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

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Fourth Sunday After Easter



Morning Meditation

“BE SLOW TO ANGER” (Epistle of Sunday. James i. 17, 21).

St. Jerome says that anger is the door by which all vices enter the soul. Let us implore God to preserve us from yielding to any strong passion, and particularly to anger. For he that submits to such a passion is exposed to great danger of falling into grievous sin against God or his neighbour. Let us look on Jesus Crucified and we shall not dare to complain.

I.

St. Jerome says that anger is the door by which all vices enter the soul. According to St. Bonaventure, an angry man is incapable of distinguishing between what is right and what is wrong. The anger of man worketh not the justice of God-(James i. 20). He that submits to such a passion is exposed to great danger of falling into grievous sin against God, or his neighbour. Thus, when we receive an insult, we must do violence to ourselves and restrain our anger. Let us either answer with meekness or let us remain silent; and thus, as St. Isidore says, we shall conquer. But, if you answer through passion, you will do harm to yourselves and others. It would be still worse to give an angry answer to a person who corrects you. St. Bernard says that some are not angry though they ought to be indignant with those who wound their souls by flattery; but they are filled with indignation against the person who corrects them in order to heal their irregularities. Against the man who abhors correction, the sentence of perdition has, according to the Wise Man, been pronounced. Because they have despised all my reproofs . . . the prosperity of fools shall destroy them-(Prov. i. 30, 32). Fools regard as prosperity to be free from correction, or to despise the admonitions they receive; but such prosperity is the cause of their ruin. When you meet with an occasion of anger you must be on your guard not to allow anger to enter your heart. Be not quickly angry-(Eccles. vii. 10). Some persons change colour and get into a passion, at every contradiction: and when anger has got admission, no one knows to what it shall lead them. Hence it is necessary to foresee these occasions in our meditations and prayers; for, unless we are prepared for them it will be as difficult to restrain anger as to put a bridle on a runaway horse. If, however, we have the great misfortune to permit anger to enter the soul, let us be careful not to allow it to remain. Jesus Christ tells all who remember that a brother is offended with them not to offer the gift which they bring to the altar without being first reconciled to their neighbour. Go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift-(Matth. v. 24). And he who has received any offence should endeavour to root out of his heart not only all anger but also every feeling of bitterness towards the persons who have offended him. Let all bitterness, says St. Paul, and anger and indignation … be put away from you-(Ephes. iv. 31). As long as anger continues, follow the advice of Seneca: “When you shall be angry do nothing, say nothing which may be dictated by anger.” Like David, be silent, and do not speak when you feel that you are disturbed. I was troubled, and I spoke not-(Ps. lxxvi. 5). How many, when inflamed with anger, say and do what they afterwards in their calmer moments regret.


II.

It is necessary, of course, to remember that it is not possible for human weakness, in the midst of so many occasions, to be altogether free from every motion of anger. No one, as Seneca says, can be entirely exempt from this passion. All our efforts must be directed to the moderation of the feelings of anger which spring up in the soul. How are they to be moderated? By meekness. This is called the virtue of the lamb-that is, the beloved virtue of Jesus Christ. Because like a lamb, without anger or even complaint, He bore the sorrows of His Passion and Crucifixion. He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth-(Is. liii. 7). Hence He taught us to learn of Him meekness and humility of heart. Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart–(Matth. xi. 29).

Oh, how pleasing in the sight of God are the meek, who submit in peace to all crosses, misfortunes, persecutions, and injuries! To the meek is promised the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land-(Matth. v. 4). They are called the children of God. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God-(Matth. v. 9). Some boast of their meekness but without any grounds; for they are meek only towards those who praise and confer favours upon them, but to those who injure or censure them they are all fury and vengeance. The virtue of meekness consists in being meek and peaceful towards those who hate and maltreat us. With them that hated peace I was peaceful-(Ps. cxix. 6).

We must, as St. Paul says, put on the bowels of mercy towards all men, and bear one with another. Put ye on the bowels of mercy, humility, modesty, patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another?-Col. iii. 12). You wish others to bear with your defects, and to pardon your faults; you should act in the same manner towards them. Whenever, then, you receive an insult from a person enraged against you, remember that a mild answer breaketh wrath-(Prov. xv. I). A certain monk once passed through a cornfield: the owner of the field ran out and spoke to him in very offensive and injurious language. The monk humbly replied: Brother, you are right; I have done wrong; pardon me. By this answer the husbandman was so much appeased that he instantly became calm, and even wished to follow the monk and enter into Religion. The proud make use of the humiliations they receive to increase their pride; but the humble and the meek turn the contempt and insults offered to them into an occasion of advancing in humility. “He,” says St. Bernard, “is humble who converts humiliation into humility.”

“A man of meekness,” says St. John Chrysostom, “is useful to himself and to others.” The meek are useful to themselves because, according to Father Alvarez, the time of humiliation and contempt is for them the time of merit. Hence Jesus Christ calls His disciples happy when they shall be reviled and persecuted. Blessed are ye when they shall trevile you and and persecute you-(Matth. v. 11). Hence the Saints have always desired to be despised as Jesus Christ was despised. The meek are useful to others, because, as the same St. John Chrysostom says, there is nothing better calculated to draw others to God than to see a Christian meek and cheerful when he receives an injury or an insult. The reason is because virtue is known by being tried; and, as gold is tried by fire, so the meekness of men is proved by humiliation. Gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation-(Ecclus. ii. 5).

Spiritual Reading

VITA, DULCEDO![b] HAIL, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS![/b]

XX.-MARY IS OUR LIFE, BECAUSE SHE OBTAINS FOR US PERSEVERANCE

Final perseverance is so great a gift of God that, as was declared by the Holy Council of Trent, it is quite gratuitous on God’s part, and we cannot merit it. Yet we are told by St. Augustine that all who seek for it obtain it from God; and, according to Father Suarez, they obtain it infallibly, if only they are diligent in asking for it to the end of their lives. For, as Blessed Bellarmine well remarks, “that which is daily required must be asked for every day!” Now, if it is true (and I hold it as certain, according to the now generally received opinion) that all the graces God dispenses to men pass through the hands of Mary, it will be equally true that it is only through Mary that we can hope for this greatest of all graces-perseverance. And we shall obtain it most certainly, if we always seek it with confidence through Mary. This grace she herself promises to all who serve her faithfully during life, in the following words of Ecclesiasticus, and which are applied to her by the Church on the Feast of her Immaculate Conception: They that work by me shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting-(EccIus. xxiv. 30).

In order that we may be preserved in the life of grace, we require spiritual fortitude to resist the many enemies of our salvation. Now this fortitude can be obtained only by means of Mary, and we are assured of it in the Book of Proverbs, for the Church applies the passage to this most Blessed Virgin. Strength is mine; by me kings reign-(Prov. viii. 14); meaning by the words strength is mine that God has bestowed this precious gift on Mary in order that she may dispense it to her faithful clients. And by the words ‘By me kings reign’ she signifies that by her means her servants reign over and command their senses and passions, and thus become worthy to reign eternally in Heaven. Oh, what strength do the servants of this great Lady possess to overcome all the assaults of hell! Mary is that tower spoken of in the sacred Canticles: Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks; a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men-(Cant. iv. 4). She is as a well defended fortress in defence of her lovers who, in their wars, have recourse to her. In her do her clients find all shields and arms to defend themselves against hell.

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XXVI.-” CHARITY IS PATIENT.”-THE SOUL THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST LOVES TO SUFFER

I.

A soul that loves God has no other end in view than to be wholly united with Him; but let us learn from St. Catherine of Genoa what is necessary to be done to arrive at this perfect union: “To attain union with God, adversities are indispensable,” she says, “because by them God aims at destroying all our corrupt propensities within and without. And hence all injuries, contempt, infirmities, abandonment by relations and friends, Confusion, temptations, and other mortifications-all are in the highest degree necessary for us in order that we may carry on the fight until by repeated victories we come to extinguish within us all vicious movements, so that they are no longer felt; and we shall never arrive at Divine union until adversities, instead of seeming bitter to us, become all sweet for God’s sake.”


II.

It follows, then, that a soul that sincerely desires to belong to God must be resolved, as St. John of the Cross writes, not to seek enjoyments in this life, but to suffer in all things; she must embrace with eagerness all voluntary mortifications, and with still greater eagerness those which are involuntary, since they are the more welcome to Almighty God: “The patient man is better than the valiant.” God is pleased with a person who practises mortification by fasting, cilices, and disciplines, on account of the courage displayed in such mortifications; but He is much more pleased with those who have the courage to bear patiently and gladly such crosses as come from His own Divine hand. St. Francis de Sales said: “Such mortifications as come to us from the hand of God, or from men by His permission, are always more precious than those which are the offspring of our own will; for it is a general rule that wherever there is less of our own choice, God is better pleased, and we ourselves derive greater profit.” St. Teresa taught the same thing: “We gain more in one day by the oppositions which come to us from God or from our neighbour than by ten years of mortification self-inflicted.”