Father of Saint Vincent

Faith is the basis of Christian virtue, the foundation of the edifice of our salvation; it is the food with which the just man is nourished upon earth ("Justus ex fide vivit"), says the Lord. Saint Vincent feared the very shadow of anything which might injure his faith. He knew that the simpler it is the more agreeable it is to God; he did not found it upon human reasoning or philosophical subtleties, but upon the authority of the Church. "Thus," he said, "the more one fixes one's eyes on the sun, the less one sees it; in the same way, the more one tries to reason about the truths of our religion, the less one knows them by faith. It is sufficient that the Church proposes them to us; that alone can secure us from failing in our belief, and in our submission. . . . The Church is the Kingdom of God, Who inspires those whom He has appointed to govern Her with everything that She needs for Her permanent welfare." These dispositions inspired the Servant of God with a just aversion for those restless and curious minds who delight in subtle arguments about our Mysteries, and seem to want to understand them to the very depth.

The high idea which he had of faith inclined him to communicate it as much as he possibly could to those who lacked it most. . . . Hence the frequent catechetical instructions to the people, which are usually so much neglected; hence his care to share his sentiments with those among his friends whom he found most capable of fulfilling this charitable duty; hence the establishment of his Congregation, that is to say, of a body of Evangelical workers destined to plant and to cultivate the germ of faith in the most barren lands; hence the holy joy which he felt in publishing the good done by other societies which a jealous eye would have looked upon as rivals. "Some priests from Normandy," he said, "led by Father Eudes, have come to give a Mission in Paris, with wonderful success; the crowds who made the exercises were enormous. . . . We took no part in it because our work is with poor country folk, but we have the consolation of seeing that our little efforts have stirred others to apply themselves to the same work, and with better results." What faith! what humility! Let us rather say what faith and humility combined! because when faith is ardent, as in the case of Saint Vincent, it is never found without profound humility.

If the Saint possessed purity of faith, he possessed also its fullness; he lived by it, as the just man does; it animated his thoughts and affections, his words and his actions. Everything in him was regulated by faith when making up his mind, or planning out a project, or carrying out some undertaking. What most men do through natural impulse, or through human calculations, Saint Vincent did through supernatural motives, and according to the rules of faith. Any plan conceived according to the rules of wise policy could not please him if it did not rest on the maxims of the Gospel, or could not be referred to a supernatural end. It was his conviction that if the things done for God did not always succeed well, or not at all, it was because those who are feverishly trying to carry them out depend too much on human reason. "No, no," he said one day, "eternal truths alone are capable of filling the heart and of conducting us safely. Believe me, we need only rest firmly and solidly on some one of the Perfections of God, such as on His Goodness, His Providence, His Immensity, etc. I say we need only establish ourselves well on these Divine foundations to become perfect in a short time. I do not mean that it is not also good to convince ourselves by strong and pregnant reasons, which may always be useful, but with subordination to the Truths of Faith. Experience teaches us that those preachers who preach by the Light of Faith do more good to souls than those who fill their discourses with human arguments and philosophical reasons; because the Lights of Faith are always accompanied by a certain heavenly unction which insinuates itself secretly into the minds of the audience; and from this we may judge whether it is not necessary, for the sake of our own perfection, as well as to procure the salvation of souls, to accustom ourselves to follow the Lights of Faith always and in everything."

The Man of God advanced so faithfully by the shining of these holy Lights that they were to him, as to the Prophet King, the torch which guided all his steps. By means of this Light, which shines in the darkest places, he could discern in sensible objects what the eyes of the body could not perceive. He used to say: "I must not judge a poor peasant, or a poor woman, by the exterior, nor according to the apparent ability of their minds, seeing that often they have scarcely the face or mind of rational beings, they are so coarse and earthly; but turn over the medal and you will see, by the Light of Faith, that the Son of God, Who willed to be poor, is represented to us by these poor people; that He had scarcely the appearance of a man in His Passion, and that He passed for a fool in the minds of the Gentiles, and for a rock of scandal in that of the Jews; and with all this He styles Himself the 'Evangelist of the poor'. Oh, God! how beautiful it is to look at the poor, if we consider them in God and in the esteem which Jesus Christ has for them, but if we look at them according to the sentiments of the flesh and the spirit of the world they will appear contemptible."

To have a clearer and more complete idea of the liveliness of his faith let us cast a look at his other virtues; the excellence and the multiplicity of their fruits will make us realize the strength and vigour of root which produced them.

Practice - Faith without works is useless; let us perform the works of faith. To perform the works of faith is to believe that there is a God, Whom we must serve with all the strength of our soul and of our mind; it is to believe also that there is a hell, and therefore we have to keep far from mortal sin, which alone can precipitate us into hell; finally, to believe that there is a Paradise, and consequently to practise virtue that we may one day arrive at its possession.

- text taken from Virtue and Christian Refinement According to the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul, by Saint John Bosco