Extracts from the Heliotropium

[Shin]

THE
HELIOTROPIUM

("Turning to HIM")

FROM THE LATIN OF
JEREMIAS DREXELIUS

The author, Jeremias Drexelius, was the most distinguished ascetical writer of Germany in the seventeenth century. Born at Augsburg, Aug. 15, 1581, he entered the Society of Jesus at the age of seventeen years, became teacher of rhetoric, and afterwards court preacher at Munich — a position which he held for twenty-three years. He was a valued friend and adviser of the Elector Maximilian I. By the people he was esteemed as a saint. He died April 19, 1638.

REV. FERDINAND E. BOGNER, Editor

BOOK I

CONCERNING THE RECOGNITION OF
THE DIVINE WILL

"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

Acts IX. 6.

A TWOFOLD FOUNDATION IS LAID, AND IT IS SHOWN
THAT ALL PUNISHMENTS PROCEED FROM THE
HAND OF GOD

1. OF all the doctrine which Christ delivered in so many and such divine discourses this was the sum, — that man should absolutely and entirely conform himself to the Divine Will, in particulars as well as in generals. And this our Saviour most fully taught, both by precept and example, and gave Himself as a Pattern for our imitation. In order the more completely to set forth this teaching of our Lord, I propose, according to the custom of Theologians, to lay a twofold foundation. The first, — that the entire measure of our spiritual growth lies in the conformity and agreement of the human will with the Divine, so that in proportion as the one is more genuine, the other will be more luxuriant.

Now that a Christian man's entire perfection consists in Love (charity) is sufficiently evident, for the Holy Scriptures are full of testimonies to this. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment." (Matt, xxii, 37.) "And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greater of these is (Charity." (i Cor. xiii. 13.) "But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection." (Col. III. 14.) "Now the end of the commandment is charity." (i Tim. I. 5.)

But that exercise of charity which is by far the noblest, and the one to be most often repeated, is this very conformity with the Will of God in all things. To have the same likes and dislikes is firm friendship, according to the judgment of S. Jerome and all wise men.

The second foundation is, — that nothing whatever is done in the world (sin only excepted) without the Will of God. No power belongs to Fortune, whether she smile, or frown. These are but the dreams of heathen, who used to feign that the changes of human life were disposed by some goddess or other. S. Augustine, ridiculing this idea, says (De Civit. iv. 18) : — "How then is the goddess Fortune sometimes good, and sometimes bad? Is it that when she is bad she is no longer a goddess, but is changed into some malignant demon?"

Christian wisdom treats all idea of Fortune with contempt.

"Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God." (Ecclus. xi. 14.)

But this truth, which is most clearly witnessed to in the Sacred Writings, must be unfolded a little more fully.

2. In this way Theologians teach that all evils in the world (sin excepted) are from God. In all sin there are two things to be considered, — the guilt and the punishment. Now God is the Author of the punishment which attaches to sin, but in no way of the guilt. So that, if we take away the guilt, there is no evil belonging to the punishment which is not caused by God, or is not pleasing to Him. The evils then of punishment, like the evils of nature, originate in the Divine Will. We mean by evils of nature, hunger, thirst, disease, grief, and the like, things which very often have no connection with sin. And so God truly (and, as they say in the schools, effectively and positively) wills all the evils of punishment and nature for reasons of perfect justice, but only permits sin or guilt.

So that the latter is called His Permitting Will, the former His Ordaining Will. All, therefore, that we call evil proceeds from the Will of God. Thus Theologians teach; and this foundation must be laid as deeply as possible in the soul, for it is of the utmost importance humbly to receive, and ever to hold, as an infallible truth, that the first cause of all punishments and evils is the Divine Will, always excepting guilt, as I have said already.

Having carefully laid this foundation, we arrive at the following conclusion : — Since whatever is done in the world happens through the Permission or Command of God, it is our duty to receive everything as from the Hand of God, so conforming our will to His most holy Will, through all things, and in all things, as to ascribe nothing to accident, chance, or fortune. These are but monstrous conceptions of the ancients, and are not for an instant to be endured among Christians. And it is not only to fortune or chance that nothing is to be ascribed, but neither to the negligence or persevering care of man, as prime causes. Vain and idle are such complaints as, — "This or that happened to me because this or that man hated me, or managed my affairs badly, or did my business carelessly. Things would certainly have turned out differently if he had only been well disposed towards me, and had entered into the business with all his heart, and had not spared his pains." This kind of philosophy is vain and foolish. But true, wise, and holy is this, — "The Lord has done it all." For, as I have already said, good and evil things are from God.

3. And here very many persons deceive themselves through miserable ignorance, for they persuade themselves that only those evils which arise from natural causes, — such as floods, earthquakes, landslips, barrenness, scarcity of corn, damage caused by the weather, troubles arising from disease, death, and the like, — are inflicted by God, since in this case there very often is no sin which can be connected with the punishment; but that those evils which derive their origin from vice and human wickedness (as, for example, calumny, deceit, theft, treachery, wrong, rapine, oppression, war, murder) are not from God, and do not proceed from His Providence, but from the wickedness and perverse will of those who devise such things as these against others. And hence those complaints so frequently in people's mouths of late years : — ''This scarcity of corn is not God's doing. It is caused by men immoderately greedy of gain, and not by God." Such ways of speaking are mad and impious; they are utterly unworthy of a Christian man, and should be banished to the shades below the earth.

But in order to make my meaning as clear as possible, I will illustrate it by an example. Take the case of a man who wishes his neighbour to be stripped of all his goods, and who, in order to put this abominable design into execution, creeps secretly into the house of the man he hates, sets fire to it, and immediately hurries away. Presently, when the house is in flames, he runs to the spot with others, as if with the intention of helping to put out the fire, when all the while it is quite different: for, if occasion serves, he does not try to keep the flames under, but collects spoils for himself, and secretly removes from the fire plunder to increase his own property. All such designs as these, regarded by themselves, without perversity of will, and all such actions as these, considered ''in genere entis" (as the Schoolmen say) have God as their Author. God brings these things about, just as He brings about other things in creatures void of reason. For as these last can neither move, nor do anything without God, so cannot the incendiary either enter a house, or leave it again, or scatter fire in it, without God. But it does not follow that these several acts are evil in themselves, for they may also be compatible with virtue, but the will of the incendiary is evil; it is a most wicked design which that abandoned man has followed, and of this God is not the Author and Cause, although He has permitted this design to be carried into execution. He might indeed have hindered it, if it had so pleased Him. Since, however, God by His Own just Judgment did not hinder that wicked design, He permitted it. The causes of His Permission I shall give further on.

4. The same line of reasoning holds good also in reference to other sins; and this may, perhaps, appear the clearer from the following example. Take the case of a man who is lame in consequence of a wound which he has received; he attempts to walk, it is true, but he moves over the ground with greater pain, and with a more awkward gait than a sound man. Now the cause of motion in the foot is the natural impelling force, but the cause of lameness is the wound, not the moving power of the soul. And just in like manner God is the Cause of that act which any one performs when sinning, but the cause of error and sin in this act is man's free will. God supplies help to the act, but not to that wandering and departure from law and rectitude. Although, therefore, God is not, and cannot be, the Author of sin — for 'Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity" (Hab. i. 13) ; . . . 'Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity" (Ps. xliv. 8) — yet it is, nevertheless, most certain that all the evil of punishment arising from second causes, whether rational or irrational (in whatever way, or for whatever reason it may happen), proceeds entirely from the Hand of God, and from His most benign Disposal and Providence. It is God, my good friend, it is God, I say, Who guided the hand of him who struck you. It is God Who moved the tongue of him who slandered you. It is God Who supplied strength to him who wickedly trampled you under foot. God Himself, speaking of Himself by the mouth of Isaias, declares (chap. xlv. 7) : — "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I, the Lord that do all these things." And how completely does the Prophet Amos confirm this, when he says (chap iii. 6), — ''Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done ?" Just as if he had said, there is no evil which God does not do, by permitting the evil of guilt, and by ordaining and working out the evil of punishment.

Thus God, intending to punish the adultery and murder of king David by the sin of his incestuous son Absalom, says (2 Kings xii. 11, 12) : — "Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes, and give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of the sun." Admirably has S. Augustine said: — "In this way God instructs good men by means of evil ones." Thus it is that the Divine Justice makes wicked kings and princes its instruments, as well for exercising the patience of good men, as for chastising the forwardness of bad. Examples of this are ready at hand from every age, in cases where God works out His Own Good pleasure through the wicked designs of others, and by means of the injustice of others displays His Own just Judgments. And just as a father seizes a rod, and strikes his child, but a little while afterwards throws the rod into the fire, and becomes reconciled to the child, so God threatens by Isaias, and says (chap, x, 5, 6) : — "Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of My anger, and My indignation is in their hands. I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a charge against the people of My wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so ; but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few." How plainly does God declare Himself to be the Author of such great evils! "My indignation," He says, ''is in their hands. . ."

[Shin]

Here from further along in the Heliotropium. . .

BOOK 2

CONCERNING THE CONFORMITY OF THE
HUMAN WILL TO THE DIVINE

CHAPTER I
 
THE COMMENCEMENT OF CONFORMING THE HUMAN
WILL TO THE DIVINE

There was once upon a time an eminent Divine who for eight years besought God with un­wearied prayers to show him a man by whom he might be taught the most direct way to heaven. One day, when he was possessed of an unconquerable desire to converse with such a man, and wished for nothing so much as to see a teacher of truth so hidden, he thought that he heard a voice coming to him from heaven, which gave him this command: "Go to the porch of the church, and you will find the man you seek."

Accordingly he went into the street, and at the door of the church he found a beggar whose legs were cov­ered with ulcers running with corruption, and whose clothes were scarcely worth threepence. The Divine wished him good day. To whom the beggar replied, "I do not remember that I ever had a bad one." Whereupon the man of letters, as if to amend his for­mer salutation, said, "Well, then, God send you good fortune." "But I never had any bad fortune," an­swered the beggar. The Divine was astonished at this reply, but repeated his wish, in case he might have made a mistake in what he heard, only in somewhat different words: "Say you so? I pray, then, that you may be happy." But again the beggar replied,­"I never was unhappy." The Divine, thinking that the beggar was playing upon words merely for the sake of talking, answered, in order to try the man's wit, "I desire that whatever you wish may happen to you." "And here, also," he replied, "I have nothing to complain of. All things turn out according to my wishes, although I do not attribute my success to fortune."

Upon this the man of letters, saluting him afresh, and taking his leave, said: "May God preserve you, my good man, since you hate fortune! But tell me, I pray, are you alone happy among mortals who suffer calamity? If so, Job speaks safely when he declares, 'Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.' (Job xiv. I.) And how comes it that you alone have escaped, all evil days? I do not fully understand your feelings." To this the beggar replied, "It is so, sir, as I have said. When you wished me a 'good day,' I denied that I had ever had a bad one. I am perfectly contented with the lot which God has assigned me in this world. Not to want happiness is my happiness. Those bugbears, Fortune and Misfortune, hurt him only who wills, or at least fears, to be hurt by them. Never do I offer my, prayers to Fortune, but to my Heavenly Father Who disposes the events of all things. And so I say I never was unhappy, inasmuch as all things turn out according to my wishes. If I suffer hunger, I praise my most provident Father for it. If cold pinches me, if the rain pours down upon me, or if the sky inflicts upon me any other injury, I praise God just the same. When I am a laughingstock to others, I no less praise God. For sure I am that God is the Author of all these things, and that whatever God does must be the best. Therefore, whatever God either gives, or allows to happen, whether it be pleasant or disagreeable, sweet or bitter, I esteem alike, for all such things I joyfully receive as from the hand of a most loving Father; and this one thing I will?what God wills. And so all things happen as I will. Miserable is the man who believes that Fortune has any power against him; and truly unhappy is he who dreams of some imaginary unhappiness in this world. This is true happiness in this life, to cleave as closely as possible to the Divine Will. The Will of God, His most excellent, His most perfect Will, which cannot be made more perfect, and cannot be evil, judges concerning all things, but noth­ing concerning it. To follow this Will I bestow all my care. To this one solicitude I devote myself with all my might, so that whatever God wills, this I also may never refuse to will. And, therefore, I by no means consider myself unhappy, since I have so entirely transfused my own will into the Divine, that with me there is no other will or not will than as God wills or wills not."

"But do you really mean what you say?" asked the Divine; "tell me, I pray, whether you would feel the same if God had decreed to cast you down to hell?" To which the beggar at once replied, "If He should cast me down to hell? But know that I have two arms of wondrous strength, and with these I should hold him tightly in an embrace that nothing could sever. One arm is the lowliest humility shown by the oblation of self, the other, purest charity shown by the love of God. With these arms I would so en­twine myself round God, that wherever He might banish me, thither would I draw Him with me. And far more desirable, in truth, would it be to be out of heaven with God, than in heaven without Him." The Divine was astonished at this reply, and began to think with himself that this was the shortest path to God.

But he felt anxious to make further inquiry, and to draw forth into sight, the wisdom which dwelt in such an ill-assorted habitation; and so he asked,­"Whence have you come hither?" "I came from God," replied the beggar. To whom again the Divine, "And where did you find God?" "Where I forsook all created things." Again the Divine asked, "But where did you leave God?" "In men of pure minds and goodwill," replied the poor man. "Who are you?" said the Divine. "Whoever I am," he replied, "I am so thoroughly contented with my lot that I would not change it for the riches of all kings. Every one who knows how to rule himself is a king." "Am I, then, to understand that you are a king?" said the other. "Where is your kingdom?" "There," said the beggar, and at the same time pointed with his finger towards heaven. "He is a king to whom that kingdom on high is transferred by sure deeds of covenant." At last the Divine, intending to bring his questions to an end, said, "Who has taught you this? Who has instilled these feelings into you?" To which the other replied, "I will tell you, Sir. For whole days I do not speak, and then I give myself up en­tirely to prayer or holy thoughts, and this is my only anxiety, to be as closely united as possible to God. Union and familiar acquaintance with God and the Divine Will teach all this."

The Theologian wished to ask more questions, but thinking it would be better to postpone this to another time, took his leave for the present. As he went away, full of thought, he said to himself, "Lo! I thou hast found one who will teach thee the shortest way to God! How truly does S. Augustine (Conf. viii. 8) say, 'The unlearned start up and take heaven by violence, and we with our learning, and without heart, lo! where we wallow in flesh and blood!' And so Christ, when giving thanks says, 'I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes.' (Matt. XI. 25.) Beneath a filthy garment, forsooth, great wisdom often lies concealed. And who, would think of seeking for such Divine learning in a man of so mean an appearance? Who would believe that so much of the Spirit was hidden under such unlettered simplicity? Lo! those two arms of unconquerable strength, Oblation of Self and Love of God, draw God whithersoever this poor man wills! With these arms God permits Himself to be closely bound; other embraces He refuses."
 

[Shin]

Fixed some of the formatting on the above.

[martin]

Therefore, whatever God either gives, or allows to happen, whether it be pleasant or disagreeable, sweet or bitter, I esteem alike, for all such things I joyfully receive as from the hand of a most loving Father; and this one thing I will?what God wills. And so all things happen as I will.

So there lies the cause of all our discontentment and anxiety, when we don't will what God wills.


                         

                                                    The Angelus
                                  The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
                                  And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.

                       Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
                        blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
                       Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

                                    Behold the handmaid of the Lord:
                                    Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

                                       Hail Mary . . .

                                    And the Word was made Flesh:
                                    And dwelt amongst us.

                                       Hail Mary . . .

               
                                  Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,
                                  that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

                                                   Let us pray:

                  Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.
Amen.