July 19

St. Vincent De Paul

Preparation. - “Love,” says St. Paul, “is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13. 10). The twofold precept of charity, first the love of God, and secondly, the love of the neighbor, was practiced by St. Vincent in an heroic degree. We shall profit by this meditation by being determined henceforth to love God in Himself and in souls, His living images, and thus we shall fulfill the whole law.

I. St. Vincent, Model Of Divine Love.

Our saint practiced the love of his Creator by wholly conforming his mind, heart, sentiments and conduct with the divine will. This conformity was the soul of his life; he often spoke of it and so earnestly as to move his hearers. In order to practice it perfectly, he was always detached from his own will and form all that was not in accordance with God’s will; this he called holy indifference.

“A soul that is thus indifferent,” he would say, “resembles the angels in three ways: first, she walks in God’s presence; secondly, she is ever ready to perform God’s will; and thirdly, she prefers the lowest to the most exalted employments.” He practiced these three dispositions faithfully. He performed all his duties with recollection, seeking solely to please the Lord, in whose presence he worked with respect, confidence and love. Esteeming himself the last of all, he undertook to perform the most menial services for others, making himself, as he said, “like a beast of burden, ready to do every thing required, whenever and as required.” Thus did St. Vincent testify his love for God.

And what better proof can we give of our love of God than by dying to ourselves and to all that is not the supreme Good? Let us listen to our saint’s teaching on this point. “Do we not,” he would say, “feel hurt by a mere nothing, an imaginary wrong, a sharp word, a slight, a want of attention, a refusal, and this so far as to keep from ever forgetting it. But the holy indifference, required by divine love, takes away from us all desire, all resentment, for it detaches us from ourselves and from all creatures.”

Are these our dispositions to belong wholly to God? Does not a single word, a slight pain, disgust at prayer, or a feeling sadness and despondency, suffice to take away our peace, our devotion, our submission to the Lord, and all that true love requires?

O my God, how far am I from that perfection, which, according to St. Vincent, strips man of his self-will and enables him, like the angels, to find his happiness in Thy holy will! Enable me henceforth to die to myself and my own gratification, and to place my joy in fulfilling my duties, so as to glorify Thy holy name and fully to content Thy heart. “I do always the things that please Him.”

II. St. Vincent, Model Of Charity Towards The Neighbor.

The name of Vincent de Paul is synonymous with charity. Meek, kind and cordial, he was ever ready to receive every one, to do good to every body. “Nothing wins men’s hearts,” he would say, “so well as love and affability.” “The Lord,” he wrote to a bishop, “formerly armed heaven and earth against man, but without converting him. Was He not obliged to abase and humble Himself before man, in order to induce him to accept His yoke? And what God, with His omnipotence, could not obtain, how can we expect to obtain without kindness?” Faithful to this maxim, Vincent could not suffer his missionaries to be harsh. Having on three occasions during his life made severe reproofs, he owned that they had been unavailing, whilst perfect success crowned all his kind admonitions.

His compassion towards the needy was admirable. In them he beheld the Incarnate Word become poor for our sake. All spiritual and temporal wants found in him a father full of boundless affection and devotedness. Who could count the works and institutions inspired and realized by his ardent charity? How many beggars he clothed and provided with all their needs! How many provinces his liberality fed in times of famine! He founded institutions and hospitals, for foundlings, for abandoned old people, for the sick of all ages and conditions!

“It is God Himself,” he would say, “who receives the gifts of our charity; and is it not an unequalled happiness to be able to give Him what belongs to Him and what we have received from His bounty?” As a faithful imitator of Jesus Christ, St. Vincent carried the perfection of charity so far as to love his enemies. The more they injured him, the more he benefited them.

Do we act in like manner? How great is not our repugnance to forgive an injury, an injustice, to bear with our neighbor’s defects, with those whose character is disagreeable to us, to abstain from speaking ill of those who backbite, persecute or slander us?

O Jesus, O Mary, give me a heart like unto that of St. Vincent de Paul, that is, first, a kind, meek and affable heart, ever ready to forget affronts and slights; and secondly, a heart compassionate for all kinds of misery, prompt to relieve and render service, generous in its gifts, in its sacrifices and devotedness. For these dispositions alone include the whole law of the Gospel. “Love is the fulfilling of the law”.