The Gospel according to St. Matthew, xxii. 15–21
"Then the Pharisees, going, consulted among themselves how to ensnare Him in His speech. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying: Master, we know that Thou art a true speaker, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man: for Thou dost not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what dost Thou think, Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said: Why do you tempt Me, ye hypocrites? Show Me the coin of the tribute. And they offered Him a penny. And Jesus saith to them: Whose image and inscription is this? They say to Him: Caesar's. Then He saith to them: Render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon mutual forbearance, which is the third characteristic of charity, and of which Jesus Christ, in the gospel of the day, gives us a beautiful example. We shall see: 1st, that this mutual forbearance forms an essential portion of the precept of charity; 2nd, that God makes of it a special law incumbent on us; 3rd, that justice itself obliges us to observe it. Our resolution shall be: 1st, to bear with the defects and the wrongs done us by our neighbor without complaint and without reproaching him for them, and, above all, in a manner calculated to humble him; 2nd, not to take any notice of his mistakes or his blunders, but, on the contrary, not to seem to perceive them, when we have not the mission to reprove them. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Paul: "We ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves" (Rom. xv. 1).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the patience of Our Lord in the gospel of the day. His enemies, who were bent on His destruction, addressed to Him this insidious question: "Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?" If He answered Yes, He would be odious to the people, who pretended, as being the people of God, not to owe anything to Caesar; if He said No, He would be odious to the prince whose authority He did not recognize. Jesus Christ bears with patience and meekness the perfidy of those who thus question Him; He is not angry, and He calmly makes them an answer full of divine wisdom: a beautiful example well worthy of our admiration and our praise, and teaching us to bear with calmness and in peace the malice of men. Let us offer Him our thanksgivings.
FIRST POINT
Mutual Forbearance is an Essential Precept of Charity.
These two things are so closely linked together that, without mutual forbearance, no charity would be possible and we must efface the precept from the gospel, for every man here below has his defects and his imperfections; there are no angels except in heaven; if you do not bear with them, union is broken and charity disturbed. Every man has his own temperament; inclinations and characters are not the same; opinions and ideas contradict one another; wills come in contact, tastes vary. Now, amidst so many diverse or contrary elements, the fusion of hearts in such a manner as to form but one heart and one soul, as charity commands, is only possible in so far as we bear with one another, that we remember we all of us have our weaknesses, and that we suffer charitably and patiently (II. Thess. iii. 5) all that shocks us, all that displeases us, and all that does not harmonize with our tastes or our humor. Without this endurance, the fusion of hearts would be as impossible as the fusion of water with fire, of light with darkness, and there would necessarily be divisions, quarrels, and discord. The experience of every day attests it; and thou, O holy charity, thou who art so beautiful a virtue, who dost form the charm of our exile, the consolation of our sorrows, thou wouldst disappear from the earth. What a misfortune, and what ought we not to endure in order to prevent it!
SECOND POINT
God has made a Special Law of Mutual Forbearance.
Doubtless God, in commanding charity, commanded forbearance, since the one cannot exist without the other; at the same time, He attaches to it such an importance that He makes of it a special law. "We ought," says St. Paul, "to bear the infirmities of the weak" (Rom. xv. 1). If we ought, it is not a favor that we do them, it is a duty that we fulfil; it is a debt which we acquit. "Bear ye one another's burdens," continues the Apostle, "and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. vi. 2). He seems to reduce the whole of the gospel to this sole precept; therefore He takes pleasure in developing it. Bear with one another, he says, "in all humility" which excludes sensitiveness and prejudices; "in all mildness and patience" which excludes murmurs and reproaches, antipathies and impatience, with regard to the displeasure which others cause us; "in charity" (Eph. iv. 2), which teaches us to treat our neighbor as we desire to be treated ourselves. It is an amiable law, well worthy of the common Father of all men; a law of benevolence and indulgence, which takes under its shield all kinds of miseries, and does not permit itself to entertain any contempt for weakness, or to indulge in any derision for mistakes, or in censures for even faults when we are not commanded to reprove them; a law to which is attached our dearest interests, since it is written that God will be indulgent to our faults only in proportion as we are indulgent to the faults of our brethren (Luke vi. 38). Whence St. Chrysostom concludes that if we do not bear with our brethren, God will not bear with us; if we do not sympathize with others, God will not sympathize with us; and we ourselves subscribe to this law when we say, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;" that is to say, be indulgent to my faults in the same proportion as I am indulgent to the faults of others: words which are as a sentence of death in the mouth of whoever pronounces them with a heart embittered against his brother. If he were taken at his word, a flame from heaven would come and devour him alive.
THIRD POINT
Justice itself Makes Mutual Forbearance incumbent on us.
Who is there, in fact, who does not feel in his own case the need of a law of forbearance, of that law which is a protector of human weakness? Now, if we wish that it should be observed in regard to us, would it not be strange injustice not to observe it in regard to our brethren? We complain of the imperfections of our brethren; but are they not obliged to bear with ours? of their characters and dispositions; but have we not our caprices? of their vivacity and rudeness; but does a sharp speech never escape our lips? of excuses with which they cover up their faults without ever allowing that they commit them; but is not this also our history, to the extent that we come to imagine that we are less bad, sometimes even that we are better, than others? He alone who is without sin could throw a stone at them (John viii. 7). As for us, it ill becomes us to desire perfection in others to such a point as not to be able to bear a spot or imperfection in them. Let us here examine our conscience; how do we bear with our neighbor's faults, his too gay or too melancholy disposition, his temperament, which is too easy-going or too austere; his manners, which are too slow or too quick? Instead of excusing and sheltering our neighbor's mental or corporal infirmities, their want of good breeding, their want of talent, their frivolity, their obstinacy, their blunders, what is defective in their pronunciation, in their behavior, in their deportment, have we not often ridiculed them? How do we bear with the importunity of such and such persons, the complaints of the afflicted or the sick; lastly, all that we have to suffer from various individuals?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.