them down; and
seeing he could not do it quite at once he was angry,
and began to curse them, until at length, lifting up
his eyes to heaven, he saw the sweet and most pitiful
Saviour, who, moved by an extreme pity and compassion
at what was happening, arising from his throne and
descending to the place where the two miserable
beings were, stretched out to them his helping hand,
while the angels also, some on one side some on
another, caught hold of them to hinder them from
falling into that dreadful gulf; and, at last the
amiable and mild Jesus, turning himself to the
wrathful Carpus: - Nay, Carpus, said he, henceforth
wreak your anger on me: for I am ready to suffer once
more to save men and it would be a joy to me to do
so, if it could be without sin on man's part: at any
rate, think which would be the better for thee, to be
in that gulf with the serpents, or to live with
angels who are such great friends of men.
Theotimus, the holy man Carpus had just reason to
enter into zeal concerning these two men, and his
zeal had but rightly raised his anger against them,
but anger being once moved left reason and zeal
behind, transgressing all the terms and limits of
holy love and consequently of zeal, which is its
fervour: anger had changed the hatred of sin into the
hatred of the sinner, and most sweet charity into an
outrageous cruelty.
Thus there are persons who think one cannot be very
zealous unless one is very angry, thinking that
unless they spoil all they can manage nothing,
whereas on the contrary true zeal most rarely makes
use of anger; for as we never apply the lancet to the
sick save when it cannot possibly be helped, so holy
zeal does not employ anger save in extreme
necessities.
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