After examining the exercises of the first part of the Active Life, and of the Contemplative Life and its different modes, it remains for us to see how we may best enter upon the former, with ease and effectually. You must know that the first part of the Active Life requires association with others, in the same way as the Contemplative demands solitude. In the Active Life, by living in constant contact with others, we shall arrive better and quicker to the end which it proposes. The presence of others makes us ashamed because of the vices we have, and because of the virtues we have not; and, therefore, we seek to amend in both respects. This does not take place in solitude, when there is no one to reprove us, and before whom we are ashamed to transgress. Also, we profit much from the rebukes as well as from the examples of others in whose company we are : we are led to avoid what is displeasing in them and condemned, and to acquire what is agreeable and commended. Thus must you act in this life : you must diligently observe and avoid your own faults and those of others, according as you have been already taught in many places, especially in the chapter on the Active Life. Consider well what is there said about vices and virtues, and bring yourself to practise what is taught ; see how you should examine yourself, and observe the virtues of others, also imitate them, and humble yourself and preserve a spirit of fear before God, when you discover your own defects in regard to them. Thus S. Bernard teaches : “It is not without cause that for two or three days a languor of soul has attacked me, and an unusual dulness of mind and a sort of lassitude of spirit has taken hold upon me. I did run with alacrity, and lo ! a stone of stumbling lay in my path ; I was hurt, and I fell. Pride was found in me, and the Lord turned away in anger from His Servant. Hence came this sterility of soul, this meagreness of devotion which I experienced. How was my heart dried up, as curdled milk, as land in drought ; nor could I shed one tear of compunction, my heart was so hard. I found no comfort in meditation. Where now is that rapt delight which once I felt? Where is that repose of soul? that peace and joy in the Holy Ghost? I work without diligence: in watches, sleepy ; to wrath, prone ; in hatred, persevering ; in speech and at table, less restrained ; to minister to others, slow and disinclined. Alas ! all the mountains in turn the Lord visited, but He did not approach my dwelling.,,1 Again, “I see one remarkable for abstinence; one, for a marvellous patience ; another, for a consummate lowliness ; another, for perfect meekness; another, abounding in mercifulness and piety ; this one, frequently gifted with the power of contemplation ; this one, sticking at and piercing through the heavens with fervent prayers — all these are conspicuous for their virtues. I look around me and see the fervent, the devout, all united in Christ, all with a wealth of heavenly gifts and graces: truly are they the mountains which the Lord has visited, and who receive the Spouse again and again ‘ leaping upon ’2 them. But I, who find none of all this in me, what shall I think of myself but as one of the mountains of Gilboa, which the most benign Visitor of all the others passes by in anger and indignation? My little children, such a thought as this takes away the proud look, invites grace, and prepares the way for the coming of the Spouse.” And, further on, “I wish that you would not spare yourself, but accuse yourself, whenever you find yourself in the wrong, and perceive grace to be a little weaker, and virtue to be failing.” And again, “It is the duty of a man to examine himself, both as to his inner and outer life, and to be watchful over his ways and inclinations, and to suspect that pride is in all that he does, lest he be ensnared.3 Blessed is the man who feareth always/” “Learn to have yourself well in hand, to order your life, to rule your manners, to judge yourself, to arraign yourself before yourself, often to condemn yourself, and never to let yourself off with impunity. Let justice occupy the seat of judgment, let the guilty stand before it, and let conscience accuse yourself. No one loves himself more, no one will judge himself more faithfully. In the morning exact from yourself an account of the night, and see what precautions you should take for the coming day, When night has come, exact the account of the day, and make resolutions for the coming night. If you thus are strict with yourself, there will be no time for wantonness. Live every hour according to your rule of life, taking spiritual duties and temporal, each at their right time, thus rendering to God the service of your spirit, and to your spirit the service of your body. If anything should be omitted, or imperfectly performed, either as to manner, place, or time, do not let it pass with impunity, but strive to make it up.” 1 “How I revere them with my heart, how, think you, do I admire them, how do I embrace them with the affection of charity, who live day by day amongst others without offence, and who, choosing one or another for companionship, select those who are more fervent than the rest, and set them before them as examples, as models of the fulfilment of their duty, bodily and spiritual, to their Lord ! Alas, me ! says one of us, for I have observed a religious person, in watching and prayer, in whom I could discover thirty virtues, whilst I perhaps can find only one in myself! He had everything which the humility of religious emulation gives. Here is the fruit to draw from my discourse, that every one should always seek that which is highest in others, for in that consists the fulness of humility. If in some respect a grace seems to be given to you in larger proportion than to some other, you can, nevertheless, if you are animated with the true feeling of emulation, you can yet judge yourself inferior to him in other points. Thus you may be able to practise more mortification, or to labour more than another ; but he may surpass you in patience, excel you in humility, be more eminent in charity. How, then, daily do you yield to the foolish and self-complacent thought, that you are better than he? Be a little more anxious to discover in what you fail, what is wanting to you. This would be more profitable .”4 At least, S. Bernard evidently thinks so.
You see, then, how important it is to be circumspect, and to examine yourself, and others also, but only that you may turn to account their example. Give diligence to this, whilst you are in the Active Life, always guarding the duties of humility, charity, and piety. Above all, occupy yourself with meditations upon the Life of Christ, and prayer ; because by means of both, you will be enlightened as to vices and virtues, and you will be helped by these more than by all other exercises in gaining purity of soul, towards which with all your strength you ought to tend, for it includes all virtues, as I have shown, when treating of the Fast of our Lord.
If you have well understood the authorities which I have cited on this subject, you will not fail to grasp the truth, that the higher the contemplation you desire to attain to, the greater must be the purity of soul by which you fortify yourself. But the soul is purified by meditating on the Life of Christ, and especially upon His Passion, as you have seen from S. Bernard’s general observations in the seventysecond sermon on the Song of Songs. The soul is purified also in Prayer, which is near to and a preparation for Contemplation, and that which prayer obtains by laborious exertion, contemplation tastes in sweet repose. We have now dealt with the Active Life enough.
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