States of Christian Life and Vocation, According to the Doctors and Theologians of the Church/Part 2/PRELIMINARY NOTIONS.

by Jean-Baptiste Berthier

PRELIMINARY NOTIONS. IS EVERY MAN FREE TO CHOOSE THE STATE OF LIFE THAT SUITS HIM.

HAVING made known, as correctly and as clearly as we were able, the nature and advantages of the divers states of the Christian life, it remains for us to treat of the choice that the faithful may or should make.

And here, at the very outset, a question of the highest importance presents itself: " Does God call every child of the Church to a special state of life ? Does he lay on every one a sort of obligation to embrace some determined state ? " Or, in other words : " Is a man free to choose for himself, and as he pleases, that state of the Christian life which he prefers?"

We have found this question discussed in the learned Cornelius a Lapide, and we shall borrow from him this entire chapter. Henceforward, however, we shall say nothing of the priesthood or of episcopacy. In the foregoing pages we have laid down all that is most necessary to be known in reference to vocation to the ecclesiastical state : it were, consequently, superfluous to return to the subject in this Second Part. With these statements let us enter into the inquiry.

" I would that all men were even as myself, says St. Paul (i Cor. vii, 7), that is to say, living in celibacy, but every one has his proper gift from God (ibid.), namely: conjugal chastity, or virginity, or the chastity of widowhood." This is a Lapide s commentary, and he goes on : " The words, gift from God, may have two meanings ; they may mean, first, a state itself: as, marriage, celibacy, or the religious state. These states are a gift of God in the sense that he has established them all by himself or through his Church, and that he offers or gives these states to those who wish to accept them. Thus this gift, proper to every one of the faithful, comes partly from God, who instituted the state, and partly from the individual will of the chooser of the state. It is, indeed, true that God sometimes inspires certain individuals with a desire for celibacy, and others with a resolution to marry ; as it happens when a queen, by marrying, may have virtuous children, who will do great service to Church and state.^[1]

" But God does not always act in this manner; in a great number of cases he abandons altogether to individual freedom the choice of marriage or celibacy. If such a man is in a particular state, for instance, the marriage state, strictly speaking, it is owing to the free choice which he made of the state. It may, however, be said that the gift which is proper to him, namely, his state, comes to him from God, but only in the sense that God, who governs all things by a general providence, directs every man through his parents, companions, confessors, masters, and so forth, which results in one embracing marriage, another another state, but all freely ; for this entire direction does not interfere with the freedom of man.

" Observe, then, that the apostle might have aid that every one has the state of life that he saw fit to choose ; but he preferred to say : 'Every one has his proper gift from God,' for he sought to console married people. He feared that some of them might annoy themselves and say: The apostle would wish us all to lead a life of celibacy like himself, yet I, unhappy being that I am, I am married ; and it is my own fault that I am deprived of the immense advantages of celibacy, and am cast amid the hardships of marriage.

For, weak and afflicted souls are wont to grow discouraged, when they meet difficulties in their state of life. When they remember that they could easily have escaped these annoyances, they torment themselves to no purpose. In order to do away with these useless regrets, St. Paul tells them that their state is a gift from God, in the sense that we have explained, so that every one may live in peace in his state of life ; looking upon it as a benefit confirmed by God, and seeking to sanctify himself in it with joy and thankfulness.

"In the next place, by the words, gift from God, which St. Paul applies to the states of the Christian life, we may understand the grace proper to every one of these states. To live in conjugal fidelity, married persons stand in need of grace ; virgins need another grace for the practice of virginity : and this grace proper to every state comes formally from God. For, in the supposition that you have chosen a particular state, let us say celibacy, God will bestow on you the grace and gift peculiar to that state, in order that, if you wish it, you may lead a holy life in that state. And, indeed, since God has not seen fit to prescribe to every man the state of life that he must accept, and has left us all free in this regard, as well as in many other decisions that we have to come to in this world, the wisdom of his providence demands that, when a man has made a choice, he should not be abandoned, and should receive that measure of divine assistance which is indispensable for a Christian life in the state of his choice. Indeed, God and nature never fail us, in necessary matters especially, because God wills all men to be saved, according to the apostle (i Tim. ii, 4), in whatever state they may be. He consequently supplies them with all requisite helps for salvation; and, if they are willing to employ this aid, they have it in their power to lead holy lives and attain salvation.

" Understood in this sense, the words of the apostle, 'Every one has his proper gift from God.' mean (unless, in consequence of accidental circumstances, you are bound to embrace some peculiar state^[2]): Choose for yourself the state you please, and God will give you the grace proper and suit able to that state, so that you may lead a holy life in it. This is the view of St. Ambrose, and it is also what the apostle had in his mind, as is plain from the words, 'I would that all men were even as myself'--just as if he had said : I have granted marriage to spouses, I have not commanded it, I should even wish that all would practise perfect chastity : but every one has his proper gift, let him use it. That is, let him who has the grace of the chastity of virgins or of widowhood, take it as a gift from God ; let the married man who has received conjugal chastity, and who in his state behaves in conformity with the divine law, accept his grace as a gift from heaven : let this gift be his consolation, and enable him to live in peace. Now from all this it follows, first, that God gives religious, even apostate religious, a gift and grace sufficient for them to live in chastity if they wish ; that is, if they pray, if they fast, if they read pious books, if they work, and keep themselves con stantly employed.

" It follows, in the second place, that, if one changes his state for a better one, God will give him a higher gift and a greater grace suited to his new state. We must keep in mind that there are various gifts of God. Some come wholly from him. To this class belong, in the natural order, a sound judgment, memory, a fine character ; and in the order of grace, all the virtues which God infuses into the soul : as, faith, hope, charity, such as they are given in baptism to a child just born. But there are other gifts of God, which come indeed from him, but need our cooperation for the production of their effect. In this way holy inspirations are gifts from God ; so are good works, and the acts of every virtue, gifts from God : because, in order that we may perform them, God bestows on us a prevenient and a cooperating grace, but after such a fashion, however, that he wishes man to perform these acts freely, and have it in his power to do them or to leave them undone. Chastity belongs also to this class of gifts, and it is in this sense that the apostle styles it a gift of God.^[3]

" With those who have the habit of observing perfect chastity, the gift of chastity is nothing more than this habit itself; but for those who have not this habit, the gift consists in a sufficient interior and exterior help from grace prepared by God for every man, so that every man can be chaste if he uses this help. From the fact that Jesus Christ has given to all the counsel of celibacy, it follows that he has prepared for, and is ready to give to, every man the grace needed to practise it, for he could never counsel what is impossible : and celibacy is impossible for man without the help of divine grace. If he is ready to bestow on every man the grace of virginal chastity, much more is he ready to give conjugal chastity. Every man, therefore, has his proper gift, that is, the grace suited to his state, in the sense that he can obtain it, and that God holds it in readiness ; and he can actually have that grace, that is, he may truly be forestalled and helped by that grace in his actions, if he wills to pray seriously and constantly to God for that prepared assistance, and if he will generously cooperate with the grace that God actually gives him."^[4] This long passage is taken from the learned Cornelius a Lapide; and the doctrine of this illustrious commentator of the Scriptures appears to flow clearly from the principles which we laid down in the first part of this book. For, since, as we have proved, marriage, celibacy, and the religious life are holy states, and are not in themselves obligatory on the faithful, it is evident that, where there is no hindrance, we are free to choose among these states the one that suits us, when we are not so situated that some one of them becomes obligatory on us through accidental circumstances.

These views receive confirmation from what the fathers of the Church say on the freedom of all men to practise or not to practise virginity. Suarez cites the following text from St. Basil: " At the opening of his career every one is allowed to desire and embrace the kind of life to which he aspires, provided it is a licit kind of life. Every one is free to marry or to lead a life of celibacy."^[5]

Are we to infer from this that, when God does not call a soul to one state more than to another, she may lightly and giddily embrace the state which flatters most the tendencies of nature? By no means. In all his actions man should be guided by reason ; and to put this reason aside where there is question of taking a determination on which depends the happiness of a whole life, would be the strangest and most fatal blindness. The Christian in all his works must follow the guidance of faith : and is the light of faith ever more necessary to him than in the choice of a state of life ? Who does not see that salvation is vastly concerned in such a choice ? To give a decisive solution, therefore, to the grave question of vocation, it is important for every one to use every means to learn the state of life in which he can live most agreeably to God, and most beneficially for his own salvation. The rules of Christian prudence should also be observed.

These means and rules shall form the subject-matter of the two following sections. We shall revert briefly to the doctrine and principles heretofore laid down : clearness and precision require us to do so.

Footnotes

1. We have already remarked,--and we shall have occasion to repeat the remark--, that there are cases wherein persons may be bound to marry, or to become religious.
2. It appears to us necessary to insert this restriction in the text of a Lapide. Indeed he himself gives it at the beginning of our lengthy quotation from him.
3. St. Chrysostom understands the words of the apostle in the same way. (De virginitate, c. xxxvi.)
4. In I Cor. c. vii, 7.
5. Suar., lib. 9, c. ii, n. 5. Cf. St. Chrysost. de virginitate, capp. xxxviii, xxxix.