St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Third Week after Easter

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Thursday – Third Week After Easter

Morning Meditation

CHARITY TO BE PRACTISED IN WORDS

Father Alvarez used to say that virtue is weak till it is proved by ill-treatment from others. It is by the manner in which she bears with contempt and insult that a soul shows whether she abounds or fails in charity. O my God! What a sad thing to see certain souls, who practise mental prayer and frequent the Sacraments, so sensitive to every mark of disrespect or inattention!

I.

Let us consider how meekness is to be practised. In the first place, endeavour with all your might to restrain every motion of anger. In the next place, you must be careful to abstain from all disagreeable words, and to avoid all roughness and haughtiness of manner; for rude conduct is sometimes more offensive than insulting language. Should a person ever treat you with contempt, suffer it in patience for the love or Jesus Christ, who for the love of you has borne with far greater insults. My God! what a misery to see certain souls, who practise mental prayer and frequent the Sacraments, so sensitive to every mark of disrespect or inattention! Sister Mary of the Ascension, as often as she received an affront, went immediately before the Blessed Sacrament, and said: My Spouse, I bring you this little present; I beg you to accept it, and to pardon the person by whom I have been offended. Why do you not imitate this holy Religious? To preserve charity you must suffer all things. Father Alvarez used to say that virtue is weak till it is proved by ill-treatment from others. It is by the manner in which she bears with contempt and insult that a soul shows whether she abounds or fails in charity.

Should anyone ever address you in the language of passion, or even of insult and reproach, answer with sweetness, and his anger will be instantly appeased. A mild answer breaketh wrath-(Prov. xv. 1). St. John Chrysostom says: “Fire cannot be extinguished by fire, nor wrath by anger.” Do you imagine that by replying with acrimony to those who speak to you in anger you will calm passion? On the contrary, you will provoke it, and will also violate charity. Let your answer to every word of anger be full of sweetness, and the fire of passion will be instantly extinguished. Sophronius relates that two monks having missed their way on a journey, entered by chance into a field in which seed had been just sown. The man who was intrusted with the care of the field burst into a fit of rage and heaped upon them every epithet of reproach. At first they were silent, but seeing that their silence served only to inflame his anger they exclaimed: “Brother, we have done wrong; for God’s sake pardon us.” This humble answer calmed his passion and filled his soul with sorrow for his conduct. He immediately asked pardon of the monks for his injurious language-he even left the world afterwards and joined them in the cloister.


II.

You will sometimes think it right and even necessary to repress by a sharp answer the forwardness of another, particularly if you are a Superior, and he be wanting in respect for you; but be assured that such sharpness proceeds from passion rather than from reason. I know that anger is sometimes lawful. Be angry, says the Psalmist, and sin not-(Ps. iv. 5). But to be angry and not to sin is very difficult in practice. Whoever abandons himself to anger exposes his soul to imminent danger. Hence St. Francis de Sales wisely teaches in his Philothea, that however just the occasions of anger may be, its motions should be repressed. “It is better,” says the Saint, “to have it said of you that you are never angry, than that you were justly angry.” St. Augustine says that anger once allowed to enter the soul is banished with difficulty; and therefore he strongly recommends us to stifle it in its very origin. A certain philosopher called Agrippinus, having lost his property, said: “If I have lost my goods I will not lose my peace.” Let such be your language as often as you receive any offence. Is it not enough for you to have received an affront? Do you wish, moreover, to lose the peace of your soul by yielding to anger? The disturbance of mind occasioned by anger will be far more injurious to you than the insult that you have received. St. Augustine says that he who yields to passion on every occasion of insult is his own chastiser. Disquiet of soul, even when it arises from a regret for a fault, is always injurious. For, as St. Aloysius used to say, it delights the devil to fish in troubled waters.

I have said that when someone speaks to you in the language or tone of passion or contempt you should answer with sweetness. But I now say that whenever the soul is disturbed it is better to be silent; for passion will then make harsh expressions appear just and reasonable. But when peace returns you will see that your language was altogether unjustifiable. St. Bernard says that anger draws over the soul a dark veil which renders her incapable of distinguishing what is right from what is wrong.

When the person who has offended you comes to ask pardon, be careful not to receive him with a stern countenance, nor to show discontent or want of respect by your words or looks. But whenever you offend or displease another, endeavour at once, by all means in your power to make satisfaction to the person, and to remove from his heart all feelings of aversion towards you. St. Bernard says that “humility alone is the reparation of wounded charity.” Self-humiliation is the most efficacious means of repairing the violation of charity. Whenever, then, you offend against charity, humble yourself immediately, overcome by force your natural repugnance to humiliation: the longer you defer the reparation of the fault you have committed, the more your repugnance to make reparation will increase. If, says the Redeemer, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee; leave there thy offering before the altar and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming, thou shalt offer thy gift -(Matt. v. 23, 24). If you come to the altar to offer your gift, to receive the Holy Eucharist, or to attend Mass, and remember that you have offended a brother, retire from the altar and be reconciled to him.

Spiritual Reading

SALVE, REGINA, MATER MISERICORDlAE! HAIL, HOLY QUEEN, MOTHER OF MERCY!

X.-THE GREATNESS OF THE LOVE THIS MOTHER BEARS US

Mary is so good to all, even to the ungrateful and negligent, who love her but little and seldom have recourse to her, how much more loving will she be to those who love her and often call upon her! She is found by them that seek her-(Wisd. vi. 13). “Oh, how easy,” says Blessed Albert the Great, “it is for those who love Mary to find her, and to find her full of compassion and love!” In the words of the Book of Proverbs, I love them that love me-(Prov. viii. 17), she protests that she cannot do otherwise than love those who love her. And although this most loving Lady loves all men as her children, yet, says St. Bernard. “she recognises and loves”-that is, she loves in a more special manner those who love her more tenderly. Blessed Raymond Jordano asserts that these happy lovers of Mary are not only loved but even served by her; for he says that those who find the most Blessed Virgin Mary find all; for she loves those who love her, nay more, she serves those who serve her.

In the Chronicles of the Order of St. Dominic it is related that one of the friars named Leonard used to recommend himself two hundred times a day to this Mother of Mercy, and that when he was attacked by his last illness he saw a most beautiful queen by his side who thus addressed him : “Leonard, wilt thou die, and come and dwell with my Son and with me?” “And who art thou?” he replied. “I am,” said the Most Blessed Virgin, for she it was, “I am the Mother of Mercy: thou hast so many times invoked me. Behold, I am now come to take thee; let us go together to Paradise.” On the same day Leonard died, and, as we trust, followed her to the kingdom of the blessed.

“Ah, most sweet Mary!” exclaimed St. John Berchmans, of the Society of Jesus, “blessed is he who loves thee! If I love Mary I am certain of perseverance, and will obtain whatever I wish from God.” Therefore the devout youth was never tired of renewing his resolution, and of repeating often to himself: “I will love Mary; I will love Mary.”

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XVI.-HOW MUCH WE ARE OBLIGED TO LOVE JESUS CHRIST

I.

Jesus Christ as God has a claim on all our love; but by the love which He has shown us He wished to put us, so to speak, under the necessity of loving Him, at least in gratitude for all He has done and suffered for us. He has greatly loved us that we might love Him greatly. “Why does God love us but that He may be loved?” wrote St. Bernard. And Moses had said the same: And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear the Lord thy God . .. and love him -(Deut. x. 12). Therefore the first command which He gave us was this: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart-(Deut. vi. 5).

And St. Paul says that love is the fulfilling of the law: Love is the fulfilling of the law-(Rom. xv. 10). For “fulfilling” the Greek text has the “embracing of the law”-love embraces the entire law. And who indeed, at the sight of a crucified God dying for our love can refuse to love Him?

Those Thorns, those Nails, that Cross, those Wounds, and that Blood call upon us, and irresistibly urge us to love Him Who has loved us so much. One heart is too little wherewith to love this God so enamoured of us. In order to requite the love of Jesus Christ, it would require another God to die for His love. “Ah, why,” exclaims St. Francis de Sales, “do we not throw ourselves on Jesus Christ to die on the Cross with Him Who was pleased to die there for the love of us?” The Apostle clearly impresses on us that Jesus Christ died for us for this end, that we might no longer live for ourselves but solely for that God Who died for us: Christ died for all, that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them-(2 Cor. v. 15).


II.

And the recommendation of Ecclesiasticus is here to the point: Forget not the kindness of thy surety; for he hath given his life for thee-(Ecclus. xxix. 19). Be not unmindful of Him Who has stood surety for thee; Who, to satisfy for thy sins, was willing to payoff, by His death, the debt of punishment due from thee. Oh, how desirous is Jesus Christ that we should continually remember His Passion! And how it saddens Him to see that we are so unmindful of it! Should a person endure for one of his friends affronts, blows, and imprisonment, how afflicting would it be for him to know that that friend afterwards never gave it a thought, and cared not even to hear it spoken of! On the contrary how gratified would he be to know that his friend constantly spoke of it with the warmest gratitude, and often thanked him for it. So it is pleasing to Jesus Christ when we preserve in our minds a grateful and loving recollection of the sorrows and death He underwent for us. Jesus Christ was the desired of the ancient Fathers; He was the desired of all nations before He was yet come upon earth. Now, how much more ought He to be our only desire and our only love, now that we know that He is really come, and are aware how much He has done and suffered for us-so that He even died upon the Cross for love of us!