| The martyrdom of love |
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| St Jane Frances de Chantal |
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One
day Saint Jane said this: ‘My dear daughters, most of our holy Fathers,
the pillars of the Church, were not martyrs. Why was this, do you
think?’
After each one of us had had her say, she went on: I
think it is because there is such a thing as a martyrdom of love: God
keeps his servants alive to work for his glory, and this makes them
martyrs and confessors at the same time. I know this is the sort of
martyrdom the daughters of the Visitation will suffer, that is, those of
them who are fortunate enough to set their hearts on it.’
A sister wanted to know just how this martyrdom worked out in practice.
‘Give God your unconditional consent,’ she said, ‘and
then you will find out. What happens is that love seeks out the most
intimate and secret place of your soul, as with a sharp sword, and cuts
you off even from your own self. I know of a soul cut off in this way so
that she felt it more keenly than if a tyrant had cleaved her body from
her soul.’
We knew, of course, that she was speaking about herself. A sister wanted to know how long this martyrdom was likely to last.
‘From the moment we give ourselves up wholeheartedly
to God until the moment we die,’ she answered. ‘But this goes for
generous hearts and people who keep faith with love and don’t take back
their offering; our Lord doesn’t take the trouble to make martyrs of
feeble hearts and people who have little love and not much constancy; he
just lets them jog along in their own little way in case they give up
and slip from his hands altogether; he never forces our free will.’
She was asked whether this martyrdom of love could ever be as bad as the physical kind.
‘We won’t try to compare the two and look for
equality; but I do not think the martyrdom of love is less painful than
the other, because “love is strong as death”, and martyrs of love suffer
infinitely more by staying alive to do God’s will than if they had to
give up a thousand lives for their faith and love and loyalty.’
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