With the beginning of the holy season of Lent all priestly hearts are stirred to renewed zeal for the salvation of souls. We are roused by holy Church's warning in her liturgy of the 1st Sunday: "Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile... Exhibeamus nosmetipsos sicut Dei ministros in multa patientia", etc. And we have resolved to plead with God by increased prayer and penance, with men by our more pressing and frequent exhortations... But what of our own share in the graces of Lent? Those very activities of our ministry will no doubt also profit us largely. Yet we should try and gather in, during Lent, some specific fruit of purification and transformation for our own soul. Perhaps we may seek this, very effectively, in cultivating the spirit of compunction.
ITS MEANING AND IMPORTANCE
Lent is often associated in our mind primarily with the idea of external penance and expiation for sin; yet this is not its main purpose. It ought to have also another, a deeper meaning for us, - bring us a greater grace, viz. a true spirit of compunction. The liturgy of Lent strikes that note unceasingly; it is the habitual object of its petitions and prayers. "Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo; ne in aeternum irascaris nobis." "Attende, Domine, et miscrere, quia peccavimus tibi."
Let us take that lesson to heart eagerly. For there is danger of our making too little of it in our spiritual life: modern asceticism stresses but little the importance of compunction as the foundation of holiness. Abbot Marmion - and Faber before him - do not hesitate to attribute to this the failure of so many good souls in their quest after perfection.
Yet when we reflect on the meaning of compunction and all it implies, it is not difficult to realize how vital it is for all solid piety. The central idea of compunction is given very aptly by Marmion: "a disposition of the soul which makes it abide in a state of habitual contrition". Many other elements will follow in the wake of a deep inner disposition of compunction: with the habitual sorrow and regret for having offended God, there comes into the soul an ever-growing hatred of sin, a never-satiated desire to atone for it, a recoil, as it were, from all dangerous attractions to sin, a holy fear of all that may again lead us away from God, a supernatural sorrow for all the wrongs done to Him by the sins of the world, with a great longing to see His honour and glory restored, and - perhaps chiefly - a boundless confidence in the mercy of God, with a great tenderness in our love of God because it is a forgiven love.
Such must have been the dispositions of St Peter, of Mary Magdalen, after their conversion: contrition in them became a life-long compunction, and this made saints of them. So it has proved for countless souls, even for souls whose" conversion" was but from minor offences against God, as for St Aloysius Gonzaga.
Would that we could live in that spirit of compunction and ground ourselves more and more in it. We need it at every stage of the spiritual life: not only after our falls, to secure a lasting conversion; but all along the road of progress, because it keeps us in our true relation to God and in many ways helps us on to more intimate union with Him: it makes us realize that we have never done penance enough, thwarts our habitual tendencies to pride and self-sufficiency, detaches us from the vanities of the world, develops in us positive feelings of deep humility and leads to true devotion and piety. "Da te ad cordis compunctionem et invenies devotionem. "
The eastern schools of Christian spirituality have always recommended the frequent and whole-hearted repetition of the words: "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" - not only for beginners, but as the surest means of finding union with God. Have we ever tried it?
* How little perhaps we have realized the sanctifying effects a deeper compunction would have on our spiritual life? - Let us strive earnestly after it, during this Lent especially.
To pray for it is the first and chief means to obtain compunction, as it is for every other grace. We have many opportunities for this in the special liturgical prayers of Lent. "Deus, qui sperantibus in te misereri potius eligis quam irasci : da nobis digne flere mala quae fecimus, ut tuae consolationis gratiam invenire mereamur" (Sabb. p. dom. IV Quadrag. : or. super populum ).
Next, we must dispose our souls to receive that grace in greater and greater abundance. True, the intense and overwhelming compunction of the Saints seems to be a very special gift of the Holy Ghost; but even with God's ordinary graces we can always grow in the sorrowing for our sins and in the accompanying feelings of humility and penance and love. To this end, we should frequently meditate on the greatness and holiness of God, contrasting it with our own nothingness and sinfulness; on the Secred Passion of our Savior, etc.
Then, let us look out for all occasions to develop in us that spirit of compunction: be very earnest in our acts of contrition (in our examinations of conscience and confessions); take in a spirit of expiation the crosses and hardships and humiliations we meet in our daily life and ministry; humble ourselves when we hear the confessions of sinners ("I would do much worse if God did not preserve me!" ); finally, say in a spirit of sincerity the many prayers of the missal and breviary which express these feelings. . .
* Let us say our next Mass with special attention to all the prayers that breathe humble compunction, from the Confiteor at the foot of the altar to the "Placeat tibi...sacrificium quod indignus obtuli"; similarly for the Psalms and prayers of tomorrow's breviary; - and let us make the experiment of adding the motive of atonement to as many of our actions as possible in the course of the day... If we persevere in this practice we shall not be long in discovering there a rich vein of solid spiritual gold: "Cor contritum et humiliatum non despicies...Auditui meo dabis gaudium et laetitiam."
__________________________
Adapted from Alter Christus, Meditations for Priests by F.X. L'Hoir, S.J. (1958)
Meditation 15.
###
Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood.
No comments:
Post a Comment