Our Divine Saviour, when sending His Apostles to preach the Gospel, said to them: "Be simple as doves, and prudent as serpents." It was in this school that Saint Vincent learnt that marvellous simplicity which won for him the affection of the ignorant, and the respect of the wise men of his time. "Mr. Vincent," said Bossuet, "was a man of admirable simplicity."
Indeed he always had a horror of equivocal phrases, those ways of hiding one's thoughts, those crooked ways, so to speak, which even those who condemn them in theory do not scruple to employ to get themselves out of a difficulty. If some proposal was put before him which did not seem strictly conformed to justice, he said, with a friendly frankness, that he could not carry it out. If it happened that, after taking charge of some business, he became distracted by more pressing occupations and forgot about it, in all simplicity, and at the same time with humility, he owned that he had thought no more about it, so great was his weakness and misery. If they came to thank him for some favour he had helped to obtain he told them candidly what he had done to bring it about. In a word, if he did not always tell the whole truth it was because it is part of the virtue of. prudence to keep silence about some truths, but he never said one word that was in the slightest degree contrary to the truth. In recommending simplicity to his own sons he was unconsciously drawing a portrait of himself.
Saint Vincent said in substance that simplicity is a gift which steers us straight to God, Who is Truth, without affectation, without pretence, without human respect, without an eye to personal advantage. A simple man has only God in view, and wishes to please Him only. He does not say what is contrary to his convictions; in his actions he does not in any way infringe the rules of candour and Christian uprightness. If at times he does not manifest all his thoughts it is because simplicity is a "discreet virtue which is never contrary to prudence," but is careful to avoid in his speech all that might make the neighbour believe that he has anything in mind or heart which is reality is not there.
Simplicity in the instructions that were meant for the people was a point on which he often insisted. His letters and conferences prove his anxiety in this regard, and he continually feared lest any of his children should deviate from this in order to acquire a reputation for eloquence, as certain preachers do by pompous discourses. He commanded them to banish from their sermons all that savoured in the slightest degree of what is called the spirit of the world, affectation or vanity.
Amongst the numerous reasons he put forward in favour of simplicity we select the following: "Just as natural beauty is far more attractive than artificial or painted imitations, so simple and ordinary sermons are better received and impress minds more forcibly than those which are affected and artificially polished."
"Study to preach," he said, "as Jesus Christ did. This Divine Saviour was able, had He so willed, to say marvellous things about our highest Mysteries, with thoughts and expressions suitable to them. He being the Word and Wisdom of the Eternal Father; and yet we know in what simple and humble manner He preached, levelling Himself to the minds of the people and giving to us the model how to discourse on His holy Word."
He said another time: "Our Lord, when sending His Apostles to preach the Gospel through all the world, recommended this virtue of simplicity especially to them. It is most important and necessary to draw down Graces from Heaven upon the people to dispose their minds to listen to the Gospel and to accept it. Now, it was not only to His Apostles He was speaking, but, in general, to all those whom Providence destined for the preaching of the Gospel, and the instruction and conversion of souls. Now, Gentlemen, you must apply this to yourselves. God takes pleasure in conversing with the simple. He walks with them and makes them go forward in all security. Indeed it is only the simple who are chosen to be instructed in the School of Our Lord. His doctrine remains obscure to the wise and prudent of this world, as He Himself declares, but it is revealed to little ones: Confiteor Tibi Pater, quia abscondisti haec a sapientibus et prudentibus, et revelasti ea parvulis. It is certainly the case that the religious spirit is more usually found amongst the simple than amongst the great persons of the world."
When sending a Missioner once to a country that was famed for its craftiness he gave him this advice: "You are going to a country where it is said the inhabitants are mostly cunning and deceitful. Now, if this be the case, the best way of helping them is to act with great simplicity, for the maxims of the Gospel are entirely opposed to the ways of the world. And as you are going in the service of Our Lord you must also behave according to His Spirit, which is a Spirit of uprightness and simplicity."
The Missioner regulated his conduct on this very wise advice, and the populace, charmed by his candour, offered a magnificent establishment to the Saint. Saint Vincent accepted it because there was good to be done there. The first Superior he sent to this place was a priest endowed with great ability united with perfect simplicity.
Nothing could better express the delicacy of the Saint on this point than the following letter. It is an answer to one of his own priests, who had opened his whole heart to him: "I thank you for your letter, and for your gracious gift. Your heart is too good to be placed in such bad hands as mine; and I know well enough that you offer it to me that I may give it back to Our Lord, to Whom it belongs and to Whose Love you desire it should always tend. May your loving heart henceforth belong solely to Jesus Christ, and belong to Him entirely, for time and for eternity. Pray to Him, I conjure you, that He may give me a little of the Candour and Simplicity of His Heart. These are the virtues which I greatly need, and the excellence of which surpasses our understanding."
Practice - In our words and in our relations with our neighbour let us carefully avoid all that would not be conformed to the exact truth. Besides the offence to God, it offends against ordinary decency and disgraces a man in the sight of all.
- text taken from Virtue and Christian Refinement According to the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul, by Saint John Bosco