Chapter 5.
The Interior Life
'ADVERSITY does not weaken a person; it shows him for what he is'. This formidable statement, suitably adapted from a striking phrase in the Imitation of Christ, makes it clear that we can use the controversies which plagued the last years of Rosmini's life as privileged vantage points from which to view his inner spirit.
There are, of course, other ways of approaching the subject. Rosmini wrote a great number of spiritual books which express not only his teaching but the feelings of his heart (1); his vast correspondence provides us with a clear outline of the advice he gave others about the inner life (2); his published sermons (3) offer a mine of information about the ascetical life and the faith-principles underlying it. But the immense extent of the available matter, spread over subjects as diverse as the heights of mystical prayer and the need to ensure the physical well-being of the missioners whom he sent to work in Great Britain and Ireland, is of secondary importance in illustrating the well-springs of Rosmini's own deepest thoughts and actions. Compared with his counsel to others, and his theological teaching, his own reaction to spiritual pain and dereliction must provide the basic material for our fundamental understanding of his spiritual teaching and of the kind of person he really was.
The nature of that reaction is shown best of all at the moment of the ecclesiastical prohibition of the Cinque piaghe della santa chiesa and the Costituzione secondo la giustizia sociale. From then on, Rosmini stood condemned in the eyes of many of his contemporaries as an acknowledged danger to the Church, to which he had devoted his life and work. But to understand that reaction at its deepest level, we need to recall how he had undertaken to order his life.
Two principles were chosen by Rosmini early in life as the foundation of all that he wished to accomplish (4).
| 1) To think seriously about correcting my enormous vices and purifying my soul from the evil which weighs it down from birth, without looking for other occupations or undertakings on behalf of my neighbour (I see that it is completely impossible for me to do anything of myself to my neighbour's advantage); |
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| 2) not to refuse any duties of charity towards my neighbour when divine Providence offers and presents them to me (God can use anyone, even me, to accomplish his works), to remain completely open to all works of charity, doing what God offers me - as far as my free will is concerned - with as much devotion as any other work (5). |
The insight leading to the formulation of these principles also showed him that the Christian life, the life of Christ within the spirit, is a call to the perfection of love. Only love can perfect the human person (6), and only divine love can perfect the image and likeness of God that is found in the human person. God's work is central, therefore, to the Christian undertaking; the Christian's work lies in turning away from everything within himself that could impede God's work.
The paradox is expressed in words which, although strange and contradictory at first sight, indicate with the utmost clarity what has to be done by God and the Christian as the inner life unfolds:
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Hence the Christian's desire and endeavour to be borne with all the longings and actions of his life totally into God, in so far as this is possible on earth, in accordance with the obligation imposed on him: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind', and 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself' (7) |
'Desiring to be borne' indicates the activity and the passivity requisite in the Christian life, and it is deliberately reminiscent of words which describe God's loving action towards his chosen ones: 'You have seen ... how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself' (Ex 19: 4).
The best means for achieving this end common to all Christians is the following of Christ according to the profession of 'effective poverty, chastity and obedience' (8). This kind of discipleship, when undertaken by several people together for the sake of 'mutual help and encouragement' (9) constitutes the state or way called 'religious life', which itself must be practised for 'the purpose of increasing the perfection of love to which all [their] fellow-Christians are likewise called'. This was Rosmini's calling, to which he was faithful all his life.
But Rosmini enlarges on the nature of the end common to Christians by showing how it implies the single desire of union with Christ in God and of thus pleasing God.
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The Christian's aim is to become one with Jesus as closely as Jesus is one with the Father. His desire must be insatiable, and he must never be afraid of asking too much (10). |
The desire, unlimited and measureless, 'must be rendered pure and most sincere in the disciple', whoever he may be. Rosmini goes on, with words which lift the veil slightly on his own deep spirit of prayer, to describe how this is to be done:
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He [the Christian] can obtain this by constantly repeating [the desire], concentrated within himself and withdrawn from all external things to a perfect inner solitude, where he must persevere with the same request: 'Watch at all times, praying' (Lk 21: 36) (11) |
The difficulties experienced in achieving this interior solitude - sin, selfishness, anxiety about inward and outward circumstances - are not unknown to Rosmini, but the Christian, the new person redeemed by Christ and possessing his Spirit
| must not be in the least dismayed, nor hold back, if external things do make an impression on him. When this happens he must recollect himself once more, and in the solitude of his heart ceaselessly renew his desire ... until he longs for nothing on earth unless it leads to ... the perfect fulfilment of whatever is most pleasing to God (12). |
The single-mindedness of this desire does not, however, make the Christian turn in upon himself:
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This fundamental longing ... implies all possible good desires, so that he who possesses this great desire desires the salvation of all his fellows in the way pleasing to God, and willed by God (13) |
The end which the Christian must make his own is given more concrete application by Rosmini as he shows what is implied in the 'great desire'. The Christian who wants all possible glory for God
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longs for everything whatsoever that God holds dear. Now the Christian knows by faith that our heavenly Father finds all his satisfaction in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, and that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son, finds his satisfaction in the faithful who form his kingdom. The Christian, therefore, can never be mistaken when he takes the entire holy Church as the object of his affections, thoughts, desires and actions. He knows for certain what God wants in the Church's regard, and is sure that, in accordance with the divine will, the Church of Jesus Christ is the great means through which God's holy name is to be fully glorified (14) |
Within 'the entire holy Church, ... the immaculate Bride of Jesus Christ', there is one essential part on earth - the rock, 'St. Peter, the head of the Apostles, and his successors, the bishops of Rome, supreme vicars of Jesus Christ on earth' (15). The Christian's love for this part of the Church on earth 'must be without limit, and in every way he must endeavour to further its genuine holiness, glory, renown and prosperity' (16). As he lives out his life in this way, however, he suffers no anxiety. Jesus Christ alone
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guides all events, directing them by his wisdom, power and incomparable goodness according to his divine good pleasure for the greater good of the persons he has chosen to form his beloved Bride, the Church. The Christian, therefore, relying entirely on his Lord, will be perfectly tranquil and content (17). |
In the light of this truth concerning Jesus' unfailing direction of his Church, Rosmini was able to jot down at seventeen years of age:
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Some of these thoughts have been written by a youth who has not yet studied philosophy, but described what his reason offered him as new and beautiful. He wants to note, however, that he is always subject to the Church, that is, to the truth, and always ready to retract whatever he has written that is not approved by her (18). |
He repeated the same concept many years later when storms were beginning to blow up around him:
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I was not born to be learned or to gain glory from human beings, nor have I ever aimed at this in my poor labours. I was born to be a believer and made worthy of the promises of Christ, as a devout son of the Church ... My treasure is the holy faith, and here my heart is to be found also. If it should happen, let us say, that the holy apostolic See, my teacher and the teacher of the whole world, were to find something to correct in my works, I would have no difficulty in making any public declaration that could render my unshaken faith more clear. Anything I could have said against this faith, I would certainly have maintained against my own feeling for things. Retracting what I had said would simply mean expressing the unchangeable thought I held in my heart, and correcting its external expression which would have failed to render exactly my intimate conviction - that is, my faith ... All my trust is in God alone who infused me with faith as a baby and gave me an unlimited devotion to the decisions of the Holy See. He fills my heart with joy when I can make an act of faith, and would almost make me glad to have fallen into some involuntary error, without damaging others, in order to be able to confess my faith more deeply and solemnly' (19). |
We may turn now to Rosmini, the spiritual person rather than the spiritual writer, as he journeys from Gaeta to his brethren at Stresa. His mission has been a failure, and his work for the Church discounted at the Papal court; he has suffered genuine humiliation. But as far as he knows, Pius IX is not displeased with him. Rosmini is completely unaware of the prohibition of his two works which, written solely for love of the Church, are an expression of his deep and lasting love for the Papacy, a love in which he sees an essential outlet for his love of God and neighbour. The Five Wounds of the Church in particular is intended simply 'to point to the agony of the Church' and 'to illustrate more clearly the sorrows which now afflict [her]'.
Rosmini was studying in the library of the diocesan seminary of Albano, near Rome, when he received news of the intended prohibition in a letter brought to him from the Master of the Apostolic Palace. He was asked whether it was his intention to submit to the decree. Within half an hour the bearer of the letter left the seminary with the reply:
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By the grace of God, I have always been at heart, and publicly professed myself to be a most devoted and obedient child of the Holy See. As such, I declare that I submit to the prohibition of the named books purely, simply and in every best way possible. And I beg you to assure our most Holy Father and the sacred Congregation of this (20) |
Rosmini, the spiritual person, was no less true to his principles in practice than Rosmini, the spiritual writer, was clear in enunciating them.
Other letters of this period mirror his interior attitude:
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This unexpected event [the prohibition of his two books] has not altered in any way my peace and tranquillity of spirit. Rather, I have been able to offer sincere feelings of gratitude and praise to divine Providence which disposes everything for love, and has permitted this for love alone. But this tranquillity is not something that can be called my own. I would be a prey to every kind of disturbance and passion if he who hears our humble prayers and knows what we need in our weakness had not mercifully protected me with his grace, and put his own divine order in place of my disorder (21). |
Again:
| If this [the prohibition] is counted a dishonour amongst men who judge that I have been guilty of some grave defect, we should remember that we must be disposed to follow Jesus Christ equally sive per infamiam, sive per bonam famam (in ill repute and good repute). So let us be glad and rejoice if we are humiliated and allowed to suffer something in imitation of Jesus Christ (22). |
And he wrote:
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Thank you for sharing in the strange and almost incredible events through which I am being led by Providence whose unchanging design never fails. Meditating on Providence, I wonder at it; wondering at it, I love it; loving it, I celebrate it; celebrating it, I thank it, and thanking it I am filled with joy. Could it be otherwise? I know through reason and through faith, and feel in the depths of my spirit, that everything done, or wished or permitted by God, is done by eternal, infinite, essential Love. And who could be sad before love? (23) |
It is clear from these extracts from his letters that Rosmini practised what he preached about commitment to the Church for love of God. But he came to these heights of sanctity through his grace-given willingness to abandon himself wholly to the care of divine Providence, to acknowledge profoundly his own nothingness and to direct all the actions of his life with what he calls 'a spirit of intelligence', 'which will certainly lead the Christian to attend to his own amendment first, before that of his neighbour'. The man who had entered upon his maturity by praying: 'Father, as your Son would pray in me, so I would pray', is now able to live a life of complete abandonment, showing through his own example the truth of what he had written as a young priest:
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To abandon oneself wholly to the care of
divine Providence. - There is perhaps no maxim which helps more than this to
obtain the peace of heart and stability of mind proper to the Christian life.
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At the end of his laborious, painful and strangely peaceful life, Rosmini as he lay dying was able to comfort and reassure Manzoni when the great writer spoke of his concern that Rosmini's death would deprive the world of someone who was so needed. 'What shall we do without you?' he asked Rosmini. The man of faith encapsulated the practice of a lifetime and summarised the counsel he had constantly given to others with the sublime words: `Adore, be silent and rejoice' (25).
He died at Stresa, on the Lago Maggiore in northern Italy, on July 1st 1855.
Notes
(1).. E.g. Manuale del esercitatore (Manual for the retreat giver) [1840], CrE. 1987.
(2). Epistolario Ascetico, Rome, 1911.
(3). Prose Ecclesistiche [1840], La Dottrina della Carità, CrE., Stresa, 1985; Discorsi parrocchiali, CrE., Stresa, 1986.
(4). Cf. pp. 2-3.
(5). Vita, vol. 1, pp. 208-209.
(6). Cf. p. 17.
(7). MP, lesson 1, no. 2.
(8). MP, lesson 1, no. 3.
(9). Const. no. 2.
(10). MP, lesson 2, no. 3.
(11). MP, lesson 2, no. 6.
(12). MP, lesson 2, no. 7.
(13). MP, lesson 2, no. 10.
(14). MP, lesson 3, no. 2.
(15). MP, lesson 3, no. 10.
(16). Ibid.
(17). MP, lesson 4, no. 1.
(18). Vita, vol. 1, p. 67.
(19). to Don Paolo Bertolozzi, EC, vol. 7, p. 616.
(20). to Padre Buttaoni, Master of the Sacred Palace, EC, vol. 10, p. 586.
(21). to Don Paolo Barola, EC, vol. 10, p. 599.
(22). to Don Giacomo Molinari, EC, vol. 10, p. 600.
(23). to Don Michele Parma, EC, vol. 10, p. 603.
(24). MP, lesson 5, no. 2.
(25). Vita, vol. 2, p. 505.