A correlation necessarily exists between zeal for the Glory of God and zeal for the salvation of souls.A correlation necessarily exists between zeal for the Glory of God and zeal for the salvation of souls.
Saint Augustine asks: "What man should think himself devoured by the zeal of the House of God?" He answers: "He who ardently desires to prevent God being offended, who gets those offences made good, which he could not prevent, and when he cannot get the guilty ones to weep over them, he weeps himself, and sighs to see the Honour of God insulted." If we understand Zeal thus, we shall have to acknowledge that Saint Vincent possessed it in an eminent degree, under its double aspect. All that we have said hitherto proves that the sole object of his preoccupation was the destruction of sin, and that in all his works he had nothing in view but the Glory of God and the salvation of his neighbour. His zeal was prudent, enlightened, indefatigable, disinterested. We shall prove these four points by quoting facts.
First, his zeal was prudent, a prudence stamped with calmness and meekness. When obliged to remonstrate with those under his direction, he did so; but his observations never contained that sort of bitterness which betrays caprice or partiality. His counsels, through an admirable gift of Providence, were those of a man who knows how to fight a present evil, and knows how to foresee what might happen later. On the Missions he thundered against sin, but after having terrified the sinner, he knew how to gain all his confidence. Without flattering the impious he had for him all the tenderness of a mother for her child. Speaking to the great ones of this world, he did not mince the truth; but the truth, which is so often odious, was covered under the cloak of respect, tenderness, and the high idea they always had of his holiness.
His zeal was enlightened. The maxims of the Gospel, the authority of the Fathers, the decisions of the most celebrated Doctors, were always his guides. Could anyone have safer ones? In this way, as to morals, he always kept the balance between austerity and relaxation. A great fund of common sense; friendly relations with the most enlightened men of the Faculty of Theology in Paris; care to have recourse to God in his doubts; in a word, all the happy dispositions he owed to Grace and to nature, conducted him always along the thoroughly safe road which is equally removed from both extremes.
His zeal was also indefatigable. Think of the energy and constancy which must have been necessary for a man who during long years was labouring to shelter from misery whole Provinces, with fresh needs ever cropping up! What are we to think of a man who, in helping the poor of several Hospitals, had to surmount difficulties of all kinds? A man who, overwhelmed with infirmity and eighty-four years of age, gave Missions, preached, confessed and gave catechism to little children? A man who, wherever the Glory of God or the salvation of man was concerned, heeded neither obstacles, nor fatigues, nor expense? "Oh, Gentlemen," he wrote, in order to encourage his children to work zealously, "if the Company which is only newly born, has had the courage to undertake so many Missions, so many Conferences, Retreats, Reunions, so many journeys for the poor; to establish so many Seminaries and Associations of Charity; to embrace all these different opportunities of serving God, certainly it will do something more, when, with time, it has gathered a little more strength, provided it is faithful to the Grace of vocation. . . . If the salvation of one soul is of such importance that one must expose one's temporal life to procure it, how could we ever abandon such a great number of them through fear of expense?"
Finally, his zeal was disinterested. He never dreamt of crossing the seas, or going through the country to get contributions from the people he visited; very far from that, it was at his own expense he rendered them all the services which depended on himself. On the Missions he would not even accept the stipends for Masses celebrated for the intention of the donor, but caused them to be distributed amongst the sick by the very ones who had made the offering. A Parish Priest who was comfortably off, offered his own living for the Missioners, but they were not allowed to accept it. "A Missioner," he wrote, "who works on the purse of another is no less guilty than a Capuchin who touches money. I beg of you, once for all, never to give Missions except at the expense of your own House."
Saint Vincent possessed also another kind of disinterestedness, more difficult and less common. He was absolutely ignorant of that spirit of jealousy amongst fellow-workers against which so many are not sufficiently on their guard; his zeal resembled that of Moses working with Aaron in perfect harmony. Like him, he desired that all should possess the Spirit of God; he watched the success of other Orders with the holy joy of the Children of God; he published it abroad on every occasion; he even rendered them services which they never knew about. To show what they had done he even went so far as to depreciate his own. In his own Congregation he saw only an association of unskillful gleaners, following afar off "the great reapers" of souls and obliged to believe, in order to find grace before God, that their little sheaves of corn could not be pleasing to Him, except in union with the abundant harvest of others.
However, if this truly great man has declared in the words of the Book of Wisdom that he has "done nothing but gather up a few grapes, passed over by the vintagers," yet the Church, in her Office for his Feast, makes him say that, in spite of everything, he has filled the wine press: "Et quasi qui vindemiat replevi torcular." The reader has been able to convince himself of this so far. The maxims and spirit of the Servant of God have been maintained to this day amongst his Missioners in all their integrity.
These details are surely sufficient to make known how truly Saint Vincent's zeal was wise, enlightened, indefatigable and disinterested.
Practice - An alms for the intention of some poor child. If you cannot give this alms, go and hear a Mass, to obtain from the. Lord the conversion of so many souls who are dying in miserable ignorance of the Truths of the Gospel.
- text taken from Virtue and Christian Refinement According to the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul, by Saint John Bosco