For The Nine Days Following The Feast Of The Sacred Heart
Eighth Day - Solid Virtue
Preparation. - The frequent remembrance of the Lord is, without doubt, an excellent means of keeping ourselves unites with Him; but the most efficacious means is to strive to acquire real perfection. Wherefore let us consider, first, in what it consists, and secondly, how we may attain it. We shall then resolve to exercise ourselves daily in self-denial, as our Saviour so strongly urges us. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and follow Me” (Luke 9. 23).
I. In What Solid Virtue Consists.
“Solid virtue,” says St. Hypatius, “consists in giving up sensual pleasures, avoiding evil, doing good, and imitating the apostles who served God in watchings, fasts and labors.” A person's health is said to be solid, when it resists fatigue and the inclemencies of weather and seasons. The same may be said of the virtue of a soul. If it is depressed by the slightest difficulty, or overthrown by the least temptation, it possesses no real holiness, but only its shadow, its appearance.
We can, in fact, have beautiful thoughts about God, be filled with good sentiments, taste the sweetness of devotion, shed abundant tears at mental prayer and holy Communion, without, however, possessing the firmness and constancy requisite for solid virtue. This virtue has its source rather in principle than in sentiments; it never changes, though every thing else around it may change. Believing today what it believed yesterday, it is true to duty, in spite of all obstacles; whether in the cell or on the scaffold, it shows itself ever the same, without varying or faltering. Such is the true piety, which unites us to Jesus.
Have we always thus practically understood it? When nothing excites our curiosity, we are modest and recollected; we are charitable towards those we like; obedient when every thing agrees with our humor, desires and will; but are we equally docile, obliging, submissive to God, when our passions entice us to do the contrary? We pray fervently, when we feel a sensible devotion; but do we not often neglect our reading, our meditation, our examination of conscience, when we do not feel disposed thereunto?
Is this serving Jesus with generous courage? If we love only those who love us, He says, what reward do we deserve? Do not the heathen and the publicans do the same? If we salute only our relatives and friends, what do we do more than the heathen? But if we wish to deserve the beautiful title of servants of the true God, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; pray for those who persecute and calumniate you” (Mat. 5. 46, 44). Thus you will give proofs of real virtue.
O my God, hitherto I have had the appearance and beginning of piety, but not the reality of the perfection possessed by the saints. Deign, therefore, to enlighten, purify, strengthen and change me, and to make my heart like unto theirs, and according to that of Jesus crucified, our Head and Model.
II. How To Acquire Solid Virtue.
We follow the road of true perfection, says St. Alphonsus, when we endeavor to despise ourselves, to mortify our own inclinations, and to conform ourselves in all things to God's holy will.
To succeed in sincerely despising ourselves, we ought to study the defects of our fallen nature, its helplessness to do good, its propensity to evil; also to consider the malice and hideousness of our sins and of those we are capable of committing, when unaided by grace; to learn to know our inconstancy, our frailty, our misery ever springing up notwithstanding so many means and helps to remedy them. What humble sentiments of ourselves will not this sight, this daily repeated examination impress on us!
This will inspire us with the desire of reforming our perverse nature, of preventing its going astray, combating its depraved propensities and instincts, and rendering it conformable to the model given us in Jesus Christ, whose life was a continual sacrifice. After entirely immolating Himself, He gave Himself to us in the Eucharist, to show the necessity of sacrificing every thing to Him, if we wish unreservedly and forever belong to Him. Since He became our perpetual victim in the tabernacles, has He not the right to require of us in return a constant self-denial?
By this means, moreover, our will shall be, as it were, identified with His; in this consists real perfection, which makes us ever ready to perform whatever God desires or may desire of us, and induce us to embrace all the trials God destines to us. Such a disposition procures us the merit of both the virtues we desire to practice and the trials we are willing to accept.
Hence it is advantageous for us to resolve, first, to obey the Lord in all our actions; and, consequently, to meditate, pray, labor, take our meals, our rest with the sole intention of glorifying and pleasing the supreme Good; and secondly, to bear courageously our daily trials, and, at the same time, to be ready to embrace even greater ones, were God so to will it.
O Jesus and Mary, banish from my heart the vain fears and idle desires, which hinder me from surrendering myself to your good pleasure. Habitually recall your sufferings to my mind, that the very thought of them may fortify my courage, strengthen my hope, and enable me to practice obedience and resignation, these virtues which are so necessary for my progress and perseverance.
