By Henry Aloysius Barry
The third in the group of sins against the Holy Ghost is a grudging feeling against others who are more favored in the way of virtues and graces than we ourselves. This sin reaches its highest development in the disposition of the fallen angels. The devils are wroth to see the human species, so nobly designed, chosen to fill the places which they had lost through rebellion and mutiny against the Almighty. Their fury involves a malignant attitude toward God on account of His goodness and against the objects of His beneficence, namely mankind. Their frenzy bursts forth in reckless efforts to defeat this end and increases in violence and hellish force as they behold certain men, who happen to be more than others generously endowed with graces and privileges. The lives of the saints illustrate this, wherein we find that these select vessels have been subjected to every imaginable species of bodily ill-usage and soul-taunts. Sanctification is the special work of the Holy Ghost, and, not to yearn for its broader extension, or, for a greater reason, to strive to prevent it, would be a special affront to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. And is it indeed possible that such a jealous frame could be found in men? We find it in the Jews; they were chagrined at the spiritual insight of St. Stephen. The action of the Holy Ghost in the saint aroused their bitterest ire, and, we find from the Holy Record that they went so far as to suborn false witnesses in order to compass his death. By a sort of spiritual "trust" —spiritual exclusiveness—the Jewish converts would have found fault with St. Peter because he preached to the Gentiles, "Whereby the Holy Ghost fell upon them." (Acts ii, 15.) The proper spirit on such an occasion should have been that of Barnabas, "Who when he was come and had seen the grace of God, rejoiced,"—"for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost." (v. 23, 24.) God died for all men. In the affair of sanctification there should be no national-spiritual trust; this would imply both arrogance and un christlikeness. We should pray and strive in every other way to bring all nations, to win over all peoples, to the divine brotherhood of grace. We, who for example, are a nation of Catholics must guard against promulgating the idea that we have a special and a quasi-exclusive claim upon the grace of faith. Our sympathies must be Catholic; by word and practice, by public and private policy, let us point to the open door of the Church, of faith, of love, of brotherhood, of hope,—the great world-family in the grace of the Holy Ghost. Sectarian partisans are, all, more or less, touched with this envious disposition in presence of the spiritual wonders of the True Church. Invective is on the daily menu. Every splendid feature of sanctity forms a point of antagonism— celibacy, fasting, ritual and the rest. This spirit, in its own way, may affect those within the pale. Those chosen to the higher walks of holiness,— for example, evangelical perfection,— may occasion the greenish sentiment in those not so selected, and, instead of a holy emulation we may sometimes find a bitter dis edifying and odious rivalry. Again the lax of life may cherish a bitter sentiment against those who are more sturdy in their christian conduct. This envious feeling may indeed invade the inner sanctuary of predilection and show its viperous self in a too offensive partisanship. A member of one body may indulge too human a sentiment towards the members of another institute, when in truth saints are not to be compared.
The third in the group of sins against the Holy Ghost is a grudging feeling against others who are more favored in the way of virtues and graces than we ourselves. This sin reaches its highest development in the disposition of the fallen angels. The devils are wroth to see the human species, so nobly designed, chosen to fill the places which they had lost through rebellion and mutiny against the Almighty. Their fury involves a malignant attitude toward God on account of His goodness and against the objects of His beneficence, namely mankind. Their frenzy bursts forth in reckless efforts to defeat this end and increases in violence and hellish force as they behold certain men, who happen to be more than others generously endowed with graces and privileges. The lives of the saints illustrate this, wherein we find that these select vessels have been subjected to every imaginable species of bodily ill-usage and soul-taunts. Sanctification is the special work of the Holy Ghost, and, not to yearn for its broader extension, or, for a greater reason, to strive to prevent it, would be a special affront to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. And is it indeed possible that such a jealous frame could be found in men? We find it in the Jews; they were chagrined at the spiritual insight of St. Stephen. The action of the Holy Ghost in the saint aroused their bitterest ire, and, we find from the Holy Record that they went so far as to suborn false witnesses in order to compass his death. By a sort of spiritual "trust" —spiritual exclusiveness—the Jewish converts would have found fault with St. Peter because he preached to the Gentiles, "Whereby the Holy Ghost fell upon them." (Acts ii, 15.) The proper spirit on such an occasion should have been that of Barnabas, "Who when he was come and had seen the grace of God, rejoiced,"—"for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost." (v. 23, 24.) God died for all men. In the affair of sanctification there should be no national-spiritual trust; this would imply both arrogance and un christlikeness. We should pray and strive in every other way to bring all nations, to win over all peoples, to the divine brotherhood of grace. We, who for example, are a nation of Catholics must guard against promulgating the idea that we have a special and a quasi-exclusive claim upon the grace of faith. Our sympathies must be Catholic; by word and practice, by public and private policy, let us point to the open door of the Church, of faith, of love, of brotherhood, of hope,—the great world-family in the grace of the Holy Ghost. Sectarian partisans are, all, more or less, touched with this envious disposition in presence of the spiritual wonders of the True Church. Invective is on the daily menu. Every splendid feature of sanctity forms a point of antagonism— celibacy, fasting, ritual and the rest. This spirit, in its own way, may affect those within the pale. Those chosen to the higher walks of holiness,— for example, evangelical perfection,— may occasion the greenish sentiment in those not so selected, and, instead of a holy emulation we may sometimes find a bitter dis edifying and odious rivalry. Again the lax of life may cherish a bitter sentiment against those who are more sturdy in their christian conduct. This envious feeling may indeed invade the inner sanctuary of predilection and show its viperous self in a too offensive partisanship. A member of one body may indulge too human a sentiment towards the members of another institute, when in truth saints are not to be compared.
