Untitled - Saints' Books

"
344 MaterialJor Instructions. [PARTII.
St. Jerome, as you do violence to J
yourself." St. Ig
natius was naturally prone to anger, but by virtue he
became so meek that he was considered to be a man of
a mild disposition. St. Francis de Sales was also strong
ly inclined to anger; but by the violence that he offered
to himself he became, as we read in his life, an example
of patience and sweetness in the many contradictions
and insults that he received.
External mortification, without interior self-denial ,
profits the soul but little. Of what use, says St. Jerome,
and afterwards to
is it to reduce the body by fasting,
swell with pride? or to abstain from wine, and to be in
ebriated with hatred ? 2
The Apostle says that we must
put off the old man, that is, attachment to self-love, and
clothe ourselves with the new man, that is, Jesus Christ,
who never pleased himself. For, says St. Paul, Christ
did not please Himself? Hence St. Bernard pitied certain
monks who wore an humble dress, but interiorly cher
ished their passions: "This humble habit is not a sign
of interior holiness, but a cover thrown over inveterate
corruption. They have not stripped themselves of the
old man, but have only hidden him." 4 They, says the
saint, do not put off their vices: they only cover them
with the exterior marks of penance. Hence, fasting,
watching, hair-shirts, and disciplines are of little or no
use to him who is attached to himself, and to what be
longs to him.
1
"Tantum proficies, quantum tibi ipsi vim intuleris." De Imit. 1.
J, c. 25.
"Quid prodest tenuari abstinentia, si animus intumescit superbia?
2
Quid vinum non bibere, et odio inebriari ?"
Ef. ad Celant.
3
Etenim Christus non "
sibi complacuit." Rom. xv. 3.
Humilis habitus non sanctse novitatis est meritum, sed priscse
vetustatis operculum. Veterem hominem non exuerunt, sed novo
palliant."
In Cant, s, 16.