SERMON XXXI
On a Holy Martyr's Day
Of three roots of spiritual temptation by which holy men are
secretly assailed; spiritual unchastity, covetousness and
pride.
Beatus vir gui suffert tentationem.
"Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation."
All our life, says Job, so long as we are upon
earth, is full of struggle and temptation, insomuch that this life is not
called a life by the Saints, but a temptation. When one temptation is over,
straightway others are awaiting us; and the cause is that our Lord will have us
to go and bring forth fruit; and the fruit is to walk in the ways of God and go
forward; for the fruit consists in the very overcoming of temptation, from
which we may draw out a hidden spiritual sweetness, as the bees suck honey from
the thorn bushes as well as from all other flowers. He who has not yet been
tempted knows nothing, nor lives as yet, say the wise man Solomon and the holy
teacher St Bernard. We find more than t thousand testimonies in Scripture to
the great profit of temptation; for it is the special sign of the Love of God
towards a man for him to be tempted and yet kept from falling; for thus he must
and shall of a certainty receive the crown, like the Martyr whose death the
Christian Church commemorates this day, singing of him that he is blessed
because he hath endured temptation, and has been tried and proved therein, that
he might receive the Crown of Life, which the Lord has promised to them that
love Him.
Now observe, dear children, that there are two
kinds of temptation. The one is carnal, and has its sphere in the kingdom of
sense in this present life, as when a man is tempted through his outward senses
to seek his happiness in other men, be they friends or relations or any others,
or to undue fondness for the outward show of life, such as dress, jewels,
books, instruments, a pleasant abode, and other transitory creatures; and
wilfully cleaves there unto with manifold affections, and they stick to him
like burrs. At times our outward senses are left in peace, and are quite of all
assaults; yet is the man strangely assaulted inwardly in his flesh and blood by
unseemly thoughts; but, however impure may be these temptations, and however
horrible they may look, they cannot of themselves defile a man's purity. St
Gregory says: "Temptations do not defile a man except through his own slackness
and want of diligence in turning aside from them."
The other sort of temptation is inward and
spiritual, and has its seat in the realm of the intellect. The workings of the
Spirit and of nature are so mingled together and interwoven as long as we are
in this present life, that all our inward exercises and converse with God are
carried on at the same time with all the motions and workings of nature.
Moreover, our Lord has so ordained it for our good, that the evil angel, Satan,
has power to transform himself before the inward eye of the mind into an angel
of light; and he does it most of all at those times when a man gathers up all
his powers to enter into communion with God. Observe, dear children, that St
John divides sin into three kings, when he says all that is of the world is
"the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." As
these three sins that reign in the world exist together in the flesh, so do
they also reign inwardly in the mind under a spiritual guide. Outward sins are
very clear and easy to see, if a man have a mind to watch himself; but these
mental sins are in many ways more covert, and can be put on such a good face
that we are often hardly aware of the grievous fall that is close at hand.
Now mark, it is to be counted as spiritual
unchastity or wantonness, when a man seeks himself too much, and with eager
desire strives after warmth and sensible devoutness, to the end that he may
always be in a state of contentment, and none may have a right to reprove him,
though he shall give himself to his own special prayers and religious
exercises, while leaving unfulfilled the work that is his duty. When such an
one has none of these sweet emotions, he is quite troubled, and becomes peevish
and very impatient in the trifling mishaps that befall him, though they are
really of no importance whatever; and when he cannot obtain joy or inward peace
according to his desire, he complains of the great grievances and temptations
which he has to endure. St Bernard says, that our Lord bestows these graces of
sensible emotion upon such as have done nothing to deserve them nor are worthy
of them; but He does this in mercy, that He may draw such to His love; and He
withholds these gifts from some who have undergone long and painful exercises,
and were well fit to receive them; yea, from some He withholds them all their
life long; but He will give them a great recompense for it in the next life.
The reason of His thus withholding sensible delight is, that our spiritual
fruitfulness and highest blessedness do not lie therein, but in our inward
trusting and clinging to God, in our not seeking ourselves either in sorrow or
joy, but through joy and sorrow devoting ourselves to God, and, like poor
unworthy servants, offering ourselves to Him at our own costs, though we should
have to serve Him thus for ever. Yet it may indeed be permitted to a young weak
Christian, at the outset of his course, to pray for such graces or gifts from
our good God, in order to be able to glorify Him with the greater activity, and
to be grounded the more firmly to His love. But when we desire such inward
fervours and sweet peace (which are His gifts and not our deserts) more for
their own sake than for the Giver Himself, we fall into spiritual wantonness
and black disloyalty, which our good God has not deserved at our hands, with
His utter renunciation of Himself outwardly and inwardly.
Spiritual covetousness is when a man is always
coveting to have more than bare necessities, while pursuing this earthly
pilgrimage. For what more should a pilgrim take with him by the way, than such
things as are needful to sustain him till he come safely to his home? Believe
me, it is a great blemish in true outward poverty to desire aught beyond
necessaries; so likewise, it is a still greater blemish in the inward poverty
of the spirit. Ah! who has ever been so poor as He, Who, in utter poorness of
spirit stood forsaken by Heaven and by the creatures, cast out alone in utter
exile, when He sent forth that bitter cry: "My God, My God! why hast Thou
forsaken Me?" And this was all that He might be an Ensample unto us, to comfort
our poverty and bereavement by teaching us true submission. I hear thee saying:
"Yes, if it were not my own fault, and if I had not failed to receive the
blessing through my own heedlessness, or thrown it away by mine own guilty
folly, I could bear it all the better; what should I then have to mourn over?
But now it is all my own doing; I have brought the mischief upon myself." I
answer, do not let this lead thee astray; dost thou not know how that it is
written: "The just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again;" and dost thou
think to stand always? Yes, I assert and confess with thee that it is thine own
fault, that thou hast brought it upon thyself and well deserved it; yet,
nevertheless, it is better that thou shouldst with firm trust pray our kind God
for His peace (Who knows thy weakness, and is ready to forgive thy trespasses
seventy times seven in a day), than that thou shouldst thus drive thyself back
in thy course with such faintheartedness. O child, hast thou fallen? arise, and
go with childlike trust to thy Father, like the prodigal son, and humbly say
with heart and mouth: "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee,
and am no more worthy to be called Thy son, make me as one of Thy hired
servants." And what will thy Heavenly Father do, but what that father did in
the parable? Assuredly He will not change His Essence, which is Love, for the
sake of thy misdoings. Is it not His own precious treasure, and a small thing
with Him, to forgive thee thy trespasses, if thou believe in Him? for His Hand
is not shortened that it cannot make thee fit to be saved. Therefore, beware of
spiritual covetousness, for the poorer thou art in thine own eyes when thou
comest to Him, the more acceptable art thou in His sight, and the more richly
He will endow thee and clothe thee out of His treasures.
Spiritual pride is when a man is not willing to
be put to shame in his own eyes on account of his transgressions, but is ever
trying to excuse and gloss over his faults, and is ever willing to spare
himself, even in small matters. And this often leads people to make many
useless and wrong speeches in order to excuse themselves and to justify
themselves in every respect; as much as to say, "I am not the man to be accused
of this and that"; and they are unwilling to remember or consider that he who
cannot clear himself with the simple truth, will not be helped by the untruths
by which he often adds to his guilt; and that a man who humbles himself before
God is more in His eyes than an arrogant, self-righteous man, who deems himself
able to answer for all his deeds with his own righteousness. Hearken, dear
child, what does all our righteousness come to at last? Esaias saith: "All our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags;" and, however great our righteousness is or
might become, yet, if the Lord should sit in judgment on us, without doubt we
should have to confess ourselves His debtors, and place all our hopes in His
mercy. Our Lord often disciplines a man by his own failings, if he is humble
under them and throws himself at God's Feet; for God will have every knee to
bend before Him, and will have the praise and glory of all goodness. Hence we
may observe that there is often a secret pride within us, from which many
unseemly points do grow. But he who gives diligence to beware of spiritual
wantonness, covetousness and pride, shall be kept from straying out of God's
ways, or falling into error in his inward exercises.
But, in order to keep yourselves from these sins,
and to withstand this kind of temptation, you must observe these rules of which
I will tell you. The first is: None of the inward difficulties that rise up
from within, or the adverse circumstances that stay our hands from working, by
which we are drawn or pressed into the likeness and conformity to the humble
Image of Christ and His Saints (not alone outwardly, but that of their inward
condition), can be the work either of evil spirits or of nature, but without a
doubt come from God. For He is the Highest Good, and from the Highest Good
nought but what is good can flow; and all the goodness that God gives us of His
stores, and that we render back again to Him, has proceeded from Him as its
Source; just as all streams flow back again to their source, the ocean, whence
they have arisen; and all things do rejoice in their return. But all that draws
us and leads us aside from such conformity and likeness, proceeds without doubt
from the Spirit of Evil, who is ever on the watch to disturb and draw us down;
as our Lord said: "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who gathereth
not with Me scattereth." This rule is against the first spiritual vice, that of
wantonness.
The second rule is: Whatever befalls a man
inwardly, whereby he is brought to a closer and more sensible gathering up of
all his affections and impulses in singleness of heart into a steadfast trust
in and love of the Father's lovingkindness, and not his own works and
experiences; this is from God. And he who at all times sees himself to be a
poor beggar, however fair his works may seem, the more narrowly he looks into
his own heart, and the more mastery he gains over himself, the more does he
discover his own nakedness of all virtue. He becomes aware in himself that he
is nothing but an empty worthless vessel, fitted, not unto honour but unto
eternal destruction, which vessel God alone must and will fill with His grace.
When we cling to Him, suffer Him to have access to our spirits, and do not
defend ourselves with ourselves, that work is no doubt of God, by which a man
is driven into himself to learn his own poverty. But the suggestions of the
Enemy and of nature rob and despoil a man of all the benefits of his virtues;
and this is the case wherever a man does not know his own real state, and
thinks to possess what he never had, and says (as it is written): "I am rich
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," and knows not that he is
"wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." This is the rule against
spiritual covetousness.
The third rule is: Whatever befalls a man by
which he is lessened and humbled in his own inmost emotions, and which makes
him bend under the Almighty Hand of God, under all creatures, abasing and
annihilating himself in true humility; this comes no doubt from God. For as
Lucifer and his followers desired to be great and lofty, and were therefore
thrust down from Heaven, so are we led back again to Heaven by self-abasement;
as it is said of the Kings of the East, that they travelled back into their own
land again by another way.
Thus does every being do and teach according to
that which is his essence, drawing into his own likeness all whom there are to
draw, so far as in him lies. The Evil Spirit is puffed up in his own obstinate
conceit, and in the loftiness of his pride is so hardened and unbending in his
own stiff-necked will and purpose, that neither to win Heaven nor for anything
else will he humble himself for one moment, so fixed is he in his evil mind. So
likewise is it with all the proud, who have learnt of him to trust in their own
understandings, above all other men's opinion and reason; wherefore they fall
into strife and variance with their neighbours, which begets much trouble and
disquiet of heart; and hence arise many breaches of brotherly love. They will
take reproof from none, and grow so hardened in their own obstinate, evil will,
and set upon their purposes, that they rashly dare to withstand all the
admonitions of God and His Friends; as the Jewish scribes and priests withstood
our Blessed Lord; and of such the prophet Esaias, speaking in the person of
Christ, complains: "I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious
people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts."
But our blessed Lord, on the contrary, is meek
and humble; yea, He is Himself the essence of humility, whereunto He is
unceasingly drawing all men whom there are to draw, and who are willing to be
drawn. His Being is the cause, the essence and the origin of all things. He is
the Life of the living, the Resurrection of the dead, the Restorer of all
deformity and unfitness, and of those who have corrupted and despoiled
themselves through sin. He calleth back those who have fallen away and have
wandered from His fold. He raised up and confirmeth those who are in
temptation. He is the Bulwark of those who stand, the Awakener and Guide of all
who are looking and striving upwards towards Him, the Source of all light, the
Lamp of all who walk in light, the Revealer of mysteries, in so far as it is
fitting for us to know, and the Beginning of all beginnings. His Essence is
incomprehensible, unspeakable and without a name. Therefore should we honour
and glorify His unspeakable Mystery with holy reverence and silence, and
nevermore covet to fathom or to taste aught except in so far as is to His
honour and to our profit; but ever, with fit reverence and devoutness, turn
with all our might in shamefaced awe to contemplate the radiance of His bright
and spotless Mirror. It behoves man to be ever in fear, and to bethink him of
the word that God, our Lord, spake by the mouth of Moses: "If a man or a beast
touch the mountain, he shall be stoned"; which signifies that our animal senses
must not presume to clime the Mount of the Divine Essence, but must rather keep
themselves below and take the nearest place, until the time come when it shall
be said unto the man: "Friend, come up higher." And then he shall not go up of
himself, but he shall suffer himself to be led upwards; and his sensual nature
shall be purified and endowed with the Light of God, whereby he shall receive
more light than he could ever win by all his great and strenuous labour. For
the Divine Nature of Christ is a magnet that draws unto itself all spirits and
hearts that bear its likeness, and daily unites them to itself through love.
Now Richard of St Victor says: "I receive Christ
not alone on the Cross, but also in His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. But I
may not receive Him there except I find James, Peter and John, Moses and Elias
with Him, who bear witness to me that it is truly Christ." That is to say: in
all our distresses, in all our painful inward destitution, we may boldly
believe that Christ is present with us; but, if He appears to us on the mount
of inward contemplation, we need these witnesses, that we may not enjoy the
fruitation of His gifts in a wanton spirit, for the satisfaction of our own
desires, nor too ardently covet more of His good gifts than we can put to a
good use; but may ever abase ourselves so thoroughly that we fall not into any
spiritual pride. These are the true witnesses, that we may freely receive
Christ in His Glory on the heights of Mount Tabor, without hindrance or error;
for where these witnesses are of a truth, there we cannot be deceived by the
spirit of falsehood. May Almighty God help us so to do! Amen.