Finding Happiness in Jesus
Montfort’s Spirituality: Call and Response to Happiness
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Finding Happiness in Jesus!
“Saint Louis de Montfort’s spirituality is a path to happiness. He calls us to a radical metanoia, a turning away from the sinful world of self-centeredness together with all the world’s allurements, and turning to the only goal, the only source of authentic happiness, Jesus the Lord. It is especially by embracing The Cross and by authentic devotion to Mary that we respond to the call, that we arrive at this infinite goal which is the only one that can fulfill the yearnings of the human heart.”
E ven a cursory reading of the works of Saint Louis de Montfort reveals the principal elements of his spirituality: strongly Trinitarian, an emphasis on Jesus as the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, a stress on the victorious Cross and on Mary’s role in salvation history. The teachings of Montfort are woven together in an act of total consecration, synonymous with baptismal renewal. His overall purpose is to form a legion of apostolic men and women who, filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, will renew the face of the earth and reform the Church. This article will attempt to clarify some of these major elements of Montfort’s Spirituality, showing how they form a powerful means of responding to the loving call of the Savior.
According to its most basic structure, Saint Louis de Montfort’s path to holiness is comprised of two major points: the unmerited, loving call of God and the total response on every level of personality to this empowering voice crying out “It is you I seek” (cf. LEW 66). This overview of the spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort will therefore be divided into two main sections:
- The Call of God
- The Response of Man.
THE CALL OF GOD
The call of the Father is personally exteriorized in Jesus the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit. The call comes to us through Mary and reaches its full volume in the triumphant victory of The Cross.
In other words, it is through Our Lady that Jesus our Redemption comes to be, a redemption accomplished through the triumphant Cross. These means by which Redemption comes to us in order to rescue us “from the cruel slavery of the devil,” (LEW 223) are also the principal ways that Montfort proposes to arrive at union with Jesus. We will, therefore, treat first of the call itself, Jesus the Lord, and then of the means by which the Second Person of the Trinity comes to us with healing redemption: The Cross and Our Lady. In a brief introduction, we will see how Montfort refers to this path as a call and a way to happiness.
Introduction: A Call and Way to Happiness
The one desire which gives unity and meaning, force and decision to all human desires is happiness. It is the goal of all human activity, the perfect good which satisfies all human desires. The search for happiness is the common ground on which all human yearnings, all human ambitions meet. The child building sand castles at the seashore, the great banker computing his fortune, are all searching for happiness.
The explicit goal of Montfort’s Spirituality is happiness. Saint Louis Marie thereby appeals to the most basic yearning of all men and women. He not only clarifies the goal but teaches us the means to arrive at happiness.
Happiness is found only in Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom. The primary truth which binds all Montfort Spirituality together is that happiness is found only in Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom of the Father: “In his pursuit of man, Wisdom hastens along the highways or scales the loftiest mountain peaks, or waits at the city gates or goes into the public squares and among the gatherings of people, proclaiming at the top of his voice: ‘You children of men, it is you I have been calling so persistently; it is you I am addressing; it is you I desire and seek; and, it is you I am claiming. Listen, draw close to me for I want to make you happy.’ ” (LEW 66).
Finding Happiness in Jesus
Throughout his writings, Saint Louis de Montfort stresses that only Jesus can make us happy for only Jesus is the Bridge uniting the finite to the Infinite, the creature to the Creator: “Jesus, our Savior, true God and true man must be the ultimate end of all our other devotions; otherwise they would be false and misleading. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of everything. ‘We labor,’ says St. Paul, ‘only to make all men perfect in Jesus Christ.’ . . . He alone is everything to us and he alone can satisfy all our desire” (TD 61). The most fundamental aphorism written by the saint accentuates this truth: “To know Jesus Christ the eternal and incarnate Wisdom is to know enough. To know everything else and not to know Jesus is to know nothing” (LEW 11).
Montfort therefore says: “A thousand times happy is the man into whose soul Wisdom has entered to have his abode! No matter what battles he has to wage, he will emerge Victorious. No matter what dangers threaten him, he will escape unharmed.” Whatever … “sorrows afflict him, he will find joy and consolation. No matter what humiliations are heaped upon him, he will be exalted. He will be glorified in time and through eternity” (LEW 51).
Jesus Must Be Our Goal
Only when Jesus, our Brother and our God, is our goal will we know happiness upon this earth, and the fullness of happiness in the age to come. The world with all its allurements, with its constant claim to give us happiness through money, power, pleasure, prestige, etc., is a lie (cf. H 120:12; H 30-33). In Hymn 123:6 Montfort has Jesus proclaim: “Learn that I esteem those things which the world flees. Woe to whoever follows it for it leads straight to the abyss. I curse those whom the world declares happy and I bless those whom it declares unhappy.” In another of his masterpieces, the saint tells us clearly and forcefully, “No, no, this cursed earth where we live is not destined to make us happy . . .” (FC 33).
The Virgin [and Child] With Angels (cropped) : Painter: William-Adolphe Bouguereau: 1900
This oil on canvas painting now resides in Petit Palais, Paris. For those that have visited The Shrine of Our Lady of the Island, a print of the full painting resides in the rear of Church.
Happiness is found only in Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom. There is one primary truth, which binds all Montfort Spirituality together. Happiness is found only in Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom of the Father
The means to arrive at happiness – union with Jesus the Lord – are singled out by the missionary. They too give us happiness in the sense that they lead us directly, perfectly, surely, to Jesus. As mentioned above, the most fundamental means underlined in Montfort Spirituality are two which presume each other; first, living with Jesus crucified on the victorious Cross and the second, “the greatest means of all, and the most wonderful of all secrets for obtaining and preserving divine Wisdom … a loving a genuine devotion to the Blessed Virgin” (LEW 203). As we will see, all the means arrive at infinite happiness are summarized in the perfect consecration to Jesus through Mary.
The Cross
The triumphant Cross, a fundamental means to happiness. It appears utterly ridiculous if not masochistic to the contemporary world; to state that union with Christ crucified is essential to arrive at the goal of happiness. Yet, adhering closely to the word of God (cf. Lk 16:24-26; Gal 6:14), that is Montfort’s bold proclamation to a contemporary civilization jaded by instant gratification, self-indulgence and a morality based on subjective feelings. Montfort’s moving Letter to the Friends of the Cross speaks of a friend of the Cross as “an all-powerful king … he overcomes the greed of the world … he restrains the sensuality of the flesh … A friend of the Cross is one who is holy … for his heart is raised above all that is transient and perishable and is homeland is heaven. He travels through this world like a visitor and a pilgrim …
In short, a perfect friend of the cross is a true Christ-bearer, or rather another Christ so that he can truly say, ‘I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.’ ” (FC 4). To bear the cross brings us to the eternal happiness of heaven (FC 58). “Jesus welcomes no child that … does not bear the sign of the Cross … He has enclosed in the cross such an abundance of grace, life and happiness . . . (LEW 173-174).
The Value of the Cross
And again: “The number of fools and unhappy people‘ is ‘infinite, says Wisdom. This is because in it is the number of those who do not know the value of the Cross and carry it reluctantly. But you, true disciples of eternal Wisdom, if you have trials and afflictions, if you suffer much persecution for justice’s sake, if you are treated as the refuse of the world, be comforted, rejoice, be glad and dance for joy” (LEW 179; biblical reference is to Ecclesiastes, 1:15 according to the Vulgate).
Surest Means to Happiness is Our Lady
Our Lady, surest means to happiness; A genuine devotion to Our Lady is, in Montfort’s eyes, the greatest means to happiness, Jesus her Son. Our Lady helps us in Finding Happiness in Jesus. How often the saint speaks of the incredible happiness of those who are united to her. For in her and through her they are united “perfectly” to the only center, the only goal, Jesus the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, thereby “loving him tenderly and serving him faithfully” (TD 62). “Oh! How happy is the soul who has the good graces of Mary! That soul must rest assured of soon possessing Wisdom” (LEW 206).
In one of his typical beatitudes framed by “happy . . . happier . .. happiest,” Montfort writes as the conclusion of his Secret of Mary, “Happy is that soul in which Mary the tree of life is planted. Happier still is the soul in which she has been able to grow and blossom. Happier again is the soul in which she brings forth her fruit. But happiest of all is the soul which savors the sweetness of Mary’s fruit (i.e.; Jesus the Lord) and preserves it up till death and then beyond to all eternity” (SM 78).
Our Lady is the Path that Leads Us to Happiness
Saint Louis de Montfort’s spirituality is then, a path to happiness. He calls us to a radical metanoia, a turning away from the sinful world of self-centeredness together with all the world’s allurements, and turning to the only goal, the only source of authentic happiness, Jesus the Lord. It is especially by embracing the Cross and by authentic devotion to Mary that we respond to the call. We arrive at this infinite goal which is the only one that can fulfill the yearnings of the human heart.
We will then, examine first the call of the Father, Jesus-Wisdom, and then the two foundational means Wisdom takes to comes to us, the Cross and Mary. Its through Mary that Jesus comes into the world as Redeemer and its through the victorious Cross that He accomplishes our salvation.
