|
I add to the sacrifice of S. Charles that of the
great patriarch Abraham, as a lively image of the
most strong and loyal love that could be imagined in
any creature.
Certainly he sacrificed all the strongest natural
inclinations he could have had, when, hearing the
voice of God saying to him: Go forth out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy
father's house, and come into the land which I shall
show thee,(1) he went forth at once, and with speed
put himself upon the way, not knowing whither he
went.(2) The dear love of country, the sweetness of
the society of his kindred, the pleasures of his
father's house, did not shake his constancy; he
departs boldly and with fervour, and goes whither it
shall please God to conduct him.
What abnegation, Theotimus, what renunciation! One
cannot perfectly love God unless one forsake
affections for perishable things.
But this is nothing in comparison with what he did
afterwards, when God, calling him twice, and seeing
his promptitude in answering, said to him: Take thy
only-begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go
into the land of vision: and there thou shalt offer
him for a holocaust upon one of the mountains which I
will show thee.(3)
For behold this great man, setting out immediately
with his so loved and amiable son, goes three days'
journey, comes to the foot of the mountain, leaves
there his servant and ass, loads his son Isaac with
the wood necessary for the holocaust, himself
carrying the sword and the fire; and as he ascends,
this dear child says to him: My father; and he
answers: What wilt thou, son. Behold, saith he, fire
and wood, but where is the victim for the holocaust?
And Abraham said: God will provide himself a victim
for the holocaust, my son.
And meanwhile they arrive at the top of the
appointed mountain, where Abraham now constructs an
altar, lays the wood in order upon it, binds his
Isaac, and places him upon the pile; he extends his
right hand, lays hold of and prepares his sword,
lifts his arm, and as he is ready to despatch the
blow in order to immolate the child, the angel calls
to him from above: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered:
Here I am. And the angel said to him : Lay not thy
hand upon the boy. It is enough: Now I know that thou
fearest God, and hast not spared thy only-begotten
son for my sake. Upon this Isaac is untied, Abraham
takes a ram which he finds hanging by the horns in
the brambles, and sacrifices it.
Theotimus, he who looketh on his neighbour's wife, to
lust after her, hath already committed adultery with
her in his heart,(4) and he who bindeth his son in
order to immolate him has already sacrificed him in
his heart. Behold then, for God's love, what a
holocaust this holy man offered in his heart!
Incomparable sacrifice, which one cannot fully
estimate, nor yet praise to the full! My God! who is
able to discern, which of the two loves was greater -
Abraham's, who to please God sacrifices so amiable a
child, or this child's, who to please God is quite
willing to be sacrificed, and to that end permits
himself to be bound, and extended upon the wood, and
as a tender little lamb, peaceably awaits death's
blow from the dear hand of his good father?
For my part, I prefer the father in longanimity,
yet dare I withal boldly give the prize of
magnanimity to the son: for on the one side it is
indeed a marvel, but not so great a one, that
Abraham, already old and accomplished in the science
of loving God, and fortified with the late vision and
word of God, should make this last effort of loyalty
and love towards a master whose sweetness and
providence he had so often tasted and relished; but
to see Isaac, in the spring-time of his age, as yet a
mere novice and apprentice in the art of loving his
God, offer himself, upon the simple word of his
father, to the sword and the flame to become a
holocaust of obedience to the Divine will, is a thing
that passes all admiration.
Yet, on the other side, do you not see, Theotimus,
that Abraham tosses and turns in his soul, more than
three days, the bitter thought and resolution of this
sharp sacrifice? Do you not feel compassion for his
fatherly heart, when, ascending alone with his son,
this child, simpler than a dove, said unto him:
Father, where is the victim? and he answered him: God
will provide for that, my son. Do you not think that
the sweetness of this child, carrying the wood upon
his shoulders, and piling it afterwards upon the
altar, made his father's bowels melt with tenderness?
O heart which the angels admire and God magnifies!
O Saviour Jesus, when shall it then be, that
having sacrificed to thee all that we have, we shall
also offer up to thee all that we are? When shall we
offer unto thee our free-will, the only child of our
spirit? When shall we extend and tie it upon the
funeral pile of thy cross, of thy thorns, of thy
lance, that as a little lamb, it may be a grateful
victim of thy good pleasure, to die and to burn with
the flame, and by the sword, of thy holy love?
O free-will of my heart, how good a thing were it
for thee to be bound and extended upon the cross of
thy divine Saviour! How desirable a thing it is to
die to thyself, to burn for ever a holocaust to the
Lord! Theotimus, our free-will is never so free as
when it is a slave to the will of God, nor ever so
much a slave as when it serves our own will. It never
has so much life as when it dies to itself, nor ever
so much death, as when it lives to itself.
We have freedom to do good or evil; yet to make
choice of evil, is not to use, but to abuse our
freedom. Let us renounce this miserable liberty, and
let us for ever subject our free-will to the rule of
heavenly love: let us become slaves of love, whose
serfs are more happy than kings.
And if ever our soul should offer to employ her
liberty against our resolutions of serving God
eternally and without reserve, - Oh! in that case,
for God's sake, let us sacrifice our free-will, and
make it die to itself that it may live to God!
He that would for self-love keep it in this world
shall lose it in the other, and he that shall lose it
in this world for the love of God, shall keep it, for
the same love, in the other. He that gives it liberty
in this world shall find it a serf and slave in the
other, and he that shall make it serve the cross in
this world shall have it free in the other, where
being in the fruition of the Divine goodness,
liberty, will be converted into love, and love into
liberty - a liberty of infinite sweetness: - without
effort, pain, or any repugnance we shall
unchangeably, for ever, love the Creator and Saviour
of our souls.
|