CAPUT XLI. Quam sit rarum ex vero vitiorum odio, zelum rectitudinis habere
The Rarity of True Zeal
Many who possess other virtues lack genuine zeal for souls, often excusing themselves under the guise of humility or mistaking rage for righteousness.
Oh, how many have conceived, by God's grace, many offspring of the other virtues in their minds and brought them forth from themselves—yet could not have this son!1 How many we see today who are poor in spirit, rejoicing in hope, fervent in love, much given to abstinence, thoroughly patient—yet far too lukewarm toward zeal for souls, and deeply sluggish!✦✦✦ Some, as if to safeguard humility, don't dare rebuke those who go wrong; others fear to correct those who sin, so they won't seem to disturb brotherly love. So too others, by other means and still other means, invent that their refusal to be zealous for the Lord is a virtue, or believe it belongs among the virtues. On the other hand, many take themselves to be acting from zeal for righteousness when they are, without doubt, acting in a spirit of rage; and what they truly carry out from hatred of people, they think—or pretend—they are practicing from hatred of vices.
Examining Our Motives
Those who think they have zeal must examine whether they truly love those they correct and whether they have experienced the interior joys that make correction an act of piety.
But please, let those of this kind who already believe they have given birth to Zebulun examine themselves; please, let them ask whether they truly love the people they chastise so bitterly, as if Zebulun were urging them on.2 Perhaps they still have hardly been able to know by experience what those spiritual delights are, to which they want to appear to invite—by their own scourges, or even by rebukes—the people they correct or flog. For those who have known by experience those interior joys to which they invite them through so many pains should be believed to pursue the wrongdoers out of piety rather than cruelty.
Love and Joy Before Zeal
The allegory of Leah's children teaches that love (Judah) and spiritual joy (Issachar) must precede zeal (Zebulun), so that correction is gentle and for the good of others.
We read that Leah bore Judah and Issachar before Zebulun; and we have already said that Judah signifies love, and Issachar the experience of spiritual joys. Judah and Issachar must be born first, because a mind that still has no share in love and interior sweetness can hardly keep the standard of uprightness in its zeal. For love teaches how those whom Zebulun chastises should be treated. Knowledge of spiritual things teaches what that sweetness is to which people are invited—or even driven—when outward pleasure (that is, carnal pleasure) is forbidden to them; and it is often for that pleasure, with Zebulun pressing hard, that they are rebuked more severely. So Judah should teach the manner of correction, and Issachar its reason, so that under Judah's moderating hand it may be done in a spirit of gentleness, and under Issachar's prompting it may nonetheless be for their true good.3 Let Zebulun seek their good, not his own, so that when he strikes those who go wrong, it is for their benefit, not for revenge.
Read the original Latin
O quam multi multas caeterarum virtutum proles ex Dei gratia mente conceperunt, et de se genuerunt, qui hunc filium habere non potuerunt! Quam multos hodie videmus spiritu pauperes, spe gaudentes, charitate ferventes, multum abstinentes, admodum patientes, ad zelum tamen animarum nimis tepidos, multumque torpentes! Alii, quasi ob custodiam humilitatis, delinquentes increpare non praesumunt; alii, ne charitatem fraternam perturbare videantur, peccantes arguere metuunt. Sic et alii aliis, et aliis adhuc modis, quod zelare pro Domino nolunt, virtutis hoc esse fingunt, vel virtutum esse credunt. Econtra multi, quod absque dubio agunt in spiritu furoris, agere se arbitrantur zelo rectitudinis, et quae veraciter exsequuntur odio hominum, exercere se putant vel simulant odio vitiorum. Sed, quaeso, interrogent qui hujusmodi sunt qui Zabulon jam genuisse se credunt, seipsos; quaeso, interrogent utrum in veritate diligant (quos quasi instigante Zabulon) tam acerbe castigant? Forte adhuc quae sint illae spirituales deliciae per experientiam scire minime potuerunt, ad quas eos quos arguunt vel flagellant, suis invitare flagellis, vel etiam increpationibus videri volunt. Illi enim pietate, potius quam crudelitate delinquentes, persequi credendi sunt, qui interna illa gaudia, ad quae eos tot doloribus invitant, per experientiam noverunt.
Judam et Issachar, prius quam Zabulon, Liam peperisse legimus; et per Judam charitatem, per Issachar spiritualium gaudiorum experientiam significari jam diximus. Prius Judam et Issachar nasci necesse est, quoniam mens quae charitatis et internae suavitatis adhuc expers est, rectitudinis normam in suo zelo minime servare potest. Charitas enim docet quomodo tractare oporteat quos Zabulon castigat. Spiritualium notitia docet quae sit illa suavitas ad quam invitantur, vel etiam compelluntur, quibus exterius jucunditas (carnalis videlicet voluptas) interdicitur, pro qua saepe Zabulon urgente, durius arguuntur. Judas itaque docere debet modum, Issachar autem causam correptionis, ut, moderante Juda, fiat in spiritu lenitatis, et Issachar suggerente, fiat nihilominus causa utilitatis. Utilitatem eorum Zabulon quaerat, non suam, ut quod delinquentes ferit ad utilitatem sit, non ad vindictam.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩In Richard's allegory, this son is Zebulun: true zeal for righteousness born of hatred of vices.
- 2 ↩The parenthetical in the source is slightly compressed; rendered as modifying the people so bitterly chastised under supposed Zebulun-zeal.
- 3 ↩causa utilitatis rendered as 'for their true good' (pastoral/spiritual benefit), not mere usefulness.
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