Fragrance of Holiness
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
The Fragrance . . .
S ome 18 months after Fr. de Montfort’s death on 28 April 1716, the Marchioness de Bouillé asked permission of the bishop of La Rochelle to build a more fitting tomb for the priest.
In this she was recognizing what people commonly felt. This priest who died among them aged 43 was no underachiever.
The bishop, Stephen de Champfleur, a firm supporter of Fr. de Montfort (Montfort died after preaching his last sermon before him) agreed. “I too think very highly of him and believe that he is very dear to God. After leading such a holy life, there is every reason to believe that God had mercy on him and has placed him among the blessed in heaven . . We may certainly have private devotion to him, go to his tomb . . . but I condemn public worship and public practices of piety . . . (280: See Footnote).
. . . of Holiness
Permission given, a date was arranged for the exhumation of the body. The parish priest did not want to be there, convinced that there would be a bad smell, so in time-honored fashion, he deputed his assistant priest to take his place. The exhumation was carried out on the night of 12 November 1717.
Fr. Triaut, the assistant priest, gave an account of it. “Those who had to be present took liquors and strong-smelling herbs . . . I had put some small bitter sage into my nostrils in order to ward off the smell. In the event the precautions were not necessary. “Mr. de Montfort’s body . . . had caused the earth near and over it to give a pleasant smell. According to the sacristans, that earth which I gave to many people, smelled like fennel apples” (283). The parish priest later went to the grave and certified ’that the servant of God’s face was entire, perfectly recognizable, not disfigured in the least” (284).
The Fragrance of Christ
Fr. de Montfort’s dead body may have had the scent of apples, but the fact that the community in which he died was going to such trouble to honor him, suggests that the scent of his life and preaching was attractive at a much deeper level.
Tomb where lies the remains of St. Louis de Montfort and Blessed Marie Louise of Jesus, in the Basilica at St. Laurent-sur-Sevre.
The people who wanted a fitting tomb for their dead preacher, felt that fragrance of Christ that Montfort helped deepen in their lives. It was attractive still and they would not let it go. They were blessed to receive “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”.
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In this, as in much else, Montfort could echo the experience of another travelling preacher, St. Paul. “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere”. (2 Cor. 2:14). Montfort too lived only for God, and among people he too claimed “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness . . . that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:2-5). They had no standing other than the intrinsic worth of what they were saying and their utter belief in it. The fragrance of Christ came from men who were wholly Christ’s. “Paul, slave of Christ Jesus . . .” (Rom. 1:1), was Montfort’s self description too.
Paul continues the analogy. Such is his oneness with his Lord that he feels himself to be “the scent of Christ to God” among those who receive his preaching, and equally, “the fragrance from death to death” for those who will not listen.
Clearly, the fragrance of Christ could never be marketed as anonymous, noncontroversial, like a mildly relaxing sedative. Authentic Gospel-preaching of Christ, on the one hand can open up limitless reality, able to take and develop the best we have to offer. It does empower the weak. Among those who find it distasteful when not wholly offensive, it may cause them to close the door on life in Christ. What then are they left with?
Practitioners Felt that Fragrance of Christ . . .
Fr. de Montfort like Paul before him, at times could be said to be carried along in the wake of Christ, seen as a laughing stock, “a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men”. (1 Cor. 4:9). That is not their misfortune since they are in Christ, but it is tragic for those who see them only like that. To such people, the fragrance of Christ communicated by such preachers can only be a “fragrance from death to death”. The authentic evangelical preacher’s words carry such power, and the listener’s attitude to them can carry immense responsibility.
The positive welcome to what is offered on the other hand can be experienced as ‘a fragrance from life to life.’ This is life-enhancing, opening the way to a rich life hidden with Christ in God. The possibilities appear as infinite as one widens one’s interests, when drawn to the fragrance of Christ. The attraction is to go that one step more.
The people who wanted a fitting tomb for their dead preacher, felt that fragrance of Christ that Montfort helped deepen in their lives. It was attractive still and they would not let it go. They were blessed to receive “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).
. . . that Montfort Helped Deepen in their Lives
This is the comment of the Gospel on every age. Those in charge invariably crucify Christ. Always, they get it wrong. There appears to be an inbuilt antipathy to the fragrance of the authentic Christ. The preaching of Paul, Louis Marie and the genuine evangelical, imparts insight and wisdom, “although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away”. (1 Cor. 2:6).
Contemporary opinion is just that – ‘contemporary,’ with its obvious limits and tunnel vision, so often assuming it is superior to the past precisely because the past is past and not the more enlightened present. To open myself to the fragrance of Christ in the Gospel is to receive the possibility of one of the rarest of freedoms – freedom from the contemporary. The flavor of the month never lasts. In the person of Christ I am offered a reality of point and purpose which not even death can break. It is to be savored as it is lived.
The people who wanted a new tomb for the dead body of Fr. de Montfort were not chiefly concerned with what he had done among them in the past. They were thanking God that through him the fragrance of Christ was almost tangible. What he shared with them in the past was a present possession. Priest and people are one in the gift of Christ.
Footnote:
Charles Bernard, The Life of Mr. Louis Marie de Montfort, Priest, Apostolic Missionary, 1785. Translated by Brother Amance S.G. (Boys Town, Singapore 1985). All references are to pages in this edition.
