Speaking of Superiors, I may tell you that Blessed Francis divided them
into four classes. "First," he said, "there are those who are very
indulgent to others, and also to themselves. Secondly, there are those who
are severe to others, and equally so to themselves. Thirdly, there are some
who are indulgent to their subordinates and rigid to themselves. Fourthly,
there are those who are indulgent to themselves and rigorous to others."
He condemned the first as careless and criminal persons, heedless of their
duties: they abandon the ship they should pilot, to the mercy of the waves.
A Superior of the second kind often spoils everything precisely because he
wishes to do too much, and falls into those exaggerations which have lent
truth to the saying, "Absolute right is absolute injustice." "He who would
rule well," runs an ancient aphorism, "must rule with a slack hand." We
must not hold our horse's bridle over tightly, for though we may save him
from stumbling we hinder him even from walking.
Superiors of the third class are better because they put a kindly
construction upon the faults and infirmities of others less known to them,
as they necessarily are, than their own. This is the reason why they are
severe to themselves and indulgent to others--a line of conduct which
generally meets with the approval of their subjects. The latter are the
more edified because they see their Superiors observing those very laws
from which they have dispensed them. It is just so with the laity: they are
mostly more anxious about the morals of their clergy than they are about
their own.
Superiors of the fourth and last kind are truly unfaithful servants. They
resemble those Pharisees who _laid on the shoulders of other men heavy
burdens which_ they themselves would not touch with the tip of their
finger.
Our Blessed Father wished that all these four classes could be merged in
a fifth, that of which the watchword should be holy equality according to
that precept both of nature and of the Gospel: "Do to others as you would
be done by; treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and
treat yourself as you know you ought to be treated." In fact, since each
man is to himself his nearest neighbour, we all recognise the injustice
of demanding in the life of others what we do not practise in our own. To
command others to do what we do not ourselves do is to be like Urias, who
carried his own condemnation and death-warrant in his bosom.
One day, in his presence, I was praising a certain Superior for his extreme
goodness, gentleness, patience, and condescension, which attracted all
hearts to him, just as flies are attracted to a honeycomb. He answered,
"Goodness is not good when it puts up with evil; on the contrary, it is bad
when it allows evils to go on which it can, and should, prevent. Gentleness
in such a case is not gentleness, but weakness and cowardice. Patience in
such a case is not patience, but absolute stupidity.
"When we suffer evil which we could prevent, we do not merely tolerate but
become accomplices in wrong-doing. I am of opinion that subjects are made
good by bad, I mean, by harsh and disagreeable Superiors. The severity of
a mother is more wholesome for a child than the petting of an indulgent
nurse, and the firmness of a father is always more useful to his children
than their mother's tenderness. The rougher the file the better it smoothes
the iron, and the more rust it rubs off; the hotter the iron, the better
the surface it gives to the cloth." He related with regard to this subject
an anecdote which will both please and profit you.
The head of a certain Religious Order, which was at the time undergoing
a vigorous reform, had, with the consent of the Provincial Chapter,
established a Novitiate House which was to serve as the one only Seminary
for the whole province. It was decided that no novice should be clothed
until he had been examined by three Fathers of the Order appointed for that
purpose. The first was to enquire into the birth and condition of those
who presented themselves for examination, the second into their literary
capacity, and the third into their manner of life and vocation. This last,
in order to get a firm grip on the pulse of the postulants, and to sound
their vocation to the very quick almost always asked them if they would
have courage and patience enough to put up with bad Superiors, bad in the
extreme, cruel, rude, peevish, choleric, melancholy, captious, pitiless,
those, in a word, whom they would find it impossible to please or satisfy.
Some, evading the question, replied that there could be none such in the
Order, or, at least, would not be suffered to remain in office, seeing that
it was governed with so much gentleness and benignity, and that its yoke
was so sweet and desirable. The examiner, who did not like evasive and
ambiguous replies of this sort, determined to get an answer that should
be straight-forward and to the point. Taking a much sterner tone, he
represented a Superior to them as a sort of slave-driver: a man who would
govern his subjects by blows and stripes, and who yet would expect them to
drink this chalice of bitterness as if offered to their lips by the hand of
God.
Some of the postulants fearing the test, became pale or crimson with
agitation, and either answered nothing, showing by their silence that they
could not swallow the pill, or, if they answered at all, declared that
they could not believe he was speaking seriously, and that they were not
galley-slaves.
These he dismissed at once as unfit to be received into the Order.
Others, however, full of courage and constancy, still answered, that they
were prepared for any ill-treatment, and that nothing could deter them from
carrying out their God-inspiring resolution. That no creature, however
cruel and however unfeeling, could separate them from the love of Jesus
Christ, nor from His service. These the examining Father received with open
arms into the bosom of the Order.
You may judge from this how skilful was this master of novices in hewing,
hammering, and cutting the stones he was endeavouring to fit for the
spiritual edifice of the Order. Our Blessed Father himself, in spite of all
the sweetness and gentleness of his natural disposition, did not fail to
follow this plan to a certain extent, representing to all who came to him,
desiring to enter into religion, the interior and spiritual crosses which
they must resolve to carry all their life long, not the least heavy of
which, and at the same time not the least useful in helping them to make
great advance in perfection would perhaps be the severity of Superiors.