Dare to Be Wisdom: Part IV
St. Louis Marie de Montfort
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
W hen Louis Grignion left home for Paris and the future he was aged nineteen. First he gave away what money he had, then his clothes. Now penniless and in rags preparing to beg his way to Paris, he drew breath and felt that now he could really say ‘Our Father’. He never ever went back on that commitment.
He chose to live, it seems, always on the other side of prudence, and perhaps common sense, believing himself to be, “ . . . free with the freedom that comes from you (God), detached from everything, without father, mother, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends as the world and the flesh understand them, without worldly possessions to encumber or distract. . . devoid of all self interest” (RM. 7). He would allow ‘no thing’ and ‘no body’ to come between him and his desire to live only for God.
To live like that seems scarcely rational. He had nothing but what he stood up in, even giving up his family name in order to be “free as the clouds . . . moving without let or hindrance, according to the inspiration of the Spirit . . . always available . . . ready to obey you (God) when those in authority speak” (RM. 9, 10). To Montfort, this was supremely sensible as he believed that God’s will was the core of reality and the guide to life. In so far as he is at one with that is he alive and living to some purpose. God alone is the point. Whatever might tie him down and inhibit his response to what God’s will might ask must go.
THE COST
A price has to be paid for this. Is it unreasonable to depend on family, friends, well-placed people or agreeable circumstances? Prudent fore-sight might suggest careful investment in people and places now to protect my future. One has to budget surely, otherwise I may find myself “of little account . . . poor . . . of no influence . . .weak” (L.C.M.). Living like Montfort will teach what it taught him, “the effects of poverty . . . the labour it entails in the pulpit or in the confessional, by which you earn your bread by the sweat of your brow; the humiliations and disdain that are usually shown to poor clerics; other humiliations which poverty brings with it: lack of suitable clothing, proper food and accommodation; the fatigue and travelling it imposes” (L.C.M. 10).
St. Louis Marie knew this from experience as he chose to live with nothing between himself and the call of the will of God. This was the space he occupied. There he found himself and tried to be what he always prayed for—“free but still in bondage to your (God) will; (as) men after your own heart. . . (to) carry out your will to the full” (RM. 8). “Hold fast to God, and for the rest be uncommitted”, it has been said. In reply to that it was said that if I hold fast to God I cannot help but be committed. I am held by God in a community.
Painting: Sermon on the Mount: Carl Bloch (1834 -1890)
This is the fourth in the series: Dare to Be Wisdom. The first article may be found here.
“ . . . it is not enough just to be unafraid. God wants you to hope for great things from Him and to be filled with joy by reason of this hope. Our bountiful Father wants to give . . . ”
A community of what would become the Daughters of Wisdom came to La Rochelle to help educate poor children in circumstances which were far from ideal. Montfort writes to them; “if you truly seek to be a disciple of divine Wisdom and one chosen among so many, then this unkind treatment you are suffering, the contempt, the poverty, the restrictions, . . . should be pleasing to you since they are the price you have to pay to obtain Wisdom and true freedom, and become partakers of the divinity of the heart of Jesus crucified” (L. 34). Most priests similarly placed would sympathize and suggest practical help if possible.
Montfort goes on to describe their foundation in terms echoing the foundation of St. Paul’s community in Corinth. He is not building on money or influence, but “we want to found our Congregation on the Wisdom of the Cross of Calvary . . . the spouse of his heart . . . his only crown of glory, his only guide in his judgements . . . ” (L. 34).
Montfort will not allow circumstances to dictate to him if he believes the call is from God and he is uncompromisingly trying to respond: “entirely dependent as you are on the Providence of God, it is for him to support you and to increase your numbers . . . It is for God to be your defender . . . to provide all that is necessary for your bodily needs . . . In a word, fear nothing whatsoever and sleep in peace in your Father’s arms” (L.C. M. 4). He knows nothing of, “trust in God, but keep your powder dry”.
VISION
What did St. Louis Marie see to enable him to live this way and invite others to follow him? He saw and believed that he was loved by God in Christ. In return he gave himself utterly. Such was the covenant between him and his Lord. For him and his followers, therefore, “their sole resource must be God’s providence. God will decide who will provide . . . and the manner in which this provision will be made” (RM. 10).
The insight of faith which he cherished was to believe that only if he truly lived for God could he be the person God wished him to be, and therefore do something effective for God. Opposition to the Gospel is too strong, sophisticated and dedicated to be faced down by anything less. Given this perspective, St. Louis Marie echoing John 15, is positively realistic: “ . . . it is not enough just to be unafraid. God wants you to hope for great things from Him and to be filled with joy by reason of this hope. Our bountiful Father wants to give . . . ” (L.C.M. 5).
The way to receive is clearly to be receptive. Detachment from what is not God compels God to love me, it has been well said. Poor in practical terms, perhaps, I will be superlatively rich in God. Nothing therefore, ought to come between myself and my Lord: “ . . . set a great value on this real and effective poverty to which you have committed yourself and have a real love for it” (L.C.M. 9). If I care for nothing but God alone, God alone will care for me with the unfathomable riches of Christ. He can give in so far as I am open to receive.
MATURE WISDOM
As with St. Paul so too with St. Louis Marie, one may wonder where idealism ends and realism begins. The basis of the wisdom offered here is “let no one deceive himself. . . let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God” (1 Cor.3:18, 19). The dynamic and so the perspective has its source in God: “for the Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God . . . now we have received . . . the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit . . . and they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor.2:10—14). Presumably the degree of receptivity to the Spirit will be the measure of enlightenment. It is literally a source open to wonder.
Montfort was in no doubt that such insight in people would be a creation of God. So he prays, “send this all—consuming Spirit upon the earth to create priests who burn with this same fire (of love) and whose ministry will renew the face of the earth and reform your Church . . . create this bodyguard of handpicked men who will protect your house, defend your glory and save the souls that are yours . . . these poor folk . . . missionaries entirely dependent on Providence . . . (with) the . . . soaring flight of an eagle—witness the height of their contemplation . . . They will look kindly on their fellow men and women, fearlessly on your enemies, impartially on themselves, and, when they look on you, they will be carried away in contemplation” (RM. 17, 30, 21).
For this to take effect the dependence on Providence of such people will be at one with their devotion to Our Lady. Far from coming between them and the Spirit, Mary “is the mountain on which Jesus Christ who dwells there for ever, will teach in his own words the meaning of the eight Beatitudes . . . they will be transfigured as He was on Mount Tabor . .. (MP. 25). From her conception Mary was overshadowed by the creative Spirit and her subsequent life was at one with the will of God. Graced from such a Source, self evidently her influence can only draw us to who she now sees in God in Christ.
A short note asked Montfort to leave La Salpetriere hospital in Paris where he had been working. He took lodging in a hotel under a staircase. In a letter to Louise Trichet, his first Daughter of Wisdom, he asks her to “pray . . . plead for me to obtain divine Wisdom”, as he again finds a question mark over his future. His understanding of the Christian life put him at odds with so many. He so much wanted to be wise by being Wisdom as revealed in the Gospel, but how could he claim such insight?
He has been hurt, ridiculed and is losing his good name. This he sees as an indication of the presence of Wisdom in his life~ “a secret and hidden wisdom of God . . . none of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor.2:7, 8). Perhaps the pattern has not changed, the disciple is no different to the master? He then asks himself a series of questions that anyone open to his influence in daring to be Wisdom today could well make his or her own: “When shall I possess this lovable and mysterious Wisdom? When will Wisdom come to live in me? When shall I be sufficiently equipped to serve as a place of rest for Wisdom in a world where He is rejected and without a home? Who will give me this bread of understanding with which Wisdom nourishes great souls? Who will give me to drink of the chalice from which Wisdom quenches the thirst of those who serve him? When shall I be crucified and lost to the world?” (L. 16).
