Untitled - Saints' Books

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CHAP, x.i The Vocation to the Priesthood. 191
parents seek to be obeyed in this matter we must answer
them in the words of the apostles to the princes of the
Jews: If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather
1
than God) judge ye.
St. Thomas expressly teaches that in the ohoice of
a state of life children are not obliged to obey their
parents. And the saint says that when there is question
of a vocation to religion, a person is not bound even to
consult his relatives;
for on such occasions self-interest
changes relatives into enemies. 2 Parents are, as St.
Bernard says, content to see their children damned with
them, rather than see them saved by entering religion
and separating from the family.
3
But when a person
wishes to enter the sacerdotal state, in which he may be
able to serve the family, what efforts do not his parents
make to procure his ordination, either by lawful or un
lawful means, whether he is called or not called to the
!
priesthood And with what severity do they not treat
him if, through remorse of conscience, he refuse to take
holy orders ! Barbarous fathers! Let us, with St. Ber
nard, call them not parents, but murderers! 4
Unhappy
fathers! miserable children! I
say again. How many
shall we see condemned in the valley of Josaphat for
having interfered with the vocation of others, or for
not having attended to their own! For, as we shall
hereafter demonstrate, the salvation of each individual
depends on following the divine call.
But let us return to our subject. Neither nobility of
birth nor the will of parents are marks of a vocation to
"Si
justum est, in conspectu Dei, vos potius audire quam Deum,
judicate." Acts, iv. 19.
Propinqui autem carnis, in hoc proposito.amici nonsunt, sed potius
inimici, juxta sententiam Domini: Inimici hominis, domestic! ejus.
Contra retr. a. reL c. 9.
O durum pattern, o saevam matrem, quorum consolatio mors filii
est; qui me malunt perirecum eis, quam regnare sine eis!"
Epist. in.
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parentes, sed peremptores."