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It is true, indeed, my friend Theotimus, that Moses,
Phinees, Elias, Mathathias and many great servants of
God made use of anger in the exercise of their zeal,
on many remarkable occasions, yet note also, I pray
you, that those were great souls, who could well
handle their passions and regulate their anger; like
that brave captain of the Gospel who said to his,
soldiers: go, and they went, come, and they came(1)
but we, who are, all of us, but common little people,
have no such power over our movements; our horse is
not so well broken in, that we can make him gallop or
stop at our pleasure.
Wise and well trained hounds run afield or come
back according to the huntsman's call, but untrained
young hounds break away and are disobedient. Great
saints who have made their passions tractable,
mortifying them by the exercise of virtue, can also
turn about their anger as they like, send it out and
draw it back as seems good to them; but we, who have
unbridled passions, quite young, or at least
mistaught, cannot let our anger go save at peril of
great disorder, for being once loose we can no longer
restrain or regulate it.
S. Denis speaking to this Demophilus who would have
given the name of zeal to his rage and fury: "He that
would correct others," said he, "must first have a
care that anger do not turn reason out of the empire
and dominion which God has given it in the soul, and
that it do not stir up a revolt, sedition and
confusion within ourselves; hence we in no sort
approve your impetuosities (to which an indiscreet
zeal urged you), though you should a thousand times
recall Phinees and Elias; for similar words did not
please Jesus Christ, when said to him by his
disciples, who were not yet made partakers of that
sweet and benign Spirit."
Phinees, Theotimus, seeing a certain unhappy
Israelite offend God with a Madianitess, slew them
both: Elias foretold the death of Ochozias, who,
indignant at this prediction, sent two captains one
after another, each with fifty men, to take him: and
the man of God made fire descend from heaven which
devoured them.(2)
Now one day that our Lord was journeying in
Samaria, he sent into a town to take his lodging, but
the inhabitants knowing that our Lord was a Jew by
nation, and that he was going to Jerusalem, would not
lodge him; which S. John and S. James seeing, they
said unto our Saviour: Wilt thou that we command fire
to come down from heaven and consume them? And our
Lord turning rebuked them, saying: you know not of
what spirit you are. The Son of man came not to
destroy souls but to save them.(3)
This it is then, Theotimus, that S. Denis would
say to Demophilus, who alleged the example of Phineee
and Elias: for S. John and S. James, who would have
imitated Phinees and Elias in making fire descend
from heaven upon men, were reprehended by our Lord,
who gave them to know that his spirit and his zeal
were sweet, mild and gracious, making use of
indignation or wrath but very rarely, when there was
no longer hope of doing good any other way.
S. Thomas Aquinas, that great star of theology,
being sick of the disease of which he died, at the
Monastery of Fossanuova, of the order of Citeaux, the
religious besought him to make them a short
exposition of the Canticle of Canticles in, imitation
of S. Bernard, and he answered them: My dear fathers,
give me S. Bernard's spirit and I will interpret this
divine Canticle like S. Bernard. So verily, if it
were said to one of us petty, miserable, imperfect
and wretched Christians: - use anger and indignation
in your zeal, as did Phinees, Elias, Mathathias, S.
Peter and S. Paul: we ought to reply: give us the
spirit of perfection and pure zeal, with the interior
light which those great saints had, and we will arm
ourselves with anger as they did. It is not the
fortune every one to know how to be angry when and as
he ought.
Those great saints were immediately inspired by God,
and therefore might boldly employ their anger without
peril; for the same Spirit which animated them to
these great acts also held the reins of their just
wrath lest they might transgress the prescribed
bounds. Anger which is inspired or excited by the
Holy Ghost is no longer the anger of man, and it is
man's wrath that we are to beware of, because, as S.
James says: The anger of man worketh not the justice
of God.(4)
And indeed, when those great servants of God made
use of anger, it was on occurrences so solemn and for
crimes so excessive, that there was no danger that
the punishment would exceed the fault.
Are we, do you think, to take the liberty of abusing
sinners, of blaming nations, of taking to task and
censuring our directors and prelates, because S. Paul
once calls the Galatians senseless, represents to the
Candiots their bad inclinations, and withstands to
the face the glorious S. Peter his superior?
Verily every one is not a S. Paul, to know how to
do these things suitably: but bitter, harsh,
presumptuous and reviling spirits, following their
own inclinations, humours, aversions and arrogance,
would throw the mantle of zeal over their iniquity;
and under the name of
this sacred flre every man permits himself to be
burnt up with his own passions.
It is zeal for the salvation of souls which makes
the prelateship desired, if you will believe the
ambitious man; which makes the monk, who is destined
for the choir, run hither and thither, as the
restless soul himself will tell you; which causes all
those censures and murmurings against the prelates of
the Church and temporal princes, if you will give ear
to that arrogant man. You will hear from him of
nothing but zeal, and you will see no zeal, but only
opprobrious and railing speeches, anger, hatred and
rancour, disquiet of spirit and of tongue.
Zeal may be practised in three ways. First in
performing great actions of justice to repel evil;
and this belongs only to those who have the public
offices of correcting, censuring, and reprehending in
quality of superiors, such as princes, prelates,
magistrates, preachers: but since this office is
honourable, every one undertakes it, every one will
have to do with it.
Secondly, one may use zeal by doing actions of
great virtue in order to give good example, by
suggesting remedies for evils, and exhorting men to
apply them, by effecting the good that is opposite to
the evil which we desire to banish. This belongs to
every one, and yet few will to do it.
Finally, the most excellent use of zeal lies in
suffering and enduring much to hinder or divert evil,
and scarce any will have this sort of zeal. A
specious zeal is all our ambition; upon that, each
one willingly spends his talent, never attending to
the fact that it is not zeal indeed which is thereby
sought but glory, the satisfaction of our pride,
anger, annoyance and other passions.
Certainly our Saviour's zeal principally appeared
in his death upon the cross to destroy death and sin
in men: in which he was sovereignly imitated by that
admirable vessel of election and dilection, as the
great S. Gregory Nazianzen, in golden words,
represents him; for speaking of this holy Apostle he
says: "He fights for all, he prays for all, he is
passionately jealous about all, he is inflamed for
all, yea he has dared yet more for his brethren
according to the flesh, so that if I may dare also to
say it, he desires through charity that they may have
his own place near Our Saviour. O excellence of
courage and incredible fervour of spirit! He imitates
Jesus Christ, who for us was made a curse,(5) who
took on himself our infirmities and carried our
diseases(6) Or, that I may speak a little more
soberly, he was the first after our Saviour who
refused not to suffer and to be reputed wicked for
their sake."
Even so then, Theotimus, as our Saviour was
whipped, condemned, crucified, as a man devoted,
destined and set apart to bear and support all the
reproaches, ignominies and punishments due to all the
sinners in the world, and to be a general sacrifice
for sin, - as he was made an anathema, was cast off
and abandoned by his eternal Father, so, according to
the true doctrine of this great Nazianzen, the
glorious Apostle S. Paul desired to be filled with
ignominy, to be crucified, cast off, abandoned and
sacrificed for the sin of the Jews, that the curse
and punishment which they deserved might fall upon
him; and as our Saviour took upon him the sins of the
world, and was made a curse, sacrificed for sin and
forsaken by his Father in such sense that he ceased
not ever to be the well-beloved Son in whom his
Father was well pleased, - so the holy Apostle
desired indeed to be a curse, and to be separated
from his master, to be left to the mercy of the
reproaches and punishments due unto the Jews, yet he
never desired to be deprived of charity and the grace
of his Lord, from which, moreover, nothing could ever
separate him; that is to say, he desired to be
treated as a man cast off by God, but he did not
desire actually to be cast off and deprived of his
grace, for this cannot be holily desired.
So the heavenly spouse declares, that though love
is strong as death, which makes a separation between
the body and soul, zeal, which is an ardent love, is
yet stronger, for it resembles hell, which separates
the soul from the sight of Our Lord; but it is never
said, nor can be said, that love or zeal was like to
sin, which alone separates from the grace of God. And
indeed how could the ardour of love possibly make one
desire to be separated from grace, since love is
grace itself, or at least cannot be without grace.
And the zeal of the great S. Paul was in some sort
practised by the little S. Paul, I mean S. Paulinus,
who to deliver a slave out of bondage became himself
a slave, sacrificing his own liberty to bestow it
upon his neighbour.
"O how happy is he," says S. Ambrose, who knows
how to discipline zeal!" "The devil will easily,"
says S. Bernard, "delude thy zeal, if thou neglect
knowledge; therefore let thy zeal be inflamed with
charity, adorned with knowledge, established in
constancy." True zeal is the child of charity as
being its ardour; wherefore, like to charity, it is
patient, is kind, envieth not, dealeth not
perversely, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to
anger, rejoiceth in the truth.(7)
The ardour of true zeal resembles that of the
huntsman, being diligent, careful, active,
industrious, eager in pursuit, but without passion,
anger or disquiet, for if the huntsman's work were
done in anger, bad temper and vexation, it would not
be so much loved and desired. Zeal in like manner has
ardours which are extreme, but constant, solid,
sweet, industrious, equally agreeable and untiring;
whereas on the contrary, false zeal is turbulent,
troubled, insolent, arrogant, choleric, transient,
equally impetuous and inconstant.
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