Fr. La Colombière (2)

Posterity

It was only after his death that Fr. Colombière's reputation grew. Only one year later, his works were published, bringing together his retreat notes, a spiritual journal, his sermons, and Christian Reflections. It is in his retreat notes that we find the account of the revelations of Paray-le-Monial. His mission as an apostle of the Sacred Heart then, post mortem, takes on its true dimension.

St. Margaret Mary wrote to a correspondent: “I must tell you some news… concerning devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. It is spreading everywhere through the retreat methods of Rev. Father La Colombière.” She was further favored by a vision of Christ surrounded by the Blessed Virgin on one side, and by St. Francis de Sales and Fr. La Colombière on the other.

The Mother of God turned to the latter, saying: “As for you, faithful servant of my divine Son, you have a great share in this precious treasure; for if it is given to the Daughters of the Visitation to give it and distribute it to others. It is reserved for the Fathers of your Company to make known its usefulness and benefits.”

In 1929, this testimony of St. Margaret Mary would serve to overcome the last reservations about his sanctity. Fr. La Colombière was therefore declared blessed on June 16 of the same year by Pope Pius XI. Even if we leave the current canonizations in abeyance (before further examination, by an authority that has returned to traditional principles), let us note that Fr. La Colombière was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1992. His remains can be venerated in the eponymous chapel, built around 1930 in Paray-le Monial.

Outline of a Spiritual Journey

Let us now try to sketch, from this life, as well as from the works of Fr. La Colombière, a portrait and a spiritual journey of a soul chosen by God to propagate the message of the merciful love of the Sacred Heart.

His Nature

As we have seen that, humanly, Claude does not lack qualities. A brilliant student, he attracted the praise of his teachers; he was quickly noticed by his superiors for his intelligence. Tutor to Colbert's sons, he mixed with select society and did not look out of place in the company of men of letters and science. The renowned Academician, Olivier Patru, went so far as to say that Fr. La Colombière “was one of the men in the kingdom who spoke our language best.” 

Some of his older colleagues did not hesitate to ask him for advice. His preaching at the Collège de la Trinité in Lyon seemed to be appreciated by high society. His keenness of mind would doubtless have something to do with his appointment as preacher to the Duchess of York, no less than his sense of situations (“complete prudence,” his master of novices had commented). This same prudence and his “rare judgment” also disposed him to judge soundly the authenticity of the revelations of Paray-le-Monial. 

He also has a deep taste for friendship, emphasizes Fr. Ravier, SJ, in his introduction to the Spiritual Writings of the Father: “My friends, they love me, I love them[i]…,” he writes in his Spiritual Journal. The danger of a rich nature like Claude’s is to make one fall into vainglory. And, in his own opinion, this is his dominant fault: “I have recognized that my dominant passion is the desire for vainglory[ii],” he notes during his 30-day retreat. 

He is gifted, loved, and appreciated by those around him, and he is not indifferent to this. At the beginning of this same retreat, he also writes about the zeal he displays in his ministry: “What cools me down in this respect is the fear I have that, in the jobs where this zeal occurs, I will seek myself; for it seems to me that there is none where nature does not find its account, especially when one succeeds, as one must wish, for the glory of God." 

The conclusion of this consideration is of a touching sincerity: "It takes great grace and great strength to resist the charm that one finds in changing hearts and the confidence in you that the people one has touched have.[iii]”

From Piety to Sainthood

Let us try to note the major stages that mark Claude's rise to sainthood. Such progress is always the fruit of renewed conversions, whatever the starting point. Did Claude's youth lead him into serious errors and distance him from God? Nothing allows us to affirm this; on the contrary, his examinations of conscience, so sincere and so severe, of which we still have written traces, do not allude to it, as Fr. Guitton remarks.

His first conversion (without counting, obviously, that of baptism) seems then to correspond to that of the vocation which, as we have seen, was a real sacrifice. It made him pass from a good Christian to the religious state. It is then possible that after his novitiate and his studies in philosophy, his religious fidelity experienced a certain decline during his stay in Paris.

It was a relative decline, which could not be described as lukewarmness, but was characterized by a lack of zeal in the observance of his rule, which is the privileged means of progress in the love of God. He was in contact with a religious with worldly tendencies whose personality may have influenced him. One of his letters dating from 1671 reveals a superficiality which contrasts with the tone of his later writings.

"If you found an opportunity to denigrate these Gentlemen... it seems to me that it would be an admirable career. I have never seen anything so ridiculous in my life[iv]." This laxity is not unique to Claude. The superiors complained of breaches of religious discipline in the Province of Lyon. The Father General even deplores defections which, he says, "come from two causes.” 

“Among the superiors a certain rigidity which pushes them to govern the young with harshness like servants, not with kindness like sons, even a sort of disdain which leads them not to worry about their conduct, their studies, or even their temporal needs. Among the inferiors, a lack of supernatural spirit, lukewarmness in piety, and too liberal a way of life, which the young draw from the colleges in imitation of some elders[v]."

To be exact, it must be said that not only is this laxity not specific to Claude, but that he does not participate in it very closely. In the first place, the reproaches do not concern him. He takes to heart the spiritual renewal desired and favored by his superiors, and from then on resolutely commits himself to the path of religious perfection. It seems that this is the period of his second conversion, which will culminate with the 30-day retreat, during his “Third Year.”

The 30 Day Retreat

This stage is characterized by a strong desire for holiness and an ardent generosity: "It seems to me that I began with a fairly determined will, by the grace of God, to follow all the movements of the Holy Spirit, and without any attachment that would make me fear belonging to God without reserve.[vi]" His sense of hard work is in no way selfish and proud.

It is through love that he wants to become a saint: "I have noticed that the continual care to humble and mortify oneself in everything sometimes causes sadness in nature, which makes it cowardly and less disposed to serve God. It seems to me that it is a temptation that one can overcome by thinking that God demands this of us only out of friendship[vii].”

The examination of his past life (in particular the years of “relaxation”) plunges him into deep confusion: “If I had to give an account to God, I suddenly conceived such great sorrow at having observed my rule so badly, that I shed an abundance of tears[viii].” He was almost tempted to despair: “It seems to me that I have never known myself so well; but I know myself to be so miserable that I am ashamed of myself; and, from time to time, this sight causes me fits of sadness which would lead me to despair if God did not support me[ix].”

“On this occasion, God made me see myself so deformed, so miserable, so devoid of all merit, of all virtue, that it is true that I have never been so displeased with myself. It seemed to me that, in the depths of my heart, I heard Him who, going through all the virtues, made me see clearly that I had none.

I confess that I find that this knowledge of myself, which grows in me from day to day, weakens much or, at least, moderates a certain firm confidence in the mercy of Gad that I have preserved for a long time. I no longer dare to raise my eyes to heaven, I find myself so unworthy of His graces that I almost do not know if I would have closed entrance to them. This feeling comes to me especially from the comparison that I make of my life, and of my crimes, and of my pride, with the innocence and humility of our saints[x].”

As George Bernanos would say, “Hope is a heroic determination of the soul, and its highest form is a despair overcome." Thus, the Father will be forced, at the sight of his misery, to find refuge only in divine mercy: "In the sight of my disorders, the confusion that I conceived was succeeded by a sweet thought, that this was a great matter to exercise the mercy of God, and a very firm hope that He will rest in forgiving me[xi].”

"Of all the sins that present themselves to my mind, whether known or unknown, I will make a block of them that I will throw at the feet of our Savior, to be consumed by the fire of His mercy; the greater the number, the more enormous they seem to me, all the more willingly will I offer them to Him to consume, because what I ask of Him will be all the more worthy of it. It seems to me that I could not do anything more reasonable, nor more glorious to God[xii]."

Concerning the future, he also trusts that entirely in God: "I have never conceived such great confidence that I will persevere in the good and in the desire that I have to be entirely for God, notwithstanding the terrible difficulties that I imagine in the rest of my life. I will say Mass every day: this is my hope, this is my only resource." He even has the audacity to say: “Jesus Christ will be able to do very little if He cannot sustain me from one day to the next[xiii].”

Hope, which is one of the marks of his spiritual life, does not exempt him from personal effort. His desire for holiness pushes him to pronounce, with the agreement of his spiritual director, a particular and heroic vow: that of perfectly observing the Rules of his Order[xiv]. It is therefore a question of forcing oneself to avoid, under penalty of serious fault, that which is, in itself, only a venial sin, or an imperfection.

He explains, in his Retreat Journal, the reasons for this vow, which betray an extraordinary soul: “ No. 1, to break all at once all the chains of self-love, and to remove forever from it the hope of satisfying itself (...). No. 7, on my part, to do all that is in my power to belong to God without reserve, to detach my heart from all creatures, and to love Him with all my strength, at least with an effective love[xv].”

It is obvious that such a vow is not something that every Christian soul can do, and that it would even be imprudent for most. Without dwelling on this question, it is nevertheless very interesting to see with what prudence Fr. La Colombière accomplished this act. 

He did not act on a whim at first, because he had been meditating on this project for several years already (more or less since he began to correct his Parisian slackness). He committed himself more to persevering in good habits than to new acts. He finally noted that these ties did not restrain him through scruples, but gave him a great freedom of soul (this point is perhaps the most important in such a discernment). 

Two or three years later, in 1677, he would write about this vow during another retreat: "I had great joy to see myself thus bound by a thousand chains to the will of God. I was not frightened at the sight of so many, so delicate, and so narrow obligations.”

If we had to summarize the dispositions of Fr. La Colombière at the end of his 30-day retreat, it seems to us that they can be summed up in a few words: generosity in love for God, humility and distrust in self, trust in God.

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[i] Ecrits spirituels, Desclée de Brouwer, 1962, p 152.

[ii] Ibidem., p.99.

[iii] Ibidem, p 83.

[iv] Letter to Fr. Bouhours, quoted by Guitton, p 116.

[v] Letter from Father General to Father Provincial, quoted by Guitton, p 140.

[vi] Ecrits Spirituels, p 81.

[vii] Ibidem, p 99.

[viii]Ibidem, p 110. 

[ix] Ibidem, p 98.

[x] Ibidem, p 113.

[xi] Ibidem, p 84.

[xii]Ibidem, p 85. 

[xiii]Ibidem, p 89.

[xiv] The decision for this vow, upon which the Father had been meditating for some time already, came at the moment of the election in the Exercises of St. Ignatius.

[xv] Ibidem, p 106.