It was only occasionally that Mariquita accompanied Sarella when the
latter went to the convent for instruction. On one of those occasions
the Loretto Convent near Denver was mentioned, and Sister Aquinas said:
"I had a niece there a few years ago--Eleanor Hurst. I wonder if you
know her?"
"Oh, yes! Quite well." Mariquita answered, with the sort of shining
interest that always made her look suddenly younger. "A friend of ours
brought me news, lately, that she has become a Carmelite."
"What is a Carmelite?" Sarella asked.
"A nun of one of the great Contemplative Orders," Sister Aquinas
explained, turning politely to Sarella. "It is a much rarer vocation
than that of active nuns, like ourselves. Carmelites do not teach
school, or have orphanages, or homes for broken old men or women, nor
nurse the sick, either in their homes or in hospital."
"Sounds pretty useless," Sarella remarked carelessly; "what do they do
anyway?"
"They are not at all useless," the nun answered, smiling good-humoredly.
"Married women are not useless, though they do not do any of those
things either."
"Of course not. But they _are_ married. They make their husbands
comfortable--"
The nun could not help taking her own turn of interrupting, and said
with a little laugh:
"Not quite always, perhaps."
"The good ones do."
"Perhaps not invariably. Some even pious women are not remarkable for
making their husbands comfortable."
Sarella laughed, and the elderly nun went on.
"Of course, it is the vocation of married women to do as you say. And I
hope most do it, that and setting the example of happy Christian homes.
I do not really mean to judge of the vocation by those who fail to
fulfill it. It is God's vocation for the vast majority of His daughters.
But not for all."
"There aren't husbands enough for all of us," Sarella, who was
"practical" and slightly statistical, remarked, with the complacence of
one for whom a husband had been forthcoming.
"Exactly," agreed the elderly nun, laughing cheerfully, "so it's a good
thing, you see, that there are other vocations; ours, for instance."
"Oh," Sarella protested with hasty politeness, "no one could think
people like you useless. You do so much good."
"So do the Carmelites. Only their way of it is not quite the same. Would
you say that Shakespeare was useless, or Dante?"
To tell truth, Sarella had never in her life said anything about either,
or thought anything. Nevertheless, she was aware that they were
considered important.
"They did not," the nun said eagerly, "teach schools, or nurse the sick,
or do any of those things for the sake of which some people kindly
forgive us for being nuns--not all people, unfortunately. Yet they are
recognized as not having been useless. They are not useless now, long
after they are dead. Mankind admits its debt to them. They _served_, and
they serve still. Not with physical service, like nurses, or doctors, or
cooks, or house-servants. But they contributed to the _quality_ of the
human race. So have many great men and women who never wrote a
line--Joan of Arc, for instance. The contribution of those illustrious
servants was eminent and famous, but many who have never been famous,
who never have been known, have contributed in a different degree or
fashion to the quality of mankind: innumerable priests, unknown perhaps
outside their parishes; innumerable nuns, innumerable wives and mothers;
and a Carmelite nun so contributes, eminently, immeasurably except by
God, though invisibly, and inaudibly. Not only by her prayers, I mean
her prayers of intercession, though again it is only God who can measure
what she does by them. But just by being what she is, vast, unknown
numbers of people are brought into the Catholic Church not only by her
prayers but by her life. Some read themselves into the true faith, into
_any_ faith; they are very few in comparison of those who come to
believe. Some are preached into the Church--a few only, again, compared
with the number of those who do come to her. What brings most of those
who are brought? I believe it is a certain quality that they have become
aware of in the Catholic Church, that brings the immense majority. The
young man in the factory, or in the army, in a ship, or on a
ranch--anywhere--falls into companionship with a Catholic, or with a
group of Catholics; and in him, or them, he gradually perceives this
_quality_ which he has never perceived elsewhere. It may be that the
Catholics he has come to know are not perfect at all. The quality is not
all of their own earning; it is partly an inheritance: some of it from
their mothers, some from their sisters, some from their friends; ever so
much of it from the saints, who contributed it to the air of the Church
that Catholics breathe. The Contemplatives are contributing it every
day, and all day long. Each, in her case, behind her grille, is forever
giving something immeasurable, except by God, to the transcendent
quality of the Catholic Church. This may be, and mostly is, unsuspected
by almost all her fellow-creatures; but not unfelt by quite all. A
Carmelite's convent is mostly in a great city; countless human beings
pass its walls. They cannot _help_, seeing them, saying to their own
hearts, 'In there, human creatures, like me, are living unlike me. They
have given up _everything_--and for no possible reward _here_. Ambition
cannot account for _any part of it even_. They cannot become anything
great even in their Church, nor famous; they will die as little known or
regarded as they live. They can win no popularity. They obtain no
applause. They are called useless for their pains. They are scolded for
doing what they do, though they would not be scolded if they were mere
old-maids who pampered and indulged only themselves. The wicked women of
this city are less decried than they. They are abused, and they have to
be content to be abused, remembering that their Master said they must
be content to fare no better than Himself. It is something above this
world, that can only be accounted for by another world, and such a
belief in it as is not proved by those who may try to grab two worlds,
this one with their right hands, the next with their left. The life
almost all of us declare impossible here on earth, they are living.'
Such thoughts as these, broken thoughts, hit full in the face numbers of
passers-by every day, and how many days are there not in a year--in a
Carmelite's own lifetime. They are witnesses to Jesus Christ, who cannot
be explained away. A chaplain told me that nothing pleased his soldiers
so much as to get him in the midst of a group of them and say, 'Tell us
about the nuns, Father. Tell us about the Carmelites and the Poor
Clares--'"
"I knew a girl called Clare," Sarella commented brightly; "she was as
poor as a church mouse, but she married a widower with no children and a
_huge_ fortune. I beg your pardon--but the name reminded me of her."
Sister Aquinas laughed gently.
"Well, she was a useful friend to you!"
"Not at all. She never did a hand's turn for anyone. I don't know what
she would have done if she _hadn't_ married a rich man, she was so
helpless. But you were saying?"
"Only, that his soldiers loved to hear the chaplain tell them about the
Contemplative nuns. Nothing interested them more. I am sure it was not
thrown away on them. It was like showing them a high and lovely place. I
should think no one can look at a splendid white mountain and not want
to be climbing. That was all."
Would Sarella ever want to climb? Sister Aquinas did not know, nor do I
know.
Her eagerness had been, perhaps, partly spurred by other criticism than
Sarella's; Sarella was not the only one who had told Nelly Hurst's aunt
that it was a pity the girl had "decided on one of the useless Orders."
That every phase of life approved by the Catholic Church, as the
Contemplative Orders are, must be useful, Sister Aquinas knew well. And
it wounded her to hear her niece's high choice belittled. She could not
help knowing that this belittling was simply a naive confession of
materialism, and an equally naive expression of human selfishness. We
approve the vocation of nuns whose work is for our own bodies; we cannot
easily see the splendor of _direct_ service of God Himself who has no
material needs of His own. That God's most usual course of Providence
calls us to serve Him by serving our fellows, we see clearly enough,
because it suits us to see it; but we are too purblind to perceive that
even that Service need not in every case be material service, and it
scandalizes us to remember that God chooses in some instance to be
served _directly_, not by the service of any creature; because the
instances are less common, we are shocked when asked to admit that they
exist. If Christ were still visibly on earth, millions would be
delighted to feed Him, but it would annoy almost all of us to see even a
few serving Him by sitting idle at His feet listening. Hardly any of us
but think Martha was doing more that afternoon at Bethany than her
sister, and it troubles us that Jesus Christ thought differently. It
was so easy to sit still and listen--that is why the huge majority of us
find it impossible, and are angry that here and there a Contemplative
nun wants to do it.
Of liberty we prattle in every language; and most loudly do they scream
of it who are most angry that God takes leave to exist, and that many of
His creatures still refuse to deny His existence; that many admit His
right to command, and their own obligation to obey. These
liberty-brawlers would be the first to concede to every woman the
"inalienable right" to lead a corrupt life, destructive of society, and
the last to allow to a handful of women out of the world's population
the right to live a life of spotless whiteness at the immediate feet of
the Master they love.
Was Sister Aquinas so carried away as to be forgetful that Sarella was
not the only auditor? Mariquita had listened too.