States of Christian Life and Vocation, According to the Doctors and Theologians of the Church/Part 1/Section 2/ARTICLE I. The State of Tendency to Perfection, or the Religious State/CHAPTER V. IS THE RELIGIOUS STATE OBLIGATORY.
CHAPTER V. IS THE RELIGIOUS STATE OBLIGATORY.[edit]
THOUGH the advantages of the religious life are very great, we must not, however, conclude therefrom that the state in itself is obligatory. " If we consider the religious life in itself," says Suarez, " no one is by strict commandment bound to embrace or profess it." By itself a counsel entails no obligation, not even under pain of venial sin. This appears to me certain and clearly taught by the fathers whom I have quoted. For they say that works of counsel are altogether free, and may be omitted without any fault. Furthermore, St. Paul seems to teach the same thing clearly : " If a virgin marries, she does not sin : he who gives his daughter in marriage, does well," even when acting against a counsel. But no one says of a person sinning in light matters, that he does well, or does not commit any sin. The same can be applied to the other counsels as to that on virginity.
It is for this reason that Scripture does not blame persons who do not follow the counsels. Indeed, a counsel of God manifested outwardly, or proposed to men, indicates only a judgment of God, approving what he counsels as being more useful and suitable to reach everlasting happiness with greater ease and perfection. And any mind that would array itself in opposition to a divine counsel, by holding such a counsel not to be a better and more useful means for salvation, would put a grievous affront on God, in thinking so ill of his counsels. But unwillingness to follow or observe a divine counsel, not because it is not considered very good, but because the will, for other motives, feels no leaning toward it, is no offence whatever to Jesus Christ.[1] Although the state of perfection is a profitable means for the acquirement of perfection, it is not, however, a necessary means.[2] Still, as Suarez observes, there are cases in which circumstances render the state of perfection obligatory. Thus, for instance, he who has taken a vow to enter religion is bound to keep his vow.[3] There are also weak souls that find everywhere in the world proximate occasions for offending God mortally, and for whom religion would be a secure haven against tempests, an escape after spiritual shipwreck. In reference to this matter, we read as follows in St. Liguori : " If one thought that, by remaining in the world, he would lose his soul, either because he has experience of his weakness amid the dangers of the world, or because he does not find there the assistance that the religious state offers, he could not be excused from grievous sin were he to remain in the world, since he thereby would put himself in serious danger of losing his soul." Quoting then the words of another theologian, the holy doctor says : "If your conscience tells you and it is often the case that you will be abandoned by God, unless you follow his divine call ; that you will be lost, unless you leave the world, etc., it would then be a sin for you not to accept the impulse of grace." "It does not appear doubtful," continues the same saint, "that they very much expose their salvation who, being certain of a call from God to the religious state, seek to persuade themselves that, by remaining in, or going back to, the world, they will be able to save themselves as easily as in religion." And he adds: "I do not wish to give any absolute decision on this subject, but let us earnestly pray to God to save us from the danger of resisting a vocation. For history relates tragic and numberless misfortunes, which are only the carrying out of the threats made in Scripture against those who are unfaithful to the call of heaven." The holy doctor ends with the following words : " Those who are called, are bound to become religious, for God will refuse them in the world the assistance he had in store for them in religion ; and though with ordinary graces they may be saved in the world, as a fact, it will be difficult for them to attain salvation."[4]