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Sixteenth Monday after Pentecost
- caelidomum
- Sep 28
- 4 min read
Sixteenth Monday after Pentecost. Mortification of the Passions.
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation.
The first object on which mortification ought to be exercised, the mortification which was the subject of last Saturday's meditation, is our passions. We shall see: 1st, the necessity of mortifying them; 2d, the necessity of specially mortifying the ruling sin. Our resolution shall be: 1st, joyfully to seize all opportunities of mortifying ourselves which we may meet with in the course of the day; 2d, every day to be faithful to the making of a particular examination upon our ruling passion. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Imitation: “The measure of your progress shall be the measure of the violence you do yourself” (I. Imit. xxv. 11).
Meditation for the Morning.
Let us adore Our Lord governing with supreme and absolute rule all the movements of the soul which we call passions. He kept them in such strict order and so perfectly under subjection that not one of them ever took reason by surprise nor was allowed to rise within Him excepting under the direction of the Holy Ghost. Let us admire this divine interior where all is so well regulated, and let us derive from it grace to regulate our passions and to mortify them according to the teaching of the apostles: “They that are Christ's have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences” (Gal. v. 24).
The Necessity of Mortifying the Passions.
Our passions are the most powerful agents the devil can employ for our ruin; we must, therefore, overcome them or be ruined through them. They are, says St. Bernard, irreconcilable enemies; if we do not crush them they will crush us (Serm. de Ascens.). If, after having crushed them, we cease to watch them and to be on our guard against them, they will spring up again, will renew the attack, and will put our salvation in danger (St. Bernard, Serm. lvi. in Cant.). It is therefore necessarily a daily war which we have to wage; a war directed not merely against an isolated passion, but against all the passions which have their germ in our hearts; a war in which we have to employ different kinds of weapons and to use different tactics, according to the variety of the attacks. We must combat voluptuousness by the retrenchment of sensual pleasures, which are as a bait to it, turn away our eyes from creatures calculated to soften the heart, and promptly turn away our mind from the first dangerous thought which presents itself, saying with St. Bernard: “When my God is hanged on a gibbet, can I indulge in pleasure ?” We must combat vain desires by the strength of soul which moderates them and contents itself with little. We must combat profane joys by the contempt of passing enjoyments, which a Chris tian heart ought to consider as too much beneath it to attract its esteem. Hatred is combated by the consideration that God pardons only those who forgive; fear is repelled by the elevated sentiment that a Christian fears nothing except sin; sorrow puts its clouds to flight by the hope of heaven; presumption yields to humility, which confesses its weakness and powerlessness without the aid of God. We combat despair by the consideration of the mercies of God, of the merits of Jesus Christ, and the all- powerful and loving assistance of the most blessed Virgin. We overcome anger by silence, which closes the mouth as long as we are in a state of excitement; by the consideration of the meekness of Jesus Christ and of the opposition which exists between anger and reason. Lastly, we destroy envy by the spirit of Christian charity. Such is the war we must always wage against ourselves, now in refusing what is pleasant, and now in imposing on ourselves what is bitter, happy if by dint of fighting we can arrive at that happy state in which the soul, mistress of vanquished passions, free and unrestrained, lives only under the guidance of the Spirit of God and of His adorable will. He who does not, however, arrive at this point must not be discouraged. He who dies whilst fighting does not the less merit the palm of victory; but he who does not fight will be lost. The more passions we have the less reason we possess. He who takes counsel of passion takes counsel of a fool. Always before acting we must open our mind to reason, our heart to grace, and put ourselves on the side of virtue against temper, and not on the side of temper against virtue.
The Necessity of Combating the Ruling Passion.
Amongst all the passions there is one which is more dangerous than any of the others; it is the ruling passion. We recognize it through its being, as it were, the distinguishing characteristic of each person, a characteristic which every one remarks, so that they say, for instance, such or such a person is a passionate man, or such a one is vain, another susceptible, and yet another avaricious; and even every individual can discern it in himself by seeing what are the thoughts and sentiments with which he is the most taken up. That then is the passion which it is the most necessary to combat: 1st, because it is that which gives the impetus to all the rest and which the most ex poses our salvation to danger; it is in regard to the other passions what a commander-in-chief is to an army — to kill him is to put the whole army to rout; in the same way, to stifle this passion is to ruin all the other passions; 2d, because we shall in vain put down the other passions; for as long as the ruling passion exists it will be capable of ruining us. Let us examine at what point we have arrived in our war against this passion, 1st. Do we understand it thoroughly ? Are we not ignorant of it from want of reflection, through negligence with regard to our salvation ? 2d. Do we combat it every day, either by flight, if it attempt to seduce us by the temptation of pleasure, or by strife, if it attack us with violence? Lastly, let us direct against it our daily particular examination, as St. Ignatius and St. Francis de Sales did, who, by this means, changed a quick and passionate temper into one of imperturbable gentleness.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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