Section IV. Of the correction of faults and vices

I. Self-knowledge.—II. Means of knowing ourselves.—III. Difference between vices, sins, defects, etc.—IV. We must attack the predominant passion.—V. Means of combating a vice.—VI. What should be done after gaining some victory.

I. To omit nothing regarding the first part of justice, which obliges us to avoid evil, it is necessary to treat of the manner of correcting ourselves, and rooting out our defects. I say, first, that it is not possible that the will, blind as it is, will be able to do this unless the understanding, like a torch, goes before to enlighten it, nor can it cope with enemies which it does not see. The first thing necessary in order to correct faults is to know them; hence each must endeavor to know himself, his inclinations, his habits, his natural character and his faults, because it is impossible to regulate and reform what is unknown, otherwise remedies might be applied to the foot, where the pain is not, rather than to the head, where the disease is. Diseases of the mind as well as diseases of the body must be recognized before they can be healed; we cannot dress a wound without seeing it.

II. Now, in order to acquire self-knowledge we must, first, beg it of God, saying with St. Austin: Lord make me know Thee and know myself. 2. We must carefully reflect on ourselves, for if there is a point on which men are almost sure to be deceived, it is in the judgment they form of their vices and defects, because self-love hides or disguises them. 3. We may learn our defects by our falls or by our inclinations: if a man should grow angry five or six times a day, or speak ill of his neighbor, or be tempted to these defects, and does not fall because he resists, he may conclude that he is inclined to anger or detraction. Every man, however perfect he may be, ought to be firmly persuaded that as long as he is a sojourner in this vale of tears he shall always be subject to vices, sins and imperfections. There is no man who does not sin, says the Holy Ghost. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The reason of this is clear; grace drives out sin, but it does not destroy the sting of sin, the corruption of nature; this happiness is reserved for the sojourn of glory. Hence God, who knows the depths of our hearts, says of every one of us: Man is inclined to evil from his youth; he tends to it with all his thoughts and affections, if reason and divine grace restrain him not. We have within us concupiscence, the root of all evil, and the sad law which St. Paul calls the law of the members; this root will continually throw out bad shoots, which we must continually retrench.

III. But to comprehend this well, it must be observed that there is a difference between vices, sins, bad habits and bad inclinations. Vices are the sources of sins. "Vice is a corrupt humor which engenders the malady of sin," says St. Bernard, "which causes horrible wounds in the soul and hinders it from enjoying perfect health. Vice is the root of death and the origin of all evil, because it is the origin of sin, which is the climax of all evils and miseries." Sin is any thought, word or action against reason and the law of God. Imperfection may exist without sin, such as the first movements to vices, which cannot be sinful because the will has no part in them; but they are yet imperfections and defects, because they are the productions of corrupt nature. Evil inclinations are the natural proneness a man has to evil. Bad habit is the disposition and facility a man has in committing some fault, as of slander or impatience, which is acquired by frequent acts. And all these evils, like so many troubled rivers, flow from what remains in us of original sin; this is what we call the seed of sin (fomes peccati).

IV. We must have our eyes continually fixed on ourselves to see our faults that we may be able to correct them, and chiefly the vices that form the source of our other disorders, because as every one has some dominant humor in his physical composition, so there is always a ruling passion in his soul: in some this is pride, in others self-love, in others anger; in this person it is indevotion, in that other it is love of earthly goods, of creatures, proneness to particular friendships, etc.

When pride takes the ascendency, it infects the whole man; it spreads its venom over his understanding, his will, his words, his actions, his interior and his exterior. He nourishes in his understanding a secret esteem of self, in his will a desire of reputation and glory, of appearing great; the man ruled by pride thinks only of what flatters him, his words are haughty and imperious, his actions are absolute and full of authority, he delights in being praised; he cannot support the least contempt without impatience, he never acknowledges his faults, he covers and excuses them as much as he can; he wishes even to make them pass for virtues.

When it is self-love, man seeks to gratify his inclinations in eating and drinking, apparel, the arrangement of his chamber and in everything; he is very tender of himself, he fears hunger, thirst, heat, cold; he complains of the least inconvenience. This vice inclines the body and soul to what is contrary to chastity, because it excites them to seek their pleasure.

If anger predominates, it appears in the gait, the gestures, the manner of speaking, the movements, in all the actions; he who has this for his ruling passion is rough and impetuous, and far from that sweet vivacity and tender, sage maturity with which we ought to act.

If it be indevotion, mental and vocal prayer, examens, lectures, Mass, confession, Communion, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, elevations of the heart, interior recollection, all exercises of piety savor of it, because he abandons them for frivolous reasons, or if he make them, it is without preparation, without attention, without affection and without fruit. It is the same with the other vices. Well, we must strive to discover this predominant passion which is the root of all our faults, else we cannot extirpate it. Let us now see the means of discovery.

V. The first is to know the nature and effects of this passion and the damages it causes; for without this knowledge we can do but little; we must not fear the tedium of this study, which is always more profitable than many others to which we apply ourselves, and which contribute nothing to our salvation, or rather, are hurtful to it.

The second is to conceive a great hatred and horror of it, based upon the knowledge we have of its deformity and bad effects.

The third is a resolution to combat,vanquish and destroy this vice, inspired by the hatred and horror it excites in us. The most ordinary defect among persons who aspire to perfection, is that they do not attack the ruling passion with sufficient determination; they do not, if I may so speak, attack the heart of it, they merely scratch its skin; they lop off the branches but do not touch the trunk or the root; thus the vice never dies, because they never attack the source of its life. Whoever wishes to gain a perfect victory over any vice must lay the axe to the root. When God gave the Israelites, who were a figure of the just, the order they should follow in destroying idols, images of vice, He said to them: Throw down their altars, break their statues, burn the groves consecrated to them, blot out their memory from the places in which they are worshipped. When the good king Josias purified these places from their abominations, he filled them with the bones of the dead, to teach us, as Philo observes, that we ought to destroy our vices in such a manner that they will have no power to revive again. In this manner God commanded Saul to ruin Amalec, saying: Go, and smite Amalec, and utterly destroy all that he hath; spare him not, nor covet anything that is his; but slay both man and woman,child and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Thus should we act with reference to our vices, otherwise they will always be our masters. For as the Israelites could never enjoy perfect peace in the Promised Land while there remained therein any of the hostile nations of whom God had said: You shall entirely destroy them, and have no pity on them; so while we shall have one vice within us we can never enjoy perfect repose, because we nourish in our own hearts the seed of war and confusion.

The fourth is to beg earnestly of God means to combat this vice and strength to vanquish it; for without His aid we shall combat in vain, because of our inherent weakness; nature assists vice in many ways to destroy us, but with the divine succor we are strong, the victory is ours. Fear not, said Moses to the Israelites, because the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a God mighty and terrible: He will consume these nations, figures of vices, and shall slay them till they be utterly destroyed.

We should direct to this intention not only our prayers but also our confessions, communions, Mass, mortifications and other pious exercises, to merit of God in the most plenteous and efficacious manner this victory. We must combat our vices, says Cassian, by attacking chiefly that which torments us most; against it we must direct all our solicitude, our sighs, our tears, our meditations and our groans, and pray God continually that He would give us grace to vanquish it.

The fifth means of rooting out a vice is to make acts of the virtue which is contrary to it. We shall draw from this two great advantages: 1. We shall lose the habit of the sin; 2. We shall acquire the habit of the opposite virtue. These acts should be interior and exterior; we must perform a stated number every day that we may labor with ardor and perseverance in a thing so important. The advice Cassian gives regarding these interior acts is excellent: "If we wish to surmount a vice," says he " we must, except in case of sins against chastity, represent to ourselves its object and imagine ourselves in an occasion of committing it, then doing all we can to vanquish it. If a man inclines to anger, he must constantly exercise himself in interior acts of meekness; let him represent himself overwhelmed with injuries by the malice of men, and then accustom himself to receive them with profound humility; let him put before his eyes the most painful and grievous things, and force himself in spirit to accept them with sweetness, considering the sorrows the Saints endured, the opprobrium of Jesus Christ, also that whatever pains he can endure are below his deserts; and thus he will prepare his heart for all sorts of contrarieties and sufferings. If, notwithstanding these resolutions, he falls into anger, let him strive to conquer it, and reproaching himself bitterly, let him say: For shame, weak man, you who were so courageous when no occasion presented itself, who imagined yourself so brave as to be able to support without emotion the most atrocious injuries, how does your patience, which seemed invincible, disappear at the least word? How can so slight a blast throw down your house, which you supposed built on a rock? What has become of your desire for battle, which made you say with David: Prove me, O Lord, and try me, sound my heart and visit my thoughts; see if there be in me a path of iniquity. See if sin can separate me from Thee, if I am really Thy servant. How the mere shadow of the enemy has dispersed all your preparations for war! Having thus condemned his cowardice, let him not leave unpunished the motion which anger caused, however small it be.

But in the exercise of these acts we must be attentive to two things, in which we commonly fail: the first is to practice them with constancy despite of all obstacles; the second is never to yield to sadness or weariness if it should happen that we have not rooted out the vice as soon as we expected. The least difficulties dismay some and deprive them of the good will to advance; others would wish to root out a vice and acquire a virtue after a day or two. Both should remember that to destroy things deeply rooted in our nature, as vice, and to acquire excellent things, as virtue, it is very reasonable that we should have some trouble, since we cannot gain anything of consequence without some pains. But to lessen the difficulties we must often remember the inestimable good this victory will procure us. As regards time, we should never look far ahead, not even to to-morrow but think only of employing the present well, and spending each day as if it were to be our last. The wise man never anticipates evil, present evils are quite sufficient for him.

The sixth means is proper to our Society, since no one has spoken of it at greater length than St. Ignatius; it consists in the particular examen by which we undertake the correction of a single vice. In the morning we purpose to combat it well, during the day we watch over ourselves; we note down our faults and victories, and as a preservative for the future, we should impose upon ourselves some penance. In this exercise we should follow the order prescribed by St. Ignatius.

These two means are of great importance; we must apply ourselves to them with care, if we would see our hopes realized.

VI. When we gain some victory, in order that we may not lose its fruits, we should refer this victory not to our own industry, but to God, as David did, saying: "I shall beat my enemies as small as dust before the wind. I shall bring them to nought like dirt in the street;" then attributing the glory to its owner, he adds: "O God, my deliverer from my enemies, Thou wilt lift me up against them that rise against me; therefore will I give glory to Thee, O Lord, among the nations, and will sing a psalm to Thy Name."

We must afterwards be on our guard, and not cast ourselves into occasions of failing in this point, as if we had entirely vanquished it; for this we cannot do, since its first root, which is concupiscence, will never be destroyed during this life. Believe me, says St. Bernard, vices that are cut off sprout out again, they return after having been chased away, they rekindle though they seem extinguished, it is not enough to destroy them once, we must do it often, because whatever progress you make you will always find something to retrench; you deceive yourself if you imagine that during this life your vices are dead; they only slumber; whether you will or no the Jebusite shall always remain in your midst, he can be subdued but he cannot be exterminated." These last words ought not to be understood of vicious habits which can be eradicated, but of our nature corrupted by sin. If we fail in vigilance, says Cassian, the vice we thought we had conquered will take up arms anew, it will return like the demon in the Gospel with sevenfold fury. For example, if the vice of gluttony you have vanquished tempts you to lessen your strictness, beware of entertaining the temptation, otherwise the traitor will say: I shall return to my old habitation. Then taking with him other spirits to excite you to other vices you will soon fall into sins more dangerous than those of which you have already repented.

We have said enough regarding the first part of justice which consists in avoiding evil. We shall treat in the following volume of the manner of doing good and practising virtue, and we will see that divine love is not less powerful in exciting us to avoid evil than exciting us to do good.