Spiritual despondency and temptations

Front matter

SPIRITUAL DESPONDENCY

AND

TEMPTATIONS

Contents

I. On the dangers and fatal effects of despondency 15

II. The most fatal effect of despondency is that the soul that yields to it does not view it as a temptation. Hope and confidence in God are as much a commandment as faith and the other virtues 17

III. Source and cause of the impressions which

Chapter II

THE MOST FATAL EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY IS THAT THE SOUL THAT YIELDS TO IT DOES NOT VIEW IT AS A TEMPTATION. HOPE AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD ARE AS MUCH A COMMAND- MENT AS FAITH AND THE OTHER VIRTUES.

The great danger of despondency is that, being deceived by an excessive fear which makes us blind to the truth, and being discouraged at the sight of difficulties against which we find no resource in ourselves, we nevertheless do not look upon this state as the effect of temptation. Could we only see it in that light,

1 8 EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY.

we should beware of the suggestions that entertain it, and should get rid of our trouble more quickly and more easily.

Let it, however, be well understood that despondency is a temptation, and bears all the marks of being such ; for every feeling that is opposed to the law of God, either in itself or by the consequences it may have, is evidently a temptation. It is thus we judge of every temptation to which we are liable. If we have a thought against faith, a feeling against charity or some other virtue, we look upon it as a temptation; we turn away from it, and try to elicit acts opposed to the thought or feeling which has put us in danger of offending God.

Now, hope and confidence in God are commanded equally with faith and the other virtues. Therefore the feeling which is opposed to hope is as much forbidden

EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY. 19

as that which is against faith or any other virtue : it has thus every feature of a real temptation.

The law of God obliges us frequently to make acts of faith, hope, and charity; and hence forbids us all wilful feelings contrary to these sacred and necessary virtues. How, then, can despondency be viewed otherwise than as a temptation, and even as a very dangerous temptation, since it exposes the Christian soul to abandon every work of piety ?

To make this danger clearer to you, consider the general course of conduct among men. Is it not the hope of success, of procuring some advantage, of avoiding some evil, or of satisfying some desire or passion, which makes them act, supports them under their labors, and animates them to overcome their difficulties ? Take away from them all hope, and they would soon

20 EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY.

fall into inaction. None but a madman would strive for an object which he despairs of obtaining. In religious life despondency produces the same effect ; it is founded on the same principle, the want of means to reach the end which we propose to ourselves. When we lose all hope of overcoming the difficulties which we may find in the practice of any virtue, we do not try, or but feebly, to make the effort to do so. These insufficient efforts only increase our weakness, and being more than half overcome by despondency, we are easily led away by the passion that sways us. The sense of our weakness first throws us into doubt and into trouble. In that state, occupied only by the difficulty of the combat, we do not distinguish the principles that ought to guide us. The fear of not succeeding prevents us from employing the means which God has given us, and we are thus defenceless against our enemy. We are like a child who, seeing the approach of, a giant, begins to tremble, and forgets that a stone thrown in the name of the Lord may lay him prostrate. In the same manner do we forget that we have a powerful help in the goodness of a tender Father, upon whom we have only to call, to be victorious in all our struggles.

Chapter III

SOURCE AND CAUSE OF THE IMPRESSIONS WHICH DESPONDENCY MAKES ON THE SOUL OF THE CHRISTIAN.

I shall now proceed to show why despondency makes such strong and fatal impressions on us. We are well convinced of our weakness, for we have often experienced it. We feel keenly the difficulty we have to overcome ourselves, as we succeed but rarely. Filled with these sad and discouraging reflections of our want of strength, and of the little we do to please God, we consider it useless to have recourse to Him, who, we think, will not hearken to our prayer whilst we are in our present state. Sad evidence of the pride of the human heart, that would wish to owe to itself the good which it does, and the happiness to which it aspires! And how opposed to the words of the Holy Ghost, " What hast thou that thou hast not received?" (i Cor. iv. 7.)

In such a state we see and depend only upon our own efforts, so that our despondency diminishes, ceases, returns, or increases, according as we act well or ill. We do not reflect that it is only from the mercy of God we can hope for help, and not by our own merits ; that when we have done well it is through the grace of God, which we have not merited, and that, in every circumstance, this mercy is ever ready to dispense to us the necessary grace.

When these desponding souls are told that they ought, after the example of the saints, to put all their confidence in God, they will at once answer that it is not surprising that the saints had confidence in God, since they were saints, and served God with fidelity : but that they have not the same right to feel that perfect confidence in Him which the saints had. They do not perceive that such reasoning is contrary to the principles of true religion.

Hope is a theological virtue, and its motive can be found only in God. These souls make it a human virtue when its source or motive is recognized in man or in his ways. The saints did not hope in God because they were faithful to God, but they were faithful to God because they hoped in Him. Otherwise the sinner could never make an act of hope, and yet it is that very act of hope which disposes him to return to God.

Observe that St. Paul does not say, I have obtained mercy because I have been faithful, but "Having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful" (i Cor. vii. 25). Mercy always precedes the good which we do ; and it is from mercy alone that we have the necessary grace to do any good at all. The saints never counted upon their works to strengthen their confidence in God, for they were ever mindful of the words of Our Saviour: " So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants" (Luke xvii. 10). The greater saints they were, the greater was their humility. Their humility allowed them to see only the perfection to which they had not yet reached. Unlike the Pharisee in the Gospel, they found nothing in themselves to warrant their confidence, but in the mercy of God they sought and found a confidence, the foundations of which could not be shaken. This was what supported them, and this it is which must encourage you, and reanimate your fainting strength. It is of the utmost importance for you to understand this truth, that you may not again fall into the snare which your enemy has so often laid for you.

z6 MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE.

Chapter IV

OF THE TRUE MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE — THIS MOTIVE IS THE SAME FOR ALL MEN.

According to religion the motive of Christian hope, or of confidence in God, is the same for all men, saints and sinners.

Hope, as we have already said, is a theological virtue, like faith and charity. Its motive, then, can be found only in God, and can rest only upon divine perfection. It follows, therefore, that we exclude from this motive our own merits. We do not hope in God because we have been faithful to Him, but we hope in Him that we may obtain the grace to be faithful.

On what, then, is Christian hope founded, and what is its motive, according to religion? Pope Benedict XIV.,

MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE. 27

in his form of the Act of Hope, has pointed out the divine perfections which constitute this motive. The act is this: 11 O my God, I hope in Thee, because Thou art faithful to Thy all-powerful promises, and because Thy mercies are infinite? In this motive there is nothing human — all is drawn from God Himself. And could there be a stronger motive to strengthen us in hope and confidence in God? We here find the mercy of God, who is more anxious to shower His gifts upon man than man is to receive them ; who desires their real good and their salvation much more sincerely than they desire it themselves, since He restrains them by His grace, which of themselves they could not merit, and since He prepares for them aid proportionate to the trials to which He exposes them — an aid which they can obtain by prayer, and with it

28 MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE.

conquer the evil one. This mercy is so infinite, that all the malice of mankind cannot exhaust it ; and, after having manifested itself so wonderfully in the gift which God has granted us, His only Son for our ransom, it will not refuse us the assistance which He desires to afford us in this priceless benefit.

The effects of this divine mercy have been promised to us by the assurances which God has made us, of coming to our assistance, whenever we ask it, to work out our salvation. God, who is truth itself, cannot deceive us, and He is essentially faithful to the promises He makes His creatures. But we find in the Holy Scripture the most touching exhortations to have recourse to Him in our necessities, with the promise that He will be our support and our strength. How, then, can we have any anxiety or

MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE. 29

seriously entertain any fear that He will reject or abandon us, when we call upon Him with confidence? Would not this be accusing God of not keeping His promise ? But that would be blasphemy. It is true that to grant our prayer God requires that we should call upon Him with confidence — but should we deserve to obtain His benefits if we asked them with a doubting heart ; doubting that very goodness of which we are experiencing the effect every instant of our lives, and in so many thousand ways? No, as the apostle, St. James, says, "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering" (i. 6). The heart that prays with doubt and distrust shall obtain nothing. And we also know that Jesus Christ whilst on earth granted miracles only when there was confidence : "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole " (Matt. ix. 22). God's almighty power

3 o MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE.

gives the crowning strength to this motive for Christian hope, seeing that He exceeds all that we can require of Him. Men often promise what they are unable to give, but it is not thus with the all-powerful God. We can find no insurmountable obstacles to His will, in the gifts which He desires to make to us. He has in the boundless treasury of His graces, infallible means to lead us to holiness. Therefore we ought never to fear asking Him too much, or asking things too difficult.

God being infinitely rich, possesses all good, in the order of grace as in the order of nature. Being infinitely powerful, there are none of these treasures of which He cannot make us partake. Being infinitely good, He is disposed to grant us, according to His promises, all that is necessary for our salvation. It is on these substantial motives, drawn from the perfections of God, that we should found our hope — and only thus can our confidence have that unshaken firmness which it ought to have.

Chapter V

A POWERFUL MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE IS THE INFINITE VALUE OF THE SUFFERINGS AND MERITS OF JESUS CHRIST.

A soul that is addicted to despondency is swayed by fear, which prevents it from reflecting on the immovable foundations of confidence in God. We cannot therefore give her too many motives for overcoming that fear which harasses her incessantly. She will find a powerful one in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, which are as immense as the dignity of His person is infinite. This divine Saviour, dying for all mankind, praying for all, offering for all His sufferings and His death, has merited for them all the graces which are necessary for them to overcome their spiritual enemy and to gain eternal happiness. These merits which Jesus Christ did not need for Himself He has given over to mankind. So that, according to St. Bernard, these merits become our own. And by offering them to the Father, we obtain that help which we need to strengthen us against the enemies of our salvation. It is from this principle that the Church, in all the prayers she makes to God, always invokes the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord.

" But," exclaims a soul, frightened at the thought of her many past offences, " how must Our Lord and Saviour look upon me, after the many outrages which I have committed against Him! Can He any longer interest Himself for one who has been so long His enemy?" Can a wellinstructed Christian soul have any doubt on this point? Did not Jesus Christ Himself assure us that He came into the world to suffer and die for sinners ; that He came chiefly to seek for sinners ? Now, in the face of this assertion, will they still imagine that, because they are sinners, they will be refused the help they require to return to God? No, heaven and earth may pass away, but the promises of God shall not pass away unfulfilled. These promises relate to sinners, and if there had been no sinners, would Jesus Christ have suffered? Would He have submitted to a cruel death ? The more sinful man is, the more strikingly are the mercy of God, and the power of the Saviour's merits displayed. Is there any blacker crime than the treachery of Judas? Yes, answers St. Jerome, there is one still more enormous, despair ! Judas rendered himself more guilty in taking away his own life than in betraying his divine Master.

Let us then never fear to have recourse to the merits of Jesus Christ. We honor them when we make use of them to obtain the helps which we need, since it was for this that Jesus Christ vouchsafed to acquire them and to give them over to us. It is in applying them to ourselves through prayer and good works, that we fulfil the end for which they were purchased.

It would be a singular way of honoring them, the not daring to make use of them; it would be going directly against the end which our divine Saviour proposed to Himself. In turning from His gifts as useless, we should not be evincing our esteem for them, but only proving our indifference.

Since we acknowledge that we are poor, weak, and miserable, should we not seek to enrich and to strengthen ourselves, and to cure our evils? Jesus Christ offers Himself to accomplish these miracles in us, by offering His infinite merits. With loving tenderness He says to us, " Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you " (Matt. xi. 28). Is it not therefore against every principle, against every feeling, and still more against the intention of the Saviour Himself to fear to have recourse to Him ?

Temptation attacks the soul in every way. Through a sentiment of false humility a fear is conceived which fills the soul with dejection. Christian humility and sound reason require that we should rec-.

ognize our unworthiness of heavenly benefits; but they do not require us to refuse those which are offered, or not to ask for those that have been promised to our prayers. Still more does the gratitude which we owe to Jesus Christ require that we should obey His will, in profiting by His sufferings, to obtain the graces which He has earned for us. Never can we honor Him more than in corresponding to the merciful designs which He had in immolating Himself for us.

On what could we rely to appease the justice of God outraged by sin, and to draw down His mercy, if not upon the merits of Our Saviour? It is in presenting them to God that we may hope to disarm His anger. Just as He can see in us only that which must provoke His justice, so in His Son He only sees what solicits His mercy. This divine mercy is exercised in our behalf as soon as we, with sentiments of regret, present ourselves to Him, under the shadow of the Saviour's cross, and covered with His precious blood. And thus also is justice appeased. Mercy and truth, justice and peace make together a blessed treaty for us. In the language of the Psalmist, "Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed" (Ps. lxxxiv. 11).

Chapter VI

MOTIVE OF CONFIDENCE FOR THE RELIGIOUS SOUL IN THE MERCY WHICH GOD HAS SHOWN IN SELECTING HER FOR THE GRACE OF HER VO- CATION. FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS WHICH WE ASCRIBE TO GOD.

The religious sees in his vocation a strong proof of God's mercy in his regard. Even though, after having served God with fidelity, one may have fallen into a state of indifference or into grievous sin, if he again seeks to return to God he should never doubt of His mercy, and that the atoning merits of Our Lord will be applied in his behalf. That contrite feeling, that holy desire to return to God and to the faithful discharge of his duties, does it not come from God Himself? That strength, that courage to sacrifice the goods and pleasures of this world, his evil passions and his own will, from whom does all this come but from God ? That tender devotion, which led him to consecrate himself to God, and sustained him in all his conflicts against his natural inclinations, who inspired it but God ?

If we could be so presumptuous as to imagine that we owe this to ourselves, the experience of our weakness should alone undeceive us, and the words of Our Lord condemn us. As He spoke to His apostles, so does He still speak to every soul consecrated to His service, "You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you' (John xv. 16), even before you thought of Me, whilst you neglected Me, and turned away from Me, and obstinately resisted Me ! Can God have done so much for us, and yet not really wish to aid us when we call upon Him for help ? Surely to think this would be to accuse God of contradicting Himself. No; when such a soul has recourse to God, He will finish the work He has commenced in her, and lead her on to the perfection of her state. To this He has pledged His word ; and He still continues to urge the desponding soul lovingly to cast herself upon the bosom of His mercy, there to find peace and salvation.

It is because we judge God by our own

4 o FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS.

weak human hearts that we fear to exhaust His mercy. If a person to whom we have given important assistance, whom we have loaded with benefits, treats us with ingratitude, and, in return for kindness, heaps insults upon us, we turn away from him as unworthy of further notice ; more especially if he has made use of our very benefits to injure us, we abandon him forever. We should consider we were acting against every dictate of common sense and prudence, did we continue to furnish him with arms to use against us.

The same feelings and judgment we ascribe to God, forgetting that His ways are as far removed from our ways as the heavens are from the earth. God bears with our wanderings because He is eternal and all-powerful, and He knows that the day of His justice will come, when all shall be brought into order, and forever.

He is patient because He is infinitely good, and wishes to give us the means to return to Him. He who knows all things has seen from all eternity all our weaknesses, our ingratitude, and our reiterated falls. He has foreseen that we could not do anything of ourselves, much less return to Him without help ; and that help He has prepared for us in the person of His Son, Jesus. He entreats us, He even commands us to call upon Him in all our wanderings, and He will assist us, He will be our propitiation ; for it is in helping us and pardoning us that His mercy is exercised.

This conduct God evinced in a striking manner toward the Jewish nation. Whenever they fell into idolatry, God punished them, to bring them back to their allegiance. When they abandoned their Lord to serve strange gods, He would deliver them over to their enemies, to be held in cruel bondage. Then, when bowed down by the miseries of their servitude, they lifted up their hearts to God and called upon Him with confidence, God sent them a deliverer to free them from the hard yoke under which they groaned. And so did they continue during a period of four hundred years, continually relapsing into idolatry, and as often experiencing the mercy of God when they called upon Him.

Judge from this if God will tire in pardoning us, if we turn to Him with a sincerely contrite heart. But if the conduct of God toward His Jewish people does not remove your fears, listen to the words of the Prophet- King, inspired by the Holy Ghost, who assures us that God will not despise " A contrite and humbled heart" (Ps. 1. 19).

When, terrified by the recollection of our sins, we have the thought or the wish to return to God, it is He who is then attracting us by His grace. Does He call us only that He may refuse to receive us ? Who can think it? He told St. Peter to forgive after every offence, "/ say not to thee, till seven times: but till seventy times seven" (Matt, xviii. 22), and by this we may learn to know His dispositions in our regard. Ah! we little know the boundless tenderness of that divine Heart, if we judge of it by our own, or if we imagine that it ever ceases to care for us. So long as we are in this life we are under the law of mercy, and of that mercy we can ever avail ourselves. It is death only that places us under the law of immutable justice.

44 LOSING CONFIDENCE.

Chapter VII

OUR REPEATED INFIDELITIES OUGHT NOT TO MAKE US LOSE CONFIDENCE IN GOD — IT IS THE WANT OF FAITH THAT MAKES US FEAR.

God, who is the tender Father of all His creatures, has taken every means to remove that excessive fear which would draw them from Him. To prevent the soul that has become sensible of its ingratitude and terrified at the view of its repeated relapses into sin, after so often obtaining pardon for them — to prevent such a soul from losing all hope and daring no longer to cry out to Him from the abyss into which it has again fallen, not only does He assure it, by the mouth of the Psalmist, " That those who hope in Him shall never be confounded" but He expressly declares the positive law of His mercy, and commands us to hope in Him.

LOSING CONFIDENCE. 45

This precept we cannot fully accomplish but with the help of His grace ; and can the Almighty have made this precept and not wish to help us keep it? And can He fail to be touched by our obedience when we endeavor to do so? Can He turn away from us, when we call upon Him, as He has ordered us to do ? No ; God cannot be otherwise than faithful to His promises. If we fail, it is because we have not asked with confidence, and because our faith is weak.

Let the Holy Scripture here furnish you with another proof of this. St. Peter, at the order of his divine Master, confidently walks upon the waters. The wind rises, and the apostle's trust lessens; he fears, and immediately begins to sink — but the danger reanimates his confidence: Peter has recourse to his divine Master, who stretches forth His hand to save him

46 LOSING CONFIDENCE.

from perishing. For our instruction Jesus let His apostle know what danger he had been in, when He thus reproached him : " O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt V" (Matt. xiv. 31.)

A faithful picture of what too often happens to Christian souls! So long as all is at peace in our hearts, we proceed with confidence toward Jesus. But let the winds of temptation arise ; let the difficulties of our vocation be felt, we become terrified — we forget that we are walking at the call of Jesus ; we begin to fear, we hesitate in our confidence ; and this first infidelity weakens us still further — and we begin to sink. If our confidence does not reanimate and lead us to ask for help, we shall be overwhelmed.

St. Peter would have perished had he not called upon Jesus for help ; and his kind Master heard him. If we have

NEARNESS OF GOD. 47

imitated the apostle in our weakness, like him also let us lose no time in invoking the Saviour in our need. We should experience His protection, and thus should we be spared all those anxieties, and fears, and falls, which our want of confidence occasions. Help is ever at hand, and ever ready for the asking; it is our own fault if we do not make use of it

Chapter VIII

GOD IS NEVER SO NEAR TO US TO ASSIST US IN OUR CONFLICTS AS WHEN WE IMAGINE HIM FAR AWAY. HE HIDES HIMSELF ONLY THAT WE MAY SEEK HIM AND FIND HIM.

Sometimes God does not make us wait for Him long, and we have a sensible feeling of His assistance as soon as we call upon Him. Hardly had Peter ex-

48 NEARNESS OF GOD.

claimed, " Lord, save me, or I perish ! " but the hand of the Saviour was stretched forth to save him. At other times our divine Lord acts in a more hidden manner. Sometimes He watches our struggles without letting His presence be felt, but never is He so near to us, so ready to help us as soon as we call, as when the danger is greatest and most pressing. We become terrified because we do not seriously realize Our Saviours presence; we think He is afar off, and yet He is in our very heart, and it is He that is strengthening us. We think He is unmindful of our danger, and all the time He is watching over our preservation, moderating the swelling waves of our passions that might cause us to sink, saying to them : " Hitherto thou shalt come, and thou shalt go no further, and here thou shalt break thy swelling

NEARNESS OF GOD. 49

waves" (Job xxxviii. 11). Our Saviour, who has taught us by His actions as well as by His words, gives us upon this subject a lesson which is as clear as it is consoling. Once as he lay in Peters bark it was tossed by a furious storm, which seemed to threaten its total wreck. He appears to be sleeping, and unconscious of the danger, but He is all the while directing the disciples in the efforts they are making to save their little craft. But the danger and the labor continue so long as they forget to have recourse to their divine Master, and with that confidence which works miracles. As soon as they call upon Him, He answers, He rises, and commands the winds and waves to be still. "And there came a great calm" (Matt. viii. 26). How often have we not experienced the same thing ? When exposed to temptation,

50 NEARNESS OF GOD.

which God permits in order to strengthen us in humility and vigilance, we see ourselves upon the very edge of a precipice, into which we look with horror ; we imagine that we have no longer any strength, and that we are on the point of yielding ; but notwithstanding the efforts of the enemy, we keep up our courage, we resist, and we continue at the post of duty. In that trying situation, what strength upheld us ? Surely we will not have the presumption to suppose that we have resisted by the power or by the strength of those resolutions which have so often wavered? Oh, no; we must admit that it was a celestial power that rescued us from shipwreck. Jesus Christ Himself was secretly working in our hearts. His assistance was not apparent, it was not the less real ; the arm that upheld us was invisible, it was not the less strong.