*****
“Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? I assure you, the contrary is true: I have come for division.”
This is a hard saying that we hear from Jesus in today’s Gospel. However, when we stop to consider our own experience of trying to faithfully live the Gospel, we realize that it is not merely a hard saying, but that it is also a hard truth.
Generally speaking, we experience this “division” in two ways.
First, our attempts to follow Jesus may produce division within ourselves. While our attempts to practice a life of devotion – as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews might say, to “lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us and persevere in running the race which lies ahead” - should be its own reward. On the contrary, it also brings its own share of struggles. Our daily effort to turn away from sin and to pursue a life of virtue is imperfect at best. Who of us cannot relate to Saint Peter’s confession of his failures to do what he should do and his apparent inability to refrain from doing things that he should not do? Many of us experience the spiritual life as a form of the game “Chutes and Ladders” wherein our virtues are hard-fought, and our vices come all too easily.
Francis de Sales knew of this experience all too well. He wrote:
“It may well turn out that this change in your life will cause you many problems. While you have bid a great, general farewell to the follies and vanities of the world, your decision brings on a feeling of sadness and discouragement.” (Introduction, Part IV, Chapter 2)
Second, our attempts to follow Jesus may produce division within our relationships with others. While doing what is right should be its own reward, we also know that sometimes “no good deed goes unpunished.” Francis de Sales observed:
“As soon as worldly people see that you wish to follow a devout life, they aim a thousand darts of mockery and even detraction at you. The most malicious of them will slander your conversion as hypocrisy, bigotry, and trickery. They will say that the world has turned against you and, being rebuffed by it, you have turned to God. Your friends may raise a host of objections that they consider very prudent and reasonable. They will tell you that you will become depressed, grow old before your time and that your affairs at home will suffer. They will say that you can save your soul without going to such extremes, and a thousand similar trivialities.” (Introduction, Part IV, Chapter 1)
Ironically, it is only in the midst of these experiences of division (both within ourselves and with others) that are sometimes part and parcel of our attempts at pursuing lives of devotion that we can have any hope of finding true peace: the peace that comes from our patient perseverance at being faithful to whom God calls us to be, regardless of how the voices within us and around us may try to dissuade us from our quest. Our experiences of the troubles that come with doing the right thing – living the right way – remind us of yet another hard truth. Peace has its price.
*****
“Blessed are you among women ...”
Our Salesian reflection for this Feast Day – the Assumption – comes entirely from Francis de Sales’ Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 14.
“I do not deny that the soul of the most Blessed Virgin had two portions, and therefore two appetites, one according to the spirit and superior reason, and the other according to sense and inferior reason, with the result that she could experience the struggle and contradiction of one appetite against the other. This burden was felt even by her Son. I say that in this heavenly Mother all affections were so well arranged and ordered that the love of God held empire and dominion most peaceably without being troubled by the diversity of wills and appetites or by contradiction of senses. Neither repugnance of natural appetite nor sensual movements ever went as far as sin, not even as far as venial sin. On the contrary, all was used holily and faithfully in the service of the holy love for the exercise of the other virtues which, for the most part, cannot be practiced except amid difficulty, opposition and contradiction…”
“As everyone knows, the magnet naturally draws iron towards itself by some power both secret and very wonderful. However, there are five things that hinder this operation: (1) if there is too great a distance between magnet and iron; (2) if there is a diamond placed between the two; (3) if the iron is greased; (4) if the iron is rubbed with onion; (5) if the iron is too heavy.”
“Our heart is made for God, and God constantly entices it and never ceases to cast before it the allurements of divine love. Yet five things impede the operation of this holy attraction: (1) sin, which removes us from God; (2) affection for riches; (3) sensual pleasures; (4) pride and vanity; (5) self-love, together with the multitude of disordered passions it brings forth, which are like a heavy load wearing it down.”
“None of these hindrances had a place in the heart of the glorious Virgin. She was: (1) forever preserved from all sin; (2) forever most poor in spirit; (3) forever most pure; (4) forever most humble; (5) forever the peaceful mistress of all her passions and completely exempt from the rebellion that self-love wages against the love of God. For this reason, just as the iron, if free from all obstacles and even from its own weight, would be powerfully yet gently drawn with steady attraction by the magnet – although in such ways that the attraction would always be more active and stronger according as they came closer together and their motion approached its end – so, too, the most Blessed Mother, since there is nothing in her to impede the operation of her Son’s divine love, was united with him in an incomparable union by gentle ecstasies without trouble or travail.”
“They were ecstasies in which the sensible part did not cease to perform its actions but without in any way disturbing the spiritual union, just as, in turn, perfect application of the spirit did not cause any great distraction to the senses. Hence, the Virgin’s death was the most gentle that can be imagined, for her Son sweetly drew her after the odor of his perfumes and she most lovingly flowed out after their sacred sweetness even to the bosom of her Son’s goodness. Although this holy soul had supreme love for her own most holy, most pure, and most lovable body, yet she forsook it without any pain or resistance…At the foot of the cross, love had given to this divine spouse the supreme sorrows of death. Truly, then, it was reasonable that in the end death would give her the supreme delights of love.”
*****
“It will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Riches themselves are not the greatest obstacle to our entering into the Kingdom of God. From a Salesian perspective, it is our desire for riches that poses the problem - the grandeur with which we protect them and the passion with which we pursue them.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:
“Your heart must be open to heaven alone and impervious to riches and all other transitory things. Whatever part of them you may possess, you must keep your heart free from too strong an affection for them. Always keep your heart above riches: even when your heart is surrounded by riches, see to it that your heart remains distinct from them and master over them. Do not allow your heavenly spirit to become captive to earthly things. Let your heart remain always superior to riches and over them – not in them… I willingly grant that you may take care to increase your wealth and resources, provided this is done not only justly but also properly and charitably.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 14, p. 163)
How can we determine if our possessions might be holding us back from the Kingdom of Heaven? Francis wrote:
“If you find your heart very desolated and devastated at the loss of anything you possess, then believe me when I tell you that you love it too much. The strongest proof of how deeply we are attached to possessions is the degree of suffering we experience when we lose it.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 14, p. 164)
Are we experiencing any difficulties entering into the Kingdom of Heaven during our journeys here on earth? Perhaps, it is because our possessions have somehow managed to possess us!
*****
“Are you envious because I am generous?”
The parable in today’s Gospel certainly suggests that those who labored the longest surely were envious! They felt cheated, because as we are told, they “grumbled” when they realized that the landowner had paid them the same amount as those who had barely worked a few hours!
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales counseled:
“We must be most careful not to spend much time wondering why God bestows a grace upon one person rather than another, or why God makes his favors abound on behalf of one rather than another. No, never give in to such musings. Since each of us has a sufficient – rather, an abundant measure of all things required or salvation – who in all the world can rightly complain if it pleases God to bestow his graces more largely on some than on others?” (Living Jesus, 0618, p. 246)
Of course, given how merciful and generous God is to us, we would never be envious or complain about somebody else having more than we do!
Would we?
*****
“I will give you a new heart...taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.”
When you ask people, “What is the worst thing that can happen to a human heart?” Many will instinctively or impulsively answer: “When it breaks.” As the reading from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel suggests, a broken heart doesn’t come anywhere close to the truly worst thing that can happen to the human heart - when it becomes hardened.
How does a heart become hardened? People don’t generally wake up one morning and just decide to harden their hearts all at once, do they? In truth, most hearts become hardened slowly, insidiously, and perhaps even silently over a long period of time.
Picture this image: what do nearly all small children do when they visit the beach for the first time? Almost instinctively (to the horror of their young parents!) they run fearlessly straight for the surf. Sure, they get knocked down. Sure, they get sand in places it doesn’t belong. Sure, there are the occasional tears and sobs associated with encountering the force of the ocean. But invariably, once they’ve recovered, most children can’t wait to return to where the action is - they learn not to allow the occasional hurt to deter them from happiness.
Not so for others. For some children, the day at the beach may begin a slow process from which they never recover. They learn to fear not only the ebb and flow of the surf but the ebb and flow of life itself. Knocked down one-too-many times, they gradually stop going into the water. Over time, they stop going to the beach. Over a lifetime they stop going anywhere near where the action is: they learn to play it safe so as not to get hurt ever again!
Saint Francis de Sales reminds us that we are born to love. That’s why we’re here - that’s what we’re all about - that’s where the action is. As with beachgoers in the roaring surf, love is fraught with risks. We sometimes get knocked down and around in our pursuit of love. We sometimes get embarrassed. We sometimes get hurt and we sometimes even feel like we’re drowning.
In the ups and downs of life – and love – resist the temptation to harden your heart. Resist the temptation to play it safe. Resist the temptation to avoid where the action is. Keep your heart open. Keep your heart trusting. Keep your heart human and keep your heart the way God intended – and created it – to be.
If you choose to love on the beach of life – if you allow your heart to wade into the waves, the surf, and the riptides of everyday relationships - your heart will be broken. Speaking for myself, I’ll take a broken heart over a hardened one any day.
*****
“Which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
The question put to Jesus in today’s Gospel is not an exercise of “Trivial Pursuit.” This question is not mere rhetoric. Ultimately, it is a question of life and death. Jesus’ answer is direct and to the point: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And when he describes the second as “like” the first, Jesus is saying that the two commandments are essentially one in the same.
In a letter to Madame Brulart, Francis de Sales wrote:
“We must consider our neighbors in who God wishes us to love and cherish then must exercise this love of our neighbor, making our affection manifest by our actions. Although we may sometimes feel that this runs against the grain, we must not give up our efforts on that account. We ought to bring our prayers and meditations to focus on this point, for, after having asked for the love of God, we must likewise ask for the love of our neighbor.” (Living Jesus, 0618, p. 246)
Today, how can we put these two great commandments into practice?
*****
“Do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you…”
But do not follow their example. Jesus’ criticism, of course, is directed at the scribes and the Pharisees. There is good news and bad news about these religious contemporaries of Jesus. The good news? They excelled at telling other people how to live a virtuous life! The bad news? They failed to practice what they preached. In other words, they lived life by a double standard. As Francis de Sales once described, they had two hearts:
“A mild, gracious and courteous attitude toward themselves and another that was hard, severe and rigorous toward their neighbors. They had two weights: one to weight goods to their own greatest possible advantage and another to weight their neighbors to their greatest disadvantage.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 216)
To make matters even worse, not only did the scribes and Pharisees weigh one weight to their neighbors’ greatest disadvantage, but they also laid heavy burdens on others – hard to carry – without lifting even so much as a finger to help carry them. Francis de Sales’ condemnation of living life by a double standard is short but not very sweet:
“To have two weights – one heavier with which to receive and the other lighter with which to dispense – ‘is an abominable thing to the Lord.’” (Ibid)
Today, do you want to be the greatest among others in the sight of God? Then live not by two standards, but by one: God’s standard. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees, try your level best this day to treat others as you would want them to treat you. Let others see in you someone who not only talks the talk but who walks the walk.
The talk – and walk – of love.
