Chapter 9
- Treats of the great blessing that shunning their relatives brings to those who have left the world and - Shows how by doing so they will find truer friends |
CHAPTER 9
Oh, if we religious understood what harm we get
from having so much to do with our relatives,
how we should shun them!
do not see what pleasure they can give us, or
how, quite apart from the harm they do us
as touching our obligations to God,
they can bring us any peace or tranquillity.
For we cannot take part in their recreations,
as it is not lawful for us to do so;
and, though we can certainly share their troubles,
we can never help weeping for them,
sometimes more than they do themselves.
If they bring us any bodily comforts,
there is no doubt that
our spiritual life and
our poor souls
will pay for it.
From this you are [quite] free here;
for, as you have everything in common
and none of you may accept any private gift,
all the alms given us being held by the community,
you are under no obligation
to entertain your relatives
in return for what they give you,
since, as you know,
the Lord will provide for us all in common.
I am astounded at the harm
which intercourse with our relatives does us:
I do not think anyone who had not experience of it
would believe it.
And how our religious Orders nowadays,
or most of them, at any rate,
seem to be forgetting about perfection,
though all, or most, of the saints wrote about it!
I do not know how much of the world
we really leave
when we say that we are leaving everything
for God's sake,
if we do not withdraw ourselves
from the chief thing of all--namely, our kinsfolk.
The matter has reached such a pitch
that some people think,
when religious
are not fond of their relatives and
do not see much of them,
it shows a want of virtue in them.
And they not only assert this but allege reasons for it.
In this house, daughters,
we must be most careful
to commend our relatives to God,
for that is only right.
For the rest, we must keep them out of our minds
as much as we can,
as it is natural that our desires should be attached
to them more than to other people.
My own relatives were very fond of me,
or so they used to say,
and I was so fond of them
that I would not let them forget me.
But I have learned,
by my own experience and
by that of others,
that it is God's servants
who have helped me in trouble;
my relatives, apart from my parents,
have helped me very little.
Parents are different,
for they very rarely fail to help their children, and
it is right that when they need our comfort
we should not refuse it them:
if we find
our main purpose is not harmed by our so doing
we can give it them
and yet be completely detached;
and this also applies to brothers and sisters.
Believe me, sisters,
if you serve God as you should,
you will find no better relatives than those
[of His servants] whom His Majesty sends you.
I know this is so, and,
if you keep on as you are doing here, and
realize that by doing otherwise
you will be failing your true Friend and Spouse,
you may be sure that you will very soon
gain this freedom.
Then you will be able to trust those
who love you for His sake alone
more than all your relatives, and
they will not fail you,
so that you will find parents and brothers and sisters
where you had never expected to find them.
For these help us
and look for their reward only from God;
those who look for rewards from us
soon grow tired of helping us
when they see that we
are poor and
can do nothing for them.
This cannot be taken as a generalization,
but it is the most usual thing to happen in the world,
for it is the world all over!
If anyone tells you otherwise,
and says it is a virtue to do such things,
do not believe him.
I should have to write at great length,
in view of my lack of skill and my imperfection,
if I were to tell you of all the harm
that comes from it;
as others have written about it
who know what they are talking about better than I,
what I have said will suffice.
If, imperfect as I am,
I have been able to grasp as much as this,
how much better will those who are perfect do so!
All the advice which the saints give us
about fleeing from the world
is, of course, good.
Believe me, then, attachment to our relatives is,
as I have said,
the thing which
sticks to us most closely and
is hardest to get rid of.
People are right, therefore,
when they flee from their own part of the country
[32] --if it helps them, I mean,
for I do not think we are helped so much
by fleeing from any place in a physical sense
as by resolutely embracing the good Jesus,
Our Lord, with the soul.
Just as we find everything in Him,
so for His sake we forget everything.
Still, it is a great help,
until we have learned this truth,
to keep apart from our kinsfolk;
later on, it may be that the Lord
will wish us to see them again,
so that what used to give us pleasure
may be a cross to us.
________________________
Foot Notes: [32] De sus tierras. The phrase will also bear the interpretation: "from their own countries." |
~ End of Chapter 9 ~ |
