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APOSTOLIC LETTER
TOTUM AMORIS EST
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
ON THE FOURTH CENTENARY OF THE DEATH
OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
“EVERYTHING PERTAINS TO LOVE”.[1] These words
summarize the spiritual legacy left to us by
Saint Francis de Sales, who died four centuries
ago, on 28 December 1622, in Lyon. Slightly more
than fifty years of age, he had been the
“exiled” Bishop and Prince of Geneva for some
two decades, and had come to Lyon on what was to
be his last diplomatic mission. The Duke of
Savoy had asked him to accompany Cardinal
Maurice of Savoy to Avignon, where they were to
pay homage to the young King Louis XIII, then
returning to Paris through the Rhône valley
following a victorious military campaign in the
south of France. Exhausted and in poor health,
Francis had undertaken the journey in a pure
spirit of service. “Were it not most helpful to
them for me to make this trip, I would surely
have many good reasons to excuse myself. Yet if
I can be of help, alive or dead, I will not
refuse, but go or let myself be dragged
there”.[2] That was his temperament. Upon his
arrival in Lyon, he stayed at the monastery of
the Visitation Sisters, in the gardener’s lodge,
so as not to be a burden and to be free to meet
with anyone who so desired.
Long disenchanted by the “fleeting glories of
the court”,[3]he spent those final days
exercising his pastoral ministry amid a flurry
of appointments: confessions, conversations,
conferences, sermons, and, of course, letters of
spiritual friendship. The deepest reason for
such a way of life, completely centred on God,
had become clearer to him over time. He
explained it with simplicity and precision in
his celebratedTreatise on the Love of God: “At
the very thought of God, one immediately feels a
certain delightful emotion of the heart, which
testifies that God is God of the human
heart”.[4] These words are a perfect synthesis
of his thought. An experience of God is
intrinsic to the human heart. Far from a mental
construct, it is a recognition, filled with awe
and gratitude, of God’s self-manifestation. In
the heart and through the heart, there comes
about a subtle, intense and unifying process in
which we come to know God and, at the same time,
ourselves, our own origins and depths, and our
fulfilment in the call to love. We discover that
faith is no blind emotion, but primarily an
attitude of the heart, whereby we entrust
ourselves to a truth that appeals to our
consciousness as a “sweet emotion” and awakens
in response, as he was wont to say, an enduring
benevolence towards all of creation.
In this light, we can understand why Saint
Francis de Sales felt that there was no better
place to find God, and to help others to find
him, than in the hearts of the women and men of
his time. He had learned this, from his earliest
years, by developing a keen insight both into
himself and into the human heart.
Francis’ profound sense of God’s presence amid
the events of daily life was evident in those
last days in Lyon. He shared with his Visitation
Sisters how he wished to be remembered by them:
“I said everything in just two words, when I
told you to refuse nothing and to desire
nothing; I have nothing more to say to you”.[5]
This was no mere voluntarism, “a will lacking
humility”,[6]the subtle temptation along the
path to holiness that confuses it with
self-justification, the worship of the human
will and its powers, and results in “a self-centred
and elitist complacency, bereft of true
love”.[7] Still less was it a matter of pure
quietism, a passive and emotionless abandonment
to a doctrine stripped of the flesh and
history.[8] Instead, it was the fruit of his
contemplation of the life of the incarnate Son.
On 26 December, the saint spoke to the Sisters
from the heart of the Christmas mystery: “Do you
see the baby Jesus in the crib? He accepts all
the discomforts of that season, the bitter cold
and everything that the Father lets happen to
him. He does not refuse the small consolations
that his Mother gives him; we are not told that
he ever reached out for his Mother’s breast, but
left everything to her care and concern. So too,
we ourselves should neither desire nor refuse
anything, but accept all that God sends us, the
bitter cold and the discomforts of the
season”.[9] We are struck by how Francis
recognized the importance of concern for the
human dimension. At the school of the
incarnation, he had learned to interpret history
and to approach life with confidence and trust.
The criterion of love
By experience, Francis had come to realize that
desire is at the root of all true spiritual
life, but also the cause of its debasement.
Drawing abundantly from the spiritual tradition
that had preceded him, he recognized the
importance of constantly testing desire through
the exercise of discernment. He found the
ultimate criterion for this assessment in love.
In that final conference in Lyon, on the feast
of Saint Stephen, two days before his death, he
had said: “It is love that grants perfection to
our works. I will tell you much more. Take a
person who suffers martyrdom for God with an
ounce of love; that person merits much, since he
could give nothing greater than his own life.
Yet another person who has only suffered a
scratch with two ounces of love will have much
more merit, because it is charity and love that
give value to our works”.[10]
With remarkable realism, Francis went on to
speak of the complex relationship between
contemplation and action: “You know, or you
should know, that contemplation is in itself
better than activity and the active life;
nonetheless, if one finds greater union [with
God] in the active life, then that is better. If
a Sister in the kitchen holding a pan over the
fire has greater love and charity than another
Sister, that material fire will not hold her
back but instead help her to become more
pleasing to God. It frequently happens that
people are united to God as much in activity as
in solitude; in the end, it always comes back to
the question of where the greatest love is to be
found”.[11] This, then, is the truly important
thing, more important than any kind of useless
rigidity or self-absorption: to keep asking at
every moment, in every decision, in every
situation in life, where the greatest love is to
be found. Not by chance, Saint John Paul II
would call Francis de Sales the “Doctor of
Divine Love”,[12]not simply because he had
written a weighty Treatise on that subject, but
first and foremost because he was an outstanding
witness to that love. His writings were no
theory concocted behind a desk, far from the
concerns of ordinary people. His teachings were
the fruit of a great sensitivity to experience.
He merely translated into doctrine what,
enlightened by the Spirit, he had experienced
and learned in the course of his remarkably
innovative pastoral activity. We find it summed
up in the Preface to theTreatise on the Love of
God: “In Holy Church, everything pertains to
love, lives in love, is done for love and comes
from love”.[13]
Early education: the adventure of coming
to know oneself in God
Francis was born on 21 August 1567 in the Castle
of Sales, near Thorens, the son of François de
Nouvelles, Lord of Boisy, and Françoise de
Sionnaz. “His life spanned two centuries, the
sixteenth and the seventeenth, and he embodied
the best of the teachings and cultural
achievements of the century then drawing to a
close, reconciling the inheritance of humanism
with the striving for the Absolute proper to the
currents of mysticism”.[14]
After his early education, first in the College
of La Roche-sur-Foron and then in that of
Annecy, Francis went to Paris, to the recently
founded Jesuit College of Clermont. In the
capital of the Kingdom of France, devastated by
the wars of religion, he experienced two
consecutive interior crises that would have a
lasting mark on his life. A fervent prayer
offered in the Church of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès,
before the Black Madonna of Paris, would kindle,
amid the darkness of his heart, a fire that
would continue to burn within him and provide
the key to understanding his own experience and
that of others. “Whatever may happen, Lord, you
who hold everything in your hands and whose ways
are all justice and truth, … I will love you,
Lord, … I will love you here, O my God; I will
hope always in your mercy and ever repeat your
praise… O Lord Jesus, you will always be my hope
and my salvation in the land of the living”.[15]
Attaining peace, Francis recorded those words in
his journal. The experience of this crisis, with
its anxiety and uncertainties, would remain
illuminating for him, and provide him with a
singular approach to the mystery of God’s
relationship with humanity. It helped him gain
insight into the lives of others and to
recognize, with a refined spirit of discernment,
the interior attitude that unites thought and
feeling, reason and affections, which he called
the “God of the human heart”. As a result,
Francis was never in danger of attributing
theoretical importance to his own personal
experience and absolutizing it. Rather, he
learned something remarkable, the fruit of
grace: the ability to discern, in God, his own
lived experience and that of others.
Although he never claimed to develop a
theological system as such, his reflection on
the spiritual life proved to be of outstanding
theological importance, for it embodied two
essential dimensions of any genuine theology.
The first isthe spiritual lifeitself, for it is
in humble and persevering prayer, in openness to
the Holy Spirit, that we attempt to understand
and communicate the word of God; theologians
emerge from the crucible of prayer. The second
isthe life of the Church,the ability to think in
the Church and with the Church. Theology itself
has felt the effects of our individualist
culture, yet Christian theologians are called to
carry out their work immersed in the life of the
community, breaking within it the bread of the
word.[16] The thought of Francis de Sales,
albeit on the margins of the scholarly disputes
of his age and respectful of them, was
characterized by these two essential dimensions.
The discovery of a new world
After completing his course in the humanities,
Francis took up studies in law at the University
of Padua. On his return to Annecy, he had
already decided upon the direction of his life,
despite resistance on the part of his father.
Ordained a priest on 18 December 1593, in early
September of the following year, at the request
of Bishop Claude de Granier, he was called to
carry out a difficult mission in Le Chablais, a
territory belonging to the Diocese of Annecy.
Though Calvinist, Le Chablais, through an
intricate web of wars and peace treaties, had
passed once more under the control of the Duchy
of Savoy. These were intense and exciting years,
when Francis discovered his gifts as a mediator
and a man of dialogue, as well as a certain
intransigence that he would later acknowledge.
He also devised several bold and original
pastoral practices, like the
famousaffichesposted everywhere and even slipped
under house doors.
In 1602, Francis returned to Paris, charged with
pursuing a sensitive diplomatic mission on
behalf of Bishop de Granier at the specific
direction of the Apostolic See, following yet
another change in the political and religious
landscape of the territory of the Diocese of
Geneva. Despite the good intentions of the King
of France, the mission was a failure. To Pope
Clement VIII he wrote, “After nine whole months,
I have been forced to retrace my steps, having
accomplished almost nothing”.[17] Yet that
mission proved unexpectedly enriching for him
and for the Church from the human, cultural and
religious standpoint. In whatever free time his
diplomatic negotiations allowed, Francis
preached in the presence of the King of France
and his court. He formed important friendships
and, above all, immersed himself completely in
the extraordinary spiritual and cultural
blossoming of the modern capital of the Kingdom.
There everything was in constant ferment.
Francis was impressed and intrigued by the great
issues emerging in the world, by the novel ways
in which they were being approached, by the new
and remarkable interest in spirituality and the
unprecedented questions it raised. In a word, he
sensed an authentic “epochal shift” that
demanded a response couched in language both old
and new. This was certainly not the first time
that he had encountered individual fervent
Christians, but now things were different. Paris
was no longer the city devastated by the wars of
religion that he had known in the years of his
education, or by the bitter conflicts that he
had seen in the Chablais. Instead, he
encountered something unexpected: a flood “of
saints, true saints, in great numbers and in all
places”.[18] There were men and women of
culture, professors of the Sorbonne, civil
authorities, princes and princesses, servants
and maids, men and women religious. A whole
world athirst for God in a variety of ways.
Encountering those people and their questions
was among the most significant and providential
events of his life. Days that had seemed useless
and unfruitful thus became an incomparable
school for interpreting the spirit of the age,
without pandering to it. Francis, the skilful
and untiring controversialist, was being
transformed by grace into an insightful observer
of his times and an extraordinary director of
souls. His pastoral activity, his great works –
theIntroduction to the Devout Lifeand
theTreatise on the Love of God– and the
thousands of letters on spiritual friendship he
wrote to convents and monasteries, to religious
and nuns, and to courtiers and ordinary folk, to
say nothing of his encounter with Jane Frances
de Chantal and the foundation of the Order of
the Visitation in 1610: none of these would be
conceivable apart from that interior turning
point. Gospel and culture thus found in him a
fruitful synthesis, which led to the development
of a method that, once it had taken shape, was
to reap an abundant and enduring harvest.
In one of his very first letters on spiritual
direction and friendship, sent to a religious
community he had visited in Paris, Francis spoke
quite modestly of “his method”, which differed
from others and aimed at genuine reform. It was
a method that renounced all harshness and
respected completely the dignity and gifts of a
devout soul, whatever its frailties. He wrote:
“I wonder whether another difficulty can also be
raised concerning your reform: perhaps those who
imposed it on you have treated the wound too
harshly… I appreciate their method, although it
is not what I am in the habit of using,
especially with regard to noble and cultivated
spirits like yours. I believe it is better
simply to indicate the disease and put the
scalpel in their hands, so that they themselves
can make the necessary incision. Yet do not for
this reason neglect the reform that you
need”.[19] These words display that insight that
was to make Salesian optimism famous and leave a
lasting mark on the history of spirituality
through its later flowering, as, for example, in
the case of Saint John Bosco some two centuries
later.
Upon his return to Annecy, Francis was ordained
a bishop on 8 December of that same year 1602.
The influence of his episcopal ministry on the
Europe of his day and for centuries afterwards
was immense. “He was an apostle, preacher,
writer, a man of action and of prayer, devoted
to realizing the ideals of the Council of Trent.
Engaged in controversies and dialogue with the
Protestants, he came to realize increasingly,
along with the need for theological discussion,
the effectiveness of personal relationships and
charity. He was charged with diplomatic missions
in Europe and with tasks of mediation and
reconciliation in society”.[20] Above all else,
Francis was an interpreter of epochal changes
and a spiritual guide in an age of renewed
thirst for God.
Charity does everything for her children
Between 1620 and 1621, as he neared the end of
his life, Francis wrote to one of his priests a
letter that sheds light on his view of the times
in which he lived. He encouraged his
correspondent’s desire to compose new works to
respond to new questions, and showed that he
recognized the need for such works. “I must tell
you that as I become more aware each day of the
humours of the world, I desire ever more
passionately that God in his goodness should
inspire one of his servants to write in a way
suited to the tastes of this poor world”.[21] He
gave as his reason his own view of the age: “The
world is becoming so delicate that, in a little
while, no one will dare any longer to touch it
except with velvet gloves, or tend its wounds
except with perfumed bandages; yet what does it
matter, if only men and women are healed and
finally saved? Charity, our queen, does
everything for her children”.[22] This was no
pious platitude or an expression of resignation
in the face of defeat. Rather, it was a
realization that the world was changing and the
mark of a completely evangelical sense of the
need to respond to those changes.
Francis had early come to that realization and
he expressed it in his Preface to theTreatise on
the Love of God: “I have taken into
consideration the thinking of people of this
age, nor could I do otherwise: it is very
important to keep in mind the times in which one
writes”.[23] Then, begging the reader’s
indulgence, he went on: “If you find the style a
little different from that which I used in
theIntroduction, and both of them different from
the style of theDefence of the Cross, you should
know that much is learned and forgotten in
nineteen years. The language of warfare differs
from that of peace, and we speak in one way to
young apprentices and in another to older
confreres”.[24] Yet in response to changing
times, where should one begin, if not from the
history of God’s dealings with humanity? This
was the ultimate intent of the Treatise: “My
intention is but to represent, with simplicity
and straightforwardly, without artifice and
certainly without false colours, the history of
the birth, progress, decline, operations,
properties, advantages and sublime qualities of
divine love”.[25]
The demands of an epochal shift
On this anniversary of the fourth centenary of
his death, I have given much thought to the
legacy of Saint Francis de Sales for our time. I
find that his flexibility and his far-sighted
vision have much to say to us. Partly by God’s
gift and partly thanks to his own character, but
also by his steady cultivation of lived
experience, Francis perceived clearly that the
times were changing. On his own, he might never
have imagined that those changes represented so
great an opportunity for the preaching of the
Gospel. The word of God that he had loved from
his youth now opened up before him new and
unexpected horizons in a rapidly changing world.
That same task awaits us in this, our own age of
epochal change. We are challenged to be a Church
that is outward-looking and free of all
worldliness, even as we live in this world,
share people’s lives and journey with them in
attentive listening and acceptance.[26] That is
what Francis de Sales did when he discerned the
events of his times with the help of God’s
grace. Today he bids us set aside undue concern
for ourselves, for our structures and for what
society thinks about us, and consider instead
the real spiritual needs and expectations of our
people.[27] In our own time too, it is helpful
to revisit some of the crucial decisions he
made, so that we for our part can respond to
today’s changes with the wisdom born of the
Gospel.
Wind and wings
The first of those decisions was to reinterpret
and propose anew to each man and woman, in his
or her specific condition, the beauty of our
relationship with God. The ultimate reason and
practical purpose of hisTreatisewas to
illustrate to his contemporaries the
attractiveness of the love of God. “What”, he
asks, “are the ‘cords’ that God’s providence
uses to draw our hearts to his love?”[28]
Echoing the words of the prophet Hosea
(11:4),[29]he defines those ordinary means as
“cords of humanity, charity and friendship”.
“Clearly”, he writes, “we are not drawn to God
by chains of iron, like bulls or oxen, but by
invitations, enticements and holy inspirations;
these are thecords of Adam and of human
kindness, rightly befitting the human heart,
which is naturally free”.[30] By those same
cords, God brought his people forth from
slavery, taught them to walk and held them by
the hand, like fathers and mothers with their
children. His was not the way of external
imposition, despotic and arbitrary power, or
violence, but that of a persuasiveness that
respects our human freedom. “The power of grace”
– Francis continues, surely thinking of the many
life stories he had encountered – “does not
constrain the heart, but attracts it. Grace
possesses a holy violence, not to violate our
liberty but to guide it to love. Grace acts
strongly, yet in such a pleasing way that our
will is not overwhelmed by so powerful a force;
while pressing us, it does not oppress our
liberty. Consequently, we are able, before all
its might, to consent to or resist its
promptings at our pleasure”.[31]
Earlier, Francis had spoken of this relationship
using a curious example drawn from ornithology:
“There are certain birds, Theotimos, that
Aristotle calls ‘apodans’, because they have
such short and weak legs as to be of no use to
them; it is as if they did not even have them.
Should they fall to the ground, they remain
there, unable to take flight because, without
the use of legs or feet, they cannot rise and
take wing. Consequently, they remain on the
ground and die there, unless a gust of wind,
compensating for their inability, lifts them up,
as it often does with other things. If, in that
case, they flap their wings in response to the
thrust of the wind, the wind itself will
continue to help them by thrusting them ever
higher, in order to help them to fly higher and
higher”.[32] The same holds true for us: we were
created by God to fly, to spread our wings in
response to the call to love, but once we fall
to earth, unless we choose to open those wings
to the wind of the Spirit, we risk never again
being able to fly.
This, then, is how God’s grace comes to us: by
“cords of Adam”, bonds of humanity and love.
God’s power can always lift us up to take
flight, yet hisdouceur, his loving kindness, is
such that he respects our freedom. It is up to
us either to take flight or to remain on the
ground. Even as he bestows his grace, God would
not have us rise without our consent. Francis
can thus conclude: “God’s inspirations,
Theotimos, anticipate us and make themselves
felt before we are even aware of them, but once
we become aware of them, it is up to us either
to consent and follow their lead, or to refuse
and reject them. They make themselves felt by us
without us; yet without us they do not bring
about our consent”.[33] In our relationship with
God we always experience a gratuitousness that
testifies to the depth of the Father’s love for
us.
At the same time, this grace never makes us
passive. It leads us to realize that God’s love
radically precedes us, and that his first gift
consists precisely in our acceptance of that
love. Each person therefore is responsible for
cooperating with his or her own fulfilment, with
spreading his or her wings with confident trust
before the gust of God’s wind. Here we see an
important aspect of our human vocation. “In the
Genesis account, God commands Adam and Eve to be
fruitful. Humankind has a mandate to change, to
build, to master creation in the positive sense
of creating from it and with it. So what is to
come doesn’t depend on some unseen mechanism, a
future in which humanity is a passive spectator.
No: we are protagonists, we are – if I can
stretch the word –co-creators”.[34]That is what
Francis de Sales recognized and sought to pass
on through his ministry of spiritual guidance.
True devotion
A second great crucial decision of Francis was
to approach the issue of devotion. Here too, as
in our own day, the dawning of a new age had
raised a number of questions. Two aspects of the
issue need to be understood and re-appropriated
today. The first regards the very idea of
devotion, the second its universal and popular
character. At the beginning of theIntroduction
to the Devout Life, Francis clarifies the
meaning of devotion: “It is necessary, first of
all, to know in what the virtue of devotion
consists. There is only one true devotion, and
many false and vain ones. Unless you can
distinguish true devotion, you can fall into
error and waste your time running after some
useless and superstitious devotion”.[35]
Francis’ description of false devotion is
delightful and ever timely. Everyone can relate
to it, since he salts it with good humour.
“Someone attached to fasting will consider
himself devout because he doesn’t eat, even
though his heart is filled with bitterness; and
while, out of love for sobriety, he will not let
a drop of wine, or even water, touch his tongue,
he will not scruple to drench it in the blood of
his neighbour through gossip and slander.
Another will consider himself devout because all
day long he mumbles a string of prayers, yet
remains heedless of the evil, arrogant and
hurtful words that his tongue hurls at his
servants and neighbours. Yet another will
readily open his purse to give alms to the poor,
but cannot wring an ounce of mercy from his
heart in order to forgive his enemies. Another
still will pardon his enemies, yet never even
think of paying his debts; it will take a
lawsuit to make him do so”.[36] All these, of
course, are perennial vices and struggles, and
they lead the saint to conclude that “all these
fine people, commonly considered devout, most
surely are not”.[37]
The origin of true devotion is to be found
elsewhere; its deepest roots are in God’s life
dwelling within our hearts. “True and lively
devotion presupposes the love of God; indeed, it
is none other than a genuine, and not generic,
love of God”.[38] In Francis’ lively language,
devotion is “a sort of spiritual alertness and
energy whereby charity acts within us or, we act
by means of it, with promptness and
affection”.[39] For this reason, devotion does
not exist alongside charity, but is one of its
manifestations, while at the same time leading
back to it. Devotion is like a flame with regard
to fire: it increases the intensity of charity
without altering its quality. “In the end,
charity and devotion can be said to differ from
one another as fire from a flame. Charity is a
spiritual fire that, when fanned into flame, is
called devotion. Devotion thus adds nothing to
the fire of charity but the flame that makes
charity prompt, active and diligent, not only in
the observance of God’s commandments but also in
the exercise of his divine counsels and
inspirations”.[40] Understood in this way,
devotion is far from something abstract. Rather,
it becomes a style of life, a way of living
immersed in our concrete daily existence. It
embraces and discovers meaning in the little
things: food and dress, work and relaxation,
love and parenthood, conscientiousness in the
fulfilment of our duties. In a word, it sheds
light on the vocation of each individual.
Here we begin to see the popular dimension of
devotion, which is present from the very first
words of theIntroduction to the Devout Life:
“Almost all those who have treated of devotion
have sought to instruct persons living apart
from the world, or at least they have taught a
kind of devotion that leads to such isolation. I
intend to offer my teachings to those who live
in cities, in families, at court and who, by
virtue of their state in life, are obliged to
live in the midst of others”.[41] Those who
think that devotion is restricted to some quiet
and secluded setting are greatly mistaken.
Devotion is meant for everyone, in every
situation, and each of us can practise it in
accordance with our own vocation. As Saint Paul
VI wrote on the fourth centenary of the birth of
Francis de Sales, “Holiness is not the
prerogative of any one group, but an urgent
summons addressed to every Christian: ‘Friend,
come up higher’ (Lk14:10). All of us are called
to ascend the mountain of God, albeit not each
by the same path. ‘Devotion must be practiced
differently by the gentleman, the craftsman, the
chamberlain, the prince, the widow, the young
woman, the wife. Moreover, the practice of
devotion must be adapted to the abilities,
affairs and duties of each’”.[42] To live in the
midst of the secular city while nurturing the
interior life, to combine the desire for
perfection with every state of life, and to
discover an interior peace that does not
separate us from the world but teaches us how to
live in it and to appreciate it, but also to
maintain a proper detachment from it. That was
the aim of Francis de Sales, and it remains a
valuable lesson for men and women in our own
time.
This was also the teaching of the Second Vatican
Council on the universal vocation to holiness:
“Strengthened by so many and such great means of
salvation, all the faithful, whatever their
condition or state, are called by the Lord –
each in his or her own way – to that perfect
holiness by which the Father himself is
perfect”.[43] Each in his or her own way... “We
should not grow discouraged before examples of
holiness that appear unattainable”.[44] Mother
Church proposes them to us not to copy them, but
so that we can be spurred on in our pursuit of
the specific path that the Lord has chosen for
each of us. “The most important thing is that
each believer discern his or her own path, that
they bring out the very best of themselves, the
most personal gifts that God has placed in their
hearts (cf.1 Cor12:7)”.[45]
The ecstasy of life
Saint Francis thus came to view the entirety of
the Christian life as “the ecstasy of work and
life”.[46]For him, Christianity was not to be
confused with a facile escapism or
self-absorption, much less a dull and dreary
obedience. We know that this danger can always
be present in the life of faith. Indeed, “there
are Christians whose lives seem like Lent
without Easter”, and while we can understand the
grief of people who have to endure great
suffering, “slowly but surely we all have to let
the joy of faith begin to revive as a quiet yet
firm trust, even amid the greatest
distress”.[47]
Allowing joy to blossom in our hearts is what
Francis de Sales means by “the ecstasy of work
and life”. In this way, “we live not only a
civil, honest and Christian life, but a
superhuman, spiritual, devout and ecstatic life,
a life that in any case is beyond and above our
natural condition”.[48]Here we arrive at the
central, luminous pages of the Treatise, where
that “ecstasy” is presented as the joyous
exuberance of a Christian life that transcends
the mediocrity of mere conformity. “Not to
steal, lie, or swear in vain; to love and honour
one’s father; not to kill: this is to live in
accord with natural reason. But to forsake all
our goods, to love poverty, to call her and
consider her a most delightful mistress, to
consider reproach, persecution and martyrdom as
happiness and blessing, to preserve absolute
chastity, to live in the world contrary to all
the wisdom of the world and against the tide of
this life by habitual resignation, renunciation
and acts of self-abnegation: this is not to live
in ourselves, but above and beyond ourselves.
And because no one can go out of and above
himself in this manner unless the eternal Father
draw him, it follows that this kind of life is a
perpetual rapture and a continual ecstasy of
action and operation”.[49]
A life, in other words, that rediscovers the
wellsprings of joy and avoids the temptation of
self-centredness. For “the great danger in
today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism,
is the desolation and anguish born of a
complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish
pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted
conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes
caught up in its own interests and concerns,
there is no longer room for others, no place for
the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the
quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the
desire to do good fades. This is a very real
danger for believers too. Many fall prey to it,
and end up resentful, angry and listless”. [50]
To his description of “the ecstasy of work and
life”, Saint Francis adds two important
clarifications that remain valid for us today.
The first offers a practical criterion for
discerning the authenticity of this style of
life, while the second concerns its deepest
source. As the criterion of discernment, he
states that while, on the one hand, this ecstasy
entails genuine self-renunciation, on the other
it does not mean fleeing from life. We should
constantly remind ourselves of this, lest we
risk straying from the right path. In a word,
those who think they are rising to God, yet fail
to love their neighbour, are deceiving both
themselves and others.
Here we find the same criterion that Francis
used to measure true devotion. “If you see a
person who in prayer has raptures that exalt him
above himself to God, and yet has no ecstasy of
life, that is, he does not lead a life elevated
and joined to God, above all by means of
constant charity, believe me, Theotimus, all his
raptures are exceedingly dubious and dangerous”.
His conclusion is incisive: “Being above
ourselves in prayer, but beneath ourselves in
life and action, being angelic in meditation,
but brutish in conversation, is a true sign that
such raptures and ecstasies are nothing other
than diversions and deceits of the evil
spirit”.[51]In essence, this is what Paul
already pointed out to the Corinthians in his
“hymn to charity”: “If I have prophetic powers,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I
give away all I have, and if I deliver my body
to be burned, but do not have love, I gain
nothing” (1 Cor13:2-3).
For Saint Francis de Sales, then, while the
Christian life is never without ecstasy, ecstasy
is inauthentic apart from a truly Christian
life. Indeed, life without ecstasy risks being
reduced to blind obedience, a Gospel bereft of
joy. On the other hand, ecstasy without life
easily falls prey to the illusions and
deceptions of the Evil one. The great polarities
of the Christian life cannot be resolved and
eliminated. If anything, each preserves the
authenticity of the other. Truth, then, does not
exist without justice, pleasure without
responsibility, spontaneity without law, and
vice versa.
As for the deepest source of this ecstasy, Saint
Francis astutely traces it to the love made
manifest by the incarnate Son. If indeed “love
is the first act and principle of our devout or
spiritual life, through which we live, feel, and
are moved” and “the spiritual life is such as
our affective movements are”, then it becomes
clear that “a heart without affection has no
love”, and that “a heart that has love is not
without affection”.[52] The source of this love
that attracts the heart is the life of Jesus
Christ. “Nothing sways the human heart as much
as love”, and this is most evident in the fact
that “Jesus Christ died for us; he gave us life
through his death. We live only because he died,
and died for us, as ours and in us”.[53]
These words are profoundly moving; they reveal
not only a clear and insightful understanding of
the relationship between God and humanity, but
also the deep bond of affection between Francis
de Sales and the Lord Jesus. The ecstasy of life
and action is no abstract reality, but shines
forth in the charity of Christ that culminates
on the cross. That love, far from mortifying our
existence, makes it radiate with extraordinary
brightness.
For this reason, Saint Francis de Sales could
eloquently describe Calvary as “the mountain of
lovers”.[54]For there and there alone, do we
come to realize that “it is not possible to have
life without love, or love without the death of
the Redeemer. Except there, everything is either
eternal death or eternal love, and the whole of
Christian wisdom consists in knowing how to
choose well between them”.[55]Francis could thus
conclude his Treatise by appealing to a sermon
of Saint Augustine on charity: “What is more
steadfast than charity, not in requiting
injuries, but in taking no account of them?
Concerned not with passing things, but with
eternity? Since it has an unshakable trust in
the promises of the future life, charity can
tolerate all things in this present life. It can
endure whatever it must here below, because it
hopes in the promises of the world to come.
Truly, charity never fails. Cultivate it then,
and thinking holy thoughts, bring forth fruits
of justice. And if you should discover anything
else in praise of charity beyond what I have
said here, let it become evident in your
life”.[56]
All this was supremely evident in the life of
the saintly Bishop of Annecy, and now, once
more, it is entrusted to each of us. May the
celebration of the fourth centenary of his death
help us to venerate Saint Francis de Sales with
devotion, and through his intercession may the
Lord bestow the abundant gifts of the Spirit
upon the journey of his holy and faithful
People.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 28 December 2022
FRANCIS
_________________
[1]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Traité de l’amour de
Dieu, Preface: ed. RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969,
336.
[2]ID., Lett.2103:À Monsieur Sylvestre de
Saluces de la Mente, Abbé d’Hautecombe(3
November 1622), inŒuvres de Saint François de
Sales, XXVI, Annecy, 1932, 490-491.
[3]ID., Lett. 1961:À une Dame(19 December 1622),
inŒuvres de Saint François de Sales, XX (Lettres,X:1621-1622),
Annecy, 1918, 395.
[4]ID.,Traité de l’amour de Dieu, I, 15: ed.
RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 395.
[5]ID.,Entretiens spirituels, Dernier entretien
[21]: ed. RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 1319.
[6]Apostolic ExhortationGaudete et Exsultate(19
March 2018), 49:AAS110 (2018), 1124.
[7]Ibid., 57: AAS 110 (2018), 1127.
[8]Cf. ibid., Nos. 37-39:AAS110 (2018),
1121-1122.
[9]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Entretiens spirituels,
Dernier entretien [21]: ed.
RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 1319.
[10]Ibid., 1308.
[11]Ibid.
[12]Letter to the Right Reverend Yves Boivineau,
Bishop of Annecy, on the Fourth Centenary of the
Episcopal Ordination of Saint Francis de Sales,
23 November 2002, 3:Insegnamenti di Giovanni
Paolo II, XXV/2 (2002), 767.
[13]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Traité de l’amour de
Dieu, Préface, ed.RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969,
336.
[14]BENEDICT XVI,Catechesis, 2 March
2011:InsegnamentiVII/1 (2011), 270.
[15]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Fragments d’écrits
intimes, 3:Acte d’abandon heroïque, inŒuvres de
Saint François de Sales, XXII (Opuscules, I),
Annecy, 1925, 41.
[16]Cf.Address to the International Theological
Commission(29 November 2019):L’Osservatore
Romano, 30 November 2019, p. 8.
[17]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES, Lett. 165:À Sa
Sainteté Clément VIII(end of October, 1602),
inŒuvres de Saint François de Sales, XII
(Lettres, II:1599-1604), Annecy, 1902, 128.
[18]H. BREMOND,L’humanisme dévôt: 1580-1660,
inHistoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en
France: depuis la fin des guerres de religion
jusqu’à nos jours, I, Jérôme Millon, Grenoble,
2006, 131.
[19]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES, Lett. 168:Aux
religieuses du monastère des ‹‹Filles-Dieu››(22
November 1602), inŒuvres de Saint François de
Sales, XII (Lettres, II:1599-1604), Annecy,
1902, 105.
[20]BENEDICT XVI,Catechesis, 2 March
2011:Insegnamenti, VII/1 (2011), 272.
[21]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES, Lett. 1869:À M.
Pierre Jay(1620 or 1621), inŒuvres de Saint
François de Sales, XX (Lettres, X:1621-1622)
Annecy, 1918, 219.
[22]Ibid.
[23]ID.,Traité de l’amour de Dieu, Préface: ed.
RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 339.
[24]Ibid., 347.
[25]Ibid., 338-339.
[26]Cf.Address to Bishops, Priests, Religious,
Seminarians and Catechists, Bratislava, 13
September 2021,L’Osservatore Romano, 13
September 2021, pp. 11-12.
[27]Cf. ibid.
[28]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Traité de l’amour de
Dieu, II, 12: ed.
RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 444.
[29]“I led them with cords of human kindness [Vulgate:in
funiculis Adam], with bands of love; I was to
them like those who lift infants to their
cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them”.
[30]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Traité de l’amour de
Dieu, II, 12: ed.RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 444.
[31]Ibid., II, 12: 444-445.
[32]Ibid., II, 9: 434.
[33]Ibid., II, 12: 446.
[34]Let Us Dream. The Path to a Better Future.In
conversation with Austen Ivereigh, New York,
2020, 4.
[35]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Introduction à la vie
dévote, I, 1: ed.RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 31.
[36]Ibid.: 31-32.
[37]Ibid.: 32.
[38]Ibid.
[39]Ibid.
[40]Ibid.: 33.
[41]Ibid., Preface: ed. RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris,
1969, 23.
[42]Apostolic EpistleSabaudiae Gemmaon the
Fourth Centenary of the Birth of Saint Francis
de Sales, Doctor of the Church (29 January
1967):AAS59 (1967), 119.
[43]SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic
Constitution on the ChurchLumen Gentium, 11.
[44]Apostolic ExhortationGaudete et Exsultate,
11:AAS110 (2018), 1114.
[45]Ibid.
[46]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Traité de l’amour de
Dieu, VII, 6: ed. RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969,
682.
[47]Apostolic ExhortationEvangelii Gaudium(24
November 2013),6:AAS105 (2013), 1021-1022
[48]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Traité de l’amour de
Dieu, VII, 6: ed. RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969,
682-683.
[49]Ibid.: 683.
[50]Apostolic ExhortationEvangelii Gaudium,2:AAS105
(2013), 1019-1020.
[51]SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES,Traité de l’amour de
Dieu, VII, 7: ed.
RAVIER-DEVOS, Paris, 1969, 685.
[52]Ibid.: 684.
[53]Ibid., VII, 8: 687, 688.
[54]Ibid., XII, 13: 971.
[55]Ibid.
[56]Sermons, 350, 3: PL 39, 1535.
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