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187.1
First Point
What
was most special and most remarkable in Saint Charles was his perfect
detachment from the goods of this earth. He made this quite clear while he
was still very young, when he was given a rich abbey, and his father
wanted to appropriate the revenue; Saint
Charles took the liberty of telling his father that this revenue did not
belong to him, but to the poor, and he took care that it was distributed
to them.
He continued to act in this manner even after he became the
proprietor of his estate. When he was bishop he renounced the considerable
revenues that his uncle, the pope, had bestowed on him; he then sold all
his possessions and gave the proceeds to the poor. [i]
But what is altogether extraordinary is that in a time of public
emergency, during a pestilence and a famine, he even sold all his
furniture and his own bed in order to assist the poor and the sick. He had
nothing else left to help them, because he had given away everything he
had, and had kept nothing for his own use from the revenues of his
archdiocese.
Detachment from riches and from the comforts of life is one of the
first dispositions we should have in order to belong entirely to God and
to work for the salvation of souls. This was also the first thing that
Jesus Christ required of his holy apostles and which they inspired in the
first Christians.
If you wish, then, to make yourself worthy to be employed in the
salvation of souls, be detached from everything, and the grace of God will
be given to you in abundance, not only for yourself but also for others.
Say, as it is written in Genesis, Give me souls, and take all the rest
for yourself.[ii]
In other words, dispose of all the rest as you please; because, except for
your holy love and the salvation of souls, I am indifferent to all the
rest.
187.2
Second Point
It
is not enough to be detached, in order to be able to work effectively for
the Church and for the salvation of our neighbor. We must also steadfastly
apply ourselves to prayer and mortification. This Saint Charles did with
assiduity, even though he was constantly preoccupied for the good of his
diocese; he gave himself to prayer twice a day without fail, and he was so
absorbed in his prayer that when one of the disorderly religious whom he
was trying to reform fired a musket at him while he was at prayer with his
household, he was not in the least disturbed and continued to pray. He
often grieved before God for the salvation of the people of his diocese
and often even spent a part of the night in prayer. If something important
for the good of the Church arose, he prayed throughout the whole night.
As this saint was well aware that prayer without mortification is
often an illusion, he did not fail to join the one to the other. In his
palace he lived like a poor man to whom alms had to be given, fasting
nearly every day on bread and water and never eating either meat, eggs, or
fish. He wore a hair shirt and took the discipline; he often slept on
straw or in a chair, and slept very little, because, as he said, a bishop
who is responsible for souls should not be less vigilant than officers in
the army.
Often reflect that you should be a man of prayer, because you must
pray not only for yourself but also for those whom you have to guide and
for the needs of their souls. In order that your prayer may be effective,
you should join mortification to it.
187.3
Third Point
Saint
Charles' zeal for the salvation of souls was incomparable, and it is
difficult to be able to express the lengths to which he carried it.
Inconceivable as it may be, he wanted to be informed in writing every year
about the conduct of every person in his diocese individually, so that he
might on his part exercise all the vigilance and all the care possible to
procure their salvation. He wanted the parish priests of his diocese to
come to the assistance of the dying, and to be present at their last hour,
the moment when a soul has the greatest need for help.
But the zeal of Saint Charles stood out in a most surprising manner
when the city of Milan was attacked by the plague. From the beginning he
sacrificed himself to bring help to the victims of the epidemic; he
administered the sacraments to them himself in spite of great fatigue and
danger, constantly exposing himself to death during the whole time the
pestilence lasted. It was on that occasion that this saintly bishop showed
how much contempt he felt for his own life when it was a matter of
procuring the salvation of his neighbor.
Compare your zeal for the sanctification of your disciples with
that of this great saint, for you should spend your entire life trying to
make them become good Christians. Watch over them with as much attention
to detail as Saint Charles kept watch over all the members of his diocese.
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Charles
Borromeo (1538 - 1584) was born of a noble family at Arona, Italy. He
earned a doctorate in canon law at Pavia in 1559 and forthwith was created
a cardinal by his uncle, who had just become Pope Pius IV. He was made
Archbishop of Milan and Papal Secretary of State, working strenuously for
the conclusion of the Council of Trent between 1560 and 1564. After that
he became the embodiment of the spirit and ideals of the
Counter-Reformation inaugurated by Trent. He was strict in his efforts to
reform the morals of his archdiocese, but even more committed to his own
spiritual life of sacrifice and prayer. He was canonized in 1610 by Pope
Paul V.
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