Goodness and Christian Courtesy - Cardinal Bacci

Goodness and Christian Courtesy

1. Christian perfection, when it is genuine and practical, should be reflected externally in our appearance, in our conversation, and in our behaviour. Discourtesy, sharpness of manner, offensive speech, and all that is rude or displeasing, are signs that we are lacking or weak in virtue.

On the other hand, if we have succeeded in conquering all our evil inclinations and in regulating our interior faculties, so that they are subject to right reason and to the divine law, then our virtue will be reflected in our speech and in our actions. It was this spiritual charm that made the Saints fascinating to those who knew them or came in contact with them, making them wish to reform their own lives and to strive towards perfection. St. Francis de Sales said that courtesy is the frame of sanctity; as a picture without a frame is incomplete, so also is virtue if it is not expressed externally by affability and gentleness. In the Gospel, Jesus is not satisfied with interior virtue alone but insists that it should appear outwardly in our actions. “Even let your light shine before men,” He says, “in order that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16)

2. St. Francis de Sales was a model of gentleness and Christian courtesy. He had every regard and respect of his neighbour because he saw God in everyone and everyone in God.

He had the ability to listen to everybody with great patience and kindness, without ever showing any sign of tiredness or boredom, even when he was dealing with unpleasant people or when he was busy with far more important matters. He maintained his equilibrium and self-control even after many hours of work and of difficult consultations. He was always prepared , moreover, to listen to the troubles of the poor.

Even when insulted and reviled, he displayed perfect serenity and calm. It was a result of this that, with the help of God, he made innumerable converts.

“Always be as gentle as you can,” he was accustomed to advise, “and remember that you will catch more flies with a spoon of honey than with a barrel of vinegar. If you must err, let it be on the side of gentleness…” “Be humble,” he wrote again, “and you will be gentle. Humility makes the heart kind towards the perfect and the imperfect; towards the former through veneration, towards the latter through compassion.” (Letter 51) How much we have to learn from the serenity and courtesy of this Saint!

3. When Jesus wished to propose Himself as our divine model, He said: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” (Mt. 11:29) He was kind to all, but especially to sinners. He was strict and severe only with hypocrites, whom He described as a race of vipers and as whitened sepulchres, from which we can see how much He detested duplicity. If the hypocrites had only repented and resolved to mend their ways, however, Our Lord would have received them lovingly and pardoned them. Let us learn, therefore, to be simple, meek, and humble of heart and to display that courtesy of manner which is the necessary adornment of true Christian virtue.

Faith and Hope - Cardinal Bacci

Faith and Hope

1. A man without the light of faith is like a blind man groping in the dark. The world which surrounds us is an inconceivable absurdity unless we have faith in a God who creates and orders. Life is an aimless journey if it is not illuminated by faith in a Creator Who will reward us. Everything without us and within us speaks to us of God and directs our steps towards Him, our supreme benefactor, our judge, and our eternal reward. The stars of the heavens and the flowers of the fields tell us of the infinite beauty and goodness of their Creator. In the pages of the Gospel we find a clearer and more penetrating light which invites us to adore and love the divine Redeemer and to believe in Him, Who alone has the words of eternal life and Who alone can satisfy the infinite desires of our hearts.

All this is true. Everything around us and within us leads us to God and invites us to have faith. The virtue of faith, however, is a supernatural gift which we must humbly and perseveringly beg from God. It is, as St. Thomas says, the foundation of the entire spiritual life (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 73, a. 3); without it the spiritual edifice would collapse. How thankful, therefore, we should be to God for having been called to the faith and for having been born in the Catholic Church. There are so many other souls outside Her, who grope in the darkness longing for the truth. We should pray for them that they may reach the port of salvation and may be able to join with us in praising, loving, and serving our Lord Jesus Christ. We should also be well aware that, as pointed out by St. James, faith without good works is dead. (Cf. James 2:17-20) Even the devils believe, as St. Augustine observes (De Caritate, 10), but this does not help their salvation. Besides faith, the love of God and love of our neighbour are necessary. The result of this double charity should be a gradual increase in good works.

2. Christian hope derives from faith. When we believe in the infinitely good and merciful God Who was made man for us and who shed His Precious Blood for our salvation, we experience a great hope and a great confidence. No matter how numerous our sins and our defects, as long as we are sincerely repentant we should continue to hope for the forgiveness of God. Despair, which led Judas to commit suicide, should never be allowed to enter our minds. Like the penitent Magdalen, like the prodigal son, like the lost sheep, and like the good thief, let us trust in Jesus with faith, hope, and sorrow for our sins. Let us remember that He is infinitely good and merciful and ardently desires to pardon us. Together with this hope of God’s forgiveness, we should nurture the hope of gaining Heaven, which the Lord in His infinite goodness has promised not only to innocent souls but also to repentant sinners. In order that this hope may not be in vain, however, we should include in our repentance for our sins a firm purpose of amendment.

3. We should also have great confidence in the continual assistance which God offers us in the temptations, troubles, and trials of life. When we are strongly tempted, we should remember that God will not permit us to be tempted beyond our strength (Cf. 1 Cor. 10:13), and we should pray to Him for help. When pain torments us, when humiliations are hard to bear, when all is dark and we feel abandoned, let us trust in Him, Who is the way, the truth, and the life. He says to us, as He said to Peter floundering in the waves: “O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?” (Mt. 14:31) He is always ready to console and comfort us.

Let us remember that the more we hope for, the more we shall obtain.

Others' defects - St Philip Neri

"If we wish to keep peace with our neighbours, we should never remind any one of his natural defects."

Seeing God in All Things - Cardinal Bacci

Seeing God in All Things

1. Very often, when things are not going our way, we become restless and irritable. We want health, and instead we are sick. We long for success and high position, and instead we are forgotten and humiliated. We desire to be holy, and instead God humbles our pride and allows us to fall into sin again and again. We wish that affairs in our immediate surroundings would proceed according to our liking, but in fact everything happens in an entirely different way. What is the remedy for the tension and annoyance which we experience on these occasions? There is only one; we must see God in all the events and circumstances of life and do His will lovingly and generously. Faith, says St. Francis de Sales, is a ray of light from Heaven which makes us see God in all things and all things in God. It was his great disciple, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, who wrote: “To be nothing, to be much, to be small; to command, to obey one person or another; to be humiliated or forgotten; to be poor or rich; to be underworked or overworked; to be alone or to be in company; to receive spiritual consolations or to experience aridity and temptation; to be healthy, or to be sick and obliged to languish for year… to live a long time or to die soon, perhaps immediately; all must be accepted from God. If others have greater graces and gifts, we are happy in God. Our life must be like a great Amen which harmonises with that of the heavenly choirs…”

If we see the love of God in all things, in all happenings, and in all the troubles of life, nothing will upset us or cause us excessive anguish. We know that we are in good hands and that everything is arranged for our good.

2. Sometimes we fail to see God in all the events of life because we lack faith and absolute confidence in the Lord. We must try to increase this faith and live always in the presence of God, and we must regard the honour and glory of this world as worth absolutely nothing without God. “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Mt. 16:26)

We often attach too much importance to the things of this world, which viewed in the light of eternity are worth very little. When we find ourselves at the point of death and think back over the events of life, how small these things will seem to us! Then we shall marvel at our folly and regret that we worried so much about them, while we allowed ourselves to forget the only being really necessary to us, God Himself. St. Francis de Sales said that when we arrive at the end of life, the affairs with which we have been preoccupied will seem about as important as the sand-castles we built as children, castles which cost us a lot of trouble to build and a great deal of sorrow afterwards when they had been destroyed.

3. Are we in the habit of seeing all things in God and God in all things? Do we accept all things from His holy hands and do His will cheerfully and lovingly?

Do we try to control ourselves when God sends us sorrow as well as joy? If we find we are in need of reform in this matter, we should make good resolutions.

Gospel Reading - Cardinal Bacci

Gospel Reading

1. The Gospel is the books of books, for it contains, not the words of men, but the words of God. In the beginning the Word of God was made man and became the life-giving word during His earthly life. Thus we have the written word in the Sacred Scriptures. When we read the Gospel, we should imagine that Jesus is there before us, so that we can hear the words from His divine lips and feel the breath of His life and the fire of His love.

“In Heaven,” says St. Augustine, “Jesus continues to speak to us on earth through His Gospel.” His words are the bright stars which should guide men – often wandering in the darkness of error or engulfed in the abyss of sin – through the way of virtue and goodness towards Heaven. The more one penetrates the Gospel the more one gets to know Jesus Christ. St. Augustine writes that the Gospel is another way which Jesus has chosen of remaining among us. The same holy Doctor does not hesitate to say that “he who scorns even of these sacred words would be no less guilty than if he let the Blessed Eucharist fall on the ground through negligence.” When we read the sacred pages we begin to understand the infinite goodness of Jesus. We see Him whimper and suffer in the manger at Bethlehem; we see Him humbly working as a poor labourer in the workshop of Nazareth; we see Him pardon Magdalen and the penitent adulteress; we see Him restore life to the dead, sight to the blind, and health to all kinds of sick people; in the supper-room we see Him give us Himself under the veil of the Blessed Eucharist, at the very moment when He was forgotten, denied and betrayed; we see Him in the Praetorium before Pilate, where He was scourged for our sins; we see Him on Calvary dying on a cross for us, forgiving His crucifiers, and promising Heaven to the penitent thief; and finally, we see Him rising from the dead and ascending gloriously into Heaven, where He went to prepare a place for us, should we persevere as His faithful followers. “I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)

The Saints often read and meditated on the Gospel. It provided spiritual food for their souls. In the life of St. Philip Neri, we read that during his last years he read nothing but the Gospels, especially the Gospel of St. John, which treats profoundly of the love of God. Do you read the Gospels? With what dispositions and with what results do you read it? In modern times, unfortunately, very few read it at all. That is why so many stray so far from the spirit of Jesus, and why they often display a material form of piety, insipid and useless in the practice of the Christian life.

2. It is not enough to read and to meditate on the Gospel. We should do so with the correct dispositions, which are three in number. In the first place we should read the Gospel with the recollection of one who prays. “Prayer must often interrupt reading,” says St. Bonaventure. Now and again while we are reading, we should lift our minds to God and ask Him to enlighten us and to inspire us towards greater fervour.

Heavenly truths cannot be understood or penetrated without the light and grace which comes from on high. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” Jesus said. “No one comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6) The Gospel, therefore, cannot be read like any other book. It is the word of supernatural life which cannot be infused into our souls, except by grace, for which we should pray humbly and with fervour. In the second place we should read slowly and reflectively. “Read with the heart and not with the eyes,” writes Bossuet. “Profit by that which you understand, adore that which you don’t.” In the Gospel there is always something which is applicable to ourselves and to the particular circumstances which we find ourselves. The Saints found there their own particular road to sanctity to which they had been called; from our reflective and devout study of the sacred pages we also shall find what Jesus wants in a particular way from us.

3. Finally, we should practice what we learn in the Gospel. If this were not the result of our reading, our efforts would be worth very little. When reading, we should apply to our lives the spirit and the precepts of Jesus. This was the practice of the Saints, whose lives were a continual implementation of the Gospel message. St. Aloysius and many others understood and applied to their own lives the maxim: “Blessed are the clean of heart.” St. Francis and his followers applied another maxim: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” St. Francis de Sales applied to himself in a special way the words: “Blessed are the meek.” As a result, he was noted for his gentleness of character.

We should read the Gospel every day. It should be for us a school of practical spirituality, specially adapted to the needs of our own soul, which will finally lead us to sanctity.

Pretend - C S Lewis

"When you are not feeling particularly friendly but know you ought to be, the best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave as if you were a nicer person than you actually are. And in a few minutes, as we have all noticed, you will be really feeling friendlier than you were. Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already."

Good Reading - Cardinal Bacci

Good Reading

1. Books are fashionable nowadays; in fact, a great many are published which are never read. There has been a mania for books ever since the invention of printing fanned the flaming urge to write and to publish. There are good books, useless books, and, unfortunately, bad books, including newspapers, magazines and reviews of all descriptions. Sometimes these are serious publications; but usually they are light, unhealthy, enticing to sin, and even trading in sin. They corrode the soul, undermine morals, destroy the innocence of childhood and of youth, and spread indifference, error and degeneration everywhere. Good publications inspired by the Gospel are necessary to counteract this tide of immorality. It is not enough to disapprove of bad literature. We must not read it, we must keep it out of our homes, and we must see that it does not fall into careless or innocent hands. Moreover, it is necessary to fight back by helping and giving our full support to good literature.

It has been observed that if St. Paul were to return to the world, he would become a journalist, because in these days the press is the most powerful influence for good and the most potent weapon with which to combat evil. It is certain that if St. Paul were to return to the world, he would be an Apostle, as he once was, in the complete sense of the world, and would not be content to exercise only the apostolate of the press. Nevertheless, it is a fact that today the press is the most powerful and most widespread medium of the Apostolate. Since we must all be Apostles, at least in the wide sense of the world, we should oppose bad literature and support worth-while publications as much as we can.

Let us examine ourselves earnestly in the presence of God. Are the books, journals and reviews which we buy and read all good? Do we have in our homes books and papers which could do harm and prove dangerous to those who live with us? Do we support and encourage good publications? Perhaps we have a great deal to review and to correct in this matter. If so, let us promise God that we shall do our best to improve.

2. There are some who by reason of their position or work must read bad books or books which are on the Index. With regard to the latter, it is necessary to ask and to obtain permission from the legitimate ecclesiastical authority.

With regard to bad books in general or to those which are merely worldly, we should observe the following norms which are laid down by authorities on the spiritual life. (1) Read these books only if obliged to do so by reason of position or office, and never from unhealthy curiosity. (2) Before reading ask for the grace of God by at least a short mental or vocal prayer. (3) Take care that these bad publications do not reach the hands of simple people to whom they could be harmful. (4) Finally, read good books also, for the poisonous inoculation of evil and error can penetrate even the best and most upright spirits unless some antidote is employed.

3. More particularly, everybody needs to do some good reading every day in order to further his own spiritual formation. It is so easy to be distracted by worldly affairs and to grow lukewarm in the practice of virtue. Good books are faithful friends which speak to the heart, enlighten the mind, and urge the will to good action. Besides books of meditations, the lives of the Saints can be very edifying. It is necessary to read them thoughtfully, interrupting our reading occasionally in order to reflect and to apply our conclusions to our own lives. The example of the holiness of the Saints will prompt us to say to ourselves like St. Augustine: “If others, why not I?” If the Saints could reach such heights of sanctity and such fervent love of God, why cannot I do the same?