An Easy Way!
Fr. Lionel Gamache, SMM
An Easy Way!
D ieting used to be so difficult, once. But now to diet, they tell us, is fun. The directions on the bottle read: ”Swallow this little pill a half hour before your meal, then eat all you want.” Instead of ugly fat, soon, you will be all bone and muscle . . . providing, of course, that you successfully resist all desires of ice cream, strawberry-shortcake, chocolate eclairs and mid-night snacks. It’s very easy to get slim.
A Sales Talk
When we read in the True Devotion that holy slavery is an easy means of becoming a saint, it almost sounds like a high pressure sales-talk. St. Paul did not seem to believe the road to perfection without its bumps. ”I, therefore, so run as not without a purpose . . . but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection . . .” (I Cor. IX, 17). And from the story of St. Louis de Montfort’s life with all its misunderstandings, calumnies, discouragements, we can wonder if this part of his treatise was not written with tongue-in-cheek. Our Lord had set the pace with: ”If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke IX, 23). And all the saints have kept this pace.
Moreover, the science of the saints, asceticism, with long chapters on mortification, the dark nights off the senses and spirit, would seem to further contradict all thought of an easy way to perfection. And when we read just a bit of the means of self-torture devised by the Fathers of the desert in their efforts to attain sanctity, we can well wonder how Montfort could be so rash as to suggest an easy means to heaven. ”The kingdom of heaven has been enduring violent assault, and the violent have been seizing it by force.” (Matt. XI, 12).
A Relative Form
Easy is such a peculiar word. Is algebra easy? For some students algebra is a ”snap.” For most High School students it is a painful experience. What makes the difference? Various answers could be given. Probably the most expressive is the dictum of the students themselves: ”If you know it, it’s easy; if you don’t, it’s slow death.”
Objectively speaking, the work of one’s sanctification in the present state of mankind is not easy. We have boundless forces within us. But Original Sin has weakened us, has made us an easy prey for the world, the flesh and the devil.
Then there is the cross spoken of by Our Lord that must be carried by those who wish to follow Him. Christianity is essentially linked to this cross. God gives these crosses to those He loves. They are special, purifying graces. By these the saint severs whatever tiny threads enslave him to this world. By nature we rebel against this cross. Nature will always rebel against it, but nature must be taught to submit to its beneficial action. Because it is so hard to accept these crosses in humble submission, the work of union with Christ is particularly difficult.
Subjectively speaking, however, in any individual a cross may be relatively easy to carry. And that is Montfort’s theme in the fifth motive of his ”Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.”
Madonna: Italian Painter: Carlo Dolci: 1670
”. . . that good Mother . . . prepares her servants’ crosses as to make them gladly acceptable, no matter how bitter they may be in themselves; and I believe that a person who wishes to be devout and to live piously in Jesus Christ, and consequently to suffer persecutions and carry his cross daily, either will never carry great crosses, or will not carry them joyously or perseveringly, without a tender devotion to Our Lady . . .”.
Return to The Queen: Articles
A Mother’s Help
Holy Slavery is an easy means of reaching perfection first of all, because it makes profitable use of Mary’s Spiritual maternity, the very means intended by God for our growth in sanctity. How? Because it is a real, effective maternity. If a child had to learn by himself, how to walk, to talk, he would find the learning of these rudiments extremely difficult. Because a mother adapts herself to her child’s abilities and needs, the process becomes relatively easy. Because she supports him in his first steps, taking upon herself the greater part of the labor involved, learning to walk becomes easy. Applying these examples to our growth in the supernatural life, it becomes evident that holy slavery is a step in the right direction, for someone who wants the acquisition of perfection with less difficulty and more chance of success.
Chemistry in Action
In the practice of holy slavery, we try to do all our actions through, with, in and for Mary. ”Twif” applied to every thought, word and deed, becomes a working formula in producing Christ-like actions. No long, drawn-out experimenting is necessary. We need only put together, as a spiritual chemist, the symbols that express our complete dependence in everything upon the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Holy Slavery does even more. Sanctity supposes cooperation with the grace of God. By surrendering himself completely into Mary’s hands, the slave of Mary makes direct contact with the treasurer of all of God’s graces. He thus places himself in a position to be sanctified. He uses in a perfect way the means invented by God to bring about our union with Christ. Montfort wrote: ”It is the way which Jesus Christ Himself trod in coming to us, and in which there is no obstacle in reaching Him”.
The Cross . . . A Grace
But what about those crosses? In this, holy slavery has no peer. To become a saint it is not enough to be over-burdened with tribulations. The devils in hell have not even a moment’s relief from them. Even on earth some people curse their poverty, their infirmities, the mosquitoes and the weather. How many people learn from the disaster of hurricane floods, detachment from TV sets, sleek cars and soft living. They can be heavy crosses. Some people they make . . . others, they break.
The faithful servants of the Blessed Virgin get their share of these crosses. ”They are contradicted, they are persecuted, they are calumniated, the world cannot endure them; or again, they walk in interior darkness and in deserts where there is not the least drop of the dew of heaven”. (T.D. No. 153). In a word, holy slavery is not an insurance policy against physical catastrophe.
Along with these graces of suffering, Our Lady gives her faithful slaves, the graces to carry these crosses joyously and meritoriously. Because of the very special graces whereby much of the sting is taken out of these divine love-taps, the cross becomes an asset rather than a handicap.
A Special Grace
Crosses are graces of God. However, these graces must be courageously accepted to be meritorious. To be accepted meritoriously, extra special graces from the Blessed Virgin makes them easy to carry. To her slave she gives the grace to understand the meaning and purpose of suffering. And to her slave she gives the courage to embrace these sufferings joyously, the perseverance to bear these without murmur until the end.
This is one reason why holy slavery is an easy means to attain union with Christ. Besides providing the slave with all the means of satisfaction, expiation – in a word purification – she makes these means appear desirable.
On what principle is this based? God has established her as the Universal Mediatrix of all His graces. As it is true that someone who rejects this order established by God thereby places himself in the impossibility of realizing a desired effect, so also is it true that someone who approaches closer to the established order, all things being equal, has a better chance of realizing the desired effect, namely man’s sanctification. Being closer to the Mediatrix by his consecration and his daily dependence upon her, the slave of Mary has found the easy means to heaven.
Discover an Easy Means of Carrying These Crosses
As Montfort expressed it: ”. . . that good Mother . . . prepares her servants’ crosses as to make them gladly acceptable, no matter how bitter they may be in themselves; and I believe that a person who wishes to be devout and to live piously in Jesus Christ, and consequently to suffer persecutions and carry his cross daily, either will never carry great crosses, or will not carry them joyously or perseveringly, without a tender devotion to Our Lady . . .”. (T.D. No. 15).
In attaining union with Christ, then, our problem is not to discover a means of escaping persecution, calumnies, illness, catastrophes. Rather, our problem is to discover an easy means of carrying these crosses. That means God has given us. It is to follow Christ in his total dependence upon the Blessed Virgin Mary.
